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. choppack1 03/02/2009 at 11:48 AM #

    This was definitely a team effort. Didn’t we turn it over on our opening offensive set?

    One game shouldn’t derail the improvement that I’ve seen thus far, but the season still hangs in the balance somewhat. 6-10 and an opening round victory in the ACC tourney wouldn’t be a horrid year, given expectations. But then again, I guess that kind of says it all about where we’re at as a program – doesn’t it? 6-10 and NIT bid is OK…4 years ago we were bitching about being on the bubble for the NCAA, now we’re on the bubble for the NIT.

    Oh well, like I said, at least next year brings some clarity. We’ll know whether our coach is improving enough to feel good about some things or if he’ll perpetually play “whack a mole” – solve one problem, then another critical ones pops up.

  2. BladenWolf 03/02/2009 at 12:28 PM #

    Three comments:
    1) I saw no effort from anyone except T Smith last night. (Ben was “okay” but could have been more aggressive.)
    2) Coaching was pathetic. Can anyone justify why we were not fouling at the end when there was 1:26 left and we’re down by six? Or why we didn’t go to a penetrating offense when they threw the zone at us? Deer in the headlights was what I saw from the bench last night. Simply heads-up-the-ass syndrome from the coaching staff.
    3) Not sure why we’re hatin’ on Vaginez…yes he’s a little puss, but so is every other player at Maryland. Had we been playing any type of defense, Vaginez would have never been able to hoist that last second three… but let’s be honest, no one stopped him last night and Costner could have at least fouled him hard a couple of times to stop that weak-ass floater he kept flinging.

    I got so f’ing mad I threw the remote at the TV.

  3. Mike 03/02/2009 at 12:29 PM #

    Preach it Sacco. Well said.

    Sid was angry and said we needed to get the ball inside more, but we didn’t. My post at the half last night said play #1 is get the ball to Tracy until they figure out how to stop it. Then tongue in cheek I said, of course we have to be able to hold onto the ball and not turn it over before we can get it inside.

    We sure tried to get it inside, but we kept turning it over before we could.

  4. Mike 03/02/2009 at 12:31 PM #

    What happened to Beowulf? Is he posting under a different name?

  5. Greywolf 03/02/2009 at 12:50 PM #

    About all that can be said has been said about this team and this game. I do want to go on record as saying I don’t want to see Lowe or any other coach intentionally embarrass a student athlete at NCSU. I have no problem not playing players who can’t or aren’t cutting it. Just don’t be a classless ass-hole willing to humiliate a young man wearing the State uniform. That shit will come back to haunt you. Start them, at the first sign of the playing post office, put in young players. Use the seniors to spell the young players.

    What was up with not playing Fergie? Did he screw up or something? We needed somebody to knock down a shot or two. He is at least a suspect for a trey and if he is hot, the D can’t sag on Smith.

    Seems like the theme for this team is inconsistency — the players and the coaches.

  6. Wolf Dog 03/02/2009 at 12:52 PM #

    Gary Williams pre game said he felt they could win cause he felt they could bring more energy to the game than State. That hit me hard and he ended up being right.

    We need to be known as a team that is gonna bring it every night. Instead opposing coaches teacheing their teams to come out with allot of energy in hopes that our players will mail it in.

    I realize all teams have off nights, but its March and the game was at home. We had players take the night off. I hope we start playing for the future. Time to weed the garden and move on.

  7. choppack1 03/02/2009 at 1:12 PM #

    Wolf – I think the garden is getting weeded. We’ll see how the grass grows and green the lawn is next year.

    Who knows? Part of me thinks that we’ll see significant improvement. Another part of me thinks we’ll see the SOS.

  8. Classof89 03/02/2009 at 1:21 PM #

    basic problem with respect to consistent effort is that we play like a bad NBA team–players mail it in occasionally, because it is hard to keep the highest level of intensity throughout an 82-game schedule. Lowe has to learn how to coach consistent intensity, because that weak crap might cut it in the NBA, but it isn’t going to work in college ball.

  9. choppack1 03/02/2009 at 1:49 PM #

    classof89 – I don’t know if that is Lowe’s fault. I think he’s realized that the difference in the approach that is required.

    Where I wonder if he’s learned his lesson is in the area of teaching. It’s one thing to say, “don’t do this” or “here’s how you do this”…it’s quite another to get that through the player’s heads. And some guys, you just can’t reach. Next year, we’ll find out if the problem is Lowe’s preparation and teaching or if the problem was the students.

    Of course, it’s also possible that Lowe could improve his teaching in the off-season and we may never know.

    As I said in another post – I think that Lowe’s learned a lot from his first two years. It’s quite possible that if he came to NC State w/ the knowledge he gained in his first 2 years, you wouldn’t see what we’ve seen on the court the first 2 and even this year at times.

  10. PoppaJohn 03/02/2009 at 1:51 PM #

    SaccoV – Excellent analysis, it really pulled it all together for me.
    WE SUCK AND WE CAN PROVE IT!!!!

  11. GAWolf 03/02/2009 at 3:43 PM #

    Had we played as well in the beginning of the year as we played in our late season losses (Wake, UNC, and Maryland particularly) we would be sitting in an entirely different position today. I think we’ve shown marked improvement despite the schedule getting increasingly more difficult. That’s not to say anyone should be content with losing or the way we’ve played even, but we’ve improved and the staff has shown an effort to change things up when we’re losing to at least attempt to fix the problems that exist. I’m not sure we could say the same for the prior regime on a down year.

  12. Classof89 03/02/2009 at 4:02 PM #

    ^
    yes, but in all fairness to prior regime, isn’t an alternate explanation that the prior regime did a much better job having team ready to play in the early games, meaning that “improvement” through end of year was much less (because the team did their improving in preseason practice, not by bumbling their way through pre-ACC schedule). Again, that is an NBA approach…except that in our case, the “preseason” games count.

  13. redfred2 03/02/2009 at 4:31 PM #

    ^ Uh, are we still DEFENDING possibly?

    So, we are now entering the variable of TIME into the equation to calculate when it’s best NOT to have your players prepared to play the game of basketball. How about if we add another variable, as in a single HAIR. But we’ll need to split a few times first.

    What’s happening right now does NOT make the past one IOTA better than just what it was. It was crappy play then, and unfortunately it’s crap right now as well.

  14. Wulfpack 03/02/2009 at 4:42 PM #

    I’m done with the comparisons. Frankly, it just does not matter here in 2009.

    All I know is that we are now going on our third consecutive year finishing 10th or worse in the ACC, and the third straight year we’ll be sitting at home when the big boys are playing with everyone watching. That is not good for ANY program in our league, much less N.C. State with its “rich” and “storied” basketball tradition.

    Sidney Lowe is in drastic need of a banner year in 2010. Let’s hope it’s upon us. If it isn’t, we have officially reverted back to the Les years when we were everyone’s whipping boy.

  15. redfred2 03/02/2009 at 5:07 PM #

    Since someone else started this stuff, and since our tradition was just mentioned, maybe if that tradition had been valued, or possibly EVEN MENTIONED over an entire, maybe, just maybe, some of the earlier, as well as these kids right now, would play the game with A PURPOSE.

    You have to the ability to appreciate tradition first, then you have to be willing to honor it, or it just fades into oblivion.

  16. ldr of the pk 75 03/02/2009 at 5:12 PM #

    SaccoV is pretty much right on. I was at the Wake game Thurs. and though we had a chance to win there, and here tonight, it’s the fundamentals that are killing us.

    Beside all of the above mentioned, I’d throw in the way too many times the dribble is picked up off the inbounds before midcourt, leaving a desperation heave as a favored option.

    And, way too many cross court passes that are intercepted as if they were meant for the opposition. Our players, for sure, aren’t good enough to complete many of these without paying a price.

    We’re stuck with little talent that even if they weren’t lazy and fundamentally weak, would have trouble being consistant against real players. We’re doing about as well as we’re going to with the kind of talent we seem destined to have.

    The NIT might even be a pipe dream. But then, the NIT is a wet dream by all measures.

  17. redfred2 03/02/2009 at 6:22 PM #

    “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?”

    If that is about what I said earlier, I have doubts NO that Sidney Lowe knows who his best players are, and I also know that it’s his job as well as his desire to WIN ballgames RIGHT NOW. All I’m saying is that I personally, wouldn’t be any more frustrated or embarrassed if we were losing games by twenty or thirty points, then watching players who just DO NOT play with real desire. Also, we aren’t going anywhere in post season playing like this, so I would just as soon give the PT to players who may actually benefit from it in the future, because they will be coming back.

  18. highstick 03/02/2009 at 6:27 PM #

    Cowdog, I suspect there are more than you realize, but they won’t admit it! Your secret is secure!!!

  19. turfpack 03/02/2009 at 9:46 PM #

    I had a professor tell me one time -If a drunk continues to drink all the time-he’s a acoholic.
    If someone does studid things continiously without change-they are stupid or unteachable.
    Also you can bring a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. DAMNIT I’M TRIED OF THIRSTY HORSES.
    Their are people that truly don’t care in the world-in regular life and in sports.

  20. kyjelly 03/02/2009 at 9:58 PM #

    ^ rf: A few day’s ago you and quite a few other’s here had us heading to the NCAA’s?
    We are in 10th place and it looks like another 10th place finish? Is this progress?

  21. GAWolf 03/03/2009 at 10:44 AM #

    10 days ago I was preaching the concept of “reasonableness”, and yes I think we’ve made progress… though it’s not always apparent… I’ll give you that.

  22. redfred2 03/03/2009 at 12:25 PM #

    ky, you are DEAD WRONG.

    I have never said we were “heading” anywhere.

    Don’t throw a blanket over everyone who shows a little optimism every once in awhile. You’re thinking of someone else, not me.

  23. redfred2 03/03/2009 at 12:44 PM #

    “Sidney Lowe is in drastic need of a banner year in 2010.”

    Oh, so the schedule has been moved up considerably, possibly even at a rate that’s 200% plus what it’s ever been over the past two decades?

  24. kyjelly 03/03/2009 at 2:32 PM #

    Sorry than RF my bad thought you were on that wagon .
    But sure was a lot of talk about the tourney. We best beat BC or Miami or this is not even pretty once again.

  25. redfred2 03/03/2009 at 4:54 PM #

    No problem ky. Thought you might have already picked up on the fact that I’ve never been big on just making tourney appearances, for the sake of just making appearances in tournaments.

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