ACC Operation Basketball: Pack picked last (by a mile), Dennis Hopper added to staff?

09-10 Basketball College Basketball115

Operation Basketball has been going on this afternoon and it has been very interesting to follow the event via various internet outlets.

For example, NC State bloggers like ourselves have been able to interact with some members of the media via Twitter during the event. It is truly a new world!! You can follow our Twitter feed by clicking here. Also, many Tweeters took advantage of tagging from the event, so you can see all the Tweets that had the #accopbk tag by clicking here.

Early in the day Commissioner Swofford announced that the 2012 ACC Tournament slated for Atlanta will be played in Phillips Arena as opposed to the Georgia Dome. We had it early and added it to a related thread on our message board so that you could get the highest impact of information for your time. Click here.

You can watch the coaches’ interviews for free by clicking here.

It was not a surprise that NC State was selected last in the preseason poll…the big surprise was just how few points the Wolfpack garnered. Hell, I’m surprised they didn’t leave the 12th spot open and rank us 13th.

1, tie, Duke (25) 545
1, tie, UNC (20) 545
3, Clemson 409
4, Georgia Tech (2) 387
5, Maryland 378
6, Wake Forest (1) 315
7, Florida State 314
8, Virginia Tech 273
9, Boston College 251
10, Miami 135
11, Virginia 116
12, N.C. State 76

Again, this isn’t a surprise. The Wolfpack was recently selected #119th in the country by CollegeHoopsNet.com

Additionally, CollegeHoopsnet.com has taken an interesting approach to projecting the season – you can click here to see their “High / Low” for the entire conference. Their view of the Wolfpack is clearly consistent with today’s media poll.

NCSt High-Low

But, in spite of the struggles that the Wolfpack Basketball team projects to have this season, all is not lost. As you can see from the Twitter feed of the ACC office from today’s events, NC State has added the one and only Dennis Hopper to our staff. As ACCSportsJournal.com Tweeted — nobody can wait to see the Wolfpack run the picket fence this year!

Hopper

More from the day:
* Lowe gives lip service to being identified by up tempo and defense. (Link) Defense? Really? Defense? Would love nothing more. Will hold our breath.

* Lowe says State is heading in the right direction. (Link)

* Horner & Degand talk about preseason and uptempo. (Link)

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09-10 Basketball College Basketball

115 Responses to ACC Operation Basketball: Pack picked last (by a mile), Dennis Hopper added to staff?

  1. Stateman 10/26/2009 at 3:39 PM #

    BJD obviously Lowe was referring to the fact that people would be overlooking the team if everybody picked us not to do anything. We’re not clinging to him, he hasn’t even started year FOUR yet. We clung on to HWSNBN, giving a coach 4 or 5 years isn’t clinging on to him, that’s just ludicrous.

    Bubba: Needless to say, I don’t think anyone should put any stock in a scrimmage, especially a closed scrimmage. He could have been running any combination of players at any time and obviously in a scrimmage, the score is irrelevant.

  2. Thinkpack17 10/26/2009 at 3:40 PM #

    “No one has the ability to beat a press.”

    This is completely untrue. We ALWAYS have been able to beat the press (Except the 10 game GG started at PG). We just never beat the press to SCORE. We ping the ball around in the backcourt get it over the timeline…pick it up, get it back into our PGs hands and wait while the defense recovers. Beating the press has never been a problem of ours…punishing the press has.

  3. Stateman 10/26/2009 at 3:40 PM #

    If Sid loses every game for the rest of his career, it was still the right move to get rid of HWSNBN

  4. HPWolf 10/26/2009 at 3:41 PM #

    This is now Sid’s team. Only Horner is a leftover. Sid recruited this team. He chose the players he signed and their abilities to play basketball as well as their character as winners or losers. If his expectations are low we should be prepared for a really bad year.

    We have worked our way to the bottom of the league and even an NIT bid was too much for us last year. Is a NIT bid our goal this year? I can’t believe we are headed in the right direction under Lowe. Recruiting looks good until they are one and done like JJ. I do not believe Sid can build the kind of chemistry that it takes to have a consistant winner. We are by all accounts worse now than we were under the previous coach. Herb is relevant here because we all identify him as a coach who did more with less talent.

  5. Stateman 10/26/2009 at 3:49 PM #

    We are where we are because HWSNBN left us with a team that couldn’t even hold a practice because they didn’t have enough players. HWSNBN left us with a SG converted to a PG, with one year left, no center and a bunch of players with absolutely no athleticism (outside of Fells) who were recruited for a specific system and they couldn’t even play in THAT system well. So I give him an extra year for that. He also came in with very few, if any, HS and AAU connections. He needed time to build those relationships. I give him an extra year for that. I’d say after year 2, the beginning of year 3, is where he SHOULD have been when he first came into the job. Unfortunately he wasn’t and it’s also unfortunate that some of you put unrealistic expectations on a coach that wants nothing but the best for this program and is working his *** off to do so even though when he came in he was behind the 8 ball. Give the man some time.

  6. BJD95 10/26/2009 at 3:54 PM #

    He’s getting four years. That’s plenty by any reasonable standard.

  7. Stateman 10/26/2009 at 3:56 PM #

    No, 4 years is not reasonable when you started out with 5 or 6 scholarship players, no PG and no C as well as no HS or AAU connections. That’s about as unreasonable as it can get.

  8. HPWolf 10/26/2009 at 4:02 PM #

    Stateman, I don’t doubt that lowe wants the best for NCSU. I believe that he is simply not the man for the job. He will never be able to out coach our blue neighbors that we love to hate. Coach k and Williams have the ability to get their players to run themselves to death for them. Lowe’s teams have shown no heart yet. Remember, his only victory against carolina was in his first year with Herb’s players.

  9. Alpha Wolf 10/26/2009 at 4:08 PM #

    stateman, time has been and will be given for the foreseeable future. Thing is, at some point, Sid has to be accountable for his own team and the way things have gone. I think that a lot of fair-minded people who WANT Sid to succeed have pointed out legit concerns.

  10. Stateman 10/26/2009 at 4:14 PM #

    I don’t have a problem with placing blame on him if it’s really his blame to take. My issue is that I don’t think most of what has occured was his fault. Has he made some mistakes? Absolutely but that should be expected for someone taking their first collegiate coaching job, not to mention it was as a Head Coach. I believe Lowe has taken responsibility for the mistakes that he has made, I simply don’t believe some of the concerns people are listing are his fault. Is he responsible? Absolutely because he’s the Head Coach, but that doesn’t make them his FAULT. It’s not his fault when he draws up a play and the second or third option (javi in this case) gets a wide open three and airballs it. It’s not Lowes’ fault that some players were divas and wanted to turn some of the other players against the coach. It’s not Lowe’s fault that some of these kids had work ethics that would make a homeless crackhead look like Lance Armstrong. Could he have benched those players? Not his first year, but his second year yes he could have. But then everybody on here and everywhere else would be calling him an idiot and trying to crucify him for not playing his best players.

  11. ruffles31 10/26/2009 at 4:19 PM #

    Stateman,

    You are correct. 4 years is not a reasonable time for a head coach to come and implement his system and get his own players.

    Sincerely,

    Bruce Pearl
    Ben Howland
    Bob Stoops
    Nick Saban
    Roy Williams

  12. Thinkpack17 10/26/2009 at 4:23 PM #

    ^I’d argue he did sit his best players at moments. He benched Costner for quite a while against Marquette. And I remember Costner being lights out that game.

  13. HPWolf 10/26/2009 at 4:24 PM #

    Ruffles I hope you’re right. I just can’t help the feeling we’re all in the bus headed down the road bleeding red the whole way. We’re on a dead end road and we just passed the sign that says “Dead End”. But just in case, we’re going all the way to the end.

  14. Thinkpack17 10/26/2009 at 4:27 PM #

    Ruffles…When Sid was hired I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind was expecting Roy Williams or Nick Saban production. At least not in his early years. He just wasn’t that type of hire. Sorry.

  15. wolfonthehill 10/26/2009 at 4:28 PM #

    I can’t honestly look at another ACC team that we should logically be expected to finish ahead of. We just don’t have competitive ACC talent at enough positions right now… nothing complicated about it.

  16. ncsufan13 10/26/2009 at 4:44 PM #

    “Ruffles…When Sid was hired I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind was expecting Roy Williams or Nick Saban production. At least not in his early years. He just wasn’t that type of hire. Sorry.”

    What kind of production was/is expected of him? Given the complete lack of satisfaction with the previous regime, I don’t see how Sid wouldn’t be expected to at least match Sendek’s production which was mediocre in his first few years and turned up towards the end of his tenure. Is Sidney Lowe here to beat Duke and UNC and contend for the ACC championship every year or is he here to produce like Sendek and just get us into the NCAA tournament if only through the first round?

  17. theghost 10/26/2009 at 5:01 PM #

    If you’re suggesting that Lowe should have a significantly better record than he does now, it seems you’ve got to subscribe to at least one of the following:

    a) any good coach can compete in the ACC, whether he has a competent PG or not
    b) any good coach should’ve had no problem recruiting a top-tier PG (or two) into the NCS program as left by the previous coach
    c) the point guard(s) we had or have been able to get are adequate for ACC play – meaning either
    *Previous coach left the program with a perfectly good backup PG for Atsur (would that be Ferguson, or Braxton Albritton?)
    *any good coach can compete in the conference with a backcourt of Courtney Fells and Javier Gonzalez (file under (a))
    *any good coach would never have let Atsur pull a hammy or Degand tear an ACL (AND Degand is a competent ACC PG to begin with)

    Which would you say is true? B is the only alternative, right? So the argument is about recruiting – you’re saying he’s bad BECAUSE he doesn’t have a PG. I would say that he’s bad WHEN he doesn’t have a PG – just as anybody else would be. I maintain that Lowe is 2-1 vs. nc/duke when he has a PG.

    agree wholeheartedly with bradley on the Godwin’s Law for HS.

  18. Thinkpack17 10/26/2009 at 5:04 PM #

    “What kind of production was/is expected of him?”

    I expected a slow start, but marked, steady improvement every year. With Roy’s history combined with UNCs history, he had a different measuring stick coming in. That’s just fact.

    “Given the complete lack of satisfaction with the previous regime, I don’t see how Sid wouldn’t be expected to at least match Sendek’s production which was mediocre in his first few years and turned up towards the end of his tenure.”

    Somehow we all keep forgetting…Herb left US. We didn’t throw him out on his ass like we are all talking. He ended this partnership. So I don’t see how us complaining about Herb’s program automatically leads one to assume since he left we would be getting someone with his track record. Just because your assistance with the butterface and big cans quits that doesn’t mean you are going to be able to replace her with someone who has at least C-cups (esp. when you have a slingblade doing the hiring).

    “Is Sidney Lowe here to beat Duke and UNC and contend for the ACC championship every year or is he here to produce like Sendek and just get us into the NCAA tournament if only through the first round?”

    He is here to beat Duke and UNC, contend for the ACC championship every year, get us into the NCAA tourny and every now and again make a run in the NCAA tourny.

  19. Bubba 10/26/2009 at 5:10 PM #

    Thinkpack

    Please go back and watch our games with Clemson, Duke UNC, Mich St (A couple of yrs back) and even FSU and tell us we dont have trouble breaking the press

  20. ncsufan13 10/26/2009 at 5:11 PM #

    I’m not saying anything about a PG, I think that whole argument is just a smokescreen to deflect criticism away from Lowe. I don’t believe that out of the 12 teams in the ACC Sidney Lowe is the only one who mysteriously can’t coach up or find a talented PG.

    I was just interested in what the realistic expectations are for Sidney Lowe. What kind of time frame should those expectations be set to, and how does that compare to Sendek’s production. It seems to me that Lowe has been given an enormous pass and been subjected to less scrutiny than Sendek. It doesn’t seem our team hasn’t improved in any area since he arrived and the only thing people are hanging on to is the promise of a great recruiting class that is always a year away.

  21. theghost 10/26/2009 at 5:31 PM #

    “I’m not saying anything about a PG, I think that whole argument is just a smokescreen to deflect criticism away from Lowe”

    I appreciate that you disagree, and there’s definitely a chance that I’m wrong – but questioning my motive doesn’t defeat my argument. If you’re saying I use an invalid point to deflect valid criticism, then let’s deal with the argument – where am I wrong? Otherwise, maybe I’m using a valid point to deflect invalid criticism…

  22. ncsufan13 10/26/2009 at 5:47 PM #

    Sindey Lowe is ultimately accountable for the problems on the team. The problems at PG are not an issue that is somehow out of reach of his coaching responsibilities. He should be expected to correct it if is an issue. Saying that we have a bad PG, therefore Sidney isn’t at fault doesn’t make sense when he has the tools to fix the problem.

  23. BJD95 10/26/2009 at 6:15 PM #

    Again, the defenders are using the subjective “fault” instead of the appropriate, objective “responsibility.” It allows you to make excuses, and see what you want to see. It’s also one small step above my favorite argument – “I’d like to see YOU do better.”

    Let’s look at the market. Assume these facts – 12 team conference, large state university, good facilities, no probation. What school would retain a coach who finished 10th (NIT), 12th (no postseason), 10th (no postseason), 10th-12th (no postseason)?

    And I make that assumption for Year Four because the Lowe defenders won’t even throw down even a very low bar for Lowe (improved conference finish, NIT, etc.) – the only acceptable standard for them is no standard at all.

    Yeah, that’s crazy.

  24. old13 10/26/2009 at 6:46 PM #

    Hasn’t this same (almost identical – just change the characters) discussion been ongoing for about two decades now! Does that tell anyone anything!

  25. theghost 10/26/2009 at 7:04 PM #

    I think we all agree the expectation is competing for the ACC (for the first time since ’90). But to compete you have to improve, you can’t just wake up one Tuesday and start winning with whoever happens to be in the gym – it’s been 20 years. So, is Lowe’s team improving, and will he continue to improve? Last year was an improvement over the previous year – OOC losses were Davidson (ranked), Marquette (ranked), and UF – definitely an improvement (UNO, Mich St, ECU). The PG situation is improving. The talent level is improving. The turnover ratio has improved. IF he continues to improve, then he’s doing what we’re asking him to do. If he’d shown no improvement and no indication that anything would change, I’d be with you. Firing him while he’s improving the program doesn’t make sense. If he stops improving, he should go (granted, we’ll have to sit through Fowler’s Mandatory Bad Coach 5-Year Waiting Period – but he goes).

    BJD – what I’m hearing is “that’s just more excuses from the let’s-keep-the-coach crowd – I’ve heard it all before.” Could I not too say “that’s just more excuses from the let’s-fire-the-coach crowd – heard it all before”? We can go back and forth like that and get nowhere. If I’m wrong, then certainly you can point to how you would’ve expected Lowe to do better, not just dismiss it with the “excuses”… excuse.

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