State/Carolina Live Blogging (aka “Documenting the Atrocities”)

I’m out of ideas for positive mojo, but I will grumpily fulfill my liveblogging duties tonight. If Oprah and Dr. Phil have taught us nothing else, it helps to share one’s grief and agony. Over/under on swear words I am forced to type tonight – 10.5. More in an hour or so.

7:18 – So far, so good. We already matched our total from the first half in Chapel Hill! It looks like we will at least keep the margin under 30. But it’s still early…

7:22 – Fucking Fells. Tie game.

7:27 – Hanging in tough so far. Fells is REALLY off with his shot. If that changes, MAYBE we’ll have a chance. Costner is giving better effort.

7:31 – Fucking Fells AGAIN!

7:34 – Grant/Fells alley-oop finally works! Pack by 6.

7:38 – Down to 4, UNC ball. It’s crucial to keep the lead at the half.

7:42 – Grant gets 2nd foul. Think Javi has 2 as well. 3 point game.

Halftime – The last minute was a killer, as I feared. UNC took our best punch, but still came out ahead by 3. Not looking good.

8:10 – Holes by ten. Hansblow killing us single handedly.

8:22 – Keep Tracy Smith in – at least he fucking tries. Now that the outcome is no longer in doubt, look for Fells to start playing well.

8:26 – Fuck you, Mike Patrick.

8:33 – We make a lot of teams look they play good defense, Jay. Smith still very active.

8:37 – Roy starting to rotate the blue team in.

8:38 – Ha! Talking about the NCAAT. We aren’t even money to make the NIT at this point.

8:40 – Can’t we just surrender and let the fans go home? Pretty clear our players have somewhere they’d rather be.

8:46 – Roy really enjoys rubbing our nose in shit. I have to respect that – in a rivalry, that’s as it should be. Damn it. UNC by 18, game mercifully will be over soon.

8:51 – Simon should punch Hansblow in the nuts.

Final Score – UNC 84, NC State 70. Game was not as close as the score would indicate. 5 more games to suffer through, kids. Then, we can choose a team to adopt for the NCAAT.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball NCS Basketball

233 Responses to State/Carolina Live Blogging (aka “Documenting the Atrocities”)

  1. Noah 02/20/2008 at 8:50 PM #

    Marques Johnson…holy god.

  2. Noah 02/20/2008 at 8:51 PM #

    I think Cozell McQueen got his wart cut off and came back as Marques Johnson.

    Final 84-70. At least it wasn’t 100.

  3. redfred2 02/20/2008 at 8:51 PM #

    That’s right, run the offense.

    What a game.

  4. benniebolton 02/20/2008 at 8:51 PM #

    felt like a lot more than 14

  5. chilly water 02/20/2008 at 8:51 PM #

    Lowe has got to GO.

    Serously that is going to be the new catch phrase from here on out.

    “Lowe has got to GO” …..thats pretty good

  6. wolfpack74ms 02/20/2008 at 8:53 PM #

    As bad as I hate Carolina I have to admit. They have a great coach. Oh well! Maybe someday we can hope to get another Valvano. It will have to be an unknown that has great potential because a name coach won’t dare come to NC State.

  7. redfred2 02/20/2008 at 8:58 PM #

    Hate to say it, but Lowe is still learning the job.

    So I think maybe the more appropriate saying might be,

    “Lowe is slow”

  8. basspacker812 02/20/2008 at 9:02 PM #

    A name coach wouldn’t want to come to a school in the ACC conference? You gotta be kidding! An opportunity to go head to head against K, Roy, and Williams at UMD? A school with one of the best facilities in any conference?

    I guess TOB didn’t dare come to NC State, huh?

  9. LRM 02/20/2008 at 9:04 PM #

    TOB doesn’t coach on Tobacco Road. Apples and oranges.

    This train wreck set into motion the minute Rick Barnes said “no.”

    Actually, that’s unfair to the complete mismanagement of this program since 1990.

  10. BackdaPack87 02/20/2008 at 9:04 PM #

    TOB doesn’t have to go up against K, Roy, and Williams at UMD.

  11. highstick 02/20/2008 at 9:05 PM #

    Whatever is the problem has got to stop! Pathetic defense, no leadership, and how can that be when we’ve got two proven “floor leaders” coaching this team? Did they forget something? I really hate to rip Lowe and Towe, but “enough is enough”

  12. wolfpacker420 02/20/2008 at 9:06 PM #

    come on guys we have no point guard!! The pg is the quarterback of both the offense and defense. Plus when the calls don’t go State’s way this team just gives up. Anyone who has watched the ACC for any length of time knows that sometimes you have to beat the guys in stripes as well. That is just how things are with rating driven media outlets that want to prep the Unx Puke match up every year!! Hopefully with Lowe getting only his type of players here will make a change. So far I like the young players he has recruited. Now he HAS to land the right Point Guard in the off season for us to stand a chance next year…. I still have hope go pack!

  13. RAWFS 02/20/2008 at 9:09 PM #

    Javi Gonzalez has improved tremendously. Costner and Fells have not.

    Quit blaming the PG. It goes a lot deeper than that.

  14. McLovin 02/20/2008 at 9:09 PM #

    Player evaluation:

    Gavin Grant – Senior leader… for half the game
    J.J. Hickson – Big head, small numbers
    Courtney Fells – STREAKY AS WILL FERRELL IN OLD SCHOOL
    Brandon Costner – biggest disappointment in the NCAA
    Ben McCauley – only fundamentally sound player IMO (It really hurt me to see HIM quit tonite)
    Javier Gonzalez – hell he’s a freshman. He’ll be very good if he can speed up
    Marques Johnson – There’s a reason he wasn’t playing at TENN
    Trevor Ferguson – Jesus F***ing Christ
    Tracy Smith – I like you. You be Bosley.
    Dennis Horner – Has he even scored this year?
    Simon Harris – $10 says he wins windsprints in practice (or at least finishes up there)

  15. basspacker812 02/20/2008 at 9:11 PM #

    If we can hire TOB for football, we can hire a top notch experienced proven winner at basketball. It is the same apple. There is some BIG name football coaches in ACC football. You think Butch Davis came to Carolina because he liked the weather? Why do you think coaches like Spurrier go to SEC? Because its the best football conference, same as ACC basketball. We can get a Roy Williams at State for lack of a better name.

  16. McLovin 02/20/2008 at 9:17 PM #

    You know when you think about it, we might not be giving Lowe a fair trial. It’s only his second…

    AHH!!!! F**K IT!!! I WANNA WIN NOW.

    You now what’s sad. With 10-15 minutes left in the game, they showed Lowe and he was SITTING DOWN during the game and looking at F***ING NOTECARDS!!!! Our own coach doesn’t even know what to do.

  17. SaccoV 02/20/2008 at 9:21 PM #

    I’m really glad to see Javi play better than he has but he still has much improvement to make. For instance, only TWICE in this game, after he had dribbled past a defender, did Javi go directly toward the basket. As a point guard, you have to make more than one defender commit to you, and Javi just doesn’t do that consistently. If he did, I can’t imagine the possibilities for this team. MJ is worse than Lakista McCuller and Curtis Marshall put together. It’s getting harder to watch this team without apathy.

  18. wolfpackpassion 02/20/2008 at 9:22 PM #

    well, its time to start the herb campaign to bring him back!
    i mean even the n/o predicted the outcome 84-70 and unc held off the horses. Where is the pride? heck the team is 4 game losing streak and 15-11 4-8 and two home game sleft duke flo and wake virigna road at least one acc game seasons over folks just roll up the balls and put them away for 08-09 year.
    we need herb!!!!!
    no not that wendys guy!

  19. highstick 02/20/2008 at 9:26 PM #

    Notecards? Didn’t we quit using those in English 112 in the 70’s?

    Point Guard, leader, whatever, samething. Frankly, Javi is playing much better, but he’s not the major problem. It’s flat out “loafing”. You can’t walk down the court after scoring. By then, a good team will have blown by you, scored, and are on the way back to play defense.

    This is not “rocket science”! Maybe the game has passed me by, but it’s passing by a bunch of lazy players even faster!

    I just hope Hansborough goes pro so Shaq or someone like him can “eat him” next year!

  20. LRM 02/20/2008 at 9:26 PM #

    Bass,
    Were you around in April ’06 when everyone we asked said no to us?

  21. wolfpacker420 02/20/2008 at 9:32 PM #

    put down the sauce. Herb was not the answer and he will show his true colors in ASU mark my words. Lowe is dealing with a lack of athletic talent that his offense requires. Now he only finished 5-11 last year with Herb’s boys and it looks like we are on the same path again with majority of Herb’s boys. So let’s clear our heads for a minute and look at the big picture. State will win again when all the pieces are in place!!

  22. redfred2 02/20/2008 at 9:34 PM #

    bass, This is NC State of today, not the NC State of old, and definitely not the 2 time nat’l champion NC State. This is the new comuter school with big buildings, a campus sprawled out all over the place, and very, very, tiny minds controlling it’s every move.

    I’m sure no one in any of the decision making departments up there in Raleigh are half as worried about the actual ballgames, as they are which building to have their next fund raiser in.

    As a matter of fact, at the half during the Clemson game, the celebration for signing Wolfpack Club members lasted just about as long as the gala 25th of celebration of the 1983 Championship team.

  23. wolfpackpassion 02/20/2008 at 9:44 PM #

    hey when will we win our next game?
    fall 2008 or early 2009 in basketball,
    fire lowe now and replace him with tom’obrien at least they play defense loll
    crap how do we look for baseball?

  24. Ismael 02/20/2008 at 10:06 PM #

    You guys aren’t even talking about all the prayers that were thrown up by the ‘Holes tonight that went in…i will give it to State, they played hard defense on some occassions and Ellington would bury it or what was that crap someone threw up and it just went it…that kills you. Hickson sat for not boxing out MFHandjob and the last 5 minutes of that game he played harder than he has all year. Tracy Smith was amazing. Javy played great. But if you go back and watch this game again, Carolina put their run together when one of our players, i think it was Fells, made a lazy-ass pass cross court and there were about 6 of those tonight that turned into fastbreak points. But that first lazy-cross court pass that was stolen…i said to myself (matter of factly), that’s it. There’s the old demon, like an alcoholic wine-o. And then after that what do you see, 1-1 basketball for 5-10 minutes, no defense, playground ball, and that’s the game. Then the last 5 minutes they play hard defense, actually make the score semi-respectable, its amazing, but that’s what happened. It’s not just physically quitting, its mentally quiting.

  25. Greywolf 02/20/2008 at 10:14 PM #

    I’m trying to think of why Roy Williams, Gary Williams, Mike K, Billy Donovan, Rick Rarnes, Tom Izzo, John Thompson II or III, Rick Patino, etc., etc., would want to come to NCSU to coach. Why would numerous other highly regarded coaches take a pay cut to come to NCSU and be expected to be even with the Williamses, Coach K, in 1.5 to 3 years?

    What about Derek Whittenburg? Since facilities don’t matter, why isn’t his team in the top 10? Hey! We won a national championship 34 & 25 years ago. Isn’t that enough to get Billy Donavan to come up here for a chance to coach against Ole Roy and Mike? Well actually he gets a chance every year in the NCAAs IF ole Roy and Mike can make it to the Final Four.

    It took Coach K how long, to have a decent team? What about Ole Roy? He did it in a lot less than the 2 or 3 years we’re willing to give Coach Lowe. I think he had a about 10 very good players to work with. We give a coach 1.5 years or even up to 3 years to be a top 5 basketball team. What coach in his right mind would put his career in jeopardy coming to coach at a school whose self-described fan base, wants, no EXPECTS, nearly instant results.

    One of the laws of change is: Things will get a lot worse before they get better. We can keep providing bulletin board material for every school that IS ALSO in the market for that miracle worker coach, or we can grit our teeth, swallow hard, and give Coach Lowe 3 years to learn on the job and another 2 to put the learning in by practice and game experience.

    I laugh at all the Hall of Fame coaches on this list who want to know ‘What the hell was Sid thinking? He can’t coach at this level. (The very BIG) I, would be doing so and so, which proves Sid doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.’ For all we know Sid knows exactly what he is doing.

    If anybody mistakes any of this as saying I’m satisfied with the way we are playing, that’s just not so. What I am saying is ludicrous expectations are OUR problems and we need to be men enough to live with the results.

    Sorry if I pissed anybody off. If I have, let’s just say we’re even.

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