W&M Post-Game

07-08 Basketball General82
Name FG 3Pt FT PF Pts
Brandon Costner 3-12 3/9 4-4 2 13
Farnold Degand 1-5 0-2 0-0 3 2
Courtney Fells 4-8 1-4 1-2 3 10
Trevor Ferguson 1-5 1-3 1-0 1 3
Javier Gonzalez 0-1 0-1 1-2 2 1
Gavin Grant 2-10 0-3 0-0 1 4
J.J. Hickson 12-12 0-0 7-10 1 31
Dennis Horner 0-2 0-1 0-0 2 0
Ben McCauley 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2
Totals 24-54 5-24 13-18 17 66

.444 .208 .722    

Yahoo Recap

Now Hickson is in the mix, giving the Wolfpack another weapon on an already stacked front line. The former McDonald’s All-American finished with the second-best scoring day for a freshman in school history, while his 31 points marked the best outing for an N.C. State freshman in a season opener.

gopack.com article

Hickson’s only misses on the night were at the free throw line, where he was seven of 10 for the night before leaving with less than a minute to play. It was the most points by a Wolfpack freshman in his first game since Ivan Wagner scored 29 against Virginia Military institute to open the 1996-96 season. It was also the second-most points ever scored by a Wolfpack fresh. Ernie Myers set that mark in 1983 with 35 points against Duke.

Complete Box Score

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

07-08 Basketball General

82 Responses to W&M Post-Game

  1. haze 11/16/2007 at 11:54 AM #

    I’m with the most of you on the luke-warm feel. I watched on ACC Select.

    Basically, things were a little disjointed out there; very much a 1st game thing. The feel was similar to what UNC did against Davidson, though Davidson is better than W&M. We didn’t look good but we muddled through and got an easy win in the end.

    Hickson had a great debute, dominating with size & power, which is awesome but also not likely to be quite as productive against serious front-court defenders. I like it but wouldn’t buy into 1-and-done based on this performance. Fells and Costner looked fine to me, if a tad rusty. They’ll be fine, as will Gavin. At PG, I wasn’t that impressed with Degand but he is a functional PG and he controls his speed better than I’d expected. Javy looks more deliberate and is definitely a lot smaller. His one 3 attempt (airball) was shot from Vance County (bad choice). Neither PG made the O really go but, again, it’s an opener and the team has a lot of new parts. Wanted to see Ben, Dennis and Tracy with more time but I can’t blame Sid for going with the hot hand during a game that wasn’t a blow out until late.

    I agree that the big issues are going to be perimeter shooting and defense. The shooting is going to have to work itself out as the guys get more comfortable. I think we have enough candidates to get it done, if not enough to really scare anyone out of a zone game plan. However, the D was a little sad. Duke murders early season opponents b/c Duke plays incredibly intense defense. It’s not rocket science, it’s effort. When we showed effort last night, we dominated. The rest (as in most) of the time, we relied on size and on the fact that W&M was just missing. Count me as unimpressed.

  2. #44 17 24 11/16/2007 at 11:59 AM #

    Lets not crown JJ “King of the Court” yet. He was a beast last night, but from what I saw, he could learn how to set his feet better defensively, and you can bet getting him in foul trouble will be Priority #1 for “real” teams in the ACC. He can really rebound well though, which is a huge plus. I wish Ben could’ve been involved a bit more though. I think he played 14 minutes, but it seemed like 4, and looked as if he touched the ball twice.

  3. partialqualifier 11/16/2007 at 12:08 PM #

    Some of you people are really amazing.

    Some of you are stuck in the old-school way of thinking when teams from the ACC just mauled mid-majors and lower rated teams. With all the parity in college BB every win is a pretty good win. Let’s take stock, shall we:

    So far…#8 Michigan State has lost an exhibition to a D3 team…#5 Georgetown won a squeaker over Willaim & Mary…#1 UNC needed a rally in the final 2 minutes to beat Davidson…Texas Tech lost to Sam Houston State…Ga. Tech lost to UNC-G…#12 Kentucky lost to Gardner-Webb

    And we have fans whining because we only won by 19 against William & Mary!

    Now…admittedly we didnt play our best game, but I would hate to think that we were playing our best basketball in November.

    Another thing…all those folks whining about how aweful we looked against the zone…who the hell plays zone in the ACC? I mean we had a worse shooting team last year and saw zone what 10-15% of the time in league play?

  4. Dr. BadgerPack 11/16/2007 at 12:34 PM #

    JJ Hickson is who I thought he was- a monster inside. If you don’t want to crown his ass, then don’t crown his ass… but he is who I thought he was…

  5. Dr. BadgerPack 11/16/2007 at 12:35 PM #

    Amen partial… although W&M/Georgetown was only a “squeaker” for 30 minutes… Hibbert took over down the stretch and they won by 15. Perhaps Sidney saw that and decided Hickson was the way to attack them????

  6. roandaddy 11/16/2007 at 1:42 PM #

    Yawnnnn… we got a par on the first hole. Sure we all wanted a 300+ drive and an easy birdie.. but a win is a win. NO ONE plays well their first few games.. just ask Kentucky or Mich State.
    Come on guys.. its early with new players, let enjoy the win!

  7. haze 11/16/2007 at 1:50 PM #

    Whoa there on bashing the non-sunshine set.

    You have good points…
    Yes, the mid-majors are closing on the majors.
    Yes, JJ was very impressive.

    However, many of us have very high expectations for this team, despite the challenges in front of us with respect to youth and new rotations. High expectations mean that we aren’t going to gloss over the weaknesses we see. I assure you that Sid is not glossing anything over in practice.

  8. newt 11/16/2007 at 2:13 PM #

    I hope nobody’s referring to my post as bitching, because I listed some good things and some things that need work. Of course the team’s going to improve, and there will less things that need work as the season progresses. I tried to describe the game accurately for people who didn’t see it.

    BTW – I’m not sure Davidson is any better than W&M.

  9. PurplePeopleEaters 11/16/2007 at 2:15 PM #

    No one’s saying that this team sucks because of their first game performance.. people are just making observations on the team and stating what may need improvement before we hit the meat of our schedule. Obviously this is not a finished product. The team looked rusty and many of our key components from last year were lackluster as well. This is a team that will continue to improve throughout the season… When that happens, watch out. As far as JJ looks, and if McCauley, Costner, Fells, and Grant play as good or better than last year, this is definitely going to be a team that will contend for the ACC this year. As many said pre-season, all we need is some consistent guard play and we’re in business.

  10. Trip 11/16/2007 at 2:28 PM #

    I’m really interested in seeing Johnson run the show whenever he becomes eligible in December, he was a 4 star recruit coming out of high school, and from what I saw watching the red/white game he was very similar to Atsur when it came to the position and made some very good passes. He has a funny hodge-like jump shot, but it seems to work and I won’t complain about that at all.

    Also, if Smith is going to get lost in our frontcourt rotation, why not grant him a redshirt for the year? I can see him being a major contributor in the years to come. You can always burn a redshirt later on if one of our guys gets injured (Please no..)

  11. newt 11/16/2007 at 2:33 PM #

    On Ben, can anybody say whether he’s still under the weather? That’s been one report.

    Also, this is good to read: “Strickland described the Hickson-McCauley battle in practice as “iron sharpening iron” and said the two are probably performing the best on the team in practices.”

    http://media.www.technicianonline.com/

  12. PackGirl 11/16/2007 at 3:33 PM #

    According to Sid, Ben has recovered from his illness and that was not the reason he played so little. From the N&O: “McCauley recently was slowed by an illness, Lowe said, but has recovered.”

  13. cooldrip 11/16/2007 at 3:40 PM #

    Everyone please keep Buzzy Correll and his family in your thoughts today. His 2 year old daughter was admitted to the hospital earlier today.

  14. bTHEredterror 11/16/2007 at 3:40 PM #

    In about 2 weeks, no one will remember this game. Treat it like what it was, a scheduled tune-up game against a team that would only beat us one of every 20 times they played us. JJ got his feet wet, Sid got a look at our guys, and we know what to focus on in practice. We’ll look better on Sunday.

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 11/16/2007 at 5:18 PM #

    Agree with you — as I recall the first few games last year without a PG — I shudder. THe only worry I have this year is “chemistry” — how the kids who played a lot last year can adapt to coming off the bench and how they work together to gel into a cohesive team this year. I expects some bumps in the road but overall I have faith Sid will get them fine tuned quickly.

  16. roandaddy 11/16/2007 at 6:09 PM #

    My comments may have been interpreted as bashing.. and that was no means the case. I totally agree with the above.. that this game will be forgotten in two weeks, heck it will be forgotten at the next tip off.
    Last night was like starting your car in the cold.. sure it sputters, it may not turn over on the first try.. but just give it time to warm up and then see if its time for a change.
    We know PG is our weakness.. lets get it broken in and reserve judgement then. There are SEVERAL top 20 teams that would love to have a 19 point win right now.

  17. tooyoungtoremember 11/16/2007 at 6:28 PM #

    “Another thing…all those folks whining about how aweful we looked against the zone…who the hell plays zone in the ACC? I mean we had a worse shooting team last year and saw zone what 10-15% of the time in league play?”

    We didn’t see a zone last year because it wasn’t necessary. For much of the year, our PG was either someone who was slowed by an injury, or someone playing out of their natural position. All the opposing team had to do to keep us from scoring was use a little half-court ball pressure. Now we have the speed and athletic ability at PG to beat the press and push the ball, so teams trying to pressure the ball will get beat for an easy layup. What’s the second best option on defense for an opposing team? Get down to the other end in a hurry, and bunch up in the middle under the basket to limit the bigs and force outside shots.

  18. john of sparta 11/16/2007 at 7:36 PM #

    JJ…………enjoy him while he’s here this year.

  19. RabidWolf 11/16/2007 at 8:14 PM #

    Everyone please take note that Silas “Doubie” Snow, a member of the 1963-64 ACC Champion NC State football team, passed away Wednesday at the age of 65.

    http://www.legacy.com/newsobserver/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=98069824

  20. Wolfman300 11/16/2007 at 8:28 PM #

    I know this is off the topic, but don’t know if this has been mentioned.

    “Pack’s Andre Brown Cleared to Play”

    http://www.wral.com/sports/story/2056224/

  21. JeremyH 11/16/2007 at 8:59 PM #

    damn right it’s off-topic. basketball is allowed to hijack football, but sure not vice versa, bub! This ain’t Texas! J/k

  22. red-enough 11/16/2007 at 10:17 PM #

    someone above wrote about JJ’s attitude and concluded that he was a “me first” guy after hearing his interview last night.

    well, i too heard his interview (on gopack) and i got the exact opposite vibe. when queried about how he felt leaving the court to hearing his name cheered and a standing ovation- he answered that the he took that as the crowd was jubilant for not only him, but the TEAM as well. he came across extremely humble in my eyes.

  23. brickman 11/17/2007 at 9:27 AM #

    can someone tell me why if ben played so hard in practise, fells starts over him??????????????

  24. Astral Rain2 11/17/2007 at 11:06 AM #

    Cause then you end up with a lineup that’s really slow. We’d look like a Big 10 team out there. Hell, Michigan St. is going to be an interesting game- be interesting to see both sides try to bully each other around. I do think State needs to get into a bullying bruising mindset- will be good for the Hacksborough games where we could frustrate him into getting ejected/T’ed up.

  25. brickman 11/17/2007 at 12:15 PM #

    From the way fells played def.the other night we look slow anyway .You have got to play your top 3 players the most somehow ! Ben is the best all around player we have ! And he played 14 min. something wrong with that picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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