CHLT OBS: State will Start 1-5 in ACC

07-08 Basketball42

I would like to link to the Charlotte Observer piece on the blog…but, their crappy website isn’t loading very well this morning so they will have to go without our referal traffic today.

“NC State is an impossible team to figure out. The Wolfpack defeated Villanova on a neutral court and won at Seton Hall, but played miserably against Western Carolina and Presbyterian. Here’s an educated guess that NC State will start 1-5 in the ACC thanks to a difficult early schedule”

I’m not arguing with them. They may be right. I certainly hope that they are not right…but, after an early season schedule that has created some interesting comments, we open on the road at the #1 and #3 teams in the league. So…for once…it actually does get easier after that.

Then again, we played miserably against WCU and PC and still found a way to win, unlike Boston College last night against Robert Morris. When all is said and done with the out of conference schedule, I would only trade State’s performance for the performances of Carolina and Duke without argument. Clemson and Florida State and NC State’s performance each have unique merits that make the judgement of their performance pretty close.

State hosts NC Central on Wednesday night. I am going to predict that the Wolfpack finally has a game against a lesser opponent with a little more ‘clicking’ and a larger margin of victory that we have become accustomed.

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07-08 Basketball

42 Responses to CHLT OBS: State will Start 1-5 in ACC

  1. jbpackfan 01/08/2008 at 10:16 AM #

    Did anyone ask the Charlotte Observer’s to predict NC State’s conference record? That is some good reporting. It has the same merit as me saying: Ok, here’s an educated guess on State’s first 6 conference games.. Um lets see- 3-2. What value does it have? Maybe a more effective, intelligent article would look at specific matchups and explain how the teams actually compare with each other.

  2. jbpackfan 01/08/2008 at 10:17 AM #

    ^ My math is great- how bout 3-3.

  3. highstick 01/08/2008 at 10:38 AM #

    Thought you were poking fun at the newspaper. I’m surprised the reporter could count to 6. Probably confused him when he had to switch hands to get to 6!

  4. Redblogger 01/08/2008 at 10:47 AM #

    The lack of effort that goes into some of these article is astounding.

  5. 66pack 01/08/2008 at 10:57 AM #

    or lack of effort with state bb and atheletic dept.

  6. zahadum 01/08/2008 at 11:40 AM #

    I also hope they’re not right, but that’s not a completely outlandish prediction. I could see us going 3-5 in our first 8 and 5-3 for the second to finish at 8-8.

  7. Girlfriend in a Coma 01/08/2008 at 12:19 PM #

    Difficult to see. Always changing the future is.

  8. waxhaw 01/08/2008 at 12:35 PM #

    There are road games against the top 3 teams in the ACC right now. Plus one additional road game. How would other schools fare against that schedule?

    We will be doing great to start 3-3.

  9. Trip 01/08/2008 at 12:50 PM #

    Boston College game:

    “Attendance: 3,505”

    And people complain about our seats not being filled with 14,000 people, thats just sad there.

  10. NCSUSix 01/08/2008 at 12:57 PM #

    This was just another typo in the CHLT OBS. The pack will start 5-1. Lets go pack.

  11. Lunatic Fringe 01/08/2008 at 1:03 PM #

    I am not quite sure how they can classify it as an “educated guess” it is more like a “wild a$$ guess”.

    We have been so inconsistent that it is hard to make any estimates on what we will really do for the upcoming games.

  12. Noah 01/08/2008 at 1:12 PM #

    I’m encouraged that they think we’ll win a game. That’s one more than I expect to win.

  13. BillyVest 01/08/2008 at 1:21 PM #

    I going all-in for the Pack with this guess, 6-0 on the way to a perfect 16-0 conference record!!!

    GO PACK!!!

  14. beowolf 01/08/2008 at 1:31 PM #

    Acronyms like TOB, N&O, etc are readily known around here. But I saw CHLT OBS and I first was thinking wtf?

    Your first thought was, where’s the fudge?

  15. sf59 01/08/2008 at 1:39 PM #

    ^^^ ha ha ha

  16. nycfan 01/08/2008 at 1:47 PM #

    State kicks off the ACC as follows:

    @UNC
    @Clemson
    Miami
    GaT
    @FSU
    @Dook

    That is pretty tough, though despite a nice game at Miss. State, I don’t think Miami is all that (though the Winthrop loss was on a technically and it seemed to me in practice neutral court in Miami) and FSU is wildly erratic with limited home-court advantage (except a few big games).

    Merely one win would surprise me, yet I would not be surprised by 2-4. I think 3-3 in that stretch would actually put State in solid position to have a winning conference record (including at least one road win already), even with three more games against UNC, Dook and Clemson remaining thereafter.

    Of course, that is why they play the games.

    As an aside, if you agree (which apparently some or many of you do not with respect to Clemson), that UNC, Dook & Clemson have separated themselves as the top 3 teams going into conference play, then it is notable that only NC State has to play 6 games against those three in the unbalanced schedule (FSU & Miami get 5 of 6 potential games, BC, GaT, UVa, Umd get 4 (with UVa getting 2 home games against both one-team matchups) and VPI & WFU get the minimum 3 of 6).

  17. ShootingGuard 01/08/2008 at 2:07 PM #

    ^
    First, just want to salute NYCFAN as a great longtime contributor here. It is nice to have WELL THOUGHT OUT opinions from opposing fans to keep the discussions well rounded.

    (Of course, maybe I am just saying all this because I often agree with his analysis…)

    Opening 4 of 6 on the road and playing 6 vs the top 3 is definitely a killer in comparison to what others have to face.

    Best case, I think we finish 3-3 for the first 6. Worst case, we have to finish 2-4. Winning AT Duke or UNC is next to impossible, and playing at Clemson and FSU are almost as bad. As nycfan said, 3-3 and we are actually ahead of schedule for the rest of the year. 2-4 and we can still track to the NCAA’s. Anything less than 2-4, though, and we are pretty much done barring a miracle hot streak later (don’t put your money on that).

    If we can’t pull off a shocker road win at Clemson or FSU, we absolutely have to beat Miami and GT at home. In fact, we can’t afford to drop any games at home versus teams not named Duke and UNC or we are cooked. Potentially having to pull 2 road wins to overcome potential home losses to Duke and UNC is going to be tough enough without adding to that “have to win” road total.

    The only good thing about playing the toughest schedule in the conference is that we will have more opportunities for signature wins. Beat Miami that one time, and we shut up their argument. Beat Clemson, just at home, and you right a lot of wrongs. Beat UNC and/or Duke, and you have something no one else in any other conference (except Pitt) can boast. With the ACC dominating the Big10/11 per usual and a 3-0 record versus the Big East ourselves, you can’t be denied if you do your part against 1 or 2 of these guys.

  18. Trip 01/08/2008 at 2:16 PM #

    We can beat Miami and GT at home probably, and I think we can pick up a road win at FSU simply because they seem to be having injury problems at the moment on their Frontcourt. 3-3 I say, with 4-2 being optimistic.

  19. Classof89 01/08/2008 at 2:24 PM #

    Perhaps the memory of that 28 point shellacking at the hands of FSU last year will help them in that game, which will be the difference between 2-4 and 1-5 in those first six…Maybe 3-3 if the team that won at Seton Hall shows up…

  20. zahadum 01/08/2008 at 2:30 PM #

    NYCFAN, I’ll go you one better, although I know its very much a minority opinion. I not only don’t yet agree with regards to Clemson, I also don’t feel that Duke has achieved any clear separation from the rest of the conference. It may well work out that way, and they’ve certainly looked very good at times. But the bottom line to date is that they are 3-1 against teams with winning records. I just don’t think that’s enough of a sample to go ahead and pencil them in for a 2nd place finish. And I still think that they are quite vulnerable to a) off shooting nights and b) teams with strong frontlines.

    Likewise, Clemson is 4-2. By contrast, UNC is 8-0 against teams with winning records. So to me right now, it looks like a case of UNC, then everybody else

  21. Trip 01/08/2008 at 2:58 PM #

    Speaking of Duke, tough break for this kid and Duke.

    http://www.wral.com/sports/story/2271602/

    Duke’s Zoubek Fractures Left Foot

    Duke just lost another big man. They’re going to have nothing but guards by the time we get to them.

  22. packbackr04 01/08/2008 at 3:25 PM #

    bad news for Duke, Zoubek, but great news for the rest of the acc.

  23. wufpaxno1 01/08/2008 at 3:29 PM #

    Sid’s just playing mind games with the rest of the league. He has been holding back the horses like Charlton Heston did in Ben Hur. (Had to get my Charlton Heston analogy in there since all of this was started by an article that was written by him.) Sid will turn them loose in the conference schedule and the Pack will run the table. Didn’t GG say that we would not lose more than four games?

    Seriously, this team will improve. I’m pretty sure that the injury that Costner suffered in the US team try outs must have been a little worse than we were lead to believe. This would explain both his less than stellar performance to date and his conditioning problems, and both will correct themselves over time. Atsur meant a lot more to this team then what appeared on the surface and losing Degand did not help in this area, but both MJ and Javi will improve with time and Lowe will start giving them more and more rope as the season progresses, just as he was with Degand prior to the injury.

    We may not run the table, but I am reasonably confident that we will finish above .500 in league play.

  24. FrankManor 01/08/2008 at 4:31 PM #

    1-5 is absurd.

    as we’ve seen recently, the Pack plays up OR down to the level of its competition, relatively speaking. 3-3 is much more realistic and nothing to worry about. Having the tough conference schedule they do will give more opportunity for RPI-advancing wins and less damaging losses, in most cases.

  25. bTHEredterror 01/08/2008 at 5:05 PM #

    1-5 would shock me, I expect 3-3 or worst case 2-4 if the FSU game goes wrong again. We can easily be 4-2 or 5-1 and I won’t be shocked. Guardplay is important in March, depth is important in the regular season.

    GT is like a poor man’s NC State, some frontcourt talent, a wildly erratic big 2 guard, a team leader TO machine SR at 3, and no proven point guard. Our bigs are better than theirs, but theirs are physical. A typically called ACC game will take care of that problem. Grant will get us thru this game.

    Miami is tougher, but they are still a team full of garbage men and McClintock, and I think we can handle him with Fells.

    FSU is solid, but our frontline will give them problems with the injuries their big men are dealing with. They don’t have a solid homecourt and since we likely won’t be ranked at the time we shouldn’t have an overly tough house.

    At Clem, Dook and UNC is tough. I don’t expect a victory out of the three, but we play well in Littlejohn and if it’s close at the end, Clemson will choke it away.

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