Curry 32-Footer Sinks Pack

WRAL Sports: Curry Drops 44 Points, Davidson 72 – NC State 67

Overall, I was really pleased with State’s performance and Sid’s gameplan. Without Curry’s prayer, State would have had the ball at the end shooting for the win (with OT as worst-case scenario). The effort was there, and the defense was much better. Until the last 8 minutes, the rebounding was solid (thus my only critique – would have liked to see more of Tracy Smith in the second half). Other thoughts:

– If Johnny Thomas was healthy, I’d like to see Courtney Fells thrown off the team. Kudos to Sid for benching him for most of the second half, even with 11 seconds left and State down three. What a waste. He should watch Trevor Ferguson out there busting his ass and hang his head in shame. NOTE: Radio guys are claiming Fells hurt his shoulder during the game. If that were true, it still doesn’t explain how he started the game in a fog. I also never saw him getting treatment (on the bench or going to locker room). Sorry, don’t buy it.

– The chip is back on Costner’s shoulder, and I mean that in a good way.

– CJ Williams is much better than I expected. Ladies and gentleman, meet your “glue guy.”

– NC State can be a middle-of-the-pack ACC team. If we had just one healthy PG that didn’t suck out loud, we could contend for an NCAA berth.

– I don’t think Farnold Degand is ever going to be right again. And without his lateral quickness, he can’t contribute at all. Very sad.

– Davidson sure has some douchebag fans, chanting for the asshole who got ejected after almost decapitating Trevor.

– I went a little nuys yelling at the TV at the end. Mike Gminski is such a dumbass, noting “The Davidson people don’t consider this an upset!” Well, no shit, Sherlock. Davidson made the Elite Eight last year, and return the best player in college basketball. NC State finished dead last in the ACC, and lost it’s best player. The game is played in Charlotte. Only a complete fucking moron would have considered it anything other than a huge upset if NC State had won the game!

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.

08-09 Basketball

173 Responses to Curry 32-Footer Sinks Pack

  1. SMD 12/06/2008 at 4:11 PM #

    My beef is this – the problem may not be as bad as it was last year – but it is still virtually the same; save for a couple of stretches in the first half this team doesn’t play crisp, sharp basketball.

    Every offensive possession is an adventure. True scoring plays that work seem rare, it’s more like – “let’s go down and see what we can pull out of our ass.”

    Perhaps that is a product of not having any backcourt production (as many other posters have said…) but to a certain degree it also falls on coaching.

    I don’t know where that great run in 06 came from, but we haven’t seen anything close to that from Sidney since. Odds are, he can’t get it done.

  2. Wulfpack 12/06/2008 at 4:16 PM #

    To me, the key problems with this program boils down to a frontcourt with no fire, a backcourt (after THREE years) with little skill or talent, and a coach who is still learning on the job.

    I thought Sid would bring some much needed fire to the program. So far, I haven’t seen it on a consistent enough basis for me to believe we are headed in a positive direction.

    Say whatever the hell you want about Duke and UNC, and how they have all of these advantages, media bias, officiating bias, etc…but dammit, when I watch those guys play, every one of them, players 1-10, they give all out hustle on the floor and know that if they slack off even one play there is someone else coming in to take their spot that game. And they KNOW they are going to hear it from their coach. We are not competing or coaching at a very high level and that spells disaster when you compete in the ACC.

  3. wufpup76 12/06/2008 at 4:16 PM #

    Michigan is doing pretty well against Duke right now in a rematch from the other week …

    I wonder if Alabama will score today? (j/k … this should be interesting)

  4. Gene 12/06/2008 at 4:19 PM #

    The ’06 run came from a veteran, quality, guard – Atsur – running the show.

    I remember hearing an Oliver Purnel quip, when asked about how Clemson can improve their free throw shooting? He replied, recruit good free throw shooters.

    Maybe we just need to recruit some good rebounding big men. Hope T. Smith gets more minutes, because he has a knack for scoring and rebounding near the basket.

  5. LRM 12/06/2008 at 4:21 PM #

    I absolutely agree that we hired a coach that wasn’t ready for the job. Unfortunately, the ACC — more particularly, Tobacco Road — doesn’t suffer a forgiving learning curve for on-the-job training.

    Maybe it’s the coaching, maybe it’s the system, or maybe it’s just the players, I really don’t know. But I’m tired of being uninspired by Sid’s teams. In the scheme of the season, this game probably won’t mean anything, but based on what I saw today, coupled with what I’ve seen over the past two seasons, my concern is that today is simply a microcosm of how this season will unfold.

  6. john of sparta 12/06/2008 at 4:22 PM #

    in the Year of Three:
    three ACC wins?
    which games?

  7. BJD95 12/06/2008 at 4:40 PM #

    Guys, you are overreacting. The following teams have looked worse than us so far:

    BC, UVA, GT.

    These teams look to be ballpark equivalent to us so far:

    MD, VT, FSU, Miami.

    Absolutely no reason to panic.

  8. OwenDorm83 12/06/2008 at 4:44 PM #

    Fells WAS hurt today. I did see him got to the locker room and get wrapped up with an ice pack on his left shoulder. This was just after his dunk in the first half. He got back into the game, but not much. He had the ball bounce off his leg in 2nd, then never got back into the game.

  9. LRM 12/06/2008 at 4:46 PM #

    If today was an isolated incident, I would agree. But it wasn’t.

  10. Wulfpack 12/06/2008 at 4:56 PM #

    I completely agree that we are not the worst team in the ACC. We will win our share of games. MD has been horrible. Virginia even worse and VT is just not good (we own them anyways). BC has not impressed me one bit, though Rice can get hot Curry-like. Miami is better than us. I haven’t seen much of GT and FSU but they always have althletes and will battle hard. Obviously, UNC, Duke, WFU and Clemson are the top tier. Our season will be judged by how we do against the middle of the road to lower tier teams. IF we can win 6-8 amd get one in the tourney then you are in the conversation. I think we can.

    My point from this game, and why I am disappointed with today’s showing, is we really needed a “W” against a team that we should have been able to beat. They have one GREAT player and then it really falls off where we have the advantage at every position, except coaching. Our schedule is weak and we will be a bubble team, but you’ve got to have some good non-conference wins to get in if you are an average team.

    I know there is a certain contingent out there saying that we finished last and don’t have the players, etc. Ok. Fine. But we did not finish last by a wide margin (in fact tied for last), there were many close ones we could have won. What I am saying is we need to turn it around and turn it around now with better fundamental play. We most certainly can compete in the ACC and do fine, but we’ve got to start playing as a team and doing the little things that good teams do more consistently. And we did not do that today.

  11. wufpaxno1 12/06/2008 at 5:05 PM #

    You can talk about defense and rebounding all you want, those things are irrelevant if you can’t score. If State shot 20% in the second half I would be surprised. Shot selection was horrendous and the shots we took we missed. Still, we found ourselves up three with 4 minutes left and a chance to put it away, but we could not even buy a vowel if Vanna White had been on the court dishing them out. Bottom line, hit your shots and you don’t have to worry about rebounding them.
    Fix this problem and we will be O.K.

  12. JeremyH 12/06/2008 at 5:16 PM #

    a lot of gloom and doom. this is the type of loss they can learn from. let’s not give up on this season yet.

  13. LRM 12/06/2008 at 5:17 PM #

    wufpax, I see the point you’re trying to make, but it’s a little misguided. We gave up 23 second-chance points on the defensive glass, so rebounding certainly isn’t irrelevant.

  14. phillypacker 12/06/2008 at 5:34 PM #

    Sportprojections.com has us playing Buffalo in the Motor City Bowl.

    http://www.sportprojections.com/group/ncaa_college_football_bowl_projections

  15. SuperStuff 12/06/2008 at 5:37 PM #

    Now you know why Curry was a preseason 1st team selection and Davidson is ranked. That guy can play. If Fells would have gotten his points and not disappeared we could have won this game. Fells has the physical ability to dominate in games. We’ve all seen it a few times this year, but then other games it’s like somebody puts Kryptonite in his shorts.

  16. phillypacker 12/06/2008 at 5:48 PM #

    Scarlet Scuttlebutt, as of 3:30 today has Rutgers playing either us or Troy depending on whether Troy beats Arkansas State.

    http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/rutgers/

  17. LRM 12/06/2008 at 5:55 PM #

    Philly,

    Buffalo has already accepted an International Bowl bid, so we won’t be playing them in Detroit.

  18. phillypacker 12/06/2008 at 5:55 PM #

    Arkansas State-Troy is on ESPN 360 if your ISP carries it at 7 pm.

  19. Sweet jumper 12/06/2008 at 6:00 PM #

    Don’t forget that Davidson played without their best defender for more than 3/4’s of the game due to his well deserved ejection and still found a way to win. McKillop can coach.

    I thought Tracy Smith was sick when he did not play in the first half. He scored immediately and blocked out as usual and grabbed a couple of rebounds. I am sorry, but juniors and seniors who refuse to block out and hustle on the boards should never get more minutes than Tracy Smith.

  20. CStanley 12/06/2008 at 6:03 PM #

    Disappointed we didn’t win, but no reason to panic at all after today. We lost to a damn good team. I’m still dumbfounded at how no triangle schools saw anything in Curry, I don’t care how skinny, small, etc. he was. He is unreal.

    I agree with the comment about Fells, he is an absolute waste. Not sure what his problem is, but either shit or get off the pot.

    I’m willing to take this loss if it makes us for the better. Lose a WTF game again to ECU, and I’ll start panicking. Would be nice to steal one against Marquette at home to make up for this loss.

  21. vtpackfan 12/06/2008 at 6:15 PM #

    There goes the mythical State Championship…

    Davidson rebounded just over 50% of their own missed shots in the 2nd half.

  22. highstick 12/06/2008 at 6:19 PM #

    Quote from the N&O website:

    “Ferguson’s head never hit the floot, intentional “Yes”, ejectable “No”!

    Braindead? Obviously! What a fool? Attempted murder must be a misdemeanor now? It’s no wonder we live in a country of fools! They are everywhere!

  23. Rochester 12/06/2008 at 6:50 PM #

    Couldn’t see the game because goddam Fox Sports South was blacked out on our Directv for no reason that makes sense to me. Had to listen on the Davidson radio feed over the internets. That is the worst broadcaster I’ve ever heard. I had no idea what was happening most of the game. I still don’t have a good picture, because half of the people here seem to think it looked good and half are sickened by it. I don’t get a warm fuzzy feeling from this, for sure. I really think Davidson is a step down from where they were last year, and as bad as we were last year we beat them. This could be another long season. I should have gone Christmas shopping instead of listening to that crap. At least I would have gotten something done.

  24. hball57 12/06/2008 at 7:17 PM #

    Of all the stupid comments, this is my favorite:

    We again can’t out-rebound an opponent… from a small private school… called Davidson.

    When I start to get upset, a comment like this makes me realize that most people don’t know what they are talking about.

    When you are playing against a great player, especially a guard who can shoot like Curry, he will cause the types of mismatches on the boards. When the big man screen at the 3 pt line, he is free to run to the front of the rim. This team lost by 5 in Charlotte to the #24 team in the country; the team that lost to the National Champions in the tournament by 2 points last year. So that means we’re garbage. Great fans!

    BTW, what does that make Duke? – Lost at Michigan.

    I see some people have already written this team off. If you are so sure we are going to be bad, why not stop watching, bloging and posting?

  25. howlie 12/06/2008 at 7:18 PM #

    I was there–and sometimes a TV audience has a better seat. But from my perspective, our bigs did well. McCauley and Brandon had double-doubles, with Brandon getting 10 first half rebs, and McCauley getting 10 second half rebs.

    We just were a little flat in the last 4 minutes–exhausted from the game up to that point. There was no one beyond Ben & Brandon–and those two were getting the s#%t mugged out of them the last 4 minutes with NO calls by the whistle-eating refs. I’m not blaming the loss on the refs, just saying that we needed SOMEONE at one of the other three positions to rise to the occasion, drive the lane, and hit a basket or two the last 4 minutes.

    We had no answers left… and ran no screens or double screens [as Davidson did the entire game] for anyone else to get off a shot. We depended on shots down low and the refs had long ago eaten their whistles.

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