Some Blog Love For the Wolfpack Frontcourt

07-08 Basketball General Rankings & Lists69

According to collegehoops.net, the Pack’s is the best in the land:

1. North Carolina State (Brandon Costner, Ben McCauley, Gavin Grant, J.J. Hickson, Tracy Smith): Just like Washington State in the backcourt section, it’s odd to see NC State at the top of any rankings. However, it’s tough to find a team that has a better combination at the wing, combo forward, and post positions. Swingman Grant is a versatile performer who can do a little bit of everything. He is not a great shooter, but he gets to the basket well and he crashes the offensive glass. Costner is one of the best forwards in the country that no one talks about. He can play both inside and outside, scoring in a variety of ways and rebounding well. McCauley is one of the most efficient shooters in the country, and finishes well around the basket. Furthermore, he is a good rebounder and a solid passer. Hickson was one of the highest-ranked big men recruits, and will enable Sidney Lowe to come up with several different line-ups as the season goes on.

We also like a blog that rates the UNC frontcourt way down at #6. It may be wishful thinking to rank the Heels that low, but it brings a smile to our face, regardless.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball General Rankings & Lists

69 Responses to Some Blog Love For the Wolfpack Frontcourt

  1. Sw0rdf1sh 10/03/2007 at 8:18 PM #

    That is great press and a bright spot as I wallow in my FB misery.

    They don’t mention Fells since he is listed as a guard, but I think he has some great athleticism and is fun to watch too.

    Ah, Basketball season….I’m getting stoked!

  2. bTHEredterror 10/03/2007 at 8:34 PM #

    EverettBeez-

    That was unintentional, I was referring to Philip Rivers as the “man behind the curtain” in your analogy.

    But I do appreciate some of your recent anti-Auburn comments. My pops is huge Tide fan and prone to fits of irrationality where the war pigeons are involved. Keep up the SEC info, we don’t get so much up here in NC.

  3. vtpackfan 10/03/2007 at 9:23 PM #

    The pre-season lists are just ways for sports writers to make a name for themselves. They sometimes mix it up intentionally in an effort to “be the guy that saw the next best thing coming”, IMO.

    If we do well then the added press is a good thing. It bolsters the current regimes status. If we don’t do so hot then it really doesn’t change a thing, so no skin off our back. There are no preseason polls for “Top Ten Squeaky Clean Programs that just clear the Bubble”, so we have nothing to loose and only more positive attention to gain. Go Pack!

  4. choppack1 10/03/2007 at 10:00 PM #

    We do have a great frontcourt…Potentially the best since we had Shackleford, Chucky, Howard…all 3 of whom ended up in “the league”.

  5. EverettBeez 10/03/2007 at 10:20 PM #

    Not only did that blog have us #1 on that list, but in the top ten in a number of others, including top trio. Pretty much the same guys packaged in different ways, but still more nice compliments.

    bTHEredterror, I will keep up the SEC, or at least Alabama reports. As an Old Miss man, I can’t pull for either one of them, lol. But auburn and tubberville has a special place in hell waiting for them.

    I actually was drinking with a hs coach here who lived 2 doors down from the Rivers family when Philip was a kid. Even in jr high, he said Rivers had the best arm he’s ever seen.

  6. EverettBeez 10/03/2007 at 10:40 PM #

    Ask and you shall receive. Auburn’s starting tailback is back from his 6 game suspicion this week, but he’ll be 3rd on the list. Brad Lester was suspended before the Cotton Bowl last year (academic stuff). He’s got the ability to power the ball into the endzone. This should Auburn’s often sputtering offense. Vandy is up next.

    Bama’s got Houston – and the folks here are sort of stunned. This is supposedly a down week. Their first big string of games, they go 1-2. They’ve got Houston, then Ole Miss, UT, bye then LSU. For what they are paying Sabin, he ought to pull 8 or 9 wins out this year and every year for the rest of this life and 10 years after his death.

  7. bTHEredterror 10/03/2007 at 11:14 PM #

    EverettBeez -We’ll see, they were convinced Saban would deliver them THIS year, and if he would have a straw poll woulda placed him as Governor. The Georgia game took a lot of wind out of their sails. They have some talent, they are just thin on both lines. And LSU will beat ’em as badly as they did LY, its Auburn and UT he needs to beat. Ole Miss might be a watch out game for the Tide.

    Green-Ellis is a player, he’ll likely get a look next year in the league. I guess the Rebs are having it tough this year, but hey, at least they are remotely in their games. They’ll bite somebody, they always do, and the Egg Bowl oughta be pretty interesting this year.

  8. EverettBeez 10/03/2007 at 11:43 PM #

    The new QB at Ole Miss – Seth Adams – is a big help. He can pass and that opens up more space for Green-Ellis to run. He’s the best back we’ve had since McCallister left. I think we’ve got a good chance against the Tide. We play LaTech this weekend, then Bama comes to Vaunght-Hemingway for the battle. And old professor of mine at Mississippi says Coach O will make us competitive in the West – but the race will be do we start winning before we go on probation, lol.

    Oh, Saban has nooooo pressure here. I mean, when you are the second coming of Our Lord Saviour Bear Bryant, its just another day at the office. Georgia broke their hearts, FSU kicked them when they were down.

  9. TNCSU 10/04/2007 at 9:47 AM #

    How did we go from talking about our Frontcourt to talking about Alabama, Ole Miss and Auburn? 🙂

    I do think you have to add Horner into the mix as I think he’ll be a tremendous “inside/outside” threat. He can flat out drain the 3!

  10. packgrad93 10/04/2007 at 10:54 AM #

    Sid is doing a great job building on a solid foundation already in place. I think he can take us to the next level that we’ve been waitng for.

  11. roandaddy 10/04/2007 at 1:03 PM #

    I have come to grips that we are and will always be a basketball school. We entered a “Bizarro” world where we had a Coach V personality at Football and a Dick Sheridan in basketball.. but it feels all is now right and good with the world.

  12. nycfan 10/04/2007 at 1:42 PM #

    With the loss of Wright and Thompson and Stepheson with a lot to prove this year, I’ve got no problem with UNC at #6, especially with the lack of an athletic 3 to replace Terry.

    I also agree putting State #1 b/c of Costner, a solid player in McCauley and the addition of Hickson, who is reportedly all-world. If Grant becomes a more consistent player this year, I think this ranking will hold true throughout the year.

    *Did I imagine it or did their frontcourt get schooled in Raleigh WITHOUT Hickson last year?*

    FTR, your front-court had a great game against UNC in Raleigh (Costner/McCauley went for 32 points and 15 boards against Wright/Hansbrough’s 39/14), but to me Courtney Fells played the best game of his career in that game and was the huge difference maker, while Gavin Grant took Reyshawn Terry completely out of the game. Fells looked like the player Sid had described as State’s go-to guy before the season started that night, just awesome.

    Costner was awesome in the ACC Tournament, one of the best whole-tourney performances I’ve seen in the last 10 years, and Brandon Wright could not cover him at all, but even then it was the combination of Fells and Grant who went on a combined run of 14 or 15 points between the two of them that got State back in the game. Those two guys, Fells especially, just killed Carolina last year. He’s one of those guys who looks brilliant at times but then disappears for long stretches … if he develops consistency, State will be fantastic even with a sub-par PG.

  13. redfred2 10/04/2007 at 2:08 PM #

    “Sid is doing a great job building on a solid foundation already in place. I think he can take us to the next level that we’ve been waitng for.”

    Are the winds now blowing in a different direction?

    Why now packgrad93? This is just year two, how has Lowe already convinced you that he has that capability? Especially since the rest of us had to hear and endure a decade of “The Coach is doing great, it’s the players who aren’t executing” or “Man, if we just had this player, or that player”.

    Sorry, but I’m not real big fan of no faith, and then jumping bandwagon when the press starts printing what some of us have been trying to tell you folks for years. We’ve got a GREAT Coach now, THE COACH, but I’ll bet that even he’d tell you that the name of NC State alone, plus the ACC, can do some of the recruiting work for whoever is coaching the program. The coach just needs to use what’s already there and allow it to happen.

  14. roandaddy 10/04/2007 at 2:19 PM #

    Red, I think he does have some ground to stand on with the most recent recruiting class. Unlike football, in basketball you can literally turn around a program in a year with a few good recruits. Its why its so easy and realistic to make a basketball movie than a football one. Heck, all they had to do in Hoosier’s was to get Jimmy to play, then they won all the time. (sorry, couldn’t help it)

    Basketball has become a sport where you can be as good as your last class, but can also be DECIMATED by NBA defections. So, its not too far fetched to believe its turned the corner. The real key will be how many go pro and who you got coming in.

  15. primacyone 10/04/2007 at 2:36 PM #

    Quality post nycfan

  16. Rick 10/04/2007 at 2:51 PM #

    “Sid is doing a great job building on a solid foundation already in place. I think he can take us to the next level that we’ve been waitng for.”

    You’ve were happy with the prickly one, why would you say you have been waiting for better performance?

  17. packgrad93 10/04/2007 at 3:51 PM #

    “Why now packgrad93?”
    always said it. with the talent Sid has I expect big things. I’ve had more faith in Sid & the staff than a lot on here.

    “You’ve were happy with the prickly one”
    never said that

  18. lush 10/04/2007 at 4:45 PM #

    “I’ve had more faith in Sid & the staff than a lot on here”

    are you joking? who here has not had faith in SID?

  19. Rick 10/04/2007 at 4:52 PM #

    “are you joking? who here has not had faith in SID?”

    This is Cedar world we are talking about. Where, all of a sudden he was never happy with Herb, always wanted Sid and knows Sid will take us to the next level.

  20. Pack92 10/04/2007 at 5:02 PM #

    ^nycfan, agreed. I always put Grant more in the frontcourt than the backcourt even when he was playing point. Cannot argue about the ability of Fells either when he’s on. Consistency is his key for this year.

  21. RabidWolf 10/04/2007 at 6:00 PM #

    This football season is more like eating rutabaga and spam.

    I’m gonna have the eggs cheese spam bacon spam spam and spam on rye!

  22. RabidWolf 10/04/2007 at 6:02 PM #

    And on the Cedar comment……he will sek and may find something to be negative about. He may want Sid fired if we don’t beat unx by at least 30.

    I’m just sayin’…. 😛

  23. BJD95 10/04/2007 at 6:02 PM #

    nycfan – it also helped greatly that Roy Williams was so determined to guard a hobbled Engin Atsur down the stretch with Wes Miller, perhaps the one player on UNC’s roster he could he beat off the dribble. The resulting foul and 2 FTs was the key moment of that game, IMHO.

    The only player on UNC’s frontcourt that I really FEARED was Wright. He could be an unstoppable force of nature, when he was on his game. Yeah, Hansbrough is tough and always gets his share of points and rebounds, but he doesn’t scare me.

    Finding answers on the wing is the key to UNC’s season, IMHO. Just like PG is crucial for us.

  24. RabidWolf 10/04/2007 at 6:08 PM #

    I wholeheartedly agree with BJD95…with Wright gone (and I don’t care what the UNX apologists say) there is a HUGE hole in the frontcourt for ol’ Roy.

    Let him have his 5000 man bench and sub out every 2 minutes. The more you sit players, the more their stamina suffers (if you look at the game in Raleigh last season, the UNX players seem to have gotten winded relatively quickly) if they want to “run” they had better double the number of suicide runs in practice.

  25. ShootingGuard 10/04/2007 at 7:01 PM #

    “Oh, Saban has nooooo pressure here. I mean, when you are the second coming of Our Lord Saviour Bear Bryant, its just another day at the office.”

    Saban feels no pressure. Bama fans can apply pressure all they want, but Saban doesn’t feel any pressure—he is rich and he has already won a national championship. If Saban really cared what anyone thought of him, he would have never gone to Bama after saying he wasn’t. In the end, Saban told the media and every rival fan of Bama to f*ck off and did what HE decided to do. If Bama fans get on Saban’s a$$, he will tell them to f*ck off too—and smile as he cashes the last of their checks. Love the guy or hate him, Saban doesn’t give a $hit. He is cut from quite another cloth…

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