McCauley Closes Out in Style

08-09 Basketball84
BC (20-10) 34 35 69
NCSU (16-12) 43 31 74

Playing his last regular season home game (don’t expect a home game in the NIT, either), Big Ben walks off the court a winner – with his rebound and free throws sealing the deal. His final numbers? 20 points and 6 rebounds, with each rebound being crucial.

The other stat we can feel great about is 6:1 – that was Javi’s assist-to-turnover ratio (Edit: Fixed the TO number.). Got to tighten up on those free throws, though.

Fells played well before his injury, and quasi-senior Brandon Costner at least played hard (but in no way did he play smart). Kudos to the veterans for not laying down. Next up is Miami, in a faceoff for the 9 seed.

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

84 Responses to McCauley Closes Out in Style

  1. newt 03/04/2009 at 9:03 PM #

    Javi won the game. He’s becoming one of my favorite players. But I’m glad Ben got to sink those free throws to seal the game.

    Looking at the rest of the ACC with a 7-9 record, we can still finish, what, seventh?

  2. Sweet jumper 03/04/2009 at 9:04 PM #

    Nice game Ben. Thanks for the effort. Horner and Javi and CJ played well tonight. Smith played well but he needs to shoot free throws all summer so he can play at the end of close games. Good win Pack. Beat the ‘Canes.

  3. McPete 03/04/2009 at 9:07 PM #

    Javi has made major progress. did he really just frustrate tyrese rice all night? really? tracy smith is also getting alot better.

    that was just about the best defense/rebounding performance i’ve seen with these guys all year. bc destroyed us on the glass the 1st contest.

  4. Avid109 03/04/2009 at 9:09 PM #

    I only caught the last few minutes of the game, but in the part I saw, the guys played some pretty good defense. That’s refreshing.

  5. BJD95 03/04/2009 at 9:10 PM #

    I don’t think it’s possible to win any tiebreakers, since we can only tie MD and VT (who both beat us). Our seed will be #9 or #10.

    ** NOTE – This assumes GT beats Miami, which looks like a lock right now. If the Canes come back, we could finish in a 4-way tie for 7th with MD, VT, and Miami – but I don’t think 2-2 against the other 3 teams could possibly land us higher than 8 or 9.

  6. Daily Update 03/04/2009 at 9:13 PM #

    Always thought Javi could be a player at this level. Mentally he is come a long ways from where he was 4-6 weeks ago. IMO, he has upside too. I think we are going to be fine at PG next year, so Lo Brown can play the 2.

    Nice finish for Ben. I had no clue he had 20 points until the end.

  7. highstick 03/04/2009 at 9:15 PM #

    Even if we don’t go anywhere, we’re back in the Big 10-ACC challenge next year! That was embarrassing to be DAL!

  8. choppack1 03/04/2009 at 9:19 PM #

    Great game tonight – and make no mistake about it – another small step for this program under Coach Lowe. The 6 conference wins is the most regular season conference wins for Coach Lowe.

    Great to see McCauley wrap it up tonight. I actually thought Costner didn’t take horrid shots and passed pretty well – he just didn’t have his shot tonight. (I’d also note that it’s very tough for this guy to guard the 3.)

    Fantastic game by Javi. I wondered watching him last year if he was hurt. When I saw how he was playing this year – I was just wondering if he was hopelessly slow. I’m convinced that Javi was hurt now – he has good quickness, and is gaining more confidence running the show. He did a good job on Rice tonight – and he’s always hustled. Like so many on our team – he just needs to cut down on the brain farts. (Sometimes I wonder if the staff does too – some games, we have excellent game plans, others, I just wonder what they are thinking.)

    Williams had a solid night -and so did Horner.

    More thoughts – if there’s a team we match up well w/ – it should be BC. Their defense is beyond conservative – as they apply virtually no pressure on the ball.

    I didn’t know it was this bad – but apparently we’re shooting 58% from the foul line (for the year I guess?) If so, there’s a good chance that’s the difference between this weekend’s game being playing for a bubble bid vs. playing for a home NIT game.

  9. ncsufan23 03/04/2009 at 9:24 PM #

    If Duke beats Carolina Sunday, who gets the #1 seed in the ACCT because both will be 12-4 in the league and have spilt their season series. What is the next tiebreaker?

  10. RagingWolf 03/04/2009 at 9:32 PM #

    how they faired against the 3rd place team. For example, if Wake is 3rd, Duke gets the #1 seed because they went 1-1 versus Wake while UNC went 0-1

  11. SaccoV 03/04/2009 at 9:32 PM #

    This was a solid win, especially for the seniors and Javi. The only bad part of this game was the announcers. I’m not sure if you know this, but Mychael Thompson went to NC State. Did you guys know that? Also, I heard Earl Monroe was a shooting guard for us in the late 80s and early 90s.

  12. Daily Update 03/04/2009 at 9:35 PM #

    That 56% FT stat was incorrect. We are 70% on the year (not sure about ACC play).

    Javi’s stat line:
    5 points(2-5, 1-4)
    6 assists
    1 turnover
    5 rebounds

    Horner:
    11 points
    5 rebounds
    3 assists
    1 TO

    Tracy Smith was great as well.

  13. SaccoV 03/04/2009 at 9:38 PM #

    Daily Update, according to theacc.com, State was shooting 71.2 % from the line and 71.4 % in conference play. His ass must have been the source, DU!

  14. GAWolf 03/04/2009 at 9:42 PM #

    Pack Baseball rolling into the top of the 15th against Akron. 3-3.

  15. GAWolf 03/04/2009 at 9:43 PM #

    Take that back. Error by SS and a man on 1st. Errors usually kill you. We’ll see.

  16. SaccoV 03/04/2009 at 9:44 PM #

    GAWolf, is there a stattracker somewhere? Or can we get KNC online?

  17. choppack1 03/04/2009 at 9:47 PM #

    Maybe it was ACC play…Of course, this is the same network that had us at 5-10 AFTER the game and BC at 9-6.

  18. BJD95 03/04/2009 at 9:50 PM #

    I knew that FT percentage had to be wrong. Smith is our worst, and even he shoots 58%. Fells is well over 80%, and everybody else who plays is at least around 70% except CJ, who hasn’t had many attempts.

    I’m not sure what happens if Duke beats UNC and Clemson beats Wake. The Duke/UNC tiebreaker would depend on who is 3rd, and the Wake/Clemson tiebreaker would depend on who finishes first.

    Also, if Wake beats Clemson and UNC beats Duke, then Wake gets the 2 seed. So, if State loses to Miami, we want UNC and Wake to win Sunday. If State beats Miami, we want Duke and Wake to win (Wake is our best Friday matchup of those 3 teams, and UNC is our worst).

    I’m not sure how the 7th place tiebreakers work, but we want VT as the 7 seed if we lose to Miami, and as the 8 seed if we win.

    These are just secondary considerations – it would still be better to win no matter what, to solidify our NIT standing.

  19. BladenWolf 03/04/2009 at 9:51 PM #

    Pleased to see the team pull out a redeeming win with some solid defense. Nice to see Ben have a good farewell game.

    It’s great Javi had a good game and limited his TO’s, but I need to see a few more games like this one before I’m ready to say we’ll be “fine at PG” next year.

    Overall it was a good way to leave the RBC. Here’s hoping we close out the season with a win at Miami and do something special in Atlanta. Who knows? “Just survive and advance…”

  20. Alpha Wolf 03/04/2009 at 9:52 PM #

    Tony Haynes said one turnover for Gonzalez. Seems like it was a no look pass down low that was intercepted.

    He’s also becoming one of my favorite players. The kid is all hustle all the time and and he’s getting smarter. If he gets just a little more consistent with the three point shot he becomes a dangerous player.

    Hopefully Fells will come back fast from his groin injury — Lowe said Fells told him walking off the court that it was hard for him to walk.

  21. BJD95 03/04/2009 at 10:00 PM #

    Defense is at least 50% effort and heart. That’s why it makes me so mad when we do the matador thing. Any D-1 athlete SHOULD be able to play at least passable defense. Jesus, Atsur did it on one freaking leg!

  22. Alpha Wolf 03/04/2009 at 10:03 PM #

    ^ Amen. That’s why I don’t understand why Tracy Smith is not a fearsome defender. If he was half of what he is when he gets the ball down low, he’d be a star.

  23. wufpup76 03/04/2009 at 10:04 PM #

    N.C. State University Men’s basketball team makes history at the RBC Center

    (AP) – Raleigh, NC

    In a shocking display of grit and unexpected toughness, the N.C. State Wolfpack outrebounded Boston College’s Eagles for the first time in the history of the Universe.

    The Wolfpack boxed out well all night and kept the Eagles from being able to rely on one of their usual strengths – second chance points.

    Boston College head coach Al Skinner was dismayed by this particular statistic after the game. “I never in a million years thought this would happen. They are not usually a great rebounding team. They were tough tonight.”

    “I am … I am at a loss for words. I’m just dumbfounded that we got outrebounded by a team coached by a tiny little point guard.”

    N.C. State head coach Sidney Lowe said the Wolfpack had been working hard on rebounding drills this week in practice and it paid off tonight. “All of our guys really went after it on the glass. Dennis Horner and CJ Williams in particular boxed out well when they were in the game and were key in drawing some over the back calls. And the bigs worked really hard. Ben, Brandon, and Tracy all did their jobs well with respect to rebounding and boxing out.”

    Even diminutive point guard Javi Gonzalez got in on the act, securing a couple of huge offensive rebounds for the Wolfpack late in the second half.

    In other stunning news, both Gonzalez and fellow point guard Farnold Degand were solid with the ball all night long and helped keep Wolfpack turnovers to a minimum.

    Oh, by the way – the Wolfpack won the game 74-69. It was Sidney Lowe’s first career head coaching victory over the Eagles and the Wolfpack’s second ever victory in the series against Boston College.

  24. buttPACKer 03/04/2009 at 10:07 PM #

    i’m definitely starting to feel better about BB these days. . . there has been tangible progress in recent weeks, and suddenly it doesn;t seem that roaring sucking sound is as loud as it used to be. . . there is hope, i believe.

  25. Alpha Wolf 03/04/2009 at 10:11 PM #

    “Solid with the ball all night” probably had a great deal to do with the fact that BC didn’t much pressure the ball in the backcourt and packed back into a zone in order to try to shut down McCauley and Smith. Costner wasn’t really trying to work in the paint much at all tonight.

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