State @ Wake

09-10 Basketball167

NC State travels to Wake Forest tonight for a ‘big’ game for both teams. Although this is a conference game, it is one of three defining games the Wolfpack will play – Wake, @ Arizona, vs Florida – before the conference season kicks into high gear in January.

Rush the Court is going to “Cover it Live”

Both Wake Forest and NC State enter ACC conference play as relative unknowns: sure, the Demon Deacons beat Gonzaga in Spokane, but what are we to make of their double-digit homecourt loss to William & Mary that same week? Similarly, NC State’s victory over Marquette on the road was noteworthy, but their less than impressive victory in their last game over Elon, one of the weakest teams in the nation, has Wolfpackers scratching their heads. Wake enters Sunday’s game at 7-2, riding on the back of Al-Farouq Aminu (15.9 ppg, 10.4 rpg). Ishmael Smith has increased his production for the Deacs, but the true compliment to Aminu this season has been freshman guard C.J. Harris’ shooting, bringing 12.4 ppg while shooting 53% from the floor. State will rely on Tracy Smith and his 18.3 ppg and 9.4 rpg to go toe-to-toe with Wake Forest’s Aminu. In the end though, offensive rebounds could be the factor in this matchup: neither team has shot the ball well this season, Wake is the tallest team in the nation and rebounds accordingly, while NC State has been below average on the defensive glass. Both Dino Gaudio and Sidney Lowe are under pressure from the fanbase to produce after underperforming last year. For both teams, a win in Winston-Salem would be a good place to start for proving they belong in the top half of the ACC.

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09-10 Basketball

167 Responses to State @ Wake

  1. StateFans 12/21/2009 at 10:24 AM #

    I don’t understand applying this loss to a greater position on Sidney.

    How was this game much different than what you expect(ed) and how a ROAD game in the ACC should have gone.

    We don’t have any guards. That will not change until we get guards. IMHO, the fact that we were able to keep it close and keep hustling is a positive and is all that I can ask.

  2. fullmoon1 12/21/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    Well pointing out that the team played hard is more the we could say this time last year. I saw the sad faces on the bench but the players were not arguing while running up and down the floor and they got back on defense. If we simply hit all free throws we are in the game. I’m not ready to give up after the first conference game. It was an ugly game and I think we are in better position and I think this team will surprise many this season. We don’t have the size of Wake, i would like to see more running and using speed to our advantage.

  3. PoppaJohn 12/21/2009 at 10:42 AM #

    One of the coverage guys (radio or TV – I was listening to both) said something about Richard Howell being delayed in his development due to early season injury. I had forgotten about that. After Brown, he was our highest ranked recruit.
    I liked his intensity and physicality when he was on the court, although he needs to play a lot smarter. But he went after the ball aggressively and then took it right to the hole, just like Tracey. If we can start getting 10 quality minutes from he and Painter, and some good defensive minutes from Jordan our inside game starts looking a lot better – and has a lot more fouls to give.
    I like the fact that Sid’s giving them minutes. I hope it keeps up during the season. Otherwise we can expect TS to foul out every game – or, equally bad – he’ll get 3 or 4 fouls and then be a defensive liability.
    Unfortunately, we’re still stuck with CJ, Julius, and Farnold not being much of a scoring threat.

    Defensively – we played harder, but still couldn’t stop them – we are suckers for that reach around when the guy runs past you because we are slow – and then we ge the foul called everytime. Sid needs to hire an assistant that can teach defense.
    Offensively – we didn’t know what to do when we couldn’t get the ball inside. Sid, you think the other teams will notice???? You’d better think of some strategy to try and keep us in the game other than Javi playing street ball. He’s not that good.

    AZ will watch the WF game tapes and play the defense we will see all season. Deny the inside pass and put your quick guard on Javi. Let’s see what Sid does about it.

  4. GoldenChain 12/21/2009 at 11:05 AM #

    “Damn this is looking like a Herb O……run and shoot……miss.”

    I never saw a Herb team RUN anywhere! More like pass it around the arc several times then jack up an errant 3 as the clock expired. (naturally we seldome got a O board)

  5. Gene 12/21/2009 at 11:08 AM #

    “Sid needs to hire an assistant that can teach defense.”

    Defense was better in the second half. We held Wake Forest to 35% shooting and forced some turnovers, unfortunately our offense just couldn’t get it going.

  6. GoldenChain 12/21/2009 at 11:14 AM #

    Wulf, the whole ‘playing harder’ is not a comparison to other NCAA teams. It is a comparison to THIS team verses the past TWO State teams.

    To me it’s progress.

  7. fullmoon1 12/21/2009 at 11:21 AM #

    Amen chain, i think there is more progress between last season and this season then the others combined.

  8. fullmoon1 12/21/2009 at 11:22 AM #

    i have never accused a Herb team of running lol. I think the term loafcaking comes to mind. I never pass on an oportunity to squeeze in that term.

  9. Wulfpack 12/21/2009 at 11:37 AM #

    I do not consider last night’s game progress. Sorry. We were down the whole night. Didn’t execute for most of the game. The hustle was there. That’s only half the battle. If you are going to count that as progress, then you’re going to need about 5 more years until we can actually begin winning important games.

    And how are we so inept offensively?

  10. Pack Leader 12/21/2009 at 11:38 AM #

    “We don’t have any guards. That will not change until we get guards. IMHO, the fact that we were able to keep it close and keep hustling is a positive and is all that I can ask.”

    I couldnt agree more… Javi has improved obviously but we still get ZERO production out of our SG. CJ Williams proves time and time again hes no better than a back up glue player, Degand and penetrate well but cant shoot worth a lick, and Mays… well he baffels me.

    Last night TOTAL our SG’s (Williams, Degand) produced…
    2-10 FG, 0-4 3pt, 4 pts, 4 assists, 3 TO in 36 min.

    Nomatter what Smith and Horner do down low we cant make up that point differential. Javi had one of his best scoring nights statisticly, and we still got out scored in the backcourt. This is why Brown not playing this year hurt us so much. Say what you want he would be 10x better than Williams, and will be next year.

    It kills me people are getting upset that the predicted last placed team lost to a top 5 team in the ACC on the road in the first confrence game of the season. Did you acctually expect us to win? anyone actually think our players are better than WF? Me either….

  11. fullmoon1 12/21/2009 at 11:46 AM #

    Did anyone see Tim Brando dancing? My eyes, my eyes!

  12. PoppaJohn 12/21/2009 at 11:49 AM #

    ^ “It kills me people are getting upset that the predicted last placed team lost to a top 5 team in the ACC on the road in the first confrence game of the season. Did you acctually expect us to win? anyone actually think our players are better than WF? Me either”

    Good point

  13. 66pack 12/21/2009 at 12:02 PM #

    Those WTNY fans obviously have not been waiting for 20 YEARS.

  14. GoldenChain 12/21/2009 at 1:02 PM #

    Wulf, we just have to agree to disagree. The hard play for 40 minutes is a huge deal to me after watching Costner act like he didn’t care if he was there or not for the last two years.

    If you prefer to having unused talent to using 100% of what (little) you have then you and I just see it differently. That’s all.

    Obviously what I think we both prefer is excellent talent used 100% of the time. But we have what we have.

  15. Pack Leader 12/21/2009 at 1:12 PM #

    ^^GoldenChain I couldnt agree more!! Ill take losing by 9 to WF with every player hustling and pushing themselves as a group rather than 5star washups halfassing it up and down just to jack 3s and walk back on D.

    I said it last year… Ill take a loss by 100 vs piss poor attitudes wtih individual goals

  16. patientwuf 12/21/2009 at 1:37 PM #

    Well spoken Pack Leader and GoldenChain.

    Talent is on the way. I think Costner hurt the future of the team for at least 2 years. How do you think Hickson felt playing on that sorry team? That team would have lost by 20 plus to Wake last night.

    This teams plays hard and plays well together at times. If Javier can control the team like Atsur did then we have shot a winning a few games. I hope Jav can get healthy, he doesn’t look 100% to me.

    STAY POSITIVE!!

    PS ACC officiating is terrible. The worst conference in the nation for officiating.

  17. Rick 12/21/2009 at 4:51 PM #

    I guess it is positive that the team is finally playing hard.
    It has to be a negative that it took four years to get that to happen.

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