NC State 72 Miami 70

10-11 Basketball140

It could have been the ultimate disaster after losing 17 point lead at home on the day of the celebration for 100 Years of NC State Basketball.

Thank God it wasn’t.

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10-11 Basketball

140 Responses to NC State 72 Miami 70

  1. Avid109 01/23/2011 at 2:57 PM #

    Happy to have the win, but I wish the team had been able to stay focused for the entire game.

  2. rky 01/23/2011 at 3:01 PM #

    One more W on the Sid Farewell Tour.

  3. Wufpacker 01/23/2011 at 3:03 PM #

    ^^ Agreed. They almost screwed the pooch at home. Almost.

    Let’s enjoy the win and make the quick two day turnaround for Clemson. Except for Duke, we’ve held serve at home. Stealing one on the road in Death Valley would go a long way toward righting the ship, at least temporarily. Hold serve at home the rest of the way and maybe steal one or two on the road and I’d say they have a very slight chance.

    “So, you’re saying there’s a chance?”

    I’d still put my money squarely on the “Will eventually implode” possibility as of now, however. Horrible down the stretch for the final 12-13 minutes. Very lucky to scrape the win back together at the very end. If we even manage to break even in conference, which will not be enough to navigate the bubble successfully I don’t believe, I will be very surprised at this point.

    Now, on to conference championship Sunday and some competitors who really do want to win.

  4. Wufpacker 01/23/2011 at 3:13 PM #

    Almost forgot to add…very nice effort from Richard Howell. Hope he can keep that up as it will sure help Tracy to get free down low if they have to play Howell honest.

  5. BureauOfMines 01/23/2011 at 3:14 PM #

    As soon as the lead was 15 points, I looked at my wife and said here it comes. They didn’t disappoint. They dutifully squandered that lead as if on cue. It’s what I’ve come to expect.

    You’re right about it nearly being the ultimate disaster. It was narrowly averted. In the end, they were sloppier than we were and couldn’t get off a shot.

  6. ryebread 01/23/2011 at 3:29 PM #

    Hmm.. maybe I’m in the minority, but I felt like that blown lead was less due to a lapse in concentration by the players than due to the coaching. Up 17 pts in the second half at home, we should have just coasted to a 20 point win. Instead, we kept messing with the line ups and playing the bench and it almost cost us the game.

    That really felt like a NBA game to me, like so many in the SL era have. The 17 point lead was not built to throttle the opponent and win by 20+. It was built to provide rest for a final stretch. It didn’t really matter that it disappeared, only that we were rested for a stretch run. That’s my opinion anyways.

    I asked a buddy of mine this question after the game:
    Is SL the coach that can build a 17 point second half lead in an ACC game or is SL the coach that can blow a 17 point second half lead at home? The answer for us, unfortunately, is both.

    Oh well, I’ll take the win. Good job guys — especially Richard Howell and Ryan Harrow down at the end. CJW also had a couple of very clutch plays. It was also nice to see Lorenzo more aggressive. Tough game for CJL — I think his sickness really reduced his explosiveness.

    Interestingly for those who don’t follow Ken Pomeroy, his predictor had us winning 74-72 today. It also predicts we only win 2 more games in the regular season — @ WF and against GT. Here’s to hoping we do better than that!

  7. leewolf 01/23/2011 at 3:32 PM #

    To be fair, the officiating was laughably awful all game, and particularly in the stretch when Miami closed the gap. Miami’s big men were shuffling their feet constantly under the basket, no walks were called. State basically had to be mauled for anything to be called. My favorite was when Harrow was elbowed in the face and they called the foul on Harrow. WTF?

    Sidney did make a classic mistake though. He put in some backups during a stretch when the run by Miami started and he left them in too long. This coupled with the awful officiating was almost disastrous.

    Win is a win. We are going to have to win on the road and Sid can really show that this is a new leaf for this team by winning these next two. I’m certainly not banking on it, but we’ll see.

  8. jrsr 01/23/2011 at 3:42 PM #

    Glad for the win!!!
    I know I am in the small minority BUT would like to see Sid here for one more year.
    With a year of games all of our good freshmen should be great next year and Sid has more good recruits comming next year.

  9. ncsslim 01/23/2011 at 3:51 PM #

    jrsr, you are absolutely correct…….

    “I know I am in the small minority BUT would like to see Sid here for one more year.”

    ……you are in the small minority!!!!

  10. mak4dpak 01/23/2011 at 3:58 PM #

    Please no more! Can’t take it. The season has more games left, and an escaped win over a bad Miami team, at home is hardly room for encouragement. Again no matter who plays, coaching is killing us. Yes the kids played and lost the lead, but Sidney didn’t know how to stop it once it started, and except for a bobbled pass by Miami, we could be looking at another loss.

  11. El Lobo Loco! 01/23/2011 at 4:16 PM #

    whew!
    a W is a W.. even if it sucks!

  12. PackInsider 01/23/2011 at 4:25 PM #

    Good opportunity to steal a W on the road in Death Valley next. We also have an opportunity to get our ass handed to us if we don’t come ready to play.

  13. Wolfpack_1995 01/23/2011 at 4:37 PM #

    I’ll take the win but damn that was close.

    Would like to see more Howell, Leslie, and Smith all on the floor when the other team has limited bigs.

    It seems like we have missed so many lay-ups this year or bunny shots. Hopefully they will soon start falling our way.

  14. Texpack 01/23/2011 at 4:52 PM #

    I thought at this point we’d be 2-3 in the league and we are. I’d have handed the keys to the team to Harrow a little earlier than Lowe did, but I see STRONG similarities between how he has handled Harrow and how Norman Sloan handled him as a freshman. The major difference being that Sloan had Clyde Austin as a senior point guard to spell Lowe and Lowe has Javi.

    Pick and roll defense and some maturity/discipline with respect to shot selection are what this team needs to improve on. They didn’t crater emotionally during the Miami run. That is why we were able to pull this one out, because we kept playing hard.

  15. TOB4PREZ 01/23/2011 at 5:10 PM #

    ““I know I am in the small minority BUT would like to see Sid here for one more year.”

    ……you are in the small minority!!!!

    ========================================================
    Only in the minority, on THIS website.

    15K+ in attendance (today) and the #3 team in the league ref- home attendance SCREAMS the contrary in REAL LIFE.

    Enjoy bashing Sid in here, for it’s HERE that is in the vast MINORITY of that opinion.

    Those of us that know the game can see improvement being made, and the frosh coming into their own. Harrow has the keys to the sports car now, and I don’t see his foot coming off the throttle.

    GO WOLFPACK and GO SID, We (the MAJORITY) are behind you BOTH!!!

  16. rky 01/23/2011 at 5:18 PM #

    “Those of us that know the game can see improvement being made, and the frosh coming into their own.”

    By ‘us’ I can only guess you mean Lee Fowler and yourself. You seem to both really ‘know’ basketball.

  17. Wolf74 01/23/2011 at 5:21 PM #

    “Only in the minority, on THIS website.”

    Sorry, I don’t belive that is the case. I work at a huge (30,000 world wide) engineering/construction company with lots of NCSU graduates. None that I know of posts on here because they think this site is too negative but I don’t know a single one that wouldn’t like Sid to resign. None want him to fail and have been pulling for him for 4 years but now none I know of think he can succeed. I was pulling for Sid but in the end I think he will be replaced.

  18. ncsumatman 01/23/2011 at 5:37 PM #

    If Tracy would play defense and get back after a miss instead of staring dumbfounded at refs we would be a better team.

  19. swamppack 01/23/2011 at 5:37 PM #

    I did see a FEW strong comments in the game thread and here so far about the difference Harrow makes but VERY few. He is a joy to watch compared to the nervous, no-ballhandling,no court vision guards we have had in the past. Sids in-game coaching and what he did not teach them in practice was the reason for the collapse that lost the 17pt. lead. Correct me if i’m wrong (I was watching the collapse from the dinner table at mama’s house,couldn’t hear or see it all) but wasn’t Harrow on the bench alot of that time? Also his play-making and collectivness at the end were priceless, I did see that.

  20. SlapAbutch09 01/23/2011 at 6:02 PM #

    I have to agree with ryebread. Our players started to play slower with the 17 point lead. I watched them go from running up and down the court to slowly getting back on Defense in the second half. Tracy gave up a lot of points due to him coming up to the top of the key and not getting back on D fast enough. I’m glad to see the team pulled this one out and props to Richard for a killer game.

  21. Wolfy__79 01/23/2011 at 6:03 PM #

    i was at the game today! so our starters: wood, harrow, cjw, tracy & howell! they got off to a great start! and sputtered, the reason for that.. the substitutions. don’t know if yawl really noticed but javi came off the bench and played the 2! he had a few minutes at pg but lorenzo was running the point.. i guess more of a hybrid since javi was out there but he was definetly at 2!

    if you look back, each time sidney brought in leslie, javi and brown they scored.. there was only one time where they didn’t blow the lead was the last time in the second half. they actually had two consecutive possessions with a stop. we then put the starters back in, or most of them and squeaked it out. the second part of each half was basically unplanned or not executed! tracy does need to spend less time talking about non-calls and get back on defense.

    RICHARD HOWELL SHOULD START EVERY GAME FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON 🙂 !
    cjl is a talented athlete, but he hasn’t found himself. anytime he is on the floor with lozo.. it’s just too kaotic! two very good players that haven’t found their role yet. javi, unfortunately probably needs to take a backseat to both harrow and lozo at the point!

    it was great to see Sidney show such emotion today. which he normally does but its very hard to see on tv covered games, but noticeable when watching in person. he called a few timeouts and met the players at mid court and got in their faces! he needs to do more more more of that!

  22. Wolfy__79 01/23/2011 at 6:04 PM #

    SL left tracy in too long in the first half! he was winded…

  23. Wolfy__79 01/23/2011 at 6:10 PM #

    clemson will be a good test and we have to win at death valley. at unc-ch, today’s effort won’t cut it. good thing for the close turnaround for clemson giving us an extra day to have the oppurtunity for additional prep.

    i hope to see the same starting lineup at clemson and less 3-4 player substitutions. these massive sub patterns are nba-esque and completely screw the floor chemistry off. giving so many players considerable minutes does allow for lineup flexibility, but right now we need to focus on the short term, mainly the win column.

  24. Wolfy__79 01/23/2011 at 6:27 PM #

    lozo does play tough one v one defense though! really, too much talent is not the worst of problems.. we just need it to be coach a bit better!

  25. rawolf 01/23/2011 at 6:36 PM #

    THANK GOD I am not the only one reading and writing here that thinks Sid needs to stay.

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