Tonight’s Big Game Evolves into Survival Mode (Updated 4:45pm)

SHU

The theme that we have attached to basketball this past week is one of major importance for NC State. Sunday night’s win over Cincinnati basically allowed the Wolfpack to hold serve while waiting for tonight’s opportunity to strengthen our NCAA Tournament resume’ with a road game at (RPI #25) Seton Hall.

Over the last two games against Davidson and Cinicinnati, a more energized Wolfpack team showed great significant improvement as point guard Farnold Degand became more effective on both offense and defense while helping the Pack with effective three point shooting when the open shot was available (8 of 16 for the year). But, Degand’s season ending knee injury has thrown water on our parade and now we don’t necessarily know what to expect when the Pack takes the court.

Pack Pride provides some preview information calling the game “HUGE” and Wilmington’s Andrew Jones says that Gonzalez is now the Wolfpack’s key and says,

Unless Gonzalez proves he a vastly different player from the one I’ve seen so far, State is in trouble. In 111 minutes, the Miami native has just nine assists.

Gonzalez, however, has only made a few plays worthy of an ACC point guard. He’s been extremely hesitant, almost timid at times, and hasn’t played with confidence. Gonzalez doesn’t shoot well, almost never penetrates into the lane, and starts the offense way too close to midcourt.

Lastly, ACCNow is discussing the improtance of this ‘home game’ for Brandon Costner; but – as ususal – Gavin Grant steals the spotlight in the ‘quotable’ department.

Asked if the game had special significance for him, Grant quickly quipped, “Nah, I live in the Bronx, man. We don’t even associate with Jersey.”

WRAL-TV has a report on tonight’s game with a focus on Grant but I can’t figure out how to do this damn embedding BS so you can view it by clicking this link.

http://www.wral.com/sports/video/2221793/

Updated 4:45pm
Two new links worth posting:
(1) Section Six’s always informative preview

Well, this should be interesting. Of Seton Hall’s top five minutes-getters, no one is taller than 6-5. How they’ve managed the OR% they have, I do not know…probably just a function of the early season schedule seeing as how none of the short guys are very good rebounders at that end of the court; they had a similarly short team last season, and as you can see, they didn’t rebound well offensively…

SHU’s 2FG% defense ranked 292nd last year and currently sits at 259th this season.

Protecting the basketball is going to be huge for us in this one, as that’s really the only leg they have to stand on defensively; they don’t force misses and they give up plenty of second chances, so if we keep the mistakes down we’ll be in good shape for a nice day.

(2) ACCNow says that the Wolfpack is starting a new season tonight in light of Farnold Degand’s injury.

It also might be time to take another run at the Gavin Grant Experiment. Grant, a senior, ran the point with mixed success in Engin Atsur’s absence last season.

Lowe laughed this summer when it was suggested Grant get another turn at running the offense. But if Grant, Courtney Fells, Brandon Costner, Ben McCauley and J.J. Hickson represent State’s five best players, then they should be on the floor at the same time.

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07-08 Basketball

206 Responses to Tonight’s Big Game Evolves into Survival Mode (Updated 4:45pm)

  1. tractor57 12/27/2007 at 9:51 PM #

    I’m sitting here after listening to the radio broadcast of the game and I’m reminded of Valvano’s concept of being in a position to win. Not a pretty game for sure but when the rubber met the road the team responded.
    Much improved over the ECU effort.

  2. tvp1 12/27/2007 at 9:51 PM #

    Great comeback victory. Huge win for our NCAA hopes.

    I see a lot of people (especially on the Pack Pride monkey boards) dogging this team, but the last three games are really encouraging. The second half effort was outstanding.

  3. redfred2 12/27/2007 at 9:53 PM #

    I want to get an NCAA bid, but I don’t want the Hall to win another game.

  4. geojim1990 12/27/2007 at 9:53 PM #

    Johnson stats:

    FGM-A: 1-3
    FTM-A: 2-4
    OFF: 0
    REB: 1
    AST: 0
    PF: 2
    PTS: 4

    couldn’t find time played yet.

  5. wolfpack n da house 12/27/2007 at 9:55 PM #

    3-0 against the Big east. That is huge come march and if we are on the bubble.

  6. Trip 12/27/2007 at 10:00 PM #

    Johnson: 4 pts 1 rbd 1 assist 2 turnovers 1 block 2 fouls
    Javi: 2 pts 0 rbd 0 assist 2 turnovers 2 fouls

    Johnson wins the PG edge for tonight, still nothing outstanding though. Those numbers are slightly different than the ones above, but I was just typing out what Gary was telling me.

    Hickson: 5 turnovers in 29 minutes. Ouch.

  7. ADVENTEROO 12/27/2007 at 10:01 PM #

    Johnson played 23 minutes…Javi the rest.

  8. bTHEredterror 12/27/2007 at 10:01 PM #

    Johnson-4 pts, i ast, 2 TOs, big bucket at the end to close it out and a couple FTs.

  9. geojim1990 12/27/2007 at 10:03 PM #

    My stats above came from ESPN (don’t know how reliable they usually are).

  10. geojim1990 12/27/2007 at 10:04 PM #

    ^ ESPN’s website, that is.

  11. WestCoast 12/27/2007 at 10:06 PM #

    Bottom line, these pg’s both need to get assists. Five a game would be a start. Make free throws, don’t worry about being the scorer, but dish the ball after driving the lane, and then make the FT’s if fouled. Nice win for the squad, and I’m sure Sid will have the team totally prepared after the next three….then on the road for our first road acc game at Carolina.

  12. ShootingGuard 12/27/2007 at 10:09 PM #

    “As everyone says, “a win is a win” I guess. But I’m sick of saying, “it was ugly but it got it done”. Just once I’d like to say, “that was Swiss f***ing clockwork … & against a quality team”.”

    Until State gets an elite and/or experienced point guard to run the show, it will be ugly more times than not.

    “I really thought this would be the year that we could watch a game with that relaxed smirk that my Carolina grad friends get to gaze over a UNC shalacking with. I really thought this would be a year where I’d get to watch a game and say we dominated that game against a quality foe.”

    I hoped for the same but didn’t really expect it knowing that State had 2 transfers who had never really played college ball and a lowly recruited freshman set to run the show. Until State’s backcourt dominates the other team’s backcourt, grinding it out will remain the more likely path to the victories that come…

  13. ADVENTEROO 12/27/2007 at 10:10 PM #

    UNX routed Nevada 106-70….however, Bobby Frasor is out with torn ACL…

  14. Rochester 12/27/2007 at 10:13 PM #

    Javi’s main problem is he has zero confidence in any phase of his offensive game right now. He has shown scrappiness on D, but he won’t shoot the ball and he’s hesitant to push it when he’s dribbling up court.

    Someone earlier called Courtney on the tie-up at the end of the game, but I thought he actually did that on purpose, knowing we had the arrow, trying to burn a few seconds off the clock. Maybe it was dumb luck, but at the time I thought it was good strategy.

    Johnson showed a lot of energy and I think it’s telling that he got more than half the minutes and was in there at the end. I’d like to see both of the PG’s get some good minutes over the next three games so they have a clue what to do when we get to the ACC schedule. Maybe I’m way too optimistic, but I think we’ll be all right.

  15. Stoner 12/27/2007 at 10:13 PM #

    We won against two teams, who use a full court press a lot. We haven’t been able to beat a full court press in years.

    Per the box score Costner had a team high 10 rebounds this game. From the radio announcers he was at a quickness disadvantage against Laing, so he was playing off so as not to give up an easy lay up.

    He missed some shots, but I don’t know if the knee injury he had over the summer is still either nagging him or kept him from getting into game shape. Coach Lowe did mention on one of his radio shows, earlier in the year, Costner had a knee injury.

    Overall this is a good win. We did a couple of things well, which have been problems earlier in the year: beating a full court press and rebounding.

    Hopefully the improved play continues and carries through to ACC play.

  16. Lunatic Fringe 12/27/2007 at 10:14 PM #

    A lot of the turnovers on the big men (JJ included) were due to them trying to dribble through the lane.

  17. Packster 12/27/2007 at 10:18 PM #

    pakfanistan

    Dec 27th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
    I’m putting my blinders on and predicting a win by 10. In my reality, Courtney Fells wakes up and drops ~20 on Seton Hall. Then you combine that with Grant’s 18, Ben’s 13, Costner’s 15, Hickson’s 15, Horner’s 6 and Javi’s 5 and you’ve got yourself a W.

    I think pakfanistan almost nailed it with that comment way back up the line. We need to check with him more often. It seems like we are getting better with every game. Our points guards aren’t great, but for the most part they played without serious errors and got us through. It doesn’t matter if it is ugly or not…a win is a win! Brandon Costner…if you are reading this….forget the first 11 games….the next game is your first, pick up where you left off last season. And finally…we have got to stop teams from burying these 3’s against us under 1 minute to play. I would rather foul for 3 shots than give them the open look.

    I’m glad to be rid of these Big East teams for a while too. We lost our point guard and Fells and Costner both came up limping during the game tonight. Bring on the Catamounts!

  18. Sweet jumper 12/27/2007 at 10:19 PM #

    Sid was channelling V with the triangle and 2 and the box and 1 defenses. These moves gave SH lots of trouble. The point guard play sounded weak but MJ seemed in better control. The key is that the point guard doesnot have to be great. It keeps Fells and Grant in their natural positions and that is huge for us.

  19. gcpack 12/27/2007 at 10:23 PM #

    I felt like JJ and McCauley were getting hacked alot in the lane until they lost the ball & as usual no calls by the refs.

    By the way we beat Nova & S.Hall who is the third big east team we beat, I can’t remember?

  20. JeremyH 12/27/2007 at 10:23 PM #

    Huge win for the wolfpack tonight, and a step forward. MJ would just hold the ball in the 1st half, but its understood that he’s just starting out. In the 2nd half, he broke the press with confidence, and was solid at protecting the ball. Javi is steady, and I loved that steal and putback after our miss, we never get to see that! After seeing these two guys play I feel pretty good about our point guard play, MJ is active without the ball and got a crucial bucket on a backdoor. He also showed he can defend.

    Gavin Grant just took over in the last few minutes, and SH did help us out a bit with that throw-away at a critical juncture. Fells had another one of his ridiculous games where he looks like Michael Jordan. We definitely used our length to our advantage.

    McCauley played good, and Costner needs to keep plugging away. He could not find his shot outside tonight, but did a few positive things inside. Hickson had a tough time, but some of his turnovers had to do with bad “low” entry passes. His defensive presence was felt, I’m not sure how many blocks we got total, but it was a lot. Hickon had some pretty nice garbage goal putbacks, I’m glad we have him inside.

    Bring on Western Carolina!!

  21. redfred2 12/27/2007 at 10:24 PM #

    Finally, I’ll be able to get to the RBC for the game on Saturday. The Pack had better be ready and looking to keep improving against all comers from here on out.

    The Mighty Catamounts LOOM!

  22. gcpack 12/27/2007 at 10:28 PM #

    Never mind I got it , the Cincy foul fest.

  23. Primewolf 12/27/2007 at 10:35 PM #

    A great win, but:

    Defensive effort was pathetic. Straight legged defense most of the night by most of the players. Not the same team I saw in RBC against Cincy on Sun night.

    We still look mostly stupid against a zone defense. Perimeter passes with no movement. Hey Sid, just watch UNC movements against a zone. It ain’t that complicated.

    The refs were bad, but not as bad as I thought they would be.

    We loose this game big time without GG.

    Costner was slow and looked like he was in a fog most of the evening.

    I am surprised Sid didn’t play more guys. The intensity just wasn’t there.

  24. redfred2 12/27/2007 at 10:51 PM #

    I tried to pull up stats on gopack but couldn’t get past the welcome screen.

    I hate to beat a dead horse, but did Seton Hall change their defense on Fells or did one man shut him down? and did Fells score a FG in the second half?

  25. old13 12/27/2007 at 11:01 PM #

    “By the way we beat Nova & S.Hall who is the third big east team we beat, I can’t remember?”

    Cincinnati.

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