GT 77, NC State 74

07-08 Basketball NCS Basketball168

Boxscore. Tough loss. Good game.

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07-08 Basketball NCS Basketball

168 Responses to GT 77, NC State 74

  1. primacyone 01/24/2008 at 10:28 AM #

    “beowolf
    Jan 24th, 2008 at 10:14 am
    I am curious as to whether the O will look better with a real pg or whether it will take yet another new coach.

    Hell, it looked better last year.”

    We had a senior point guard last year.

  2. partialqualifier 01/24/2008 at 10:36 AM #

    I agree with those of who playing the “we are improving” card. Altho, I would say that the only thing that has improved is effort. I am just really sorry that it took up 15 games for our guys to show heart and desire.

    I think this loss officially ends any small hope we had of getting to the NCAA Tourney! We have lost too many home games to teams w/ losing records to get a nod at 9-7. That means we gotta go 10-6…which is 9-3 the rest of the way. Unfortunately, that aint happening. Improvement or not, we just lost AT HOME to the worst team in the ACC so far. I am afraid we are staring at a 10-12 seed in the ACC Tourney again.

    Just not enough fundamentals on this team. We cant dribble, pass, catch, or play the slightest bit of D. Lowe needs to scrap all of his damn plays and work on the effing fundamentals of basketball for the rest of the year!

    One more thing…this was Ben Mc’s best game of the year…but for some reason Lowe would rather play Costner who gives you nothing! I will promise you this….there is not more than 10 or 15 coaches in America that would play Costner over Ben. He has a high Basketball IQ on a team with none! I just do not understand Lowes love affair with Costner.

  3. burnbarn 01/24/2008 at 10:43 AM #

    I am shocked with the lack of concentration BC showed from the tap last night. He really cost us their first 7 points and really that was the story of the game. Coach called an immediate TO and reamed BC and then subbed Ben and then we started to play. Fells even mentioned post game how we lost the game in the first 2 minutes.
    You have to wonder if BC will ever get his head right this season. We certainly do not have to worry about his NBA potential.

    Javi played pretty well last night (for him) and showed a great deal of progress. I think we will be a good team at season’s end, but without an ACC tourney Championship, we will be looking at the NIT.

    JJ played better post defense than he has to date. There were 4-5 possessions where he did not leave his feet defensively and his man had to give the ball up. You knew Lawal was going to be fired up to play JJ last night and he was. I think JJ got the better of him for the most part, but Lawal was key to their victory last night.

    When you rely on freshman as starters………..

  4. zahadum 01/24/2008 at 10:45 AM #

    While I certainly agree that the game was winnable, (especially if we’d actually played some D in the last 10 minutes), I think some of you are downplaying GT a bit much based on their overall record. Keep in mind that coming into last night’s game, their SOS was ranked 6th, and they had played Indiana, Kansas, and UNC all down to the wire. And that was before Causey had really started to elevate his play. Tech could make some noise this year.

    Still should have won though, dang it.

  5. cap84 01/24/2008 at 11:03 AM #

    Tough to win with no guard play.Even tougher playing with 5 player when they have 8 on the court.There must be a new rule that says you can take as many steps as you want if you start your lay-up from the arc.
    With a coaching staff made-up of mostly guards seems like they would play a little better than what I saw last night.
    Hey Coach…call the play and let the team run it.Stop preaching to the P.G. constantly.
    If Costner is going to do nothing but stand around the 3 point arc and watch then play someone else.

  6. ChuckAllYall 01/24/2008 at 11:04 AM #

    I agree that Javi did play a lot better, but let’s keep in mind that Causey (who guarded him the majority of the night) lacks the quickness and burst of speed that most ACC point guards posess. We’ve already seen him get chewed up by Clemson’s and UNC’s guards. I expect the same to happen when we face Duke, Maryland, Virgina, BC. etc. I don’t disagree he’s getting better, but let’s be careful before we annoint him the next Corchiani.

    One more thing….damn Mike Patrick gets on my nerves. He is so blatantly biased it’s not even funny. It’s amazing how he bashes us the entire earlygoing and then all of a sudden we make a little run and Javi is a freaking all-star and we’re a force to be reckoned with. Show some knowledge of the game, learn the players names for God sakes, and get a grip!

  7. Par Shooter 01/24/2008 at 11:16 AM #

    The O did look better at times last year. But if we’ve got to wait until one of our current “point guards” get to the level of Atsur in terms of execution then Sid will never last. Frankly, between the 3 guys who claim to be “point guards” on the roster I don’t think any of them have a chance to match a hobbled Atsur before the end of their career.

    That brings up another major concern of mine – scholarships. We have scholarships committed to Fergie, Degand, MJ and Javi for the next 2+ years I believe. Frankly I think the only one who has shown any inclination of being an acc level guard is Degand and even that is questionable since he’s never played an acc game and that assessment is pre-injury. We have 3 more scholarships committed to Thomas, Mays, Williams for 4 years starting next year. We haven’t gotten to see them play yet so there is no way to know how that will work out but none of them were top 50 talent so each carries risk. Can we really afford to have 8 of our 13 scholies tied up for so long in THAT group of guards?

    Meanwhile, assuming that JJ leaves after this year or next then we would have Costner and Smith as the only scholarship big guys (at this point) in 09. If Brandon ever gets it together he may try to go somewhere after his 4th (jr) year. So getting a top flight pg in 09 is critical (hell, it was critical to get one in 07 & 08 but that didn’t happen) but it is also critical to get at least 2 big guys in the 09 class that are ready to contribute immediately. I don’t follow recruiting very closely but it seems like 09 is make or break. And we won’t be able to afford to take top 100 guys who need 2 years to be ready. We’ll need guys who can start or play big minutes right out of the chute.

  8. packer74 01/24/2008 at 11:33 AM #

    The lack of basketball fundamentals and game smarts continues to plague this team. In the 2nd half, they broke the trap a few of times but did nothing with it. Note: If two defenders are still tied up with the player that just passed out the trap, its now 4 on 3 and someone wearing your team colors should be open. Move. Pass. Get your head out of your rear. GT shot 59% including 9 layups, 1 tip-in and 4 dunks. Turnovers, not blocking out on the boards and slow team defense leads to easy baskets. Face it folks, this bunch isn’t very good and a trip to the big dance is highly unlikely. A trip to the “not invited tournament” isn’t looking too good either. And the hits just keep on coming as the Pack is looking at back to back road games. When does football start?

  9. pacman23 01/24/2008 at 11:43 AM #

    Georgia Tech is a LOT better than their record would indicate. They’ve played a difficult schedule and are developing as a team after dealing with a couple of unexpected subtractions from their roster. Hell, they gave the Heels everything they could handle. There is no disgrace in losing to them, although it is a game we appeared to have under control and let slip away thanks to some critical mistakes around the 5 minute mark in the second half.
    Tech will probably win a few more no one expects them to win and have a nice season after all. (Dykes called Tech and Kentucky the two best sub .500 teams in America and I actually agree with that idiot for once.) They are not bad and I don’t think we are either. There are positives to take from this game (Javi’s “light bulb moment”, Fells continued excellence, and improving rebounding as a team) and a couple of negatives (Tech’s shooting percentage and our turnovers). We will build on this loss. It’s the first time this year I don’t feel devastated afterwards because we showed heart, desire, passion, hustle, teamwork and improvement in a loss.
    Our team looks like we are evolving into a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the season. It is coming together slowly and surely against extremely difficult competition. It’s been said before-we are starting two freshmen, after all. These things take time. How about a little less doom and gloom and a little more optimism, folks.

  10. Wulfpack 01/24/2008 at 11:49 AM #

    It was an improvement for sure. Just fell a little short.

    I guess my concern is a)we lost a home game to a team we probably should have beaten.

    and b)having seen most of the teams in the league play, I don’t think we are going to fare very well moving forward.

    You look at UVA and they are at the bottom of the league with us. Singletary will murder us, just like McClinton, Causey, etc.

    Our bigs really need to pick it up if we are going to have a legitimate shot at the tourney. It starts right now against FSU. Lose to the Noles and to Duke and we are pretty much behind the eight ball for the rest of the season. Every game then truly becomes a “must-win”.

  11. BJD95 01/24/2008 at 11:52 AM #

    Doom and gloom is the reality of our season. Georgia Tech also lost to UNC-G. Also lost at home to Florida State. Are they better than your average 9-9 team? Maybe. But they are not a first division ACC team, and they beat us AT HOME when we should have been desperate for a win.

    Game. Set. Match. Season.

  12. Sweet jumper 01/24/2008 at 11:58 AM #

    I hope John Wall and other top point guard prospects have the mindset that they have the opportunity to turn our program around and start from day one rather than go to an established power and go to the final four with less playing time and less individual accolades.

  13. Sweet jumper 01/24/2008 at 12:02 PM #

    I want our point guards to develop to the point that they know which play to run on each possession and that Sid has confidence in their decisions so that he doesn’t have to call each play and slow down their progress to half court on every non-press possession.

  14. BJD95 01/24/2008 at 12:02 PM #

    I try to hope for next year, but we definitely lose Grant, probably lose Hickson, and only gain 2 Top 150 SGs and Degand (with at least 30% less lateral quickness).

    Jesus, that’s a depressing thought.

  15. Ed89 01/24/2008 at 12:06 PM #

    i think we may need to start worrying about Fells going pro after this year. the guy is athletic and can shoot. i think Coach should literally give him the green light everytime down the court. can someone please show Gavin how to throw a lob pass??? the first time it goes 10 feet out of bounds, the second hits the rim. the turnovers by gavin and costner (9) of our 18 flat killed us. Javi had only 1 turnover in 22 minutes. Johnson had 3 in 18 minutes. coach, please start Gonzalez — he has by far the most “up” side. i still question bringing in two transfers – Degand and Johnson. maybe one, but not two. johnson in no way shape or form is an acc point guard, and definitely not a shooting guard. i think javi will be a good pg before long.

  16. BJD95 01/24/2008 at 12:13 PM #

    Courtney Fells is a poor ballhandler, and perhaps the worst passing guard (starting, anyway) I’ve ever seen in the ACC. He would be eaten alive at the NBA level, since he can’t be even a passable secondary ballhandler.

  17. Ed89 01/24/2008 at 12:17 PM #

    ^^^when do they pass in the NBA?

  18. Anthony Grundy 01/24/2008 at 12:19 PM #

    Gavin Grant for point gaurd duties!

    Trevor Fergeson for backup point gaurd duties!

    It’s way too tough with javi and marques at the point. They aren’t physically big or strong enough to protect the ball. Neither player can really shoot either. Gavin will create matchup problems. Additionally, he’s better defensively. We were much more competative with him at the point last year. I guess it should be noted that Costner was much better last year as well. Regardless, our season is going nowhere b/c everyone knows we have no point gaurd.

  19. Anthony Grundy 01/24/2008 at 12:35 PM #

    I also agree with BJD95. We lost to a 8-9 team. I don’t think we have many positives to take away from a close loss to a crappy team. I also agree that courtney Fells is a poor ballhandler and a terrible passer. We need more basketball players, not atheletes. Basketball players will complement guys like Fells, Grant and Hickson.

    Basketball players: Corchiani, Anthony Grundy, Gugliatta, McCauley, Causey (GT), Atsur.

    Atheletes: Cameron Bennerman, Courtney Fells, Gavin Grant, JJ Hickson.

  20. pacman23 01/24/2008 at 12:37 PM #

    So BJD95, we should just throw in the towel right now, then? I guess we could just forfeit the rest of our schedule-no sense in even trying now, apparently.
    Everyone sucks, won’t get better, and we have no future.
    Gosh, with fan support like that, I guess we don’t need enemies.

  21. BillyVest 01/24/2008 at 12:51 PM #

    I don’t understand the doom and gloom. I’ve gone up and down about this year and how worried we should be for next year, but I’ve given up worrying and am not going to be bothered by the negatives, as long as we are trying.

    Whatver was coached last year was simply because of a lack of personnel. I don’t think there was any attempt to install a new system.

    This year Sid gets some on-the-job training, with regards to how to handle college teams and what works and doesn’t work. Our guard play is spotty, but that’s not unexpected. The only unexpected thing this year is the drop off in productivity of Costner. He has demonstrated too much potential to give up on him and force him to be the 12th man on the bench.

    Javi’s playing better and if Johnson can also so get some confidence, as the year goes on we should get better. Really all we need is for our PG’s to take / make some shots during the game, so the other team can’t play 5-4, when we’re on offense. Just hit a couple of shots, to just keep the other team honest.

    Hickson should be back next year. He’s not ready for the NBA. His play against ACC level competition hasn’t been outstanding.

    The one really bright side to having Sid and Monte on the bench is both of them see no reason we can’t hand some banners and I’m sure they both want to do so. Given the flack we’ve gotten from the media and AD about being unable to compete, it’s nice to have a couple of true believers, who share the fans desires to win, on the bench.

    I’m not saying they are great coaches, they haven’t demonstrated that so far, but at least we have a couple of people who care as much as we do, which is refreshing for a change.

  22. triadwolf 01/24/2008 at 12:52 PM #

    I think the reason Lowe keeps playing Costner over BM is that he has the threat of making an outside shot. Without him in the lineup you basically are left with Fells and the defense can collapse inside. Although I admit we are giving away a lot on defense by keeping him in. What to you do? If somebody else can start making some shots maybe we would have some options.

    Our point guard situation is what it is. Lowe recruited these guys because that is all that was left on the market. He had a late start and no returning point guard – kind of put him in a corner. That being said to appears that 2 out of 3 may end up being servicable players – this years pain may pay big dividends in a couple of years if one or two of these guys can be a quality back up to our TBD PG of the future. However, I don’t think we can afford wasting a scholarship on all three and someone will have to end up transferring after this season or next to free up some space.

  23. BillyVest 01/24/2008 at 1:07 PM #

    traidwolf, the talk about wanting people to transfer is disheartening. I spent too much time reading folks critize our basketball program, because guys who couldn’t cut it for various reasons like not wanting to play defense, like Mejia (I live in the Philadelphia area and he got into the coaches doghouse at Drexel because he wouldn’t play defense and only wanted to shoot), or lost a step due to injury, like Bell, or weren’t ready to be a starter as a true freshman like Mike O’Donnell (he played well at the OSC for UCF), or some house cleaning in 1996 to free up scholarships for potentially better players, to want to have our current coach run players out of the program.

    We’ve gone two years without a transfer and folks still aren’t happy. Now we don’t have enough transfers out of the program.

    Every team, even talented teams, have guys on the bench on scholarships, who aren’t very good. Serge Zwikker sucked, but it didn’t hold Carolina back in the 1990’s. Right now we only have one guy, who has shown he can’t play at this level – Trevor Ferguson – and I don’t see how one guy, like Ferguson, is going to set us back. Johnson’s getting significant minutes for the first time in his career and hopefully will get better. Same with Javi. Neither are going to be world beaters as our PG, but hopefully can be steady floor leaders, like Atsur, in a few years or by the end of the season.

  24. Par Shooter 01/24/2008 at 1:11 PM #

    The thing is that 3 of the 4 guys who are clogging up scholarships transferred into here. I doubt any of them are eager to transfer out and sit another year. Perhaps if they think they are best suited to play at the Div II level then they’ll go somewhere to play immediately but that doesn’t seem very likely.

    As far as McCauley vs. Costner, it amazes me how much folks deify Big Ben. He has frequently been incredibly unproductive with the minutes he gets. I recall him going to the line last night fairly late in the game and his line on the scoreboard was no shots, no rebounds and 1 asst. And he’d probably played at least 10 min or so by then. In fact if you look at the boxscore at the top of this entry, our 3 subs not named Javi combined for 0 fg attempts, 1 rebound and 2 assists in 32 minutes. They did hit 4-6 ft (nice job Horner). And folks wonder why Costner isn’t sitting? I wish he pretended to give a damn as well but let’s face it, the bench guys (including McCauley) just provide very, very little production when they are on the court.

  25. triadwolf 01/24/2008 at 1:14 PM #

    BillyVest – I don’t want anyone to transfer, but it is highly likely that we need to find another PG that can be a quality player with an immediate impact. If none of the current guys show that ability by the end of the season, I don’t see how we can keep 4 scholarships allocated to PG’s and meet all our future needs. I hope all these guys step up and establish their ground, but odds are at least one is going to be on the outside looking in at the end of the season.

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