Maryland Game Thread/Semi-Live Blog

08-09 Basketball General Sidney Lowe276

I enjoyed semi-live blogging the Wake game, so I’ll try to do the same tonight. I am very confident tonight, and expect a fairly comfortable (8-12 point) win. Of course, NC State is like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. Place your thoughts, reactions, and happy/angry utterances in the comments. You can also let us know if and when it starts snowing where you are.

Keep praying for Wolfpack alum Corey Smith and the other people missing at sea.

7:39 – If FSN’s HD feed doesn’t start working soon, I’m going to start swearing. Bastards.

7:41 – HD finally here. I guess the game will have to make me say the F word. I can’t believe “Best Damn Sports Show” is still on the air. Who watches that shit?

7:52 – Maryland is aggressively pushing Javi when he handles the ball. That’s a very good strategy. We need to adjust or shift more minutes to Degand, because our half-court offense has trouble getting started. 11-7 Terps.

7:59 – I hope Tracy is ready to play 35 plus tonight.

8:04 – Apparently, we missed committing turnovers, and are back in the saddle tonight.

8:08 – OK, Degand is sucking really bad tonight. Time for Mays? Terps by 7.

8:11 – Dinnertime makes things better. Mmmmmmm…jambalaya.

8:21 – Finally, a nice run of non-shitty play. A 9-point lead goes down to 3, and it’s Wolfpack ball. Should have 2 possessions left to Maryland’s 1, if we play it intelligently.

Halftime – You have to feel great about only being down 1, given how bad we played for most of the half. Unfortunately, it looks like Costner might have checked out for good.

8:41 – What’s the deal with all the Hooters and creepy “Just for Men” hair color ads? I have to switch the channel with my kids in the room!

8:47 – Back to extreme shittiness.

8:53 – We finally score, but still look awful. Luckily, so does Maryland – and the deficit is only three.

8:57 – Dead crowd, dead team.

9:03 – McCauley asserting himself in the second half. A very welcome development. Maybe we’ll even start guarding Vasquez!

9:09 – Smith puts the Pack in front, I think for the first time all night!

9:15 – Vasquez is eviscerating us.

9:21 – I’m pretty sure that’s your ballgame. Jesus, what a shitty half of basketball we are playing.

9:24 – A late call. A shitty call. Just when it looked like we might have one last run. Damn it.

9:31 – Don’t worry, it will be football season soon enough.

Your final score – Maryland 71, NC State 60.

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 General Sidney Lowe

276 Responses to Maryland Game Thread/Semi-Live Blog

  1. Wulfpack 03/02/2009 at 2:21 AM #

    Here we are with 2 games remaining in the regular season and we have posted just 1 win over an NCAA bound team. No, we don’t have any bad losses, but come on, this is pretty weak. We are a very average program and a poor team in the ACC. Hell, our two supposed “good” losses to Marquette and Florida aren’t looking so good anymore as each have struggled down the stretch.

    Bad loss last night. Only hope is to finish strong and hope for a miracle run in the ACC Tourney.

  2. wbnation 03/02/2009 at 2:30 AM #

    I know BJD and some others on here wonder where the points will come next year when the 3 seniors leave, and how they account for the majority of States points. But what about turnovers.

    tonights game:
    Fells: 6 TO’s
    Costner: 3 TO’s

    So out of 16 turnovers two of the seniors had half of the TO’s. They may be 60% of the scoring but they are 50% of the problem. Fells had 10 points and 6 TO’s. You know I don’t care what freshman is in there next year his numbers won’t be much worse than those.

    Georgia Tech game:
    Fells: 3 TO’s
    Costner: 3 TO’s
    McCauley: 4 TO’s

    so in this game State had 21 turnovers, with the seniors contributing to 10 turnovers. Again its 50% of the turnovers. I for one will not miss these guys one bit. No heart, no leadership and no basketball IQ. This team may not be better next year, but its hard to convince me that the guys coming in will give less. If they do then Sidney will just be another one added to the 6 million folks without a job right now.

  3. wolfonthehill 03/02/2009 at 7:14 AM #

    This game unfortunately reversed all of the progress we’ve seen at the offensive end of the court over the past month. This was the December/January Pack offense… and that’s a VERY bad thing.

    Unfortunately, the one constant was shitty defense. No one… not a soul… played a good defensive game last night. Every Pack player looked slower than whomever they were guarding. The only guy who appeared to have any legs on either end of the court was, of course, the Macrowave… if we’d just played him 35 minutes (as the liveblog notes up above accurately say we needed) and pounded it to him, we had a chance… and that was our only chance. Maryland had no answer for him from tip to buzzer… we just went away from him… that’s on Sid.

    And finally, the only thing resembling an answer that UMd DID have for Tracy was to hack him… and the officials swallowed their whistles at least half the times he got hacked. I don’t give a crap if he’s strong enough to fight through it… call the same damn foul at that end of the court that you’re calling on the other end on the rare occasion that we actually attempt to defend cock-sucker Vasquez. The double-standard by the zebras really didn’t help the cause (see any number of “allowed” walks, then the one they call on Horner… see an entire game of moving screens by UMd that were allowed to go on as if they were Dook).

    Don’t get me wrong – we didn’t play well enough to win. We got out-hustled and out-played. But the officials took any possible chance we had and flushed it down the crapper with some dubious second-half whistles and lack thereof. But that’s just life in the ACC these days…

  4. TheCOWDOG 03/02/2009 at 7:32 AM #

    I like Tim Brando alot. One of the Non-suckups to Duke and UNC.

    He made the quintesential statement last night when he said after a TO,

    ” The biggest problem State has had all year is getting all precincts to call in every night. ”

    Now, I really detest calling out individuals. It goes against my former jock nature. But with all due respect to some of you guys that have made astute observations,
    is it now time to not worry about the train leaving with Costner and Fells on board?

    Yes, they stayed 3-4 years, but what were the alternatives? Leave school for Europe? Maybe.

    I have a heart and feel for peoples’ loss. We all do. But since someone brought it up again, I will testify that with death can come great inspiration on the field of play.
    I write this knowing I sound like a jackass, but please, I’ve witnessed too many competitors that bring their best when their heart is heaviest. In fact it’s a supposition
    that shouldn’t even be broached by any outsider, myself included.

    As far as Sid goes, he apparently has not made extreme advances in turning around loser mentality. Hopefuly, that changes as we cycle thru this thing.

    I think I’ve figured out why there isn’t another former player on this blog, or if there is, has not copped to it.

    It’s because they would not want to find themselves penning some of the stuff that TheCOWDOG pens when frustrated by the play of guys who’s shoes they once were in.

    Trust me though, when the occaision happens and we talk amongst ourselves, no one holds back within the fraternity. The sugarcoatings eventually fall off and concerns are levied.

    OK…got that off my chest. Thanks for letting me soundboard.

  5. Rick 03/02/2009 at 7:45 AM #

    I do not know what to think.

    It was obvious the three “leaders” on this team have mailed it in. And when your PGs do nothing but turn the ball over what is a coach to do?

    On the other hand, Lowe has to try something else. If they are not going to give the effort bench them and get someone in there that cares.

  6. GAWolf 03/02/2009 at 8:00 AM #

    I’m pretty sure I called this chicken-little reaction. I, too, have questioned whether it’s worth driving to Atlanta to watch us possibly play uninspired and dodge out the first game. However, there’s still a lot to be positive about in how we’re playing now and how we played at the beginning of the year. Maryland, like in football, always finishes strong. Maryland is going to the tournament minus a State-like collapse down the stretch.

    Tracy Smith plays hard. If he is sign of things to come and players to come, we’ll be okay. If he’s the outlier and the rest of the guys are indicative of the intensity coming from our staff, we’re in big trouble. I’m hoping the former is true and I’m not jumping off the cliff. Disappointed like the rest of you, I certainly am.

    However, I said after the Wake win that we would likely lose out and guys who teeter totter on whether the Coach should be fired would be right back to where they were. That’s ridiculous. If you want him fired, stick to your guns.

    The bottom line: we have zero consistency from the point OR our upperclassmen. Who could win with that? It’s not completely x’s and o’s if we’re averaging 20 turnovers a game. Sid and Co. certainly don’t coach them to throw the ball away. They certainly don’t coach them to loaf. That type of “I don’t give a damn” mentality is extremely contagious. I just hope before we can oust the guys who breed it they don’t infest the young guys.

    I’m all for playing for tomorrow. I’m not saying that to throw in the towel for this year, but some of the guys who will be playing next year ought to at least get some minutes. If some of the upperclassmen continue to not show up, what’s the loss. As far as coaching decisions go, that’s my one beef at this point. I was fully concerned that Tracy Smith was not going to be back after the rest at about the 6 minute mark. Thankfully he didn’t, and the first possession back in the game he gets a huge defensive rebound on a much needed stop.

    If all of you would objectively look at the athletes we have in our most important position, the guy who handles the ball the most, you would not have much expectation for this year. The funny thing is that most of us were resolved in that early in the year and the play, while shitty, was about what we expected. We win two (2) games and our fans start screaming NCAA! this and Bubble that. Jebus. Absurdity.

  7. wolfonthehill 03/02/2009 at 8:01 AM #

    ^ CJ looked out-of-sort last night, but give Johnny a shot… Harris… Mays… even Ferg. Do the Nose’s old blue team/white team thing… yank everyone, put in 5 fresh faces, see what happens.

    You know, that whole “coaching” thing.

    That being said, I do think Sid made very wise use of timeouts last night… one was even taken for the express purpose of stopping the clock so Tracy could go back in. That’s not something we would’ve seen two years ago.

  8. GAWolf 03/02/2009 at 8:08 AM #

    As to the turnovers, I’d love to see a stat on how many result in a 3 point conversion going the other way. I promise you it’s significantly higher than the overall percentage of 3 point plays per possession. We play defense on a turnover about like an NFL quarterback tries to tackle after an interception. And that’s indicative of the personality of the player, and not the staff.

  9. 66pack 03/02/2009 at 8:11 AM #

    Lowe states he does not know why state quit going inside after having success.maybe as a coach he should just tell his players to run plays to get the ball inside.

  10. waxhaw 03/02/2009 at 8:27 AM #

    ^ That’s a great point. I can’t believe Sid didn’t think of that. He should probably tell them to quit turning the ball over too.

  11. BAC79 03/02/2009 at 8:41 AM #

    Lowe needs to bench the loafers and go with fresh enthusiastic players. There is no excuse under the sun for “NO EFFORT”.

    Lets see some of the guys who will be playing next year. I would just love to see five guys on the floor giving it all they have. Even when we won a few games, there were times when we had players loafing down the court on defense.

    At this point, Lowe needs to make a statement to the players who will be there next year; loaf and you will sit on the bench.

  12. Rick 03/02/2009 at 8:49 AM #

    “The bottom line: we have zero consistency from the point OR our upperclassmen. Who could win with that?”

    And that is where the problem lies with me. I know we are short on talent but I do not see the discipline I would like to see in a team. It reminds me of Amato in that he talks about how they practice not getting penalties but they always seem to still get them. Then TOB comes in and is able to reduce them.

    Is it all about the talent or some about the coaching.
    I am just not sure.

    But one thing is for sure, I will not look back fondly on the careers of the “big three”.

  13. turfpack 03/02/2009 at 8:50 AM #

    Has anyone thought that maybe some of are guys are idots-no basketball IQ-When you don’t play hard I call that lazy-saw some of that even in our wins earlier.You can call all the play you want if the players don’t exacue or really care nothing going to matter.TURNOVERS COST EVERY TEAM TWICE PER POSSESSION-chew on that nugget and you will under stand what it cost not having a good PG.
    Spring football practice is when?

  14. GAWolf 03/02/2009 at 9:02 AM #

    True. And we all knew 20 TO’s per game were going to catch up to us. It’s not a big difference than turning the ball over repeatedly in the redzone. The number one defense in the country in football couldn’t overcome that here at State.

    As to who is to blame, none of us are capable of knowing that full story. Speculation is the best we have. I’m holding on to Tracy Smith and his play as a reason to be hopeful. That kid played one hell of a game last night and in light of all of the negativity in blowing a huge opportunity at a statement win, he’s a reason to be both thankful and optimistic.

    He’s the first kid we’ve had (I said above since Fuller) in a long time who can single-handedly break a scoring drought if he can get the ball two possessions in a row. I’d say one possession but that’s a tall order for any mortal. He plays hard, he plays smart (more times than not) and he plays with obvious passion. As time goes on he hopefully will improve his free throw shooting and be unmanageable for one defensive player. That accounts for two men. That presents a match-up problem for all teams (something others but not us have had the luxury of for quite a while) and it gives other guys opportunities to shine. See our last two games where guys have their career games against us as we focus on stopping (sometimes successful sometimes not- last night) their star.

    Tracy Smith, for me, represents the first guy we can build a program around in a long, long, long time. I even include Hodge there. Hodge was great many nights, but I never saw him as the go-to guy when we hit bumps in the road. Like so many wolfpackers in recent memory he just wasn’t consistent. Smith’s game is simple enough that he’s likely going to produce night in and night out throughout his career OR the opponent is going to have to make huge sacrifices to stop him.

    In that lies opportunity. We just need guys who can dribble, penetrate, pass, and avoid turnovers at the 1 to take advantage of that opportunity.

  15. Wolfpack_1995 03/02/2009 at 9:29 AM #

    Lowe,

    Please bench Fells, BC, and Brandon for Senior night ala Tim Wells.

    These guys have mailed it in.

    Send a message to the younger guys.

    These damn malcontents are about to ruin another season and send us into the crapper.

    PLEASE LEAVE the university.

    As others posted I want no part of BC coming back next year.

    Don’t let the door hit you in the ass!

  16. SaccoV 03/02/2009 at 9:30 AM #

    Several points to be made here (I apologize for the length and breadth of my response, but this game is sure to bring out the WORST of our fanbase).

    1) NC State’s team is among the bottom three teams in the ACC for a reason—chiefly, our players are not as good as players on the other teams. Here are a couple of examples from this season alone.
    a. No hustle – a cursory glance at the ACC.com’s statistics will prove just about everything you need to know about how this team is outmanned, outclassed and outgunned
    i. Rebounding – NC State as a TEAM has the second fewest rebounds for this season (973), second only to UVA who has played 2 less games this season and averages a full rebound more per game. For a team whose “strength” is interior play, we’re sure don’t have enough “interior” presence to out rebound even the smallest of our opponents.
    ii. Field Goal Percentage – NC State as a TEAM has the 3rd best field goal percentage in the league (which some of you may say belies your point, Sacco, you terd-eating champion). However, our team has attempted 64 less field goals than the next team (again, UVA wins that distinction). I think it’s safe to assume, that this slot and the previous statistics go hand-in-hand; when you give your opponents more chances to score, they tend to beat you regularly.
    iii. Blocks – NC State is DEAD LAST in the league in blocked shots per game with 4.0. The team has blocked 108 shots all year (only 5 ahead of UVA who again, has played TWO LESS GAMES).
    iv. Steals – NC State is DEAD LAST in steals with 5.7 per game and 154 overall. Miami is next in line with 5.8 per game and 157 overall.
    v. Turnover Margin – One more win for the boys in red, as NC State leads again in this category by scoring a whopping -3.07, giving their opponents a minimum of three more opportunities PER GAME to score
    b. Consistency – Again, we all can agree that this team lacks consistency, but here’s the real statistical background for it.
    i. NC State DOES NOT have ONE PLAYER who is in the top 20 in scoring throughout the league, which means not one of our players averages 14 pts per game. For comparison, UVA’s top scorer is 8th in the league. GA Tech’s is 14th. BC 2nd Best scorer is 19th. VA Tech’s 3rd best scorer is 20th. This means that despite our supposed advantage with interior play, we are either not good enough, smart enough or careful enough to score consistently with one player. As I read it (again, I’m a literature major), this means we don’t have ONE player who is good enough (or works hard enough) to consistently score 15 pts per game throughout a season. It’s very sad, because J.J. Hickson did that last year for us, Brandon Costner did it for us his Freshman year, Cam Bennerman averaged 14.1 his senior year three years ago.
    ii. Outside of Ben McCauley’s rebounding (7th in the league with 7.8 per game), not ONE NC State player is in the top ten in ANY statistical category. Our previous run of a “positionless” offense has morphed into “fundamental-less” team, with no one who has the courage or willingness or ability to make big shots, big defensive plays, or big rebounds when the team needs them.
    c. Intensity/Emotion – NC State is devoid of intensity and emotion, but this IS NOT, I repeat, NOT a reflection of the coaching staff. I’ve seen and heard more than enough fire coming from the head coach and the coaching staff to quell any suspicions about their intensity and drive to turn this program around (Take last year’s season ending interview with Lowe and this year’s anger and frustration in the Red Jacket as he came off the court at Duke, knowing they had a lead in the second half, only to blow it). My only concern is that the coaching staff can maintain that intensity when it is obvious that the players cannot.
    2) Final Analysis–All this game proves to me is that we have been outclassed for a continued period of time in terms of player ability. It started with Les, continued with Herb, and has filtered into Sid’s reign. The bottom line is that NO COACH, not Wooden, Dean or Roy-boy or K could coach this team to be much better than they are. This team is lazy as a whole, makes terrible decisions, is lackadaisical at the worst possible times, and is full of head cases who aren’t mentally tough enough to withstand the rigors of playing in a league where the intensity of the games is matched by the intensity of the fanbases. Our collective group of diaper-fillers wouldn’t (and COULDN’T) cut it at other schools. Our personal sense of pride in our own status as fans or alumni of our school isn’t shared in the intensity of the group of students playing basketball, and how could it given our well-noted shortcomings in the sport perpetuated by less-than-stellar success? For those of you who blame Lowe for not playing Thomas or Mays or anyone else, do you honestly believe that the coach is incapable or unwilling to play his best players? He knows that the best talent he has still isn’t very good as the statistics on turnovers from TWO UPPERCLASSMEN attests in previously posted comments. Lowe is playing out the season because he understands fully that the best players he has are NOT capable of playing his style (or at the ACC level) with any competence. If Lowe decides to bench his starters, he then puts the game into the hands of WORSE PERSONNEL. It’s as if Lowe playing ‘Texas hold ’em’ with one pocket card. If you replay the first half of the game, several of our turnovers (made by STARTERS) were lazy passes INTO THE INTERIOR, which is where Lowe wanted the ball to go to take advantage of our size in the middle. I counted four (at least) in the first two minutes. That’s not an example of coaching errors; that’s reflective of players who don’t execute (of which State is reaching epidemic proportions this season).

  17. GAWolf 03/02/2009 at 9:36 AM #

    ^Here. Here. Good work.

  18. anti-smurf 03/02/2009 at 10:04 AM #

    Vaszquez is a little punk b**ch! They kept saying he was an “extension of his coach”. Well, he proved how big of an a$$ Williams is. I had zero respect for MD, and now I have less. I will now pull for unc over MD in EVERY sport! Lowest of the low!

    Now for our guys: Ben, Tracy – thanks for showing up last night. Rest of the team – where the he!! were you???? It wasn’t snowing yet. Do you even care? Costner – what planet are you on? Fells – back to passing basics.

    UGH!

  19. Classof89 03/02/2009 at 10:36 AM #

    ^
    represents a new low for our fan base when after a debacle like last night, some devote extraordinary amounts of energy to whining about the other team’s big player hitting a shot at the end…if we weren’t Maryland’s bitch, we wouldn’t have to be complaining about Vasquez rubbing our noses in it…we used to be the team that made the other team’s fans cry. No more, I guess…

  20. Rochester 03/02/2009 at 10:36 AM #

    I think of the big 3, McCauley is the only one I’ll miss at this point. They’ve all had some nice highlights over the past few years, but too few by a mile. At some point you have to think that maybe it’s not a coincidence that their run as the “heart” of the team came during one of the worst 3-year spans in team history.

    We’ll miss what they’re capable of doing next year, but we probably won’t miss what they would actually do.

  21. LKNpackfan 03/02/2009 at 10:55 AM #

    Dan Werner and Larry Davis sure would have been nice to have the last few years…

  22. wolfonthehill 03/02/2009 at 11:00 AM #

    ^ Ah, the “grass is always greener” mentality. I have no faith that either Werner or Davis would’ve made a significant impact on our program. Why would these guys be the “magic two” who turn the corner for us? More likely they’re role players, as Werner is at Fla, and as Davis was pre-transfer.

  23. Wulfpack 03/02/2009 at 11:09 AM #

    Classof89, I agree wholeheartedly. Don’t like it, then don’t put yourself in the position where it can happen. Same goes for the Copeland play vs UNC.

    Ben Mac played decent last night. Don’t knock his effort. Fells had a tough go defensively and was a no show on the offensive end. BC had a tough night playing under some difficult circumstances. I saw nothing from CJ or Horner and Javi and Degand had forgettable games.

  24. BJD95 03/02/2009 at 11:16 AM #

    Yeah, I don’t see how anyone can say anything good about anybody other than Smith and McCauley last night. And they SHOULD have had their way with Maryland’s midget lineup.

    Let’s hope it was just an anomaly, and not a sign of things to come. They need to at least get their shit together and beat BC so we don’t end up missing the NIT.

  25. tractor57 03/02/2009 at 11:30 AM #

    In general the team played by the “sun don’t shine” theory – as in that was where their heads were. McCauley and Smith were the exceptions to this. For sure a step back as even with the poor play a win was possible.

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