State can’t stay undefeated – can Farnold Degand get is *(#&$ together to help this team?

09-10 Basketball149

In relatively even match-ups on the hardwood, one can often point to a single statistic that makes a difference in a one-game battle. This pretty much describes NC State’s loss tonight at the RBC Center to the Northwestern Wildcats.

For the night, NC State shot a putrid 2 of 18 for 11% from the three-point line with Javi Gonzalez hitting the Wolfpack’s only two threes (2 of 6)

It doesn’t get any more simple than that.

The Wolfpack missed wide open looks…half contested looks…quick ball reversed looks…you name the look, the Wolfpack missed it.

Additionally, our (expected) weak guard play had a difficult time (1) creating opportunities for the offense against the Wildcat’s extended zone defense and (2) struggled to control Northwestern’s point guard, Michael Thompson who finished the night with 22 points and was able to easily create/convert drives for key buckets in the last five minutes of the game.

Tonight was a night when you could really see where Farnold Degand could help this team. His athleticism, length, quickness and shooting ability are all superior to those of Julius Mays. I love Julius Mays and appreciate his contributions to this team. But that doesn’t make my statement about Degand less true. Who knows the impact Degand could have had on both ends of the court if he was playing.

Boxscore

Again, it really doesn’t get any more simple than this.

The Wolfpack falls to a respectable 5-1 for the season, at least one game better than most fans expected at this point of the season. State has another important out of conference clash on Saturday at 3pm on the road at Marquette. The Golden Eagles are a surprising 6-1 to start the season, losing by one point to Florida State in the finals of the Old Spice Classic on Sunday. (Link)

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09-10 Basketball

149 Responses to State can’t stay undefeated – can Farnold Degand get is *(#&$ together to help this team?

  1. choppack1 12/02/2009 at 11:10 AM #

    “How many good things did you see last night that you never saw 5 years ago? ”

    When you talk about 5 years ago – are you talking about HWSBN last team who started out 13-1 or the team before that which made the Sweet 16?

    Look I’m not writing this team off – but you can’t have your cake and eat it too. As I stated, last year’s team fought early in the season against similar teams. One game is one game – and just because we fought back this game, doesn’t mean we’ll see it in the future. OTOH, just because we missed our jumpers last night, it doesn’t mean well miss them like that in the future.

    What last night’s game represented was a test against how we’ll we’d do against a disciplined, well-coached team from a major conference. Northwestern wasn’t extremely athletic, but they were skilled.

    You certainly can’t say that we passed last night’s test. I don’t know if I’d say that we totally failed either…we’ll find out more about this team and staff in the future.

  2. primacyone 12/02/2009 at 11:11 AM #

    ^^But it is not terribly coached. That’s the point. Our cupboard is bare, but guess what, we will not be the last place team in the conference. There are teams with more talent that will finish lower than us.

  3. Thinkpack17 12/02/2009 at 11:16 AM #

    ^How many games have you seen Painter, Howell, Wood, and Davis play to determine they aren’t ACC caliber? How many ACC PGs have you seen this year to determine Javi is not in their realm?

    I can’t believe some of our Fanbase has devolved to the point we compare our team to a team in the Special Olympics. When did we start using handicapped kids as a punchline anyways? Nicely done.

  4. sautz 12/02/2009 at 11:17 AM #

    ^ I was merely talking about cheering scrappiness and hustle with my Special Olympics comment, which is what you expect from that level. That is what this thread is applauding.

  5. newt 12/02/2009 at 11:22 AM #

    I actually thought our offense looked good except for the put-it-in-the-basket part. We got good shots. Javi has come a long way, and I like his aggressiveness. I also liked our defensive approach.

    In a nutshell…

    We missed some easy baskets and they made some tough ones.

  6. Thinkpack17 12/02/2009 at 11:27 AM #

    ^I hate to tell you, but this is the type of team we have. With every win we get…that is going to be our calling card. It’s going to be scappiness, hustle, grit and toughness that give us wins this year. I love to pull for teams like that, I love to watch teams like that. If you are looking for pretty wins you might wanna get yourself a PAC-10 team to pull for.

  7. sautz 12/02/2009 at 11:35 AM #

    I just hope we get some wins this year with hustle, but in my opinion we don’t have the talent for it. It’s nice beating New Orleans, Akron, and Auburn, but I don’t see it translating to beating many ACC teams. DFL is a strong possibility. I personally think we should be a lot farther along in year 4 no matter who is the coach.

  8. leewolf 12/02/2009 at 11:41 AM #

    I’m not putting this one on Sid, he actually called good sets last night when they were executed properly. The problem was in that execution. The guys played hard, but just shot the ball poorly.

    I’m not frustrated. I saw a team that had a lot of things going wrong still playing hard and not giving up. And that almost got them back in it to win the game.

    Learn from the mistakes, use that knowledge to go get a win at Marquette this weekend.

  9. wolfonthehill 12/02/2009 at 12:01 PM #

    2009 – In four years, I expect a hell of a lot more than this. I expect our guards to understand how to handle a half-court trap… ie, the last thing you should do is pick up your dribble as soon as you cross half-court… two national champion point guards should be able to teach that one simple thing by Game 1 of Year 1.

    That being said, I had zero hopes of winning last night… as I have zero hope of beating Florida or Marquette, and near-zero of beating Arizona. I have no false expectations for this team… but we should be allowed to expect a whole hell of a lot more than what’s being put out on the court.

  10. sergeant slaughter 12/02/2009 at 12:02 PM #

    I dont know why SFN seems to come down on Mays when Javi is clearly the one that needs to sit on the bench basketball wise.
    Javi has always led the team in turnovers since I can remember him playing here. He has poor poor court vision, (which Mays is vastly surperior at) and makes horrible pass’s in turn. I dont care if he throws up a few more points his TO’s KILL games constantly and it seems its always overlooked.

  11. wolfonthehill 12/02/2009 at 12:03 PM #

    newt – That could be said for a lot of Pack teams over the past 17 years. Problem is – the point of the game is to put the ball in the basket more than your opponent. We haven’t been so good at that lately, and last night indicated that this team may be no different.

  12. Texpack 12/02/2009 at 12:08 PM #

    I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see Howell play last night. Things that were discouraging
    1) Walking the ball up the court. I would point out that I was frustrated with Sidney Lowe the player for the very same thing on many occasions.
    2) Mays passive approach to attacking the 1-3-1. The way to attack that defense is to drive at a 45 degree angle to the elbow and either get between the defenders or draw them and dish to either the low post or the baseline corner depending on the way the defense rotates.
    3) The caliber of our 3 pt shooting and the hesitation on the part of everyone except Javi to take the outside shot.

    Things that were encouraging
    1) Javi and Tracy Smith are both clearly better players than they were last season. I think Norman Sloan would love the way Javi approaches the game. Their development gives me hope that Lowe and staff can develop Wood, Williams, Howell, et al.
    2) Our ability to force turnovers against a team that normally takes good care of the basketball. The effort associated with this was key. I said last season that I would have benched Costner to send a message about consistent effort.

  13. jbpackfan 12/02/2009 at 12:10 PM #

    ^^^Are you serious?? Javi is by far the best PG we have. He creates shots for others and is the only guard that is aggressive. Javi played his ass of last night. Javi, Horner and Smith are the only people who can score.

  14. Thinkpack17 12/02/2009 at 12:14 PM #

    Come on sergeant slaughter!

    You can’t really think at this point Mays is a better start and the point than Javi. First off…no one overlooks Javi’s TOs. It was brought up in EVERY summer discussion on the boards. Go back and read them if you don’t believe me. But Mays just doesn’t bring a lot to the table at the PG spot. I think BJD said it best…he is a SG in a PGs body. He doesn’t have the ablility to get anyone else involved. He averages like 1.5 assist a game. Think about it…Mays is at his best when he has botched a half court set for 30 seconds. He looks up at the clock, looks at the defender and decides to go it alone. If he is off in the scoring column, if his first couple of looks don’t drop, he doesn’t bring a lot to the table. If we were UNX and all we needed was a PG that will take care of the ball, walk it over half court and throw it in the blender for it never to have to come out Mays is our guy. But we don’t have that talent, we need someone to force action and create…therefore Javi gets the nod.

  15. sergeant slaughter 12/02/2009 at 12:24 PM #

    I guess its more so me being frustrated that every guard we have has a MAJOR flaw. Javi turns the ball over way too much to keep the team in any kinda rhythm or run. shooting 3-12 doesn’t help at all either. Mays is clearly more athletic than Javi is, and sees the floor better but is still so inexperienced that he doesn’t know exactly what to do out there all the time like Javi would. I’d rather them push Mays out there to get him better and work on his Defense too, which is something else that I will give to Javi by a long shot.
    I just see much more potential in Mays than Javi and with this team i’d rather work on future than this current year to be honest. Javi will never be a great PG but Mays if taught right could be much better than Javi.

    jbpackfan- I know Javi may create more and is more aggressive but i think Mays has the potential to be much better and needs the teaching to get there. He may of played his ass off in your opinion but his slack lazy pass’s at mid court that are turnovers just irate me beyond belief.

  16. theghost 12/02/2009 at 12:26 PM #

    I’m one of those who is optimistic about the team. I’m not at all happy about this game – didn’t play well. I think we’re outmanned in the backcourt and the frontcourt, and no one had a good game. Smith, Horner, and Javi were decent, the rest showed some good signs but played poorly, and Mays was worse than that announcer chick.

    Would’ve helped to have more time to prepare, but time isn’t an excuse to come out flat – played 3 straight in Florida. This is a test for Lowe to see how the team responds. I do expect us to continue to struggle against pressure, especially if Javi doesn’t get some help (Degand isn’t great, but those who say he’s not an upgrade over Mays need to take off your crap-colored glasses). And we need another scoring threat – the team has gotten comfortable standing on the perimeter watching Tracy, and NW did a good job of getting physical with him – as other teams will.

    It’s fair to say this was a poor showing, and some of that comes back to Lowe. I don’t think it’s fair to say this team isn’t showing any improvement, or this is the worst we’ve ever been, or Lowe has never shown anything to suggest he’s a competent coach (or however it’s worded). I maintain that you cannot win without a point guard, and when he had one (Atsur), he won – not came close, not tried hard – won. Javi is improving, but I agree that he’s a good backup ACC point guard. Yes – Lowe has to solve that problem. If he weren’t working to address it, I’d be upset. I think he is.

  17. frankiepack 12/02/2009 at 12:27 PM #

    Well when push does come to shove the bottom line is that Sid has been here for 4yrs . Give him a pass his first year if you want ,hell give him a pass his first 2 yrs. Bottom line is he is responsible for the talent or lack of talent on the floor.We are also into yr 2 of “uptempo” offense??

  18. statered 12/02/2009 at 12:29 PM #

    “Mays is clearly more athletic than Javi is”

    Good lord I don’t know what world you are living in. I thought we wanted to eliminate the silliness here.

  19. packalum44 12/02/2009 at 12:30 PM #

    Left a work happy hour early (off topic but NC needs to allow happy hour specials!!!) to watch my first game of the year. I should have stayed. I’d rather have spent two hours watching paint dry listening to Tiger Wood’s voice mail message on repeat while chewing on rusty nails in Guantanamo Bay.

    We are awful and North Western is awful. We’ll only win ACC games against the lower-tier teams if we hit 45% from 3 point land. I predict more of the same: 5-11.

  20. Thinkpack17 12/02/2009 at 12:36 PM #

    The TOs your PG has are not always your PGs fault. Javi was charged with at least one last night that wasn’t his fault. One of the Painter was out of position and tried to catch a pass (that he still should have caught) that was for Wood. Javi had a 6/4 assist to turnover game last night. Really I feel it was a 6/3 night, and Javi put Wood, CJ, Mays and Smith in postion to score many other times. He can only get them the ball…he can’t shoot if for them too. And as far as being a better athlete I dont see it. Javi is faster, and more explosive, he had like 6 or 7 boards last night. Mays is crafty, a nice term for someone who is not athletic, but they know it. Defense…we’ve already said it, advantage Javi. Like I said, if Mays isn’t bringing in buckets that specific night he doesn’t bring much to the table. Javi is our PG now, for 1/2 of the time next year…and then it’s the Ryan Harrow show. I love Mays…I think he’s great, but he’s a glue guy.

  21. primacyone 12/02/2009 at 12:39 PM #

    ^^^We only had 13 turnovers total. And one of those by Scott Wood was an obvious kicked ball that did not get called. Javi had 4 turnovers and 3 steals. Mays had 1 turnover.

    I’ll take those numbers all year long. MASSIVE improvement in the turnover numbers so far this year.

  22. colapack 12/02/2009 at 12:40 PM #

    53 points is dismal unless they are really slowing the game down. I dont need to see any stats to get a feel for how this game went. Seen this too many times in recent memory.

  23. Thinkpack17 12/02/2009 at 12:41 PM #

    “We are awful and North Western is awful. We’ll only win ACC games against the lower-tier teams if we hit 45% from 3 point land. I predict more of the same: 5-11.”

    1. Northwestern is one word.
    2. Northwestern is by no means awful.
    3. Have you seen the lower tier ACC teams play this year?
    4. I think you are giving the ACC credit based on history, save about 4 teams none of us are that good.

  24. sergeant slaughter 12/02/2009 at 12:41 PM #

    In no way should Lowe be on any kind of hot seat now. He is one of few coachs that show such a passion for the school they are at and show they are committed to improving. Now that he has all his players in for the most part, and even more so with a great class coming in you have to give him at least 2 more years.

    I guess I’ll end the PG controversy and just say squash this year and hope Harrow is the answer to everything….

  25. packalum44 12/02/2009 at 12:46 PM #

    If anyone can be optimistic about our team after watching last night (in combination with the last 3 years) please put your rose-colored glasses on e-bay b/c you can probably fetch a pretty penny. Most of us would love to live in fantasy land.

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