Wolfpack Battles to Key Road Win! NC State 69 FSU 66

07-08 Basketball203

We closed the previous entry to open up a new one for the second half.

NC State led 36-31 at halftime based solely on a 17-0 run to end the first half. At halftime I wrote, ‘How crazy is it to say that NC State looked HORRIBLE except for that 17-0 run.’ I know that it is crazy…but it is true.

Unfortunately, the poor play that created that conclusion continued for the first 11 or 12 minutes of the second half before the Pack bore down with extra intensity and out-battled FSU for an extremely important ACC road win.

NC State’s ‘s win lifts the Pack to 13-6 overall and 2-3 in the ACC. The Wolfpack’s RPI improved to #46 in the country while playing the nation’s 47th ranked strength of schedule. Both the Pack’s RPI and SOS will improve after playing Duke this week regardless of the out come. Forget the pain of Georgia Tech for a moment…how badly would you like that UNO and ECU game right now?

The following are some random running bytes that we live blogged during the game:

* I have never seen SLOWER whistles from an entire set of officials in my entire life. Literally 2 and 3 seconds late on almost every play. It was obvious how the officials were waiting to see if shots were going to fall before calling fouls. The whistle on Courtney Fells’ third foul (at the beginning of the second half) came after a 15 foot jump shot had time to make it to the basket, hit the rim and fall to the floor. Ridiculous.

* One would think that at some point the officials call FSU for some of these hacks and reach-ins against our guards. It has to be frustrating to play the first 33 minutes of the game allowing FSU’s guards to constantly reach and hack without the officials calling fouls only to have our guards’ tiny bumps and similar reaches suddenly become foulable offenses in the last seven minutes of the game.

* NOBODY on NC State’s basketball team actually boxes out the opponent in any way, shape, or form. Some players actually take the time to put their bodies in front of their opponent, but nobody actually boxes out their opponent. We couldn’t get luckier on some situations where JJ and our bigs are not boing out FSU knocks the ball out of bounds or bobbles it into our hands.

* While I am complaining about fundamentally simple items – we already have 2 or 3 legitimate fouls called against us today for moving screens. JJ Hickson gets at least one of these per game (that usually aren’t even close). How does this not get fixed and continue to happen in every single game?

* Gavin Grant has had a horrible game today. Bad decisions. Missed shots. Just totally out of sync. I wrote this BEFORE he fumbled a sure two points out of bounds on a wide open fast break with 11:19 to go.

* I gotta feel sorry for Dennis Horner. The kid cannot get a shot to fall. He’s getting decent looks and just not releasing the ball very smoothly.

* Not only does Brandon Costner make obvious and blatant mistakes on the floor – the poor guy makes them immediately upon entering the game. In the approximate minute that comprised Costner’s first defensive series of the the second half, he was charged with two fouls including bad reach-in because he was out of position BEFORE he allowed he failed to cut off a driver to the basket that resulted allowed an FSU slam.

* Since it is a stat that many people have been following as evidenced here – Costner entered the second half with 15:31 and State leading 40-38. In five minutes he committed three fouls, turned the ball over twice and didn’t score. But, when he left at the 9:47 mark the game was tied at 47.

* It amazes me that we choose to play such soft and lax defense that basically serves to lull our own team to sleep on the offensive end. On Wednesday against Georgia Tech and today against FSU – our best offense was produced by easy points on transition and finding rhythm from defense.

* Courtney Fells has not hit HUGE three pointers at the end of the last three games. Today’s was nothing short of a miraculous bank shot from 25 feet out. It is ok for Wolfpack fans to accept good luck whenever we get it.

* Coach Lowe has chosen to go with Javi Gonzalez over Marques Johnson at the end of each of the last two nail biters. No doubt that Gonzalez’s shooting advantage over Johnson has been a key part of the decision.

Post-Note: You may be interested in this old analysis from 2005 highlighting the importance of FSU’s Basketball Program has been to NC State’s success in recent years. (Wow time flies!)

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07-08 Basketball

203 Responses to Wolfpack Battles to Key Road Win! NC State 69 FSU 66

  1. ktpritch 01/26/2008 at 11:22 PM #

    Bacm to FSU – i don’t know if this was mentioned earlier, but i think they really hurt themselves by calling all their timeouts early. I rememener thinking that and then seeing the stat roll with about 1.5 mins left that FSU had no TOs left while State had two fulls and a 30 (I think). Anyway, they had no way to stop the game and regroup when we pulled even and then ahead – I thought that was some pretty poor coaching.

    Happy w/ the win though!

  2. bTHEredterror 01/26/2008 at 11:29 PM #

    packgrad2000- Got this info from a Duke site, so no guarantees….but it indicates we won in Cameron in 1995 and that it was the last road win against the Dookies.

    http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/articles/?p=21962

    It won’t be mentioned during the game coverage, I bet’cha, but State has won in Cameron 17 times since 1954, and that includes the current 13 year drought and the 7 year drought before that 1995 win. Only Carolina has won more times as a visitor in Cameron (24), but in 1988 we were tied at 16.

    Was it Case who asked to be buried near Hwy 70 so he could watch our boys ride by on their way to whip Duke every year? We’ll need him and all the ghosts we can muster this Thursday. I won’t hold my breath.

  3. xphoenix87 01/26/2008 at 11:41 PM #

    I haven’t been keeping up with this, and I’m not going to wade through all 200 comments. I’ll just throw out my observations.

    Javi is playing with a tremendous amount of confidence, and it’s impossible to overstate how much that matters. He’s taking open shots and he isn’t hesitating. He’s starting to penetrate and create scoring opportunities. He isn’t great by any means, but he is playing so far above the level he was at just a few games ago that it makes a huge difference.

    Costner is the worst player in the ACC getting considerable minutes right now. There is literally nothing he is doing well at the moment other than taking up space.

    We still don’t understand how and when to feed Hickson in the post. They don’t hit him when he has a one-on-one matchup and an easy passing lane, but they’ll try to force it in when he’s triple teamed.

    In addition to setting moving screens, Hickson also does a terrible job defending screens when his man sets them. It wasn’t nearly as evident in this game because the FSU guards weren’t coming of ball screens and shooting mid-range jumpers, but it was really evident during the Miami and Georgia Tech games. It’s not that he doesn’t come out and hedge on screens, it’s that he doesn’t even come out anywhere near the screen, meaning that the ball-handler has a wide open mid-range jumper whenever they want it. The guards often get blamed for it if you aren’t really paying attention, but the reality is that Hickson does a terrible job against screens. Of course, I’m not going to complain too much since he does so many other things well.

  4. BJD95 01/27/2008 at 12:26 AM #

    Wow, just finished watching on DVR. So glad that Javi/Grant botched fast break didn’t end up costing us. That would have been seared into my mind permanently.

    Overall, we still played pretty awful. Like somebody said before, we are a very frustrating team to cheer for. We do so many senseless, boneheaded things. Then, somebody comes up big and sucks you right back in.

    I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Teddy V rush in – he was NOT the closest ref to the play – and whistle Reid for fouling JJ. I just knew they were going to take the easy way out and call a jump ball, with Noles having the arrow.

    Do we really have to thank Teddy Valentine for possibly saving our season?

  5. Trip 01/27/2008 at 12:40 AM #

    The good news:

    Johnson made a 3! For how terrible his form is, I have to admit that it’s surprising that the 3’s he attempted today looked like they would go in.
    Javi is getting better.
    Fells is a monster when he wants to be. Banked in 3, are you serious?
    Hickson is making less errors and learning how to play with the big boys.

    The bad news:
    We had very little contribution from the 3/4 spots. Mccauley was alive and did contribute, but Grant/Costner were no where to be seen.

    The very bad news:
    Thank Sidney that Costner wasn’t able to see the court with his terrible play, if Costner had gotten more minutes than he did today I bet we would have lost. If he reads this, PLEASE show us the old Costner. We know you can do it, and it’s just painful to watch your current game. Wake up and smell the dookies.

  6. Stoner 01/27/2008 at 5:02 AM #

    Grant was the second leading scorer for the afternoon, with 14 pts. and was the leading scorer for the team, going into the final seconds, until Fells hit back-to-back threes. Grant started off slow but seemed to come around.

  7. Dr. BadgerPack 01/27/2008 at 8:20 AM #

    If the guys were paying attention on the botched fast break, they’ll recognize that Gonzalez is going to distribute the ball. While I’d like to see Javy simply lay it in, it might be beneficial down the road IF the players around him always look for the pass. It’ also good for Javy– we won, so he isn’t a goat and probably learns (I hope) that you always take the sure 2 over the possible sensational play (I’m sure he was wanting Gavin to jam the snot out of it).

  8. haze 01/27/2008 at 8:54 AM #

    Good game and, yes, frustrating at times. However, it’s evident that, despite our shortcomings, we are perfectly capable of putting up some wins in this conference. If you’d told me that Costner’s production would be this bad AND that we’d lose the best of our 3 PG’s before the ACC season, I would have been surprised to be as good as we are.

    As for FSU, specifically, the big news was Javi’s continued growth. He’s starting to believe in himself. Also, congrats to JJ on the huge plays at the end (rebound, FT’s, block). Courtney got a lucky break on the long 3 and that’s fine by me. He’s been very good over the last few games.

  9. RabidWolf 01/27/2008 at 9:23 AM #

    If thw ‘Pack is to have ANY shot at all @ Dook, they REALLY need to shore up the perimeter D and POUND THE BALL INSIDE! Dook is more like FSU than people realize in that they really don’t have ANYTHING on the inside that can stand up to our bigs.

    That said….I hope everyone realizes that the striped shirts are NEVER gonna call the illegal screens in Durham…how do you think that smarmy little shite Reddick got so many open looks??

    IF the refs DO call the bad screens on the hated devils, they’ll never make it off campus alive unless they are transported in armored cars.

    If the ‘Pack follows a very simple plan…pound it inside, hit the easy ones, draw fouls and make the freebies. Shore up the outside D and limit the devils 3 balls…there’s a shot.

    Personally, I think the devils may fall victim to the UNX syndrome in this one…we got this one before the ball goes up. That said, WE NEED A HUGE AND I MEAN MONSTROUSLY HUGE GAME FROM FELLS, HICKSON, AND MCCAULEY TO HAVE A SHOT IN THIS ONE!

    GO PACK…..LET’S STEAL ONE IN DURHAM!

  10. Dr. BadgerPack 01/27/2008 at 9:49 AM #

    “If the ‘Pack follows a very simple plan…pound it inside, hit the easy ones, draw fouls and make the freebies. Shore up the outside D and limit the devils 3 balls…there’s a shot.”

    Gee, is that all? 🙂 I think you forgot DON’T TURN THE #&!@ BALL OVER.

  11. RabidWolf 01/27/2008 at 9:52 AM #

    That should ALWAYS be a given. Just don’t try to pass it to Jelly Roll Costner, and we should do ok in that category.

  12. PacknSack 01/27/2008 at 10:22 AM #

    Games don’t get stolen from Cameron. Period. You have to go in and win — there’s no hangin’ around and maybe getting a break at the end. No one in dark jersey’s gets a break in that dump.

    My biggest hope is that with Dook’s new, media-sanctioned dirty play that we don’t come out of it with any broken noses, sprained ankles or ruptured spleens.

  13. RabidWolf 01/27/2008 at 10:28 AM #

    What do you mean NEW media sanctioned dirty play?

  14. redfred2 01/27/2008 at 10:30 AM #

    ^Stoner, I started to type Grant’s stats into the thread yesterday. Just like always he made a couple of timely shots when the offense was sputtering and no one else was stepping up, and he also got at least one very critical rebound. I haven’t checked this morning, but I think gopack’s boxscore was showing that GG had zero turnovers last night. I don’t know about that? Anyway, it may have appeared that Grant was not having his normal game because he contributed in key spots and he didn’t have take over at the end of the game. but in the stats, Grant did fine.

  15. choppack1 01/27/2008 at 10:44 AM #

    rf – Grant did do fine – he started out missing his first 5 shots (I think) – then he had some other misses. However, as you said, he had some huge baskets when no one was throwing it in the ocean.

    One thing that has to be mentioned w/ Javy – we tend to run more (and as a direct result get easier baskets) when he’s in there. He does well w/ steals and rebounds…he doesn’t do well in terms of height and strength. However, I’m hoping he matches up OK against Paulus – who isn’t fast and doesn’t have a great penetration game. Like I said, looking ahead to next year w/ Javy – I hope I see a kid who has put on 10-15 lbs of muscle and whose done a lot of lower body work to increase his strength. His main limitations these last 2 games have been his size and strength. The kid has tons of heart though and I think we’re beginning to see why he was offered the scholarship.

  16. Dr. BadgerPack 01/27/2008 at 10:46 AM #

    Redfred, Would it make things seem more normal if we gave Gavin half a turnover on the brutally botched break? (Gee, unlike some announcers, I know how to use alliteration!)

  17. transylvania 01/27/2008 at 11:02 AM #

    It almost goes without saying that we are still struggling with chemistry issues after losing Degand. Not that he was the second coming of Lowe, but our unit definitely had a sense of “flow” with him in the game. We were just absolutely painful to watch on offense yesterday: Gonzalez trying to run the offense from 35 feet out, Hickson repeatedly standing out by the three-point arc, no apparent effort by the guards to kick the ball inside to JJ or BMac…it just brought back too many memories of the previous regime.

    We were lucky yesterday. I’ll take an ACC road win — even an ugly one — any day of the week, but it would be nice to see us begin to develop some sense of offensive rhythm under Gonzalez and Johnson. I believe that Lowe is doing tolerably well given the hand he’s been dealt, but I’m hopeful as the season progresses that we can do better than just scraping by against the ACC bottom-feeders.

  18. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 01/27/2008 at 12:41 PM #

    “Well ASU lost by 1 point, 56-55, in a good effort. Believe it or not I wasn’t pulling against them, but that that was really hard to watch on the espn scoreboard. I was slamming on the refresh key and I kept thinking my computer had locked up.”

    ASU fans will have to get used to a lot of games like that. Not to mention starting off the season looking good against cupcakes only to finish in the middle of the pack. Of course all things considered that isn’t to bad for ASU and probably more than meets their expectations.

  19. TTandB74 01/27/2008 at 1:14 PM #

    I have no problem with Javy’s pass to Grant. Gavin will know to look for it next time.
    It reminds me of LeBron James’ first NBA game, and how I figured the hype was right on James. It wasn’t just the 25 pts, 8 rebounds and 7 assists (or something like that; I forget the exact stats and am too lazy to look them up). But James had a steal and a fast break dunk all to himself. This would have been his signature Sportscenter dunk, replayed ad infinitum.
    Instead, he tossed it back to Ricky Davis for a jam. James was happy to make his teammates look good, rather than showboating.

  20. travelwolf 01/27/2008 at 2:20 PM #

    RE: Grant’s fumbled pass – i looked to me as if Javi passed it to Grant’s knees. I’d give the TO to Javi and not Grant.

  21. packpigskinfan23 01/27/2008 at 3:05 PM #

    looked in his hands to me… but thats a moot point now.

    the supposed not so good Miami team we beat is about to beat Clemson. of course that could just be part of Clemson’s annual meltdown.

  22. jo2g5 01/27/2008 at 3:25 PM #

    On a football note, NCSU picked up CJ Wilson and Thomas Locust this weekend. Nice pick ups!

  23. JeremyH 01/27/2008 at 3:54 PM #

    Cedric Simmons was recently called back up from D-League, but I see him in plain clothes behind the Cavaliers bench, hmm. The one time I saw him play for Cleveland he looked disjointed, and didn’t do much in his limited minutes. Best of luck?

    Anyone see that Cnnsi piece that included JJ Redick, he is complaining on a blog about his minutes being cut, and that he doesn’t matter what is performance in. JJ– we wish you a long, long career in Europe along with your buddy, the Alaskan assassin!

  24. EverettBeez 01/27/2008 at 3:58 PM #

    Nice to get the ugly win, as opposed to dealing with a near-miss lose like the last game. And just call me Carnac The Magnificent, as I predicted we’d pull it out in the last 10 seconds.

    Now for dook – which I hope is on national tv.

  25. Astral Rain 01/27/2008 at 5:33 PM #

    I have a feeling when Javi is a senior- he may not be starting, but he’ll be playing, contributing, and be loved. Kid has a ton of heart. Who knows, maybe he’ll be our little scrapper type like that Causey kid.

    We need to have Javi work out with Hodge over the summer and Have Hodge teach him every dirty trick he knows as well.

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