Friday Farrago

January 20, 2012

NC STATE BASKETBALL

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Wolfpack outplays Eagles

N.C. State already frittered away an ACC home game to one of the teams at the bottom of the conference standings.

The Wolfpack wasn’t interested in any repeat performances against an outmanned Boston College team on Thursday night at the RBC Center.

With a focused and high-energy effort, State dispatched the Eagles, 76-62 to improve to 3-1 in the ACC for the first time in six years.

With consecutive convincing ACC wins, State has put the home loss to Georgia Tech on Jan. 11 in its rearview mirror.

“The main focus was to learn from the Georgia Tech game and not make the same mistakes,” State forward C.J. Leslie said.

Leslie and Richard Howell set the tone for the Wolfpack (14-5) during a game-changing 15-0 run that started with eight and half minutes left in the first half.

Howell was all hustle and sticky fingers. His diving effort after a loose ball with 3:32 left in the half inspired first-year coach Mark Gottfried to ask the home crowd for a show of appreciation.

CAULTON TUDOR (N&O)
Worries follow Pack win

By the time N.C. State wrapped up a 76-62 win in the RBC Center, Wolfpack fans were more concerned about the health of C.J. Williams and C.J. Leslie’s ongoing cramping problems than Howell’s stat line – 11 points, 16 rebounds, three steals and what he described as a “dumb” technical foul with 1 minute, 52 seconds left and the outcome completely out of doubt.

“I just messed up. I said the magic word. I didn’t mean to do it, but it was an accident. I apologized, but I knew better,” Howell said.

“So it wasn’t my best game. I missed too many easy shots anyway, and I had some bad turnovers. I can play a lot better, and I need to.”

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Observations

Brett Friedlander (starnewsonline.com)
Lessons of Georgia Tech help Wolfpack raise its game

The N.C. State basketball team may still live to regret the letdown it suffered last week in a damaging home loss to Georgia Tech.
Then again, it could turn out to be the best thing that could happen to the improving Wolfpack.

If nothing else, that lackluster performance reminded coach Mark Gottfried’s team that it’s not yet good enough to take any opponent lightly.

It’s a lesson State appears to have taken to heart. After putting the hammer down in a 36-point rout at Wake Forest last Saturday, State showed just as much intensity — especially on defense — in overwhelming another ACC bottom feeder Thursday.

The final 76-62 margin of victory against Boston College wasn’t nearly as important as the way it was achieved.

Playing at the RBC Center for the first time since the debacle against the Yellow Jackets, the Wolfpack recorded 16 steals, shot 51.6 percent from the floor, outrebounded the Eagles 44-28 and took care of business exactly the way it should have against an undermanned team with nine freshmen on its roster.

“We didn’t want to come into this game thinking they were going to roll over,” said junior forward Richard Howell, who pulled down 16 rebounds while posting his seventh double-double of the season. “We wanted to keep our heads and keep our intensity and focus at a high level.”

Doing that on consistent basis is the only way the Wolfpack is going to any chance at getting the double-digit ACC wins it will need to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years.

It’s especially critical now that the soft early part of its league schedule is over.

Associated Press
NC State Beats Boston College 76-62

A week after turning in a clunker to give away a winnable league game, North Carolina State wouldn’t squander a similar opportunity to build more momentum in Mark Gottfried’s first season.

Scott Wood scored 16 points Thursday night to help the Wolfpack beat Boston College 76-62, the second straight one-sided victory for a team off to its best start in Atlantic Coast Conference play in six years.

C.J. Leslie added 14 points to help the Wolfpack (14-5, 3-1), who ran off 15 straight points to take control and pushed the lead to 18 by late in the first half. N.C. State cruised the rest of the way, leading by as many as 24 to earn its eighth win in nine games.

It was exactly the kind of focused performance the Wolfpack lacked in last week’s home loss to Georgia Tech – and one the team will need with five of the next seven on the road.

“I liked a lot about how our team played tonight,” Gottfried said.

The Wolfpack shot 52 percent, including 58 percent in a first half with plenty of transition chances – often off turnovers by the mistake-prone Eagles (7-11, 2-2). N.C. State led 45-28 at the break and never let BC closer than 16 points until the final minute. The defense forced 17 turnovers and racked up 16 steals while BC shot just 40 percent.

AARON BEARD, AP Basketball Writer
NC State beats Boston College 76-62

Under first-year coach Mark Gottfried, N.C. State has lost just once since falling to top-ranked Syracuse at home on Dec. 17. That other loss came in a surprisingly flat performance in the 82-71 loss to the Yellow Jackets on Jan. 11. However, the Wolfpack did respond to the Tech loss with a 36-point romp at Wake Forest last weekend for the program’s second-biggest margin of victory in an ACC road game in nearly six decades.

Gottfried had plenty to feel good about Thursday, too. Richard Howell (11 points, 16 rebounds) looked active while leading a front line that got plenty of good looks in the paint, while Lorenzo Brown (11 assists) kept pushing the ball in transition to keep the Wolfpack on the attack. Meanwhile, N.C. State’s defenders kept slapping the ball loose from the Eagles to hinder an already limited offense.

It was a confidence-building victory just in time for a difficult stretch of the schedule, with five of the next seven on the road.

The biggest worry for N.C. State came when senior C.J. Williams appeared to injure his right shoulder with about nine minutes left, sending him to the bench to wear a bulky bandage the rest of the night.

GoPack.com
First-Half Surge Leads Pack to 76-62 Win Over BC

Coupled with the Wolfpack’s 76-40 win at Wake Forest on Saturday, it’s the first time since the 2005 ACC tournament that the Pack has recorded back-to-back double-digit victories over conference opponents.

“When we were out on the break, I thought we were really good,” first-year coach Mark Gottfried said. “We also played well in the half court, but I thought we really looked good in transition until late in the second half when we got a little sloppy.”

State’s defense created plenty of opportunities to get its 23 fast-break points, thanks to 16 steals on the night.

“I liked the way we were active with our hands and with our feet,” said Gottfried, who was celebrating his birthday on Thursday. “Collectively, we did the things we needed to do.

“I think our team is still stinging a little bit from the Georgia Tech loss, and these last two games have been good for us to get back on track.”

GoPack.com
Box Score

GoPack.com
Postgame Quotes

On turnovers triggering NC State’s run after Boston College tied the game at 21-21
With our guys you don’t want to overdo it with turnovers and talk about it in great detail, but when we struggle at times, we’re careless with the basketball. We were tonight in stretches, and NC State is terrific in transition. They do a really good job to capitalize on that. [Lorenzo] Brown has done a great job at the point finding guys. They found Wood in tran¬sition, their bigs really run, and it feeds off of bad shots and turnovers. For the first time in about a month and a half, I thought we didn’t have much resistance in that stretch.

Jacey Zembal (TheWolfpacker.com)
Lorenzo Brown adjusting well to point guard

Brown’s unselfish nature has permeated throughout the squad. The Wolfpack ranks second in the ACC with 17.3 assists per game, trailing North Carolina by just 1.4.

“I’ve noticed that sometimes Scott Wood might give a head fake and pass it off to somebody else, and I’ve never seen Scott do that before,” Brown said. “I think C.J. [Leslie] does the same thing by feeding the ball to Richard [Howell] in the post. That’s a good feeling to have, having my teammates share the ball like that.”

Brown was brilliant in the 76-40 dismantling of Wake Forest last Saturday. He shot 8 of 14 from the field, including 2 of 3 from three-point land, en route to 20 points. He added six assists, four steals and a rebound against the Demon Deacons.

Brown’s play elevates when his outside shot is falling like it did against the Demon Deacons. He has improved his three-point shooting accuracy from 29.8 percent last year to 35.7 percent this season, and that in turn has made him more effective driving to the basket where he can either score or set up a teammate.

NC State coach Mark Gottfried said turnovers from dribbling upright is one of the main areas he has tried helping Brown improve upon this season.

“It’s a day-by-day process with each guy, and like with him, after each game, we obviously break the tape down,” Gottfried said. “There are things we want to talk to each player about, good and bad. Do you remember this play or that play? Lets talk about this and that, and decisions that you’ve made. It’s a process that you do over and over again.

Jacey Zembal (TheWolfpacker.com)
Wolfpack don’t overlook BC

NC State did suffer a pair of in-game situations worth monitoring in the future. Senior wing C.J. Williams injured his right shoulder and will undergo an MRI on Friday morning. He had 10 points and six rebounds in 26 minutes before departing with 9:16 remaining in the game and the Wolfpack leading 61-43.

“He’ll get an X-ray on his shoulder, but I don’t know enough to tell ya,” Gottfried said. “When you are playing the rotation we are [seven core players], you need everybody healthy. If not, that is part of the game. We’ll just roll our sleeves up a little tighter and get it done on the road [at Miami].”

Sophomore power forward C.J. Leslie also suffered his fourth cramping problem of the season prior to Williams’ injury. Leslie, who moved back into the starting lineup, scored 14 points in 27 minutes. He missed a little over seven minutes of the second half due to cramping.

Leslie returned with 7:27 left in the game and managed a layup and big dunk down the stretch.

“Hopefully, we’ll figure this thing out,” said Leslie, who has been on a regimen of drinking pedialyte. “It’s fluids, diet ? but we’ll figure this thing out. I didn’t have a problem last year.”

Brian Favat (BC Interruption)
N.C. State 76, Boston College 62: Wolfpack Cruises To Victory Over Eagles

Well, that was disappointing.

Fresh off this young Eagles squad’s first ACC winning streak, BC traveled to face an N.C. State team currently playing some of its best basketball of the season. The ‘Pack had won seven of its last eight games after falling at home to now No. 1 Syracuse.

The end result was predictable, but a bit disappointing for Eagles fans hoping to see this team build on its conference wins over Clemson and Virginia Tech. The 76-62 setback evens Boston College’s conference record to 2-2 and drops the Eagles’ overall record to 7-11.

If there was a bright spot tonight, it was the play of big man Dennis Clifford who seems to make more and more progress every game. Clifford finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks to pace the Eagles, including making a ridiculous three-pointer in the first half to tie the game at 21.

Stephen Schramm (FayObserver.com)
N.C. State Wolfpack assumes look of ACC heavyweight

In the midst of his stone-faced post-game news conference, Boston College coach Steve Donahue veered into the kind of honest language usually reserved for the locker room when asked about N.C. State’s bruising forward Richard Howell.

Howell used an obvious strength advantage to push around the Eagles’ big men in Thursday night’s 76-62 Wolfpack victory, grabbing 16 rebounds and scoring 11 points.

“Howell’s a (expletive),” Donohue said. “He’s a tough kid. He’s a hard matchup for anybody.”

It may not have been a family friendly assessment, but in regards to Howell and the rest of the Wolfpack on Thursday night, it was certainly accurate.

N.C. State, which improved to 3-1 in conference play for the first time since the 2005-06 season, looked comfortable in the role of ACC bully against the young Eagles (7-11, 2-2).

Despite its two conference wins, few would confuse Boston College for a league contender. The Wolfpack, however, looked awfully close to one. Sure, it had slow stretches and choppy moments, but the Wolfpack was always in control.

“They hit us in the mouth in the first half,” Boston College center Dennis Clifford said. “It was an eye-opener.”

N.C. State’s ball pressure disrupted the timing of the Eagles’ deliberate offense. It also forced 17 Boston College turnovers that helped lead to 27 fast-break points.

Stephen Schramm (FayObserver.com)
Player of the game for Boston College at N.C. State: Richard Howell

After Thursday night’s game, Boston College coach thought that N.C. State forward Richard Howell was a senior. Maybe even a fifth-year senior.

Imagine how bummed he’s going to be when he finds out he’s actually a junior.

For much of Thursday night’s 76-62 N.C. State victory, the 6-foot-8 Howell was no treat to deal with. He had 16 rebounds – one off his career high – and scored 11 points. He also gave Boston College’s young post players a taste of life in the ACC.

Stephen Schramm (FayObserver.com)
Wolfpack’s depth could take a hit as C.J. Williams leaves game with shoulder injury

When the subject of N.C. State’s seven-man rotation has been brought up this season, Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried adopts an especially laid back stance.

To paraphrase: It works now. If it comes back to haunt us, so be it. We’ll deal with it then.

Wolfpack Women

WRALSportsfan.com
WBB: NC State takes down Clemson for 3rd consecutive win

A third-straight double-double for Bonae Holston and a career-high 16 points by Emili Tasler was more than enough for NC State to notch a 62-46 victory over Clemson Thursday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Holston continued her dominance over the Tigers. After entering the game with career averages of 21.8 points and 9.3 rebounds in four prior meetings, the Newport News, Va., native paced State (13-6, 3-3 ACC) with 17 points and 14 rebounds.

Meanwhile, Tasler, a red-shirt senior from Apex, N.C., topped her previous career high set two seasons ago with 11 at South Carolina, by knocking down four shots from beyond the arc, and a 6-for-9 night all together.

UNC FALLOUT

Joe Ovies (WRALSportsfan.com)
Red or blue pill? NCAA readies penalty “matrix”

The biggest criticism the NCAA faces when handing out punishments is the inconsistency of it all. It’s a dangerous game, trying to figure out what the NCAA will do to schools under investigation. Logic dictates what the governing body does to Southern Cal and Ohio State will set a precedent for future punishments at North Carolina and Miami. Good luck with that, because in reality those punishments won’t have much impact on what the NCAA decides. More often than not, you’ll think the final judgements will be too soft anyway.

Understanding the growing frustrations from schools and their fans, the NCAA has come up with a new model that will outline more specific violations and dole out stiffer penalties that correspond to each level.

What used to be either “major” or “minor” infractions will now be divided into 4 levels: Most most egregious, serious, secondary, minor. The Committee on Infractions will then looking into whether the violation had mitigating or aggravating factors, which would change the amount of punishment for said violation. It sound great until you realize the NCAA has created a “penalty matrix” that looks like one of those flowcharts from humor website The Oatmeal.

MULTIMEDIA/PODCASTS

WRALSportsfan.com
Gottfried: “It was a good team win”

WRALSportsfan.com
Howell posts another double-double

WRALSportsfan.com
Wood gives his second-half dunk “an 11 or 12”

WRALSportsfan.com
Leslie not impressed with Wood’s dunk

WRALSportsfan.com
Wood responds to Leslie

Matt Carter (TheWolfpacker.com)
Boston College Locker Room Report

Following NC State’s 76-62 win over Boston College Thursday evening at the RBC Center in Raleigh, Eagles head coach Steve Donahue and freshman center Dennis Clifford held a joint press conference.

Matt Carter and Jacey Zembal (TheWolfpacker.com)
NC State Locker Room Report

Following NC State’s 76-62 win over visiting Boston College at the RBC Center Thursday night, head coach Mark Gottfried and selected players met with the media.

ESPN.com
NC State Steals Victory From BC (Video)

The Wolfpack had 16 steals in a 76-62 win over Boston College.