ECU Game Entry

08-09 Basketball General68

Pregame Comments
We have already explained that tonight’s game vs ECU is not a cupcake game as most people would presume.

If you want to research the Pirates a little more then ‘Yet Another’ has more on the Pirates here and Section Six has his preview here.

Hopefully the fact that we have already faced Stephon Curry will benefit us against Sam Hinnant. Of course, it doesn’t help that our best athlete and occassionally best defender, Courtney Fells, is questionable tonight with the same injury that neutralized him against Davidson.

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08-09 Basketball General

68 Responses to ECU Game Entry

  1. hball57 12/18/2008 at 6:52 AM #

    Here’s what I wish (and gopack1975 please don’t take offense to this. I hear this all the time and I’m not trying to single you out), people would stop stating BCs height and say he should only be inside. The player needs to play the game that suits their talents, not some preconceived notion of where players should play based on their size.

    Brandon had a great balanced game today. Her was 3-7 from 3, he had some nice assists and got 17 rebounds. I’ll take that mix from him any game! His ability to stretch the defense helps the whole team; it is one of the big reasons that Ben has so much room to work in the post.

  2. Gene 12/18/2008 at 7:10 AM #

    hball, I agree. What made Costner so effective two years ago was his ability to score either inside or outside, depending on how a team matched up with him. Having a guy, who is his size, who can score from anywhere on the court can be a match up nightmare for the other team.

  3. Oldwolf 12/18/2008 at 7:47 AM #

    I think that Sid was playing to not let Young win by dishing out assists to the other players – going into the game, he was leading the nation in assists. They were keeping him from doing that and forcing him to take shots.

    Given that, it seemed to have worked, although he did get a career high, but we did win.

  4. Wulfpack 12/18/2008 at 8:21 AM #

    I’ll take an 11-point win without Fells any day of the week. But guard play is going to to have to vastly improve if we want to be competitive in the ACC. Why was Farnold suspended by Lowe?

  5. anti-smurf 12/18/2008 at 8:41 AM #

    I was at the game, and Fells worked out in pre-game, but he wasn’t anywhere close to playing. After halftime, he had a considerable limp coming out of the tunnel (I sat right at the tunnel, had a perfect view).

    Our backcourt – not too good. Javi passed up several open shots, but overall I thought he played pretty well. We’re not a very good defensive team at all.

    Costner/McCauley – those guys were great! McCauley was often triple teamed and still was able to generate a lot of production. Costner was unreal – hit outside, posted up, and rebound machine. Too many turnovers, but I’ll let that slide tonight. I don’t want to forget Tracy Smith either – he was a beast down low.

    Simon Harris – had the hustle play of the night! State turned the ball over, ECU was out on the break, Harris full speed down court and blocked a layup attempt, then was 2nd man down on offense. Guy gives 150% while he’s out there, and got some quality minutes.

    One thing I don’t like is brining in a complete 2nd team. Seemed to me that all momentum we were building went away when that 2nd unit came in. ECU always crept back into the game at that point. Happened both in he first half and 2nd half.

    Great game, crowd was into it, and for a Wed. night in December, when school was out, the place was packed! Lots of students there too!

    Great win against a good ECU team. They’ll win some games in conference, and their pg is legit!

  6. wolfbridge 12/18/2008 at 9:36 AM #

    I like others was impressed with BC early on. However, if he had continued to play like he did early on he would have ended up with 48 points and 34 rebounds. It bothers me that he cannot play for a whole game. Late in the game he was walking and just playing when it was convenient for him. And let me alos say that he was not the only player doing this. At one point in the second half two of our players ended up on the floor and they just sat there and watched as ECU went the other way for a fast break. If you are tired let the coach know so he can take you out.

    This is the ACC and you need to play like it. We will get absolutely killed in league play if we don’t step up.

  7. choppack1 12/18/2008 at 9:44 AM #

    Regarding this “red team” – I am not a big fan of this type of substitution for any more than a minute or two. When UNC did their infamous “blue team” – they were subbing in burger boys for burger boys – and it still often resulted in a run by an opponent that kept it close.

    However, I think during this time of year, you don’t have a lot to lose by employing that strategy – and hopefully, it will keep our starters fresh for the long ACC slog – and get valuable experience for our reserves. I guess my big thing is that we’ll need to build a chemistry w/ each one of these guys in the rotation – with the other 3-4 starters – and I hope we’re getting enough of that.

    Regarding Costner – he seems like a good kid who has delicate confidence. Like many – I don’t think he understands yet exactly what he’s capable of on a nightly basis. Hopefully, when it comes to rebounding – the light will come on. It is the staff’s job to make the kid realize he can be one of the conference leaders in rebounding if he wants to be. Regarding his shot – I don’t want to see him stop shooting the 3. To me, the problem is actually his form. If you want to see a lefty w/ beautiful form – look at Marcus Melvin (and Brandon’s low post game is much more polished than MM’s was.)

    Probably the most encouraging thing I heard is that the guards weren’t leaving their man to give up open 3s – ever. I’ve always said that guarding a good shooter is easy if you have absolute focus – this means you don’t give up on your man until your team has the ball. If we had “absolute focus” in the Davidson game – Curry doesn’t hit that huge 3 that broke our backs. Like I said earlier, sounds like we had a solid game plan and we executed it well tonight.

    I’m not too worried about Farnold yet. It sounds like Lowe is easing him back in a methodical manner. Don’t expect him to have the quickness he did before – yet. He has to get confident on that knee and he has to get better conditioned. This will take time. If everything goes well, he may just be hitting his stride by the second half of the ACC regular season. If we can somehow make it out of the first half of the season w/ a respectable record – say 3-5 or better (and that shouldn’t be too hard, we’re 3-5 and 4-4 in this timeframe Lowe’s first 2 years) – then we should be poised for a nice second half run….Of course, the bad news is that during Lowe’s first 2 years – we’re 2-6 and 0-8 during this timeframe.

  8. burnbarn 12/18/2008 at 10:42 AM #

    You have to like 87 points…. We have scored 40+ in 3 of the last 4 halfs. It has been awhile since we have been producing points in these numbers regardless of the comp.

    I am not saying we are going to be a great team, but we look to be competitive all season save 2 games. This team is doing things that no other Lowe team has done to date.. these are good signs of progress.

    Great effort on the boards last night at both ends.

  9. anti-smurf 12/18/2008 at 11:05 AM #

    farnold looked pretty quick off the dribble, and was pentrating the lane quite a bit.

  10. Sw0rdf1sh 12/18/2008 at 11:03 PM #

    He looked great on 0…terrible on D.

    As someone was mentioning somewhere else, this would probably due to his lateral movement from the injury.

    I hope it comes back.

  11. gopack1975 12/18/2008 at 11:25 PM #

    I totally agree HBall57. If BC was shooting like he was 2 years ago, then yes I am all for him shooting the 3 and stretching the defense. Until then he needs to play more inside and get much needed rebounds. He did shoot better in this game and hopefully his confidence will improve.
    Yao Ming has a perimeter game, yet he has to play inside because his height and shotblocking ability are way to valuable to be wasted shooting on the perimeter.

  12. travelwolf 12/19/2008 at 9:47 AM #

    after watching the ECU game on Acc Select, it’s going to be a long basketball season for Wolfpack fans. I guess this is another year we’ll be looking for ‘improvement’ week after week instead of many wins. Gonzalez just isn’t fast enough – esp. on defense. But, that’s life.

  13. happypackdad 12/19/2008 at 1:00 PM #

    we will have a good team as starters get healthy & the rotations get set. relax.

  14. kyjelly 12/19/2008 at 1:36 PM #

    ^
    A good team? We are in the acc? Please define good? Jabvi is shooting 30% from the floor ,he is very slow and can’t play “D”. Farnold is not the answer never was or will be injured or not.

  15. ktoh 12/19/2008 at 1:48 PM #

    I hate to agree ,but have to we don’t have the guards to compete in the ACC .

  16. happypackdad 12/19/2008 at 3:09 PM #

    A healthy Farnold is a big step-up from Javi. Javi will be a capable back-up & Mayes will develop into a very good PG. This yr, like last, depends on Farnold’s health. This should be the last yr having this discussion. Brown + healthy Farnold + seasoned Javi & Mayes = good PG play for years to come. Not to mention Harrow & possibly Wall.

  17. pakfanistan 12/19/2008 at 4:52 PM #

    Yer doin’ it all wrong, happy.

    As an NC State fan, you’re supposed to long for the days of Jimmy V and talk about our past glory and untapped potential.

    Deep down you’re supposed to understand that our chance for a return to glory was frittered away during Herb’s tenure and that third in the ACC is our new first.

    WTNY doesn’t mean what it used to. It used to be our symbol of hope, now it’s more of a curse to Wolfpack fans. Any time something goes wrong, you hear people exclaim, “WTNY!!” in a sarcastic tone.

    Try not to have hope and see good things on the horizon. You’ll save yourself a lot of pain and fit in better with the rest of the flock.

  18. redfred2 12/19/2008 at 8:00 PM #

    pakistanfan, your post comes off as more than a little sarcastic, as I’m sure you intended, BUT there is very much truth in your wording.

    Make fun of those of us who’ve seen and know better if you will, but as one of the FOURTEEN BB programs in the history of collegiate basketball NATIONWIDE with TWO national championship banners hanging, and watching as the bridge to those times became rusty because it was never even mentioned or revisited over an entire decade of mediocrity, until finally gave way and disappeared from sight, is not something that I take as very humorous at all.

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