NC State 85 Cincinnati 77

07-08 Basketball64

Box Score |Recap|

VERY NICE and BIG win tonight as the Wolfpack keeps scraping back to ‘par’ after the UNCO and ECU losses. You can see the importance of tonight’s game by clicking here.

* NC State wins three in a row and is now 2-0 against the Big East for the season.

* State scores over 80 points for the first time all season! as Costner, Fells, Grant and Hickson all hit double figures (and Degand had 9 before getting injured)

* Gavin Grant steps up and proves his MVP status as a senior. Grant single-handedly took over on key offensive possessions in the last three minutes of the game. Grant ended the game with 15 points.

* Of course, nothing good happens to the Wolfpack without something bad happening – starting point guard, Farnold Degand sprained his left knee in the second half and will undergo an MRI on Monday to assess the damage.

* Hopefully the Wolfpack realize that they won this game as much for with defensive effort and overall focus and energy.

* That was best game of the season for Wolfpack backcourt – particularly the point guards. Degand and Javier Gonzalez combined to manage the game effectively while contributing offensively with a combined 15 points.

* With Degand’s injury, the fans that wanted to see Marques Johnson might see more of him than they initially expected.

* State shot 66.7% from the three-point-line because of shot selectivity – State only shot 9 three-pointers all night.

* I will go out on a ‘limb’ and predict that NC State won’t lose any games this year where we shoot 67%+ from the three-point-line and get 15 points from the point guard position.

* The N&O’s ACCNow Blog had some good halftime comments here. They have since updated the comments after the game.

* State travels to New Jersey for a game with the Big East’s Seton Hall on Thursday night at 7:30pm. Seton Hall is hovering around #50 in the RPI and will provide State a fantastic opportunity to “trade-in” that UNO or ECU loss.

* At the beginning of the season the Seton Hall game was not officially on any television schedule. GoPack indicates the game will be on ESPNU; but, you know how many mistakes GoPack makes. We’ll check on the television situation for you.

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07-08 Basketball

64 Responses to NC State 85 Cincinnati 77

  1. choppack1 12/23/2007 at 10:18 PM #

    My thoughts:
    *I actually noticed us pressuring the PG tonight w/ some tough D. Our intensity and rebounding the last 2 games has improved 100%
    *We seem to be having trouble down the stretch of games. You do seem to be more susceptible to this when you’re a half court team and play a deliberate pace. (How often did we see this type of thing w/ HWSNBN…) T
    *The other factor about keying our trouble closing out games may be our conditioning. If you’re out of shape and not sound defensively, you’ll have issues in these areas as the game gets longer.
    *I just can’t get over how much better we’ve rebounded the last 2 games. Hopefully, this isn’t like those 3 games where we kicked butt on TO margin, then forgot about it our last 2 games in a row.
    *Gavin Grant is the best player on this team pound for pound. He makes mistakes, but he also makes huge shots – and folks, he’s been making them for 2 years now.
    *Javy played super tonight down the stretch. He made key foul shots, and made a great assist. He also got another assist. I’ve been impressed from the getgo w/ the way this kid hustles. If he starts taking care of the ball, hitting an outside shot or two, I think he’ll be very solid.
    *Hopefully Degand is OK. The way his knee buckled and his reaction wasn’t a good sign. Maybe we’ll catch a break and he hasn’t torn anything, but that knee did give a bit.
    *Hats off to Sid – obviously, he has not been satisfied w/ the D or the rebounding and his kids have worked on it. I still see us having those lapses and making those little mistakes that allow those shooters to get the open look on the 3s. However, I feel better about our shot at correcting those problems than I did a week ago.
    *Finally, is it possible that this type of format is better for our coach and team than the haphazard scheduling we saw earlier? I think our coach may be more on his game when he has to rush things and has a quick turnaround. Our team seems to perform better in these situations as well. We’ve got a 4 day layoff, so I guess we’ll find out.

  2. ktpritch 12/23/2007 at 10:19 PM #

    mmm – that should have been “solid” team effort – not sure what soolide is…

  3. werncstate 12/23/2007 at 10:22 PM #

    The first ten minutes or so was the best ball state has played this year. I have to give Costner some props. He was actually active on defense tonight and it was good to see his 3 point shot back in a groove. Good contribution from the points and Fells was more involved than he has been in a long time. It looks like the team is making progress but all of the fouls made this game hard to watch.

  4. redfred2 12/23/2007 at 10:23 PM #

    Yeah, and how about MJ? It kind of concerns me when the point positon isn’t readily producing like we need it to, yet he didn’t see any minutes at all in this, or the Davidson game. He remains a huge… ?

  5. Primewolf 12/23/2007 at 10:33 PM #

    BJD95, my comments exactly, go read on Scout.com. They play Duke defense, except streetball level inside the chain link fence.

    My seats are close to the court behind the Cincy bench.

    I have never seen so many uncalled fouls, moving screens, illegal blocks, pushes, elbows in any game in the Arena. It made Dukes in your face defense look like Cinderalla. Our guys were getting pushed down while driving with the ball and no call.

    Cincy is the true turdpit of college ball. Their basketball team is the reflection of their dishonored coaches.

    ACC refs are laughable. The game could have easily gotten into the fistfight level. There must have been 10 intentional fouls on Cin, but none called.

    We do look like a different team. Sid and coaches realize the strategy they used up through the ECU game was a total bust and have totally changed our offensive look.

    However, this type of game is just what we needed.

    If State played that type of defense against car0whina, ACC refs would have called 50 fouls on us vs the 34 they called on the BadCats.

    I still haven’t calmed down from being an eyewitness to so many muggings. It was brutal.

  6. Sweet jumper 12/23/2007 at 10:45 PM #

    ECU just won their bowl game 41-38 on a last second field goal.

  7. xphoenix87 12/23/2007 at 11:05 PM #

    With the exception of a scoring drought late in the first half and about 5 minutes toward the end of the game, this was the best game we’ve played this year. It was certainly the best effort we’ve put forward this season. The defense and rebounding was MUCH improved.

    It wasn’t his best numbers game, but I think this is the best game McCauley has played all year. He finally looked like the Big Ben of last year, with a beautiful dish in the lane and then a laser pass from the top of the key to a cutting Degand. He still seems to be in a funk as far as his scoring goes (airmailing a jumper from the top of the key, missing shots around the basket), but his intensity is up and it’s nice to see the sharp passing again.

    Fells played a fantastic game, hounding Vaughn all game on defense and consistently taking the ball to the rim and getting to the line. He’s got the quickness and finishing ability to get to the rim whenever he wants, especially since you have to respect his jumper. No reason he shouldn’t be able to average 15-17 points a game.

    Costner got all the press, but I’m still waiting to see more from him. He’s still overweight and doesn’t have the quickness that he had last year (and he wasn’t even particularly quick last year). He’s got that great stroke from outside, but he could be so much more than that. He could be great and he’s settling for average.

    When Farnold went down, I said to the people watching with me “this is the ‘Grow up quick’ moment for Javi”. He was forced into a close game where they were pressing hard and putting him on the line, and he very easily could’ve gone deer in the headlights and cost us the game. Instead, he hit 5 FTs in a row down the stretch, didn’t commit any turnovers, and had a beautiful assist to Hickson on the break. I think this is HUGE for his confidence, and we are going to need him to be confident.

    I’ve been Gavin’s harshest critic for a long time. I got into some pretty heated arguments about it on this board over the summer. I didn’t think Gavin was going to show a whole lot of senior maturity. After all, he hadn’t seemed to get it the last 3 seasons, why should there be sudden improvement this season? Well, I’ll be the first to admit, I was dead wrong. Gavin has shut me up, and I’m glad he did so. He’s playing absolutely fantastic basketball this season. Sure, he’ll have the occasional bone-headed play, but on the whole he’s playing under-control and his shot selection has been terrific. He isn’t forcing things offensively, but he has taken it upon himself every time we need a big play, and he has delivered almost every single time. Gone is Gavin “The Living Turnover” Grant, and in his place is Gavin “Clutch Team Leader” Grant. I salute you, GG, for reinventing yourself as a player and proving me dead wrong.

  8. bTHEredterror 12/23/2007 at 11:44 PM #

    Yeah, somebody forgot to tell Cincy the foul ’em every possession strategy starts with 2 minutes left in the second half, not the first. I haven’t seen a hackfest of that ilk since the glory days of Hoya paranoia.

    Good win, Javi definitely stepped up, and it would seem needs to continue. I’m sad for Degand, it looked like a tear from how he reacted. MJ will have to make some contribution now. Bigs were dominant, they more than held their own and Costner stretching out the defense is what we needed.

    I can confirm Dish Network has the game scheduled for ESPNUnavailable on Thursday.

  9. tooyoungtoremember 12/23/2007 at 11:45 PM #

    “Gone is Gavin “The Living Turnover” Grant, and in his place is Gavin “Clutch Team Leader” Grant. I salute you, GG, for reinventing yourself as a player and proving me dead wrong.”

    I agree wholeheartedly about GG. He earned his nickname last year as a PG. Can you imagine how much more he would have shown us last year in his natural position? He has definitely come through in some very clutch situations both this year and last. He’s one of those guys that wants the ball when the game is on the line, and for that reason I think he will succeed at the next level in Europe or the NBA(DL) or wherever that may be.

    I’m not completely sold on the idea that McCauley is back to being Big Ben. He played a lot of minutes because of Hickson’s foul trouble. And while it’s nice to have that luxury, I want to see him produce more in short spurts off the bench (ala Brackman ’05-06) before McCauley gets his nickname back.

    I saw the game tonight from the nosebleed seats of the RBC rather than from my couch in GA. For the first time I was able to watch what I wanted instead of seeing what the cameramen and production staff forced me to see. I can now appreciate why the offense is so deliberate and half-court-minded. They are HORRIBLE in transition. They haven’t tried it much (nor have they really had the chance) until tonight, and they were not good at all. It’s understandable to have a little trouble when you’re getting pressed like they were tonight, but it’s entirely different and unacceptable to run down the court out of control and force bad passes and turn the ball over in transition. The players just don’t work well together as a team in the open court unless it’s WIDE open.

    With all that being said, I like what I saw tonight for the most part. I like they way this team handled a very “hands on” opponent. There are definitely still some issues, but it appears that they are being worked out in practice and I like they way they have progressed since the ECU egg. And most of all, I like how different guys are stepping up and meeting the challenge during different games, and during different situations within each game.

    GO WOLFPACK!!!

  10. tooyoungtoremember 12/23/2007 at 11:48 PM #

    BTW, YAY for free washer fluid!!!

  11. redfred2 12/23/2007 at 11:57 PM #

    ^xpx,

    I know I was one of those who got on you hard about GG, afterall, he’s sacrificed and been asked to do more in his four years than ever should have been necessary of him. But even so, he does have an easily correctable flaw. He always pushes, takes a quick first step and then incredibly long strides while handling the basketball. Even on the opposite end, just after receiving the inbounds pass, he takes off like he’s already driving the lane. I don’t say this much, but he is the one player on the team who needs to slow down a bit, especially in the open court. I’d like to see him settle down, take stock and get control first, then go at it just as hard as he always has.

    I was very thankful for him before, and I’d hate to imagine where we’d be without his constant aggressiveness and leadership this season.

  12. Texpack 12/23/2007 at 11:58 PM #

    I hope DeGand is ok. Tonight was the best PG play we’ve had in the games I’ve gotten on TV out here. We had very good balance on offense(everybody got to shoot free throws)and very few possessions looked like we were trying to force something. Remember that Sidney is flexible, so no one should be surprised that he’s changed the offensive approach. If all you got is a hammer then everything looks like a nail, but Sidney has multiple tools at his disposal and he’s figuring out how to use them all together.

  13. Trip 12/24/2007 at 2:54 AM #

    Like I said earlier, Free throws are what decided this match, since we were prone to getting them, and they were prone to giving them. I didn’t realize that they gave so many just because they were THAT physical though. Wow, some of our guys just got molested at times… especially poor Javi, and he’s the smallest guy on the court.

    Glad to see him step up for the job though, we could have seriously gone down the crapper if he had just caved. I’ve liked Javi since the beginning, and now he’s starting to show it to everyone. He’s still a little shaky and could probably use another year of experience before he starts, but it looks like he’s going to be thrown into the fire with MJ because the way Degand fell on that leg was just unnatural, and even if it isn’t a season ending injury (Torn ACL or something), there’s a very slim chance he’ll be even close to game worthy atleast until ACC play starts. One of my good friends tore his ACL in a very similar fashion while playing Soccer… his knee also buckled in the same fashion and he was out of it for a year. I’m hoping for the best (Tweaked tendons, sprains…) but that was a really bad landing.

    I hate it for Degand, I questioned his ability for a while, but up to that injury he was having an outstanding performance against a hard pressing team and was showing major improvement that I’m going to chalk up to Sidney and Company. Although, it may as well be NC State tradition… as soon as one of our guys steps up and starts to play well, he tears an ACL.

    As far as MJ not playing, well… that question will be answered without a doubt on Thursday with Degand’s injury. Will he suck, or will he be a solid guard and bring life to our offense as Javi/Degand did today? After today, he’s going to have to step his game up a notch to match Javi’s.

    Overall though, this game was a prime example of what shooting the 3 can do for you, even if we aren’t a 3 point machine, if one of our guys can step up and knock them down (Costner) at the start of the game then we’ll force their defense to spread out and go man to man, which plays into our natural talent, our bigs. All you need is for the other team to respect that if you leave us open, we’re gonna hit a three. While part of our offensive flow was because of our progression with our PG’s, the other part was just that we play a lot better against man to man defenses than against zones.

    Fells played a huge game, he drew fouls while reminding us that he is an athletic beast (At the same time frustrating us because he doesn’t do that every game), and basically locked down whoever he was defending.

    I love Mccauley, and I love the way Sidney is using him now. He’s the man I want out there at the end of the game because he doesn’t make freshman mistakes a la Hickson… and he’s just so damn smart/experienced when it comes to setting up plays and making stops. He actually switched off defenders to make a few stops when Fells or someone else was screened.

    Grant. Still the man. Still makes one huge mistake a game but easily makes up for that when clutch time comes.

    Costner has awakened from hibernation apparently, I hope he doesn’t fall in love with the 3 because he is still a power forward, but it’s great to know that he’ll be there for us come January 12th. Still needs some conditioning as he seemed to fade out later in the game.

    Horner didn’t fill up the stat sheet but he had a really good game as well from what I watched/heard from the radio. I would have much rather had him at the FT line when Degand went down (As pointed out earlier) but Javi needed to face the pressure, since he’s going to be thrown in the fire if Degand is injured as badly as I think he is.

    The more Hickson plays the more I think he’ll be here atleast another year, he is a dominating force, but I don’t think he’ll be drafted high enough in an already flooded 08 draft to leave us this year. If he stays another year he’ll undoubtedly be a lottery or higher pick and get a much better contract. Another year of polishing his game up would be great for him, but also he seems to really enjoy playing with the team and has taken to Sidney as a father-figure, something that he’s never had. I didn’t know this until the other day, but JJ doesn’t know who his dad is… which may explain just how humble he is. He seems to fit in the mold of a character kid who will work hard at school and on the court, and maybe we can get lucky and he’ll stay 2-4 years? Either way, I wish only great things for him.

    One thing that I said before the game was that I hoped we continued to win the rebounding war, well… we didn’t, but I’ll gladly take a win in the turnover war over the rebounding war at the moment. Having less turnovers than a pressing team like Cincy is huge, and I’ll gladly take a hit on the rebounds if we can take care of the ball like that every night.

    Great win, can’t wait to see them against Seton Hall.

  14. PackGirl 12/24/2007 at 8:04 AM #

    Chilly Water – you called it. This from the N&O this morning:
    “The Bearcats were just 10-of-14 at the line, and the Pack was whistled for 17 fouls, but Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin did not make an issue of the officiating by the ACC crew after the game.”

    Can you believe it? Sid should have been the one making an issue. I like how he just insinuates that there was favoritism by the refs towards NC State. Very subtle and devious. Anyone who did not actually watch the game will assume he is correct.

  15. brickman 12/24/2007 at 8:13 AM #

    toyoungtoremember/ you must have been behind a pole! ben just had a bad shooting night. other than that he played great game.coach called his name out after game .about how smart he played at the end of game . Sid looks like he might know what he was doing the first of the year .playing the guys on the bench .

  16. burnbarn 12/24/2007 at 8:35 AM #

    Anybody think GG is playing as well as hodge as a senior? he is really solid and made some great catches last night.

    When DeGand got hurt, it seemed all of a sudden Javi grew up and he said, this is my team now and i have to carry it. let’s hope he can. he certainly played well the last 4 minutes.

    Bring on the Hall and Mr. Davis!!!

    BTW; Merry Christmas to everyone!

  17. Wulfpack 12/24/2007 at 8:37 AM #

    Nothing critical to say tonight. I thought we played a complete game going up against a physically strong team with an edge. Amazing what a little stability from the PG position will create. Javi was tremendous down the stretch. When Costner is hitting from the outside, our offense just seems to flow so much better. Great win. Bring on the Pirates!

  18. wufpup76 12/24/2007 at 9:38 AM #

    alright wolfpack!

    mostly positives from me after the game:

    -first and foremost, the bearcats were extremely physical and our team RESPONDED instead of wilting … contrast this to the game against georgia tech in atl. last year where we had a big lead but lost it after the jackets got really physical and we started complaining to the refs instead of responding (of course, it does help when the refs call fouls on the other team for being too physical 🙂 – i guess mick cronin is not paul hewitt when it comes to working the refs) … anyway, the team – and especially our PG’s – kept their composure no matter what and responded to cincy runs all night! i know that cincy is not a great team – but this is a great sign!

    – i have been critical of farnold and javi after the past two games so let me throw some deserved accolades and love their way after this performance: the team did not have anywhere near 32 TO’s tonight against the cincy pressure – credit farnold and javy … yes, we made some careless and sloppy TO’s in the second half but several of those came from fells and grant … the pg’s handled the pressure well all night

    – farnold started off the game very aggressive and it paid immediated dividends … we looked really good the first 5 minutes … i really hope farnold is ok b/c we REALLY need him

    – i have to be honest, when we were up by 3 and farnold got hurt i turned to the folks sitting beside me and said “Ohh no, we will lose the game if Javi has to run the last 4 minutes.” I also said I hope he proves me wrong – and the little guy did! … four CLUTCH free throws and impressive ball handling against big pressure from cincy – including a nice drive and dish to Hickson for a crowd pleasing slam that put us back up by 5 pts. – a big play … WELL DONE JAVI !!!

    – BRANDON !!! always nice to get 20 pts. or so from him … he again went with the flow of the offense and his stroke has looked really good these past two games

    – mccauley was active again and had some sweet assists … very glad to see he has really taken a positive, aggressive attitude to his role of super sub / sixth man

    – mccauley also came in around the 1:30 mark for hickson; this was not due to hickson missing 2 free throws seconds earlier, but rather he failed to step out on a screen set for vaughn which allowed enough time for vaughn to nail a big 3 for cincy … in fact, a lot of cincy’s made 3’s came from our bigs not forcing cincy’s perimeter players to put the ball on the ground after set screens … we gave up too many open looks that way and cincy was able to climb back into the game at certain points

    – gavin grant was again huge and hit a clutch 3 in the second half … i love this guy … he is our team leader this year

    – once again, the defensive and rebounding efforts were both really good! a few things we need to shore up defensively, but we held our own on the boards and didn’t allow 2,000 offensive rebounds … solid effort – well done guys!

    let’s pray for farnold’s knee to be ok and hope for a great effort against seton hall … goo pack!

    merry christmas!

  19. STLPACK 12/24/2007 at 9:42 AM #

    was anybody else not worried about our lack of pounding the post on offense?

    Also, this is the first game I actually got to watch, but how did our performance on the defensive glass compare to past efforts? It seemed to me that we were not boxing out well at all.

    Not to be critical. I am very pleased with the win!

  20. PacknSack 12/24/2007 at 9:56 AM #

    The blueprint to beat State is intact: Drive to the rim off ball screens, crash the offensive glass and give your 3-point shooters the green light. Cincinnati is not good, this in no way was a quality win because, regardless of what conference they are in, they will be lucky to win 10 games this year.

    We beat a bad team by 8 points in our house. No amount of lipstick on this pig will hide it.

  21. Noah 12/24/2007 at 10:01 AM #

    I see no lipstick. I think most people realize we’re a pretty mediocre team. You take your wins where you can find them. One point, 10 points. They count the same.

    Right now, I’m fine with sneaking out wins against bad teams. Beats losing to them (ECU, N’awlins).

  22. RickJ 12/24/2007 at 10:02 AM #

    Seton Hall is all the way up to number 24 in the updated RPI from Kenpom.

    McCauley has played three straight solid games in his new role. The Hickson, Costner & McCauley rotation seems to be settling in pretty well with each playing between 25 – 30 minutes depending on fouls & particular match-ups. We still haven’t seen all three together at one time and I don’t think we will.

    If I’m not mistaken, we haven’t played a single possession all year without Degand or Gonzales in the game and we haven’t played a possession with both in at the same time. Lowe seems determined to teach both guys the subtleties of playing the point and both are making progress.

    I really hope Degand’s knee is OK. The guy has waited over 2 years to play.

  23. gcpack 12/24/2007 at 10:02 AM #

    Chilly , I agree with you about THAT newspaper.

    In my opinion the typically sorry ACC officials didn’t call enough fouls on Cincy’s heavy handed play and as usual tooted the ticky tacky stuff on State.

    As for THAT newspaper I am sure many of you read Tim Stevens’ (who usually does a good job on the high school scene) article re: fball recruiting between State and CH that was in the Sunday issue.

    Same stuff the N&O has been doing for years particularly since CH had Torbush as coach. While complementing TOB on his recruiting Stevens gushed about CH with more than double the word space and Davis going after the “top” recruits.

    Yet you count the number of 4 & 3 star recruits that State has in NC and it overwhelms CH. After reading the article one would have thought that CH was dominating the entire state and State was lucky to have any recruits!? This is at least the third time that the N&O has printed a recruiting story about the two schools where CH was presented as the big winner while the graphic shows at a minimum that State as at least double the recruits with significant advantage with the state’s top recruits.

    I guess it’s the same stuff the public is used to getting. Lots of puff on CH recruiting but in reality no substance. Kind of like reporting their attendance at Kenan. “Another sold out Kenan Stadium” but plenty of empty seats.

  24. choppack1 12/24/2007 at 10:08 AM #

    “Also, this is the first game I actually got to watch, but how did our performance on the defensive glass compare to past efforts? It seemed to me that we were not boxing out well at all.”

    This was our second best rebounding performance this year…probably our best given that we were playing a quick, physical squad.

    If you think this game was bad, I’d hate to see your reaction to our other games, because it was truly awful.

  25. wufpup76 12/24/2007 at 10:55 AM #

    “We beat a bad team by 8 points in our house. No amount of lipstick on this pig will hide it.”

    ^No, cincy is not a great team, but they have been playing much better their last several games … almost took out a good Xavier team on the road and hung around w/ Memphis for most of their game (i really hate both cincy and memphis – but that’s another story)

    i think their coach (cincy’s) is getting the most from what they’ve got and they are better than last year when we lost to them … i do believe they’ll win 4-5 big east games and more than 10 overall, so we’ll take a win over a fellow power conference team anytime … don’t forget, davidson > cincy and we beat them too … so take the positives when they come!

    right now, we’re an nit team – especially w/ farnold’s status up in the air … BUT i have seen a LOT of progress and improvement the last two games against good competition which is what you look for … we CAN work our way into becoming an NCAA team, we really need farnold to be ok though 🙂

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