I don’t know what’s going on with ol’ Caulton Tudor, but he’s made sense lately. Really, you should read the whole article, if you haven’t already. Here’s some excerpts and gut-level analysis:
The long-suffering Wolfpack entered Saturday’s game in a delicate way. There was no profound upside to beating a Tech team that now stands 0-4 in the ACC and 9-8 overall. Although there’s no acceptable excuse for it, the Yellow Jackets probably qualify as the weakest team in the league.
Agreed. Nothing I saw yesterday changed that assessment.
Odds are, State still will lose to the Blue Devils by double digits and struggle to gain traction in the ensuing series of games against Boston College, Miami and North Carolina. It’s hardly a big stretch of the imagination to envision the Pack winding up No. 10 or No. 11 in a 12-team league at the conclusion of regular season.
In other words, this team has no realistic shot at any post-season berth. And Duke is going to kick our asses sideways. I concur.
That, of course, would not bode well for Lowe in his third season at his alma mater. The guy’s heart and feet are in the right place, and no one who has ever known him is hoping for anything except the best.
But it’s getting testy for Lowe. With more point-guard question marks than most ACC teams encounter over the course of a decade, much less three seasons, Lowe is beginning to pile up critics at roughly the same rate his team runs up its turnover total. There were 22 — including six by starting playmaker Julius Mays –against the Jackets.
Reading between the lines – the media folks like Sid. The fans in general like him. Nobody questions his passion for NC State. The media are tiptoeing around the fact that most observers of college basketball (and an increasing number of Wolfpack fans) don’t think he really knows what he’s doing. People want Sid to succeed, they just doubt that he will.
That’s one way to look at it. Another view is the opposite — that State, down and basically out, just could have mailed in another losing bid and slipped quietly into that cold night.
“We’re battlers,” Ferguson said. “We don’t quit.”
That’s true. While the win is no cause for great celebration, at least the team didn’t just lay down (as most of us feared they would do). There’s no overstating just how devastating a loss would have been to our program. You seriously could have started talking about 0-16.
State is not very talented. At times, Lowe doesn’t come across as a strong court tactician or personnel plugger. But this team is still motivated. The Pack has problems at the point, and even more problems in halfcourt execution on both ends of the court. But when the pain hits, the first need is for relief. State found some Saturday.
That’s also spot on. Before you can perform surgery, you have to stop the bleeding. And administer a bit of anesthetic. While there’s no joy in Wolfpack Land, there is a very palpable sense of relief.
