NC State 79 Miami 77 (OT); X-Man Gavin Saves The Day

What is it with NC State vs Miami games? Two sports. Two overtimes. Two Wolfpack victories!

Before NC State stepped on the court tonight the Wolfpack’s triumvirate of early season Big East victims were generating some major progress for our future NCAA Tournament resume as Villanova won at Syracuse, Seton Hall defeated Louisville and Cincinnati upset Top 20 ranked Pittsburgh. (Did anyone mention that Carolina was knocked from their perch by Maryland?).

State started today at #50 in the RPI and climbed a few spots before tonight’s game in the RBC Center even tipped. By the end of the evening the Wolfpack sits at #36 in the RPI having played the 44th toughest schedule in America and having won five games against Top 100 opponents.

The Charlotte Observer is going to really hate this one. After a couple of weeks of odd coverage and inexplicable comments from a sophomoric staff they aren’t going to know what to do after such a character-filled win by the Wolfpack.

Now some important points to make about tonight —

* Let me make one point very clear — Coach Lowe’s offensive genius was responsible for the JJ Hickson tip to tie with just seconds to go in overtime. If you go back and watch the play, you will see that it was designed for Gavin Grant to take that lane to the hole and Hickson to circle through behind Grant in case of a miss. Grant got hacked without getting a call from the official and Hickson timed his roll through the lane perfectly. How ironic that State wins the game because of two things that we do so poorly – rebound and create turnovers.

* How awesome is Gavin Grant? How much are we going to miss him next year?

* It was a classic, old-school day in ACC Basketball as kids all through the state and the region were stuck inside due to bad weather and had the opportunity to watch back to back to back to back ACC games that they will remember for a LONG TIME. Today was vintage.

* From the first possession tonight we saw a totally different Wolfpack team on offense. This team played with energy and was sharp and crisp while playing with focus. Speaking of focus…when Courtney Fells is focused he is an excellent college basketball player. With Grant’s departure at the end of this season I hope Fells can continue to step up to carry the load as our primary player on the wing.

* What I am about to say is actually pretty sad, but unfortunately true — I think tonight’s win over Miami may have represented the most exciting win in ESA/RBC Center history. Last year’s win over Carolina clearly ranks as the “best” win by nature of their national ranking, the style & excitement in which the game was played and the fact that it was Carolina. But, tonight’s win at the buzzer bests anything else that I can remember in the RBC. Others that immediately come to mind would be Justin Gainey’s shot to beat Maryland and the ESA’s opening night against Georgia.

* Who is responsible for teaching the NC State big men how to play defense and block out to rebound. And, what is the problem? As much as Jack “Tookie Williams” McClinton hurt State in the second half, the only reason Miami was even in the game was their ability to score at will from the low post on and on offensive rebounding. The reason the Hurricanes were able to get the ball inside is because our big men don’t play defense. Standing behind the offensive player on the block so that his receipt of the ball is a given is NOT defense. Tracy Smith seems to be the only NC State post player who understands how to front a man down low. After Miami’s bigs were the willing recipients of easy entry passes, they then were able to score easily because we continue to choose not to double down on the ball in the post. It is a recipe for disaster.

* Coach Lowe seems to have settled into his rotational preference for substitutions and Tracy Smith’s hard work on defense is earning him some of Brandon Costner’s time.

* Javi Gonazlez is showing the shooting stroke to which the coaches were originally attracted and have been swearing that he possessed. If he can step up and nail a couple of threes a game then State’s offense suddenly opens up more and can become much more effective.

* Marques Johnson cannot shoot. He knows that he cannot shoot and therefore he doesn’t shoot. He does a lot of things well to have only played in a handful of college games, but he has no confidence in his shot and he is a liability if the opposing team plays zone against us.

* Both point guards have GOT to step in about 5 to 7 feet to run the offense. Our offense continues to start WAY too far away from the basket.

* Miami’s football team may be working hard for a better image, but their basketball program sure feels ‘rough’.

* I was initially fearful when I saw friggin Jason Capel was going to be announcing this game, but Capel (and Steve Martin) actually did a fine job of announcing until they stumbled through the ‘Anthony King foul’ at the end of overtime.

* Did you notice that, despite playing great offense in the first half that Brandon Costner was nowhere to be seen in most of the second half and overtime? Something is going on there. I watched Costner a lot tonight and despite his offensive proficiency he was caught flat footed on rebounds and defense. I don’t know if it was lazy or if his mind is somewhere else. We can only speculate that Tracy Smith and Ben McCauley‘s willingness to do both elevated them to Costner’s time tonight. Additionally, I think Miami’s athleticism was a little much for him.

* Speaking of Big Ben McCauley, how about a shout out for his guts while playing injured tonight. Do not underestimate McCauley’s impact on our defensive rebounding late the game.

* Coach Lowe is now 1-1 against Miami avenging last year’s egg that was laid in Coral Gables late in the season.

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07-08 Basketball

119 Responses to NC State 79 Miami 77 (OT); X-Man Gavin Saves The Day

  1. StateFans 01/20/2008 at 11:23 AM #

    ^ Exactly

  2. choppack1 01/20/2008 at 11:25 AM #

    “That McClinton kid was on fire in the second half.”

    Until Gavin Grant was switched on him and effectivley locked him down for the OT period.

  3. redfred2 01/20/2008 at 11:36 AM #

    “but for GG’s don’t-give-up attitude…”

    He may have made some silly plays in the past, which I think he’d the first to readily admit, just like he did about the “turnovers being his job” comment. But that positive attitude has been there all along. I believe that positive attitude also affected his past teammates much more than most people ever gave Grant credit for.

    Ups and downs, but I’ve been GG’s bandwagon from day one.

  4. GAWolf 01/20/2008 at 11:54 AM #

    As Beowolf pointed out… we’re right where every single one of us would have probably put us at this point. We lost on the road (something that happens regularly in the ACC) to two decent teams. We SHOULD win and OT game against Miami at home…. even when Miami might have their best team in some time OR might be ranked.

    So, yes. We should beat the Number 21 Miami team at home when we’re not ranked. I absofreakinglutely stand by that statement. The win just doens’t make me warm and giddy inside, nor does it change for me what happened in the Carolina and Clemson games where we flat out quit. I can handle us losing, afterall I’m a lifelong Pack fan and I’m quite used to it. It’s going to take more than beating an ok Miami team at home for me to forgive two (2) games where we embarrassed our University as a whole by quitting before halftime.

  5. GAWolf 01/20/2008 at 11:58 AM #

    Further, I’d be lying if I said this win doesn’t give me some hope that there is some chance our guys can still make it a decent season. However, I’m not going out and buying first round NCAA tickets and booking hotel rooms because we beat Miami at home and some teams we beat earlier in the year won some games this weekend. The horrors of the Clemson and Carolina games should not this easily be forgotten… not necessarily to lay blame at the feet of any of players but rather to temper our ridiculously up and down expectations as fans. Keep your wits about you my friends. I’ll say it again: We beat Miami… at home.

  6. packman12 01/20/2008 at 12:15 PM #

    Certainly a nice win. However, Miami was picked last in the ACC pre-season poll by the media. We were actually favored by the odds makers to win yesterday.

  7. Trip 01/20/2008 at 12:20 PM #

    What’s great about this season is that we have a chance to not only get our revenge against Carolina at home, but the ACC decided this was our year to have Clemson twice so we can also make up for that other game. I don’t think we’ll get full revenge from those games winning against other ACC teams until we take it to Clemson/Carolina at home. After tonight, I think we can do it if we continue to play hard and improve.

    Anyway, the game was excellent, I was watching it at the Ale house and we threw up the Bronx “X” in all of our whiteness when Gavin made the game winning drive. Man, I love that guy.

    One thing that was slightly disappointing was Hickson in the end game situations, I believe he turned it over twice or maybe three times near the end of the game on possessions that could have saved us from making thrilling end of overtime regulation and saved myself from later-on-in-life heart surgery. Freshman mistakes, yes, but damn I was glad he got that tip in on Gavin’s miss.

    Javi will get his time as long as he’s hitting his 3’s and doesn’t look scared. Probably helps when you’re going up against a juco transfer though instead of Lawson. Still think MJ is better overall if you take away his iffy jumper. I think until he gains confidence in his shot or changes form that he should stick to 2-point land like Lawson did last year.

  8. StateFans 01/20/2008 at 12:21 PM #

    ^ I actually saw quite a few projections that showed Miami more in the #6 to #9 range than being last where VPI and BC were consensusly picked. The ‘experts’ that predicted Miami to be so bad forgot that Anthony King go hurt last year (making them much worse than they would have been) and didn’t factor that he would get an extra year of eligibility.

  9. burnbarn 01/20/2008 at 12:54 PM #

    I agree our post defense is poor. However SFN, I will take exception of this bit “they then were able to score easily because we continue to choose not to double down on the ball in the post”

    Isn’t this why we were losing at Klempson? B/C we were doubling down when we shouldn’t and leaving shooter open? McClinton was a bigger threat to us than their post players.

    Javi did play well and he really surprised me. He can shoot and Johnson clearly cannot. Th U is not known for their ball pressure defense and I think that helped.

    We played with great intensity for the first 15 minutes but when it became obvious we were having fun our quality of play eroded fro the remainder of the game save the last 2 minutes.

    I wish Fells could have knocked down that 3 to win in regulation.

    I will say this game showed progress on many fronts, but we still have a long ways to go. I will enjoy this win!!

  10. Greywolf 01/20/2008 at 12:56 PM #

    I was bussing and waiting tables at the old College Inn restaurant when Coach Case was at State. Sold cokes in Reynolds when it was simply, The Coliseum. Played pick-up games with State players in Frank Thompsom gym in the off season. Coach Case never gave a hoot about how much he beat lessor teams. BTW he was never called out for failing to win every game by 30 points back in the days when he had a huge talent advantage over nearly every team he played. Play well enough to win. Don’t go to the emotional well unless necessary and do go too often. My near time memory sucks but those days are like yesterday to me.

    Coach Lowe coaches like Coach Case. Coach Case would have never “publicly challenged” his players. I know from personal experience that Coach Case was a genuinely kind and caring man. (That experience is irrelevant but I will cite it at the end of this for my own personal enjoyment. SFN delete it if you wish.) Whatever Coach Case did to discipline a player was done in private – not unlike quality managers in business do even today.

    Coach Lowe is developing his point guards as he sees best for them and I seriously doubt that he checks message boards for advice on how to do this. We are seeing what a quality coach does to develope a team to win champianships, not achieve high ratings in internet driven rating systems. We will see the Pack run when it is in the best interest of the Pack to run, not when the fans want to see them run. We will see point guards driving and dishing when success is likely to happen, not because UNX does it.

    Not a single NCSU player will be thrown under the bus. We don’t know what’s happened to Costner that is affecting his play — what injury, what inability to train himself into shape, nothing. Then Carolina Canes and Panthers list injuries because they are required to by league rules to list them. These injury reports do as little as possible to help the opponents — lower body injury, sick, etc. Information about Costner’s health would be exploited by Division I level coaches. Shame on Coach Lowe if he reveals a single tidbit before the info is totally useless.

    I would have been shocked to see Coach Lowe pull out all the stops to win a game he has little chance to win at this stage of the season. Why? Because if there is something that could have been done, his players will know it and not create a psychological barrier to winning when it counts. Strategy used now that could win a early season game, will not be available at tournament time. Coaches like G. & R. Williams & Coach K will devise stops for that strategy.

    Coach Lowe knows his players. Gonzales is doing exactly what his coach has instructed him to do. Coach Lowe is not pulling carrots out of the ground to see how they are developing. Coaches Lowe and Towe likely know what it takes to develop point guards. I sure don’t.

    Last year’s style of play was best suited for who we had last year. Lowe did not say, Oh well, let’s get ready for next year and play a style that we are not suited for but will prepare us for 07-08.

    This team may not produce the results we all expected or hoped for but speculate that these players will be ready to play come tournament time and will have enough wins to qualify for the big dance and will go far deeper than anyone could imagine before last night.

    The rest of this post is irrelevant and is a re-telling of an experience I had with Coach Case:
    I was working a luncheon — waiting tables — that Coach Case was having with the big spenders of that day. I had the good fortune of being assigned to Coach Case’s private room. At some point one of Case’s guests asked me, “Why aren’t you playing for State?” (I was 6-6 and over 200 lbs) Coach Case without a moment’s hesitation said, “He’ll be out this fall, won’t you, son.” What started out to be an embarrassment, shifted immediately.

    I never heard a negative word from the players I knew, played gin with or partied with at The Profile, a cool bar & restaurant owned by Paul Brandenberg, a former player from Indiana and Jimmy “Greek” Agrimas, a local character. That bar has since relocated to Whitaker Park off Whitaker Mill Road and unless he’s died recently is owned and operated by Greek. Stop by if any of you are in Raleigh and want a taste of the old days. Greek will talk for hours between mealtimes. A lot of players hung out at Norman’s clothing store on Hillsborough Street and played gin in the back at the longest continuous gin rummy game I have ever heard of. The players changed but the game continued. I usually lost and relinquished my seat. I got to go back and see if Uzzle’s Soda Shop is still there next to where Normans was. I could go on but it’s time to watch some football.

  11. ShootingGuard 01/20/2008 at 1:04 PM #

    SFN,

    Thanks for deleting the typical Herb crap that always seems to rear its ugly head and ruin a great blog…

    The only relevance of Herb to Sid is that what was looking like Herb’s year 5 meltdown in year 2 of Sid may (hopefully) transition into Herb year 6 where a crazy tip from Levi Watkins to Marcus Melvin led to a season / career saving 3pointer…The fine line between winning or losing this game was that critical…Hopefully, this game does the same for Sid and the guys as that MM 3pointer did for that old team and coach because going 0-3 in the ACC with a home loss to a beatable opponent would have been a hole I am not sure we climb out of with all of the media, opposing fan, and Herb lover vultures circling around…

    It is amazing how much better our offense looks when we knock down outside shots! Doing so opened up the middle and allowed JJ and Brandon to make some nice interior passes to each other.

    As has been pointed out many times, Fells is really the difference in us being a bad team or a good team. When he is on, we have that special athlete and shooter that separates us from being a mid major. When Brandon is shooting well and we get something / anything from the point guard slot, we can beat a lot of people.

    I wondered about Lowe not using any depth down the stretch and going with that Iron 5. I thought we looked very tired and turned the ball over and missed shots as a result of being tired. I wondered about Brandon not being in when we were down 3 or so and needed a big shot as well as MJ taking over for a hobbled JG. In the end, it was too close for comfort, but Lowe seemed to make the right decisions as we don’t win without Ben’s boards, JJ’s putback, or JG’s 3, and I’m fairly certain Brandon doesn’t get the boards and putbacks nor does MJ knock down a 3.

  12. graywolf 01/20/2008 at 1:17 PM #

    I predicted another loss due to guard play. Glad I was wrong!

  13. geojim1990 01/20/2008 at 1:20 PM #

    After Miami’s bigs were the willing recipients of easy entry passes, they then were able to score easily because we continue to choose not to double down on the ball in the post. It is a recipe for disaster.

    I tend to agree with you but Lowe did attempt to address this in the post-game as being somewhat from design.
    Lowe; “When teams like to shoot the 3s & their parameter players are their best players we don’t like to double-down.”
    If this is the case then that makes SFN’s criticism, about the post-players not blocking out, that much more crucial. I just wanted to point out that it sounds like in certain situations the guards are being told not to collapse in.

    SFN: Great point. And I totally understand and agree. The problem for us primarily lies in not fronting the post and allowing such easy entry passes.

  14. Stoner 01/20/2008 at 1:22 PM #

    Good win, but I hope it doesn’t go to anyone’s head. We could’ve just as easily lost a 10-11 point lead, at some point in the second half.

    We still have some fundamental problems, like rebounding, defense, lack of intensity for a full 40 minutes, etc. and we were smokin’ hot from three point land, going 11-16 for the game. I don’t expect any team to hit 2/3’s of their three’s on a regular basis.

    This is a much needed win, but it’s not the sort of win that should put anyone’s mind at ease about this team “turning the corner” and being more competitive in the ACC.

    We are still in for an adventure this season, from the good game winning plays to the ugly breakdowns in fundamentals better teams will exploit to our disadvantage.

  15. turnoffthetv 01/20/2008 at 1:32 PM #

    There’s just certain games that just grab your emotions and in an instant your eyes seem to flood with tears of joy. And you want to cry like a baby. The end of that game last night will certainly go down as one of the those. The last time I can remember that feeling was back in 2005 when Hodge made that shot against UConn. Instant tears! I wish I could get that feeling more often instead of feelings of anger and disappointment. gopack.

  16. wolfonthehill 01/20/2008 at 2:20 PM #

    Potentially a season-changing game.

    Brandon & JJ appeared to be working together and having fun, which is HUGE, and the absence of which had been a major problem up till now.

    I now anxiously await the next game, to see if this was an aberration or a trend.

  17. bTHEredterror 01/20/2008 at 2:24 PM #

    This win doesn’t erase last week. This is looking like a wild year in the league, with blowouts the first weekened and upsets the second. We aren’t out of the woods by any stretch, but I think our team found some things to build on.

    But it is a sign that we can beat some teams, and the spirit the guys played with was encouraging. They had every chance to quit again, and they didn’t. Javi was fearless, and our fans were great, I didn’t hear the reported boos in my section.

    This could be a rewarding year for our team, and for us as fans. As bad as it looked last week, the guys got together and showed up. We have winnable games against GT at home and FSU on the road before we play Duke. If they can win two and avoid a blowout in Dirham, I’ll feel we have a chance for a good season. I said before, if we come out of January at 3-3 or better we can be a tournament team.

  18. WolftownVA81 01/20/2008 at 2:25 PM #

    ^^It doesn’t put my mind at ease, but it does show this team hasn’t quit and has the potential to play hard and win the close ones. In that respect, we may very well have turned a corner. Thanks team for stepping up. I think they all had something to prove and most everyone had a highlight momemnt or at least contributed in a significant way so that it really was a team win. I’m really glad we made the 4.5 hour drive in the snow to see it. I’m feeling much better about the 4 pack set of tickets we bought. If we had seen the same performance as the previous two games, I doubt we would have made the effort to come. Again, thanks Pack.

  19. WolftownVA81 01/20/2008 at 2:27 PM #

    Meant, ….doubt we would make the effort to come back for the last three games of the 4 pack.

  20. benniebolton 01/20/2008 at 2:30 PM #

    game was incredible, first one I’ve been to this year, and couldn’t have picked a better one to attend. We finally played with some heart, great to see and a great win. One thing that I didn’t like to see was the student section chiming in during parts of the national anthem, those who have been to games know what I mean. It’s really disrespectful, makes us look bad IMO. I doubt it’s meant to be disrespectful, but that’s sure the way I took it and those around me too. Just leave the Star Spangled Banner as it is, not something that should be messed with. Sorry about the rant, it just bothered me. But what a game!

  21. PAPacker 01/20/2008 at 3:14 PM #

    Greywolf,

    Thanks so much for the recollections about Coach Case. My dad was an undergrad during the first golden era of State basketball and felt only Valvano, and on his best days, Norm Sloan, held a candle to him. I think Lowe has that kind of character. SFN, if it has not been done here, it would nice if there were some way to highlight the Case era
    (by linking to an article or something) to help younger Pack fans become aware of the stature of the program at that time. The ACC is what it is primarily because of NC State basketball in the Case era. The 25th anniversary ACC Handbook magazine, which came out around 1978, ran a great article that chronicled the history of the league and really got it right. If somebody has that, it would be great to see.

  22. PAPacker 01/20/2008 at 3:14 PM #

    Greywolf,

    Thanks so much for the recollections about Coach Case. My dad was an undergrad during the first golden era of State basketball and felt only Valvano, and on his best days, Norm Sloan, held a candle to him. I think Lowe has that kind of character. SFN, if it has not been done here, it would nice if there were some way to highlight the Case era
    (by linking to an article or something) to help younger Pack fans become aware of the stature of the program at that time. The ACC is what it is primarily because of NC State basketball in the Case era. The 25th anniversary ACC Handbook magazine, which came out around 1978, ran a great article that chronicled the history of the league and really got it right. If somebody has that, it would be great to see.

  23. RAWFS 01/20/2008 at 3:37 PM #

    Read this Making The Case for Case (as the best coach in CBB history

  24. highstick 01/20/2008 at 5:09 PM #

    Greywolf, glad to know there’s someone older than me on here!!!

  25. RAWFS 01/20/2008 at 5:11 PM #

    ^ That’s my first thought…huge. Good offensive football starts with a good offensive line. Make the hole big enough and any running back can get positive yards. Give any QB and his receivers time they’ll get open and make plays.

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