NC State vs Duke: Weird facial expressions for the win

09-10 Basketball Big Four Rivals45

For those who don’t get that joke, see Jon Scheyer tonight around 9 o’clock and 30 seconds. It will be really clear. Might not be any funnier, but it will most certainly be clear.

The more I’ve perused message boards and other blogs the last couple of days regarding the Duke game, the more optimism I seem to find. I don’t quite understand how to comprehend optimism coming from NC State fans, so it’s been quite weird. Not saying I disagree with those who are optimistic, it’s just out of the ordinary for optimism to drown out those hanging over the cliff by one broken, bleeding finger nail.

NC State’s game with Duke tonight is big for both teams, but for the Wolfpack it could potentially serve as a turning point in the season. A win over the No. 6 Blue Devils — aside from producing a party at center court — would help State’s confidence way more than it would help the Pack’s place in the ACC standings. And when a team’s six losses are by an average of 5.5 points, it needs all the confidence it can get.

Looking at Duke, it’s not hard to see how the Blue Devils have started 15-2 and 3-1 in conference play. As usual, Duke wants to play great defense and so far this season is only allowing 61 points per game while scoring more than 84. If NC State doesn’t take good care of the basketball and get good shots tonight, it could get ugly because Duke is not usually a team (like Clemson) who has long offensive droughts.

The most interesting storyline on the NC State side of things, at least IMO, is the potential to see major changes in the starting lineup. With the solid play of Julius Mays and Richard Howell recently, I would not be surprised if Dennis Horner and Javi Gonzalez find themselves coming off the bench. That doesn’t mean those two won’t see a lot of minutes, as Sidney Lowe pledges to get minutes to the players who play well on any given night. Some may argue that hurts rhythm, but doesn’t it make more sense to have “hot” players on the court as opposed to having some sort of consistent substitution pattern?

Here’s NC State’s three keys for tonight:

  1. Limit Jon Scheyer’s play-making ability
  2. Get Tracy Smith involved early
  3. Crash the defensive glass

Get ready for some links for tonight’s game. This is all pretty good stuff.

  • Here’s ESPN.com’s preview of tonight’s game. It’s pretty Duke-centric, but has good info in it.
  • Sidney Lowe made an appearance on 99.9 The Fan with Mike Maniscalco. Listen here.
  • The N&O just launched a new site devoted to covering the Big Four Rivals. It’s pretty exclusive to Duke and UNC, but here’s a small preview of tonight’s game from Ken Tysiac.
  • Backing the Pack (as usual) has a great preview focusing on stats.
  • Here’s some love fest stuff on Scott Wood from Technician.

And last but not least, watch Sidney’s thoughts on whether or not Carolina players “brag.”

Found this picture, couldn’t resist.

Scheyer

09-10 Basketball Big Four Rivals

45 Responses to NC State vs Duke: Weird facial expressions for the win

  1. rtpack24 01/20/2010 at 1:47 PM #

    Degand on Scheyer and Wood on Singler. I think we match up well against Duke and should be an interesting game. Our guys are due some good luck so maybe they get some tonight and we win.

  2. tvp1 01/20/2010 at 2:22 PM #

    I am not optimistic about tonight, but I am fairly optimistic about this team generally. I think we take 1 of 2 from UNC/Maryland, get payback against UVA, and sit at 3-5 heading into a very manageable back half of the ACC schedule.

    For reference, we have 4 very winnable home games in the last 8 – VT, BC, Wake, MD – and winnable road games against Miami and VT. We also have tougher road games against GT and UNC.

    Backing the Pack had another nice statistical breakdown comparing our ACC performance to date to last season.

    http://www.backingthepack.com/2010/1/19/1259299/an-early-conference-check-state

    Shooting is down significantly, but besides that, all the stats look pretty good. Rebounding is better on both ends of the court and we are both turning it over less and forcing more turnovers.

  3. dsgill87 01/20/2010 at 2:30 PM #

    The consensus spread is 12. I think that is fair and I think losing by considerably more would be a bad sign for this team. It’s at home, we’re coming off a pretty emotional game with confidence, and this is a big game for NC State. I agree with whatever poster said that it is a measuring stick. I think this game will really tell us where we’re at in the ACC, b/c so far we haven’t been playing that bad within conference.

  4. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 2:34 PM #

    i pin the slow starts/first halves to immaturity of our key role players. when javi gonzalez turns the ball over in the first minute of play for example, we have no chance. without looking back, i think it was the uva game where we started out on a quick run.. 10-1 or something. and downhill from there. i know it was a loss whichever team it was. but the way they came out showed me that they are very capable of having a good start. how this team handles success is an entirely different issue (from in the game, or after a big win?). i think they got out to an early lead and suprised themselves, then didn’t know what to do after that. so i tend to say its a lack of leadership and maturity.. nothing else

  5. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 2:38 PM #

    i was using the earlier fsu game to be my personal measuring stick. after that, i was excited about the possibilities, in addition i didn’t really think we could hang with clemson but i was wrong there. instead i feel comfortable with the game tonight, i really don’t think there’s a “pig’s flying” chance we get blown out! with that, i agree this will also be a good barometer for our progress just from last week. our young team kind of needs to numb themselves despite what has happened thus far in the season to solely focus on DUKE!

  6. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 2:49 PM #

    i think, but don’t have any concrete suggestions, that if we can get 10-12 or so solid offensive/defensive minutes from cj here on out that will raise the bar even higher. he’s supposed to be a pretty good scorer, but i’ve yet to see that play out.. i’ve noticed that smaller guards give him trouble… they basically blow by him. but a guy like singler might be more his caliber of guy right now. alot to speculate on, i do think he’s got one of the higher upsides coming off the bench… considering mays starting and javi also working off the bench.. maybe not tonight but somewhere down the road. i think javi can do just that, focus on one player and come in/off the bench/starting lineup. i don’t know where he fits in a consistent gameplan… …

  7. pack44fan 01/20/2010 at 3:08 PM #

    I really don’t think NCSU can get into a half court game with Duke, Duke is too good defensively. The pack hopefully can get some fast break opportunities much like they did against Florida State. The main thing is to not play scared.

  8. dsgill87 01/20/2010 at 3:09 PM #

    I’m less concerned with Singler than I am with Smith and Scheyer. Singler has been struggling lately, and he is hurt. But knowing our luck, he will probably wake up tonight.

    A lot depends on the officating as well. If its called like the Duke Wake game the other night.. I don’t know that we can handle that physicality, although it could slow Duke down. This is the most intriguing game of the year so far for me.. We need 40 minutes from everybody. I just don’t feel an impending blow-out – we haven’t really been blown out all season.

    One final problem that I sometimes see with this team is that they are too often out of position and not moving enough without the ball. I blame this on inexperience and perhaps coaching, but against Dukes D we have to do a better job coming off of screens and not just standing around lackadaisically.. putting ourselves in better position to get second-chances and limiting Dukes (we did a really good job of that in the 2nd half vs. Clemson)

  9. ryebread 01/20/2010 at 3:30 PM #

    I’ll be pulling for the Pack tonight. While I’d love nothing more than to eat some crow, I just don’t see us winning at all.

    Duke plays incredibly aggressively on the ball and in the passing lanes in the half court game. That’s exactly the type of defense that will completely shut our guards (and thus the initiation of any sort of half court offense) down.

    The only prayer we have tonight is to come right out, press them, force the tempo, try to play deeper, get some easy baskets and prevent the number of possession where we have to play against their half court defense. If we try to play the slow down game, we’ll lose by double digits.

  10. pack44fan 01/20/2010 at 3:51 PM #

    I agree with you ryebread. When Lowe tries to control tempo too much, the team loses its agression. Unfortunately, I heard him on his radio show talk about controlling tempo. I hope he lets the kids just play.

  11. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 4:02 PM #

    if we had a slashing scorer, f.e. hodge, we wouldn’t have much of a problem tonight. i hoped fells was the man last year, i’m hoping cj is the man this year, doubtful? i don’t know about controlling tempo. if we can mix the tempo up, granting good rebounding and no turns. getting up and down the court makes us harder to defend. ARE WE FAR ALONG ENOUGH YET?.. is my question. i say cj b/c tracy doesn’t start far enough from the basket, he’s always backing his defender down.. don’t get me wrong, which is great. but that doesn’t make him very versatile. howell is probably too young to not get into trouble doing this. but i think cj’s decent body size could fit that category. of course degand has shown some ability to penetrate, as well as mays, and create some offense. that would be a good substitute. javi tends to make some bad decisions while penetrating, or just flat out missing layups?

  12. foz 01/20/2010 at 4:29 PM #

    I’m most worried that fouls will be a major factor. With the way Duke initiates fouls (nice way to say it), I wouldn’t be surpirsed to see Wood, Smith, and Javy build up fouls pretty quickly. That puts a lot of pressure on multiple backups. Hopefully Mays, Degand and Howell continue with their positive minutes.

  13. JeremyH 01/20/2010 at 4:41 PM #

    keys: come out with intensity, handle the press, crash the boards, defend well, create turnovers, protect the ball, adapt good offensive strategies to their defense, don’t get rattled with lack of foul calls

    a win would be nice, but Duke has it together, we don’t.

  14. mwcric 01/20/2010 at 5:09 PM #

    Wait, wait, wait… You’re telling me a story on ESPN’s Web site is Duke-centric? Really? No way! LOL

    When I first heard the word/term ESPNU, I thought Duke changed its name. : )

  15. cc4ncspack 01/20/2010 at 6:09 PM #

    Scheyer reminds me of the Grinch that stole Christmas.

  16. theghost 01/20/2010 at 6:33 PM #

    I don’t see us pulling this off tonight, I think Duke is better than Clemson with Stitt, and much better than FSU. But, there’s always a chance, and there are two things required to prove me wrong – 1) our PG play stands up to whatever pressure scheme K throws out to exploit the weakness, and 2) the refs call a fair game against Duke’s goons – watching the end of the WF/Duke game (as most any duke game), the non-calls were farcical. I don’t expect a fair shake tonight. Either way, the team has to play through it, though, no excuses, but if the paint turns into a cage match, we don’t have the size.

    Just hope that, if we can’t pull it off, this newfound (hopefully merited) optimism and momentum doesn’t completely melt away.

  17. VaWolf82 01/20/2010 at 6:43 PM #

    So where is the game chatter going? here or on the forums?

  18. D_Medlin 01/20/2010 at 7:46 PM #

    Anywhere is fine. Just as long as chatter is going on.

  19. JeremyH 01/20/2010 at 10:22 PM #

    we’re #1, we’re #1!!!

  20. bradleyb123 01/21/2010 at 6:36 PM #

    The consensus spread is 12. I think that is fair and I think losing by considerably more would be a bad sign for this team.

    Anybody think winning by 14 was a good sign for this team? 😉

1 2

Leave a Reply