Duke, Wake Each Lose By 27 (Good Link Updates @ Noon)

I can’t say that I saw this coming. Miami forced the Deacons to shoot from the perimeter – and they couldn’t do it. Looks like a good roadmap for other ACC teams. On the other hand, Clemson just beat Duke senseless with defensive pressure and transition baskets (as they and Carolina are uniquely suited to do). Don’t look now, but despite early evidence to the contrary, we might be looking at yet another Duke team that stays down once hit in the mouth.

And freaking Boston College – the team that lost by double digits to Harvard at home – beat a pathetic UVA squad to go to 6-3. Just another Wednesday night in the ACC.

Many all over the country were pleased with the results of the Duke game as evidenced by Deadspin’s lead story – Duked!

The 27-point pasting was Duke’s worst loss since 1997. Their impotent 47 points was their lowest output since 1994. It was their first regular season loss to Clemson in 20 games. Coach Mike Kryzewski called timeout in the final minute, just so his team could savor the delicious pain of one the school’s most pathetic non-lacrosse efforts in nearly two decades.

If you want an excellent read, then jump over to this entry about the ‘Duke Swoon’ at Rush the Court.

The following chart is an example of some of the great work RTC does.

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

98 Responses to Duke, Wake Each Lose By 27 (Good Link Updates @ Noon)

  1. jbpackfan 02/05/2009 at 9:03 PM #

    Smile- i agree 1 game out of last place sucks. I just don’t think the team sucks, and I think they can turn it around.

  2. rockpile 02/05/2009 at 9:41 PM #

    i geniunely believe al skinner is a damn good coach(his track record speaks to such). but he did go 14-17(4-12) last yr in the acc with rice as a point guard. does he suck? no. has state ever since corch had anyone who can touch rice? probably not. it is lowes job to get someone who can. i believe some of the criticism is warranted, but some of us are underestimating talent. we dont have enough. and if lowe isnt correctly running a program, then he has to be adept enough to learn on the fly. if he cant, i might not be w/ noah but i’ll be with bjd95. i do believe he will get enough talent enough for everyone to judge. in 2009, we aint there yet…imo.

  3. CStanley 02/05/2009 at 9:42 PM #

    “I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, but ACCT Saturday should be fantastic viewing – assuming Wake, Duke, UNC, and Clemson are all there.”

    Which one of these is not like the other?

    Forget about Duke & UNC (and even Wake). It would just be nice to be back on Clemson’s level.

  4. Alpha Wolf 02/05/2009 at 10:13 PM #

    what does our football team have to finish to overcome the suck factor? In other words did we suck this year, mediocre, or was it a good season and what was our final ranking 75th??

    The football season was one of two parts: one pretty close to some of the worst football we have seen in a few decades and the other one of quite solid football. I think if State had played SC in November, they would have won. Had they played Carolina in September, it probably would have been a reversal of the 41-10 final.

    Overall it would have to have been rated a mediocre year despite slipping into one of the final bowl slots.

  5. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 02/05/2009 at 10:19 PM #

    Which is better? To think there is a chance to be good like fans thought under the last coach or to just accept the fact that State isn’t very good.

    Looks like ASU fans are once again seeing the magic of Sendek that builds a solid record against nobodies in Nov/Dec only to fall just short in Jan/Feb. ASU got the 3’s to drop to win against UCLA in mid-January but if you take that game away ASU is 4-4 against real teams, which put them at 16-5 (sound familiar?) including an OT win against IUPUI which I think is Internet University of Phoenix International.

    In other words, as bad as seem to be, State is far better off than the last regime.

  6. choppack1 02/05/2009 at 10:38 PM #

    “The reason typically given is due to previous experience. (TOB) has some, Sid does not.
    I understand the argument. However, we have had experienced coaches previously that did not succeed (depending on how we define success).
    There are plenty of success stories with no experienced coaches as well.”
    Sid has had plenty of head-coaching experience – it just hasn’t been successful – that’s one huge difference between the two.

    “Back to my question, is finishing 70-75th in football rankings sucking, mediocre, or is this success? Or do we throw this out as long as we beat ECU, Wake, Duke, and Carolina in the same year?”

    It really depends on what you look at. I think going 4-4 in conference when you’re expected to be 3-5 at best is pretty encouraging. I think IMPROVING your conference record from the year before is encouraging. I think IMPROVING the conference record of your predecessor is encouraging. And yea, winning the state title when all 4 of those teams are better than they usually are (3 of them had the best season’s they’ve had in several years) – should bring a measure of satisfaction. (Let’s not mention the fact that in someone’s second year, we LOST to a bad ECU team.)

    “I am definitely happy this happened by the way, and I see it as being a successful year because of it. Getting into the bowl game (a non ACC bowl game) was icing on the cake for me. I had low expectations because I didn’t see a QB on the team, RW proved me wrong on that one-what a surprise.”

    I wanted RW to play last year. However, like he did last year, TOB demonstrated a long term vision by redshirting a kid who probably could have helped us win another game or two.

    “If only J Mays would step up at the PG position, we could go 6-3. Sid then would be very fortunate if this happened, as lucky as TOB.”

    You conveniently ignore that last year was TOB’s second season – this is Sid’s third – and you’re already talking about luck.

    The way I see it, both of these guys were given crappy cars. The football coach has been given a crappy car before and turned into a reliable one. All evidence indicates he’s doing that again. Our basketball has been given a crappy car in the past too – and well, the car didn’t get any better w/ him working on it. And thus far, the car is even in worse shape than we got it. The good news is he has some shiny new parts coming in. There just is no evidence yet that his car will ever be good. I haven’t given up yet on him though.

    Alpha – I think you have to look at the expectations before you call a season mediocre. We go 4-4 – for the first time in 4 years AND you weren’t predicted to be that good – I don’t see how you call that anything but a successful season.

    Your expectations will differ from year to year. If we go 4-4 and 6-6 next year, I won’t be nearly as happy. But to get to a bowl game and have a .500 record in conference in his second year- well, I was thrilled.

    I’ll also be thrilled if we go 7-9 in the ACC in basketball this year – and will be impressed by the coaching job Sid will have to do to get there.

  7. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 02/05/2009 at 10:54 PM #

    One thing I will defend Lowe on is that he wasn’t a successful head coach in the NBA. NBA coaches shouldn’t be judged by their win/loss record because the the league is all about talent. Lowe as a head coach and an assistant coach built a solid career. Lowe has won championships in high school, college, Canada and was the youngest head coach in the NBA when he got his first job.

    This isn’t to say Lowe doesn’t have to step it up but fans should remember that Lowe is a winner and at least in my world he deserves a little more time.

  8. 61Packer 02/05/2009 at 11:06 PM #

    “In other words, as bad as it seems to be, State is far better off than the last regime……This isn’t to say Lowe doesn’t have to step it up but fans should remember that Lowe is a winner and at least in my world he deserves a little more time.”

    Let’s see, 79-228 in the NBA, 11-28 in the ACC so far.

    Sounds like a winner to me. Give him yet another exetension!

  9. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 02/05/2009 at 11:22 PM #

    61,
    you can fairly post lowe’s records but you are being unfair about the talent he has had. Minnesota, Vancouver, and Memphis and taking over an awful Wolfpack program. I’m not trying to give Lowe a pass but I don’t see how it helps State to fire Lowe and let Fowler try and replace him. Since the firing of Valvano, Lowe is the best chance State has had to rebuild the program.

    He may not be the guy but do you have faith in the current administration to do better? State gave Les 6 years and Herb 8 years so I don’t have a problem with giving Lowe at least 4 years.

  10. Alpha Wolf 02/06/2009 at 12:38 AM #

    Chop, my cutoff between good and mediocre last year was unfortunately decided in the second half of the Rutgers game.

  11. ktoh 02/06/2009 at 7:51 AM #

    A winner? Define winner please? Sid has gotten a ton of passes. I don’t think a .237 NBA winning percentage or a .258 college winning percentage should be just brushed aside. I do admit “the winning in Canada” is very impressive on the resume.

  12. blackdom 02/06/2009 at 8:50 AM #

    Football= The man can coach ,has experience and proved he can implement and run a successfull program.
    Basketball= Sid played on a team that won a NCAA title.

  13. Classof89 02/06/2009 at 10:13 AM #

    “Lowe has won championships in high school, college, Canada and was the youngest head coach in the NBA when he got his first job.

    This isn’t to say Lowe doesn’t have to step it up but fans should remember that Lowe is a winner and at least in my world he deserves a little more time.”

    A winner? That’s a Grand Canyon of an inferential leap. The fact he was the youngest head coach in the NBA when he got his first job, combined with the .237 winning percentage indicate to me absolutely nothing positive about Lowe’s qualifications– what I get from it is that several NBA owners made the following decision: “my team is absolutely awful and doesn’t have a prayer of making the playoffs or even having a winning record. Why should I pay top dollar for a proven NBA head coach? This Lowe dude will work for a fraction of what Pat Riley or Phil Jackson would cost.”

  14. redfred2 02/06/2009 at 12:40 PM #

    What you folks cannot seem to get into your thick skulls is that NC STATE, that’s as in…(((YOURS/Classof89’s))) NC STATE UNIVERSITY, did try to get the “Pat Riley or Phil Jackson” of college basketball, they just didn’t have their shit together enough to even pull in a Steve Lavin type. So, Coach Sidney Lowe is hired, and that’s even considering the requirements that he was lacking and all of the hoops that he had to jump through just to get here in the first place.

    Why Sidney Lowe is now here, and all that he had to go through just to get here, does not jive with your imaginary version of reality, or NC State University’s ability to have hired A-N-Y-O-N-E else at that time. I have my reasons for the “why”, but we won’t go into that again at this time.

    Lowe came when no one else (who was approached by YOUR university) would, he’s here because he was asked to come, and if you want to bitch about it, then please point that bitching at the proper source.

  15. Dr. BadgerPack 02/06/2009 at 3:03 PM #

    While Sidney’s NBA coaching record is, shall we say, bad- let’s at least put it in the proper perspective. He coached garbage.

    How bad were these teams? Well, take the Grizzlies. After his second season, he was the freaking franchise leader in wins. 23-59 was the best W-L record in team history. More interesting reading:

    http://www.nba.com/coachfile/sidney_lowe/index.html?nav=page

    So, I’m not sure throwing Lowe’s coaching record in his face is a particularly fair attack. Focus on what is fair– his college coaching record. There’s plenty to go after there, and lot’s of room for improvement. And I’m of the mindset that that improvement needs to be seen (1) in the effort exerted by the team down the stretch this year and (2) by the team next year which should have about zero excuses in the talent department. Even with the current 3-man class, he’ll have an abundance of guards, finally. Give me good guards and young raw post players over the other alternative any day. He should be able to win next year.

  16. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 1:59 PM #

    I hope some of you caught that flop Paulus just got away with against Miami … Paulus and the refs at it again

    That would have put Miami by 7, by the way

    This sh*t is so old

  17. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 2:02 PM #

    This is now turning into a travesty … Paulus just got away with 3 seperate fouls on one posession and what was called? Walking on Miami

    How does a guy (and team, for that matter) who is so overrated get so many calls – and I mean sh*t AWFUL calls?

  18. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 2:04 PM #

    Duke shooting 20% – down by 8 … refs singlehandedly keeping them in the game by calling offensive fouls on Miami on every other posession

    I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but dam*

  19. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 2:20 PM #

    Couple of interesting Big East scores …

    Our friends from Marquette lost to South Florida last night for their first conference loss … and Georgetown just finished getting swept by Cincinnati by losing by 2 at home

    Notre Dame and Georgetown are squarely on their way to the NIT if things don’t change in a dramatic way

    I respect the Big East, but I don’t think there’s ever been a more overrated conference for one season … “Greatest conference ever!!! Loaded with top 10 teams!!!” … yeah, not so much

    I’m not saying the Big East sucks – they don’t – just that kind of talk was really silly

  20. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 2:53 PM #

    Duke rallies from 16 down to tie Miami … on the play that ties the game, Paulus is allowed to tackle a Miami ballhandler and get a lay-in

    Then Paulus gets underneath Dequan Jones and Jones elbows him … Jones is kicked out, flagrant foul, Duke gets 2 free throws and the ball and promptly hits a 3

    Duke now leads by 4 after being down by 16 less than 5 minutes earlier

    I don’t really understand why I watch sometimes … Same sh*t every year

    For the record, Jones’ elbow was intentional and he should have been tossed, but the refs have allowed Paulus to control the game flow with his instigating punk plays

    This Duke crap is out of control

  21. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 3:27 PM #

    Holy cow!

    McClinton just hit one from about 30 feet to force overtime in the Duke game … wow!

  22. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 4:30 PM #

    Virginia may be one of the most offensively inept teams I’ve ever seen

    And they will stand a good shot at beating us later this season b/c one guy will go off against us (Landesberg … maybe even Farrakhan)

  23. wufpup76 02/07/2009 at 9:30 PM #

    Florida State may have just put themselves on the right side of the bubble … come from 19 down to win at Clemson – wow

    Davidson may be in some trouble losing at home against Charleston after being up a bit

Leave a Reply