You couldn’t tell it by his 22-point performance, but Brandon Costner experienced a rare kind of cold spell Thursday night at the RBC Center. It came in stretches when he was sitting on the bench during N.C. State’s 94-57 exhibition victory over Barton, the defending NCAA Division II men’s basketball champion.
“I felt myself getting cold, like I needed to put a heating pad on to warm back up,” said Costner, who played 25 of the 40 minutes. “I didn’t [feel] that last year.”
Chill. Coach Sidney Lowe said State’s starters — each of whom logged more than 33 minutes a year ago — need to get use to playing fewer minutes this season.
There are plenty of links out there for you to surf if you want more.
A few comments:
* GoPack: ‘Five Wolfpack players hit double figures on the night, led by sophomore forward Brandon Costner, who scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the first half. Junior Courtney Fells followed with 16 points, while senior Gavin Grant had 14 and freshmen J.J. Hickson and Tracy Smith had 11 each. Fells led the team with seven rebounds, and Costner added six.’
* Costner was…Costner
* Degand turned in the kind of line that will win State a lot of games this year. Pack Pride: “The quick point guard finished up with eight points, six assists, two rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal, with just two turnovers, in 28 minutes. Degand drilled all six of his free-throw attempts, in addition to showcasing impressive speed that will occasionally need to be slowed down.”
* Courtney Fells’ statistics looked more like a Gavin Grant line as he logged 7 rebounds along with some blocked shots, 2 assists and 3 steals in route to scoring 16 points.
* JJ Hickson rushed things in the first half but settled down in the second. N&O: “J.J. Hickson, the McDonald’s All-American, also contributed 11 points, plus five rebounds and three steals. He is big, strong, physically mature and eager to shine. At times he rushed offensively. But that’s a correctable flaw for the player counted on to spell Ben McCauley in the post.”
* Tracy Smith is about an inch or so shorter than I expected. But, he was composed and scored nine points in the first half. N&O: “Freshman Tracy Smith looked smooth and composed coming off the bench, scoring 11 points in 11 minutes, and said “this gives me a lot of confidence.”
* A look at the box score reveals a nice distribution of minutes. In regular season games I expect Hickson’s minutes to increas, Ferguson’s minutes to be 100% replaced by Javi Gonzalez, and then some game by game adjustments based on match-up advantages and who has the hot hand on the evening. You may see Fells and Grant log just a few less minutes each due to line-up shifts where Costner is moved to the wing to make room for Hickson (and even Smith).
* The same idiots on the “Idiot Boards” who thought that Trevor Ferguson was going to help the Pack last season are perplexed at why Simon Harris didn’t play more last night. Really? Who do you want to bench, Einsteins? There are only 120 minutes to split amongst Gavin Grant, Brandon Costner, Tracy Smith, Dennis Horner and JJ Hickson in the front court. Do explain how you would manage this situation other than petitioning the NCAA to add a sixth player on the court.
* For more on the rotation GoPack gives us the following: “Lowe was particularly impressed with the way Degand, a sophomore transfer from Iowa State who sat out all of last season, handled the offense, dishing out six assists with only two turnovers in 28 minutes of play. When Degand was out of the game, the Wolfpack relied on Fells and Grant to bring the ball up the court, which will likely be the case until injured freshman Javi Gonzalez recovers from the torn ligaments in his thumb that will likely keep him out until mid-November.”
As for the Wolfpack’s weaknesses –
* State needs to exercise much more dominance in rebounding when playing such a smaller team. If you remember, the Pack was not a great rebounding team last year, but improved dramatically by year end. I think that rebounding will naturally improve the more minutes that JJ Hickson logs.
* Coach Lowe commented on State’s inability to stop Barton’s dribble penetration. There is NO DOUBT that the Wolfpack’s biggest deficiency last year was defense; and therefore defense represents the biggest opportunity for improvement. Degand and Javi Gonzalez have the athletic ability to help control the opposing point guard’s dribble penetration. Our wings have to get better at mixing their athleticism with their height advantage on defense.
