Wednesday Bytes

 

  • CHANGE IS COMING!  And we need your help.  If you have any computer or creative skills then please click here and think about submitting a new banner for the site as a part of our coming re-design.  Thanks so much!

 

  • While we are discussing the site, we would again like to thank the good folks at the ACC Sports Journal for including us in their ‘Pulse of the Fanbase’ feature yesterday.   Even more, we want to thank all of our readers for your fantastically generous comments in the comments section.  We also want to thank those delusional psychopaths who have the moral ethics and character for possum turd for showing your true colors for the world to see. 

 

  • Speaking of yesterday’s Q&A with ACCSJ…their last question focused on Mike Glennon and I didn’t have very much to say.  It isn’t fair to put too many expectations on any unproven college athlete; especially a quarterback.  That ties nicely with the following quote that ESPN ran on their blog today as the best quote of the spring.

Best quote: "I hope he competes for the job and tries to take it away from Russell [Wilson]," NC State coach Tom O’Brien said of backup quarterback Mike Glennon. "… Glennon has that potential tag, potential means you haven’t done anything yet. He’ll certainly have his opportunity, he’s worked extremely hard out of season. He looked at a lot of tape. He’s much better than he was a year ago.

"It became pretty obvious to us after the first couple of scrimmages [last year] our choice was going to be either Glennon or Wilson coming into the fall. Russell ended up winning that competition then. He’s the incumbent and it’s his job, but I think Michael Glennon wants to take it away from him."

 

  • FWIW, I cannot imagine Glennon beating out Russell Wilson this year.  However, do not under-estimate the potential that Glennon could emerge to unseat Wilson in the future as our offensive line continues to improve.  My opinion is that the better our offensive line becomes, the more potent and effective Glennon becomes as an option under center.

 

  • We’ve covered NC State’s spring game a couple of times – most recently you can surf through this entry.  But, ACCNOw did us all a service by summarizing the attendance at local college’s spring games in this entry.  I can’t help but believe that Coach O’Brien’s masterful staff will have this in front of every high school player they recruit.  I also consider it a foregone conclusion that even if UNC-CH cancels next year’s spring game that they will announce attendance in excess of 15,000 fans.

Virginia Tech – 40,000
Florida State – 36,000
Clemson – 24,000
NC State – 21,075
Maryland – 10,323
Georgia Tech – 8,500
Virginia – 8,000
Duke – 4,162
UNC – 2,000

Miami, Wake Forest and Boston College did not give attendance figures for their respective spring games. Safe to say if it was near Virginia Tech’s neighborhood, we would have heard about it.

 

  • Rush the Court has a really good entry breaking down the NBA Draft’s early entrants.  Although accurate, the conclusions/comments are very embarrassing for NC State’s Brandon Costner

 

  • College Football News has been listing schools that have produced the best players at different positions through the years and NC State came in #17 in their wide receiver rankings.  The caveat of the list is that the results are supposedly based exclusively on college production, which probably hurts NC State a little as both Haywood Jefferies and Mike Quick’s performance in the NFL may have elevated our ranking.  Regardless, I would compare the college production of NC State’s Holt, Koren Robinson, Jerricho Cotchery and others with many of the schools above us, including Pitt, Wisconsin & LSU who all made the Top 10.

 

  • Yesterday was Erin Andrews 31st birthday.  (Link)  Sorry.  Just had to slip that in there.

  

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  • The Atlantic Coast Conference’s Women’s Softball Championships are being played this weekend and the we’ve got a screenshot of the bracket for you to the right.  NC State finished 6th out of 8 teams in the conference – with Carolina finishing first.  Color me confused…I don’t follow softball enough to know all of the specifics…but it wasn’t that long ago when the “Reality Deniers” were holding our softball program up as some kind of paragon and example of our great athletics program.  Didn’t Lee Fowler and the Athletics Department prioritize softball as one of the key facilities that needed to be built?  Didn’t we build them a nice new stadium?  And, just a few years after building them a new facility the program is now battling in the bottom tier of the conference?

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43 Responses to Wednesday Bytes

  1. thebigwood 05/06/2009 at 12:29 PM #

    What’s the chance of a 2 QB offense in the fall?

  2. Alpha Wolf 05/06/2009 at 12:32 PM #

    ^ Pretty solid, given Wilson will no doubt get banged up.

  3. sautz 05/06/2009 at 12:33 PM #

    “Reality Deniers”
    Classic.

  4. Clarksa 05/06/2009 at 12:52 PM #

    “Didn’t Lee Fowler and the Athletics Department prioritize softball as one of the key facilities that needed to be built? Didn’t we build them a nice new stadium? And, just a few years after building them a new facility the program is now battling in the bottom tier of the conference?”

    Didn’t they win the ACC tournament before they even got the new facility…which would seem to indicate they have gotten worse with the new facilities?

  5. choppack1 05/06/2009 at 1:04 PM #

    According to that link – UNC is the #3 seed and GaTech is No #1 seed. This is really intersting because Tech and State are usually in a horse race for the bottom of the Sears/Director’s Cup for the traditional ACC…

    I think the spring football attendance hint very strongly that NC State has become or is becoming a football school. However, look for UNC to turn up the heat on their game – they don’t like their shortcomings showing up in print. And believe me, if they have good attendance EVERYONE READING A PAPER OR WATCHING A NEWSCAST FROM NORTH CAROLINA WILL HEAR ABOUT IT.

  6. primacyone 05/06/2009 at 1:05 PM #

    Still amazes me what Paul Hewitt did (not) with Gani Lawal . . . .versus what Sidney Lowe did with JJ Hickson.

    Lawal was supposed to walk the dog with Hickson back in the day . . . .

    And nobody wants Brandon Costner. Not us, not the NBA, maybe not even the Europeans.

  7. Alpha Wolf 05/06/2009 at 1:40 PM #

    ^Costner may catch on somewhere overseas, there are just too many semi-pro teams for him not to get on a roster somewhere. That roster may be in an Aussie C league, but from there it will be his chance to show that he really does have a working ethic and will bring his all night after night.

    Can you imagine if there were a way to put Javi Gonzalez’ mentality inside Brandon Costner’s skull what kind of player he would be?

  8. primacyone 05/06/2009 at 1:59 PM #

    ^”Can you imagine if there were a way to put Javi Gonzalez’ mentality inside Brandon Costner’s skull what kind of player he would be?”

    Let’s hope you would get Scott Wood!!!

  9. choppack1 05/06/2009 at 2:10 PM #

    Primacy – you’d actually end up w/ someone like Tyler Hansborough – except, I don’t think Javi plays or works as hard as he does.

  10. packplantpath 05/06/2009 at 2:43 PM #

    Please, never post “CHANGE IS COMING!!!” again unless you are following it with a story about certain administration officials departing.

    I had my hopes up and everything………

  11. old13 05/06/2009 at 3:14 PM #

    ^ I concur!

  12. GAWolf 05/06/2009 at 3:39 PM #

    I believe Russell Wilson, with his obvious leadership skills, intelligence, work ethic, and All-American appeal, could easily turn out to be like this guy. This guy is a quarterback-turned-receiver/skat-back-turned-QB-turned receiver. When Russell puts on about 20 lbs, they’ll be the same size at 6’0″, 200ish. I see a lot of one in the other. I haven’t met RW, but I have spent some time with Hines away from the field. They both seem like super, super guys to me. HW is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. It would be awesome for RW to have an NFL career like Hines if either QB or baseball doesn’t pan out for him. Compare here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hines_Ward

    http://northcarolinastate.scout.com/a.z?s=178&p=8&c=1&nid=2508716

  13. txpack 05/06/2009 at 3:47 PM #

    An anonymous source posted on Wolfpack hoops that John Wall is coming to State (will commit within 48 to 72 hours)!

    Any sources to comfirm this?????

  14. wpackman33 05/06/2009 at 4:14 PM #

    I saw that anonymous source too. i don’t really believe it. Just somebody wanting to stir up something.

    But in related Bball recruiting news… does anyone know anything about this Painter kid that we are recruiting. He seems like a good player who can really help us in the front court. Anyone know any thing about this?

    Great Job SFN! You guys to such a great job day in and day out at keeping us fans up to date.

    Go Pack!!!!

  15. Dr. BadgerPack 05/06/2009 at 5:31 PM #

    I wouldn’t dismiss softball after a bad year… I still think it’s a good program, but next year is when the definitive answer on that will most likely come. The roster composition (in a sport where 10 see the field) is 15 Fr/So, 5 Jr, 2 Sr. Several All-ACC seniors are missing from last year’s squad. They also will only lose 1 pitcher (the last two years, if memory serves, the bulk of the innings were logged by Jr’s and Sr’s).

    It’s kind of like baseball… which is also pretty young (and which I admittedly haven’t had much time to post about… NIH grants blow). Although contributing along with the youth in baseball is the utter bullpen meltdown that has been going on for much of the season.

  16. 61Packer 05/06/2009 at 5:39 PM #

    Next year. It’s always next year.

  17. Afterglow 05/06/2009 at 5:58 PM #

    txpack-I don’t know about any inside source but what is interesting is that Eric Bledso, a four star point guard ranked 6th in the nation just committed to Kentucky according to scout.com so spin that however you want.

  18. Dr. BadgerPack 05/06/2009 at 6:03 PM #

    After a further look… the young offense isn’t all that good for softball, nor is the defense. State has a 2.17 team era to 2.4 ish for opponents; and a 23-24 record. So it appears unearned runs played a role. Campana returns next year; not bad pitching numbers… fewer hits and more strikeouts than innings pitched. Just needs to cut down on the walks a tad. Still has a 1.78 era though.

    And a correction to my first comment– it was two years ago that State had the very largely senior laden team and All-ACC performers (the SS was retained both years).

    Still, if the ACC tourney plays “by the seeds” this will be the first losing history in the program’s existence. So a little slack is probably deserved. The reason to look to next year is to see how the young pitchers emerge, who by all accounts are supposed to be very good. The 15 Fr/So represent the classes built on the Ervin years and last years run to the ACC final (which was ended by that smoking hot pitcher VT had…) Yeah. I watch softball. I’ll admit it.

  19. JimValvano 05/06/2009 at 6:25 PM #

    Torry Holt

    http://www.tmz.com/2009/05/04/gotta-see-nfl-stars-finger-banged-up/

    On another note…Eric Bledsoe (5 Star PG) committed to Kentucky today. I wonder if this affects John Wall???

  20. travelwolf 05/06/2009 at 8:22 PM #

    I’d like to point out that there are no ACC players in the “You gotta be joking” category – although Costner probably belonged there (at least “YGBJ” is what I said when Costner signed with an agent).

  21. highstick 05/06/2009 at 8:24 PM #

    Mark my word, Mrs. Wall is “locking down the young man” and is telling him that “you will go to State”! No sources, just a feeling! He is way too immature and I’ve just got a sneaky suspicion that his mama is smart enough to figure that out and wants to keep him under control for a while longer.

    Crazier things have happened!

  22. Clarksa 05/06/2009 at 8:40 PM #

    Another byte to add from Ken Tysiac… http://foxyurl.com/1MC

    High grades for Pack, Devils, Heels

    N.C. State led all ACC men’s basketball teams with a score of 995 out of a possible 1,000. The APR measures the total progress toward graduation of athletes on each team at each Division I schools. A 925 is considered a passing score.

    School athletics officials said N.C. State’s strong showing in the classroom is partly due to coach Sidney Lowe’s efforts to keep players in school after he took over for Herb Sendek in 2006.

  23. kyjelly 05/07/2009 at 3:53 AM #

    clarksa ^ If you read what it said it gave credit to herb,and said official who claimed and gave credit to Sid was none other than Fowler?
    Now take a look at wolfpack hoops site and find one objective staement about us in it. They will still be saying wall is coming here,10 years from now!

  24. Clarksa 05/07/2009 at 6:48 AM #

    Coach Sendek and Coach Lowe both deserve the credit…for example, JJ Hickson came back and finished his classes when he was drafted to remain in good academic standing. Can we just not be happy about the positive press?

  25. choppack1 05/07/2009 at 6:52 AM #

    Real interesting tidbit in here. First off – congrats to Sidney. Secondly, it says that GaTech is losing 2 scholies:

    “Georgia Tech, which lost two scholarships, was the only ACC men’s basketball team penalized.”

    Lee has to be happy about this. Last year, we were the only ACC school penalized.

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