Game Thread: State Opens Against New Orleans In Hoops

Here’s a free audio link of the UNO play-by-play, and the game is on Pack Pass as well.

FINAL SCORE: NCSU 65 New Orleans 59

Note: be sure to scroll to the bottom to see ESPN’s scoreboard.  HT: MillerHighLife on PackPride.

0:14.1 64-59 Gonzalez to the line for two.  First shot: good.  Second shot: no good.

0:29.3 Costner — First shot: good.  63-57.  Second shot: good 64-57

0:29.3 left, 62-57 State to the line for two.  These could ice it.  TO UNO

0:44 62-57

1:10 60-55, State ball.  McCauley fouled on the shot. First shot, swish. Second shot, good.  62-55 60 ticks left.

1:46 State ball, State timeout, 60-55.

2:07 McCauley to the line, makes the first, then misses the second, but State keeps the ball.  60 – 55.

2:26 State 59 – UNO 55.

3:02 59 – 53 State, UNO ball after a turnover.

4:00 57 – 51 Pack.

7:57 Still 48-40 State.  State’s D is forcing UNO to take contested shots and the Pack is still outrebounding the Privateers.  The UNO network is really griping about the refereeing, but that seems to be the way it is on every radio network.  At least their play by play guy tells the score and time, something Gary Hahn ought to learn how to do.

9:16 State 48 – UNO 40 – State takes a :30 TO, UNO to line for 1 and 1.

10:22 State 48 – UNO 38

PACK IS IN THE BONUS the rest of the way.

11:49 NCSU 44 – UNO 38 — State is letting these guys hang around, but UNO has five team fouls and isn’t hitting everything they see anymore.

15:49 NCSU 35- UNO 33 — UNO is coming back to Earth a little, but NCSU is missing their share.

18:30 NCSU 33 – UNO 31

Fells is having a crappy game, IMO.  19:30 he’s called for palming after State has a chance to take the lead.  Then Trevor Ferguson backs it up with a foul.

HALFTIME NCSU 31- UNO 31

1:14 UNO 31 – NCSU 29

State is 9-23 and Costner has 13.

It’s wierd hearing the game being played on Corchiani Court, and UNO’s announcers are talking about it being a “special night.”

2:30 UNO 29 – NCSU 26

5:00 UNO 22 NCSU 20

7:28 UNO 19 NCSU 15

12:55 first half: UNO 9 – NC State 5 in a sloppy game where UNO is getting all the breaks…so far.

Miller High Life posted this on Pack Pride:

espnsuckszl4.jpg

Gotta love ESPN.

08-09 Basketball Alums

135 Responses to Game Thread: State Opens Against New Orleans In Hoops

  1. highstick 11/15/2008 at 10:48 PM #

    Two wins by State in the same day? Don’t know if I can handle all this prosperity!

    Maybe the stock market will go up 4,000 points next week!

  2. inhoc... 11/15/2008 at 10:56 PM #

    wtf ESPN, despite the GREAT football win, i was still going to go to bed with a bad taste in my mouth….

  3. newt 11/15/2008 at 10:58 PM #

    Costner and Smith had good games.

    Smith had 4 rebounds in 9 mins. McCauley had 4 rebounds in 30 mins.

    http://www.gopack.com/ViewContent.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9200&CONTENT_ID=3448

  4. rockpile 11/15/2008 at 11:04 PM #

    does anyone think that ben mcCauley,brandon costner, and courtney fells are well-rounded acc bball players? i love em but i believe they lack each in some way. this isnt chucky, gugs, howard or gannon. ben doesnt defend or rebound well enough, brandon is hit or miss, and we cant decide when to count on fells! we won tonite but i wanna see lowe coach his recruits as opposed to someone elses.(t.smith,r howell, s.wood, lo brown,cj leslie).

  5. inhoc... 11/15/2008 at 11:06 PM #

    “uptempo” should probably hang a few more points than 65……

  6. coppertop 11/16/2008 at 12:20 AM #

    MY wife and I just got back from the game, and before I forget, I thought I’d share some thoughts from watching the game and reading the in game blogging.

    The court has a nice “Corchiani Court” similar to the Coach K at Cameron indoor. It’s nice and Chris was in attendance, wearing a nice Black suit with of course, a wolfpack red handkerchief in his pocket.
    I wonder if we could convince CVS drug stores to sponsor our court that way we could clam that it stands for Case, Valvano and Sloan COURT!!

    CJ Leslie looked great in the minutes he played, and I don’t think anyone else on the team seemed to mind that he got the starting nod.
    While it was the first game it did seem that any personal issues were lost in the off season. Did not see anyone quitting or not playing their best.
    Degand hopefully is not hurt too badly as he looked like he had not missed a beat and ran the offense extremely well.
    Brandon Costner 08′ appears to be the Costner of 2 years ago, not last year. He was moving well without the ball, and seemed to be at least 20 #s slimmer.
    Smith and Mays came on the court together after about 5 minutes int he first half, and was what I thought the only bright spot with all the starters on the bench.
    While I remain optimistic, after watching this game I think it is going to be a long season. There were certainly some bright spots but I thought we struggled too much against an inferior opponent. As someone sitting near me said, (also a state fan) “Our 11th and 12th man should be better than their starters,” which was certainly not the case tonight.
    It was UNO’s homecoming, which was due to the fact that they had not played in their arena since Katrina. I suppose it was special for them, but attendance was pretty poor. Perhaps that is normal for them but other schools in their conference do not have that issue. Not a lot of people there. However, it was a great place to see a game and the opposing fans were glad to have us there.

  7. turfpack 11/16/2008 at 12:48 AM #

    State won two games in one day?

    Di..Di Duh..Duh….WTF???????

    The price of everything NC State just went up-Note from Lee Foulup.

  8. PoppaJohn 11/16/2008 at 4:39 AM #

    Let’s not get all “dewy-eyed”, we barely beat a team that lost its stud from last year and can only get 1000 butts in the seats to christen a new arena.
    But thank heavens we did! Starting the season as “that team that lost more consecutive games than any other” would be a tough emotional burden for a team.

    Looking at the box score – PG = 0/9 from field, 1/3 free throws, 3 TO, 1 steal, 5 assists. What has been said all along still holds true, point guard play will tell the tale of the season. Not sure how early FD went out, but if JG didn’t have the 4 assists, that would really be a weak line for the position.

    Nice to hear BC is looking good. Nice to hear that Sid was really into it and made a difference.
    GO PACK!!!

  9. choppack1 11/16/2008 at 8:24 AM #

    coppertop – CJ Leslie is still in high school.

  10. SaccoV 11/16/2008 at 8:52 AM #

    Just checking out Gopack.com and they have a short piece about the signing of Richard Howell, Scott Wood and Lorenzo Brown. Nice job by Gopack, by the way, who have noted that Richard Howell is “Ranked the No. 18 power ford, No. 59 overall and a four-star prospect by Rivals.com.” Since when did Rivals.com starting rating automobiles? Expanding into new territory?

  11. WolfBrew 11/16/2008 at 9:14 AM #

    I went to the game last night and would have posted but the drive home did me in. Anyway, here are my thoughts fwtw:

    State was a little sluggish defensively in the first half, but picked it up towards the end of it and into the second. That said, our players got burned by first step baseline drives several times. Sometimes there was weakside help, sometimes there wasn’t. Costner, McCauley, even Fells, had notable misses. However, compare it to last year, and it was better.

    Coppertop was referring to CJ Williams. I was a little disappointed in him … he didn’t look to shoot as much but definitely played with energy. He hurt his wrist and asked to be taken out. The trainer checked him, but CJW never returned obviously. Farnold Degand never got out of his warmups after halftime. I hope he is all right. We will need the depth.

    I thought the UNO point guard won the battle with Farnold/Javi/Julius, but State won the war. Javi played with the most poise. Julius was obviously nervous, but hung in there. Still, in an ACC game, Julius will have a tough road to hoe. Javi impressed me with the progress he has made. He had some errors, but I thought played a very solid game. Degand played well, but had his errors too. It is tough to complain after all he’s been through with his knee.

    Ben McCauley and Brandon Costner played pretty well. Ben in particular looked good. It was great to see the big man pick up a turnover and take it to the hole. I would love to see both of them try and drive to the basket more. I think they have the skills, but they look to kickout as the first option imo. BC was a force on the defensive end. He altered or swatted away several shots. He took care of the middle. It helped that the UNO player he guarded was no threat beyond 3 feet, so he could cheat on defense a bit.

    Courney Fells has beautiful highlight plays, and then he dribbles the ball off his foot. Argh. I think the move to small forward will be a big help to him and the team.

    The court was dedicated to Gabe Corchiani – Chris’ brother funded the naming rights. He played at UNO starting in 1987. He looked like the blonde-haired Chris. Very cool to see the dedication and see Chris there too.

    I was bummed out to see Johny Thomas never entered the game. I don’t know if that is due to continued worries with his injury, or if that is the playing rotation. Sidney did sub out the starting 5 just like in the two preseason games.

    The Pack looked nervous and hurried. As the game went on, they relaxed and started to pull away. If even half the balls that rimmed out had gone in, State would have put the game away early. The frustation was obvious on the team. Sidney called timeout and that helped.

    Overall, we were happy to see State pick up their game in the second half. They played better, and as a team. I see hope. Our group was pleased for the first game.

    Sorry for the rambling, but I figured I wasn’t being graded in ENG321.

  12. wufpup76 11/16/2008 at 9:36 AM #

    Thanks for the live recaps, coppertop and WolfBrew …

    Nice to hear that Brandon played pretty well defensively in addition to getting 19 and 7 … Hopefully Farnold will be ok and we’ll get our point guard position sorted out in the High Point game

    About Thomas, I assume he was held out due to the ankle injury suffered in the Ft. Valley State game

    1-0 is a lot better than 0-1 and just about any effort is better than last season

  13. redfred2 11/16/2008 at 10:22 AM #

    I know I was the one who asked for a BB thread, but watching ESPN last night they did mention NC State more than once in what they were calling a “HUGE” upset over #25 WFU, which in reality, I guess it was. I’m not saying that there was a concerted effort involving the ESPN announcers, but it was strange to me that after all of the earlier hype involving Butchy D and his FB team, there was nothing even mentioned about #17 unc losing to the Terps.

  14. redfred2 11/16/2008 at 10:51 AM #

    In my earlier comments up there, I wasn’t asking Sidney to trash the team or anything close to that. But I do believe that when a certain player’s name comes in a public interview, and the coach says something like, “Sure, we’d like to see __________ stepping up their interior presence, and being more of a force on the boards”, then that/those players are put on notice and become fully aware that they are NOT doing what their coaches expect of them. It’s not just the coach anymore, who has been continually yelling the same thing over and over at the same individuals during in a closed practice session. By voicing it in an interview, it then becomes public knowledge, and those players are more likely to devote the necessary time to improving in certain areas when they know the fans are aware, and watching to see if they are following their coach’s orders.

    Beyond that, and this even more trivial than what I just said above, but it also gives the fans the feeling that their Head Coach isn’t going to accept anything that’s halfway or second best as far as effort or striving to continually improve.

  15. SEAT.5.F.2 11/16/2008 at 11:07 AM #

    Maybe NC State Baseball coach Elliot Avent can find us PG like he found a QB for Amato/TOB.

  16. ryebread 11/16/2008 at 11:58 AM #

    We’re 1-0 having won a game on the road. We broke our losing streak. That’s the positive take away.

    Our PGs were outscored 17-1. The UNO PG had 6 assists to 1 turnover while our 3 combined for 6 assists and 4 turnovers. It will be a very, very long year unless our PG play improves drastically.

  17. JeremyH 11/16/2008 at 12:10 PM #

    They can exceed whatever limitations they have by playing team ball, hustling, and listening to the strategist (Lowe). Hopefully all the injuries that were reported are minor. Considering the first game (jitters) and being on the road (jitters++), we’ll take it.

  18. coppertop 11/16/2008 at 12:56 PM #

    ha! yeah, CJ Williams. Perhaps I should have waited to post till after a good nights rest as wolfbrew did!

  19. choppack1 11/16/2008 at 1:08 PM #

    coppertop – if I went to game in the big easy I wouldn’t be able to form a sentence afterwards.

  20. Greywolf 11/16/2008 at 1:13 PM #

    “I wonder if we could convince CVS drug stores to sponsor our court that way we could clam that it stands for Case, Valvano and Sloan COURT!!”

    What a concept!!

    Let’s not make too much out of how we played the first game. Sid’s objectives for this game are not public knowledge but I’m pretty sure impressing the fans and press wasn’t among them.

    The Grey Fox regularly squeaked by lessor teams in the beginning of the season and early rounds of tournaments. The coach gets way more mileage for practice intensity out of this than he does a good showing. (The Grey Fox is Coach Case, in case you whippersnappers were wondering) 😉

  21. WolfBrew 11/16/2008 at 1:29 PM #

    I think Sidney was looking to survive and advance with a win last night! Maybe something he learned from a certain coach in the 80’s. 🙂 It is way more fun building from a win. And there were tangible improvements over last year. The team has a way’s to go, but I have hope – something every Wolfpacker has needed in spades lately.

    Paging Dr Wall and Dr Favors for Help Please.

  22. sholtzma 11/16/2008 at 2:11 PM #

    Don’t be down on Julius for having a “tough road to hoe”. Anyone would find it tough to hoe a road; try it and see. It’s difficult enough to hoe (by hand) a (long) row (of some crop), which is of course where the saying “a long row to hoe” comes from. 🙂

    Having worked in the cornfields of NC State’s experimental research stations for Dr. Moll, I can speak from personal experience. It is also tough to thin a row, by the way….

    Thanks for your analysis. Carry on.

  23. Ismael 11/16/2008 at 3:08 PM #

    If i’m reading the play-by-play right (didn’t get to see the game), they were up on us 11-5, 13-7, 17-10 and 19-12. Where am i going with this? First game nerves, getting their feet under them etc.

    We won 65-59.

    Their largest margin was 7 (19-12) with 8:05 left to go in the game. This means we scored 53 points for the last 28min of the game, and gave up 40 over the last 28.

    I guess what I’m trying to say is that once we got the ship righted, we had a little bit of a hole to climb out of, but we actually played pretty good it seems when you analyze it like that. Just trying to find a silver-lining and chalk this up to first-game nerves.

    btw, the official announced crowd was 1300+

  24. travelwolf 11/16/2008 at 3:41 PM #

    without a doubt, TOB is a very good coach. his teams are showing clear improvement through the season.

    on the other hand, Lowe in his 2nd season has not shown improvement. not a good sign… but, i’m giving Lowe one more year. his 3rd season isn’t starting much better – winning over NO by a small margin isn’t a good sign. i’m hoping for the best eventhough my gut instinct tells me that it’s going to be a long bball season.

  25. Afterglow 11/16/2008 at 4:08 PM #

    I think we’re going to see this type of play a lot at the start with the New Orleans, High Point’s and other cupcakes. Lowe is just playing with line ups right now giving people experience while he can. Consistency right now isn’t as important as experience for everyone at this point. I also think this serves as insurance given those unforeseen injuries that may occur down the road.

    I will become a little more concerned if our play doesn’t improve once the ACC kicks into gear but for right now I do believe that Lowe just is using these game time situations to see what he has.

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