Monday Morning Breather

09-10 Basketball39

Quite a weekend in Wolfpack land with the football team’s big finish to the season and the Basketball team’s surprising 5-0 start! We Twittered and posted and conversed on the message boards until we were (happily) exhausted.

The Big Ten Challenge starts tonight with Virginia and Penn State. For the first time in the history of the event I am predicting a Big Ten win over the ACC. The match-ups appear skewed in the Big Ten’s direction this season. Heck, the ACC has a pre-season Top 25 team (Georgia Tech) not even playing in the event. Has that ever happened?

If you are looking for some news and perspective this morning, then PLEASE shoot over to this link and you can take your pick of a bunch of informative and interesting topics. Your SFN login works just as it does on the blog.

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09-10 Basketball

39 Responses to Monday Morning Breather

  1. Alpha Wolf 11/30/2009 at 11:14 AM #

    All I really care about is our hoops team managing a win over Northwestern.

    We’re 5-0 and with a decent win over Auburn, but I still have some concerns, for example, the scoring droughts and ball-handling issues. I hope that these are early season issues that will be ironed out, and that it doesn’t become (remain) a trademark of the team.

  2. LRM 11/30/2009 at 11:18 AM #

    We’re going to find out a lot about this team with a very tough stretch over the next several weeks with games @ Marquette, @ Wake, @ Arizona, and then Florida.

  3. ncsufan13 11/30/2009 at 11:20 AM #

    If we could manage to break 70 points in a game I’d have more confidence in our offense. Hopefully as our guys get more comfortable playing together they will be able to put up some better numbers. Scott Wood, CJ Williams, and Howell could bring the type of power to our offense which we’re lacking if they played up to their talent. We have so many new pieces in the offense though I can’t really fault them for not scoring higher so early.

  4. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/30/2009 at 11:31 AM #

    “If we could manage to break 70 points in a game I’d have more confidence in our offense.”

    Before Lowe, I thought an NC State basketball team scoring 50 points was a real shot in the arm for the program.

  5. Alpha Wolf 11/30/2009 at 11:33 AM #

    What opinion does everyone here opinion have on the defense? Mine is mixed.

  6. StateFans 11/30/2009 at 11:34 AM #

    Was going to do a blog entry about how our early season opponents are performing at a high-level but I haven’t had a chance to get to it.

    Florida beat #2 Michigan State and is crushing.

    Northwestern beat #15 Notre Dame and I think just won a tournament.

    Marquette was 6-0 last I checked and won the Old Spice with a win over at least one ranked opponent [edit by LRM: Marquette is now 6-1 after losing the Old Spice Champisonship to Florida State 57-56].

    I mean, these guys are all knocking the cover off the ball and are currently tracking for NCAA Tournament bids.

    I know that it may sound crazy…but, if we can keep playing as well as we have…the ultimate strength of our schedule could get us an NCAA Tournament bid with as few as 18 or 19 wins. Not saying it can/will happen. But, we are 25% of the way there.

  7. waxhaw 11/30/2009 at 11:35 AM #

    I’m pretty sure the Big 10 had a ranked team left out one year. I think it was Ohio State.

  8. Classof89 11/30/2009 at 11:40 AM #

    ^^

    But remember, playing a whole bunch of good teams and losing to them doesn’t do a whole lot for you (this was the old Sendek argument).

    It’s great that Florida, Northwestern, and Marquette are doing well, but if we go 0-4 against those three and Arizona, it will put a major crimp in our postseason hopes. Right now, Wake looks like the most winnable game of the next four, given they lost at home to Bill and Mary…

  9. theghost 11/30/2009 at 12:02 PM #

    I love 5-0 and I do think we’re on track to exceed low expectations this year, but I still think our guard play is going to struggle against ACC pressure – just hope everyone’s positive sentiment doesn’t go jumping off a cliff if we drop a couple of games – even when the inevitable loss or two comes along, I still like the direction we’re headed with better cohesion, better defense, more consistent overall play, and improving talent.

    I think NCAA is still going to be very tough with our PG situation, but should be able to manage NIT, and maybe challenge to win the NIT as the young guys improve later in the season.

    wrt defense – I haven’t seen any games, only going on stats and writeups – sounds like the better team play and hustle may be the main contributing factor, which I like, however, really solid defense should result in better rebounding margins. But, my read is this is more a function of still being a little small down low, since it seems Horner is a SF playing PF and our SF’s seem to just be tall guards (Wood, CJ) – those guys just aren’t strong enough yet to play D on the blocks against a good-sized forward. Ironically, I do like the depth, though – Howell, Vandenburg, and even Davis all seem able to contribute down low, hoping Painter comes along as well. If Degand gets back, we’ve got 10 or 11 guys capable of getting minutes. If he doesn’t, though, we’re going to struggle against good guard play.

  10. Sw0rdf1sh 11/30/2009 at 12:05 PM #

    I think the Defense looks much better than last year and might give us a shot at staying in some down the road.

    The problem seems to be a little bit of it fading in and out sometimes in intensity, but that could vary with lineup.

  11. rtpack24 11/30/2009 at 12:06 PM #

    Went to the game last night. T Smith is really good. Javi played well, did not understand when he and Mays are in the game at same time Mays was at the point. The Aussie looks pretty good to me, he just needs minutes. If we are going to run and push the ball more I would like to know when that starts. They need Degand and he was on bench in street clothes last night.

  12. 61Packer 11/30/2009 at 12:07 PM #

    The Challenge and non-conference games are interesting and should help us. But let’s remember to focus on what’s really important- the ACC games. These are the ones we want to win, and from what I’ve seen so far from the other ACC teams, there’s no excuse for our team to finish at or near the bottom of the league this season. There’s no reason to hope for anything less than a .500 ACC mark. Why not?

  13. wolfonthehill 11/30/2009 at 12:07 PM #

    Ugh – those four games look like nothing but a reality check to me.

    Prove me wrong, fellas…

  14. choppack1 11/30/2009 at 12:20 PM #

    By the #s, right now, we’re in pretty good shape. It’s way too early to think that we’re in, but, especially for a young team, we’re doing just fine:

    http://www.kenpom.com/rate.php

    #47

    http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkc0910.htm
    #35

    http://www.collegerpi.com/

    #25

    We’ve got 32 games total, of these 22 games are against teams from major conferences…we’ve got 21 of these left to play. If we go 10-12 against this competition, we’re probably in.

  15. sksr97 11/30/2009 at 12:21 PM #

    Don’t count on Degand. He should only play when PG #1/#2 are not able to play. He doesn’t deserve to play and I bet you that if he does play when his suspension is over that it is going to mess up the chemistry. I hope the staff recognizes that when it does and sit him for good. Besides he is a turnover machine.
    I think Mays runs the point when he comes in and plays along with Javi just to give Javi a break while he is still on the court yet giving us another ball handler.

  16. sksr97 11/30/2009 at 12:25 PM #

    61Packer I agree with you! We should look for .500 at least on that 4 game stretch. 2 of the 4 are at home and Arizona is beatable!! If we reduce the scoring droughts we will be in every game. The droughts seemed to come when Lowe has at least 3 bench players in at the same time. Once Howell gets his legs under him that will change. He is a big, strong guy and will help Smith eventually.

  17. VaWolf82 11/30/2009 at 12:27 PM #

    I still like the direction we’re headed with better cohesion, better defense, more consistent overall play, and improving talent.

    It’s easy to look good against poor competition. It never fails to amaze me how little it takes to give some State fans soaring expectations or how little it takes for some to start jumping off cliffs.

  18. Alpha Wolf 11/30/2009 at 12:37 PM #

    Auburn wasn’t poor competition. Auburn is currently a #44 RPI after their loss to us.

    For the record, we are #32 in the way-way-way-too-early RPIs…after all Michigan State is #103. Shows that the ranking is a tad bogus.

    http://statsheet.com/mcb/rankings/RPI

  19. Thinkpack17 11/30/2009 at 1:11 PM #

    I read the write up at Gopack and saw that Sid ripped Javi for not being aggressive enough with the ball. I have never thought for one second Javi needed to be MORE aggressive. I think that comes with the loss of Lo Brown to this team. Javi is our best penetration option at this point. He is who we are counting on to get into the lane and make the cutting pass to get people looks…and while I knew it was coming and said Javi may be up to the task, it still makes me hella nervous to read it being said to him. Hella nervous.

    But we are 5-0…one game at a time, grow as a team and take care of business. Go Javi and Go pack.

  20. Texpack 11/30/2009 at 1:14 PM #

    I guess I wouldn’t characterize our 5-0 start as surprising and I wouldn’t have been shocked by 4-1 either. If we go 2-2 against Arizona, Marquette, Northwestern and Florida that may indicate we are a middle of the pack ACC team. If we go 0-4 and get blown out four times, the preseason pundits were probably right. I’m anxious to actually see how we look, but based on the stats, we need to develop a consistent third and fourth scorer behind Horner and Smith. Every ACC coach with a pulse can shut down the inside tandem of Horner and Smith if we don’t develop two consistent 3 pt shooters.

  21. choppack1 11/30/2009 at 1:20 PM #

    I think we’re playing competition that will keep us in the NCAA discussion if we can hover around the .500 mark in those key 21 games.

    I do think it should be more than a little alarming that we haven’t been able to score 70 points yet vs. the teams that we have played to date. I don’t think they are necessarily chopped liver, but right now, as I saw last year, I’m seeing similarities to those first Sendek teams.

    For the most part, they handled subpar competition, and did OK against the bottom feeders in the lower half of the major conferences. However, they couldn’t win enough against the elite, and couldn’t get key road wins against those occupying the middle-tiers of these conferences to garner an NCAA bid.

    Next year, if all goes well, we’ll bring in some key additions which should improve our offensive input. We’re way behind schedule here, but that’s really nothing new at NC State University.

  22. Thinkpack17 11/30/2009 at 1:27 PM #

    ^Horner is a harder matchup than you think, there aren’t that many 4’s that are going to be comfortable as far out as Horner is going to draw them. Just look at Carolina…they are DEEP and athletic at the 4 and 5, but Nevada gave them fits last night with their shooting big men.

  23. foz 11/30/2009 at 1:31 PM #

    Statefans ^ Marquette was 6-0 last I checked and won the Old Spice with a win over at least one ranked opponent.

    I thought FSU beat Marquette last night to win the Old Spice.

  24. PoppaJohn 11/30/2009 at 1:45 PM #

    I think we’re seeing some positive signs, but wait until Christmas to see where our realistic expectations should fall.
    To me, I like what we are seeing defensively. (all comments based on radio and box scores – haven’t been yet) They seem to be working harder than in recent years, and we’re definately up in blocked shots. A hard working team is a lot easier to root for than what we’ve seen lately.
    I also like our outside shooting – it seems like we have more options, Javi, Mays, Wood and maybe CJ is coming around.
    What I don’t like is that we are supposed to be a more uptempo team, and yet the points aren’t showing up on the scoreboard.
    But nothing we’re seeing now is ready for the regular season. We’ve still got to get much better before we start talking about any success this year.
    By the end of next week this could easily be doom and gloom again.

  25. shomewood 11/30/2009 at 1:55 PM #

    I went to the basketball game yesterday, this was my first this season, and there are a few positives, along with several points of concern.

    Positive:
    -For the most part, we are playing better as a team. We are unselfish and looking for the best shot. This is extremely different from last year. We were a group of individuals, compared to being a single unit. With the graduation of some self centered players (Brandon Costner), and you can see it in the way we play.

    – Tracy Smith is the best player we have. He has done well to keep himself out of foul trouble the last few games. In my opinion, he could very well be a 1st Team All ACC

    -The freshman are young and excited. Scott Wood has a great stroke and knowledge of the game. Richard Howell is no regular 18 year old, he is a grown man. The most impressive freshman on the court yesterday was Josh Davis. He came out and played great defense. He rebounded well, and was a great energizer for the team.

    Points of Concern

    – We need redshirt Vandenberg. He has a great frame, but he was clearly not used to the speed of the game and was unable to get position to rebound.

    -Javy is not our best point guard. He dribbled way to much and we were most productive when we passed the ball around the arch. I felt that Julius ran the point a lot better.

    -Offense is better, but we still had a 10 minute spurt without a FG. in order to compete in the ACC you have to score points.

    -We will get worked on the offensive glass this year. We had a tough time rebounding against a 6-7 center.

    Those are my thoughts. Go pack!

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