Pack and Cavs game thread

Editor's Picks General475

If we want to have a chance of making the tournament we need this game. It will be a game of wills. Whichever team can impose their will on the other will win this game. We need a high scoring game.

About Rick

1992 and 2002 graduate from NCSU. Born and raised an NCSU fan. I remember the good ol' days and they weren't in the last 20 years.

Editor's Picks General

475 Responses to Pack and Cavs game thread

  1. EdMar 01/29/2012 at 8:42 AM #

    Let quit whining about the refs, sure there was bad call here and there but we lost because:

    We had 2 points off the bench….
    Shot 40%…….
    13 % from the three point line….
    57% from the FT line… (Best free throw shooter in the country does not go to the line because he can’t drive to the basket)
    We miss lay-ups

    The problem is talent (for this level of competition)

  2. swamppack 01/29/2012 at 9:09 AM #

    I agree that it would be nice to adjust Woods’ and Johnson’s playing time, but there is not much MG can do with the thin rotation at guard.

    Ryan Harrow leaving created that mess. If he would have chosen to stay, He and Zo would have been the back-court they were recruited to be and Scott Woods would have been the 6th man coming off the bench. Would have been a classic set-up.

    And no, I’m not hanging all of State’s problems on one unfortunate decision, but it did leave quite a hole as it would have for most any other program on the mend such as State is.

    By the way, just as many on this board have pointed out, where ARE the screens for Woods? Every time He gets the ball there is a defender right in his face. Is it coaching or is it Woods’ being lackadaisical?

  3. tuckerdorm1983 01/29/2012 at 9:11 AM #

    yeah EdMar but that is going to change. The trim tab factor. Every sail boat has a trim tab. It makes the small and subtle changes to the direction of the boat. I see Gott making those changes and compared to last year it seems clear. Now our boat is not longer headed to that port called LOSERVILLE and instead is head to the Port called “DANCING AND ADVANCING”. We ain’t headed to loserville no more and while we might not see dancing and advancing on the horizon it will appear soon and very soon

  4. swamppack 01/29/2012 at 9:42 AM #

    Scott Wood, not Woods, my fault.

    Alex Johnson is a good asset to have, just not in a shooting role. His ball-handling, assists , lack of turn-overs, energy and simply giving the other guards a breather is very valuable to the team. He just needs to stick to a support role and quit pulling the trigger unless forced to.

  5. mak4dpak 01/29/2012 at 9:44 AM #

    Too many missed opportunities in this game, that could have given us a W, but we continue to show progress, with a great turnaround from the UNX game, and UVA only lost by 3 at Duke. We should win the next three, if we show up, and please make free throws.

  6. Wulfpack 01/29/2012 at 10:55 AM #

    There is no crystal ball to turn to that says Wood is not going to be able to hit the backside of a barn. When he’s on, he’s quite a weapon and it opens things up for everyone else. When he’s off, we pretty much stink offensively aside from our bigs going after the boards. Zo, CJ, AJ – all inconsistent shooters (AJ, in fact, a bad shooter). So there you have it. Put the lock down on Wood and we are fairly easy to beat.

    There is, however, a crystal ball that indicates that Wood is a liability on defense. It’s becoming more and more apparent with each game. Last night, I counted eight times where he just lost his guy and/or got beat off the dribble. I would like to see his minutes modified these next few games. Perhaps it will make him even fresher to try to get open, which he isn’t doing.

  7. StandUpAndHowl 01/29/2012 at 11:02 AM #

    Let’s not throw this team under the bus quite yet. After all, this is a rebuilding year. Most of these players have not had competent college level coaching before a few months ago.

  8. tuckerdorm1983 01/29/2012 at 11:15 AM #

    amen

  9. wolfpack15 01/29/2012 at 11:44 AM #

    Wood comes of the bench next year behind T.J. Warren.

  10. mak4dpak 01/29/2012 at 12:50 PM #

    A loss is a loss, but this team, with the exception of the UNC, GT, game this year, has been in position to win every game, and that is a drastic improvement over the past years.

  11. Gene 01/29/2012 at 1:03 PM #

    “Wood comes of the bench next year behind T.J. Warren.”

    Given the amount of PT our 2011 recruits have had, you base this assumption on what?

    Purvis, Warren and Lewis are probably about the same, in terms of ranking, as Leslie, Brown and Harrow were in 2010. I expect growing pains and not immediate reinforcements.

    I don’t know what the 2012 recruits would have to do to break the starting line-up, but I don’t look for it to be automatic that we start a bunch of freshmen next year.

    The only spot opening up next year on the starting line-up is CJ Williams 2 guard spot. I’m assuming Raymond and Purvis will battle for it.

    Lewis will probably get some minutes as back up PG.

    I don’t see how any of the other starters have played themselves out of a starting spot.

    Otherwise, the starting line-up should be intact going into next year and really depends how deep a rotation Gottfried wants to use. If this year is any indication, it would seem there’ll be a very tight 7-8 man rotation.

    Also, I don’t get all the Wood-hate. My guess is teams have figured out how we’re using him and have made sure they have a man always on him, so he can’t catch the ball and get his feet set cleanly. Basically, the guy on Wood isn’t sagging in to contest any inside drives or low-post play, so Wood can’t just fade to the wings for a clean look.

    That’s what UNC did every well. Bullock, Barnes and whoever else drew Wood stuck with him like glue. UVa did the same thing.

    It’ll be interesting to see what offensive adjustments the coaching staff makes to counter this and get Wood open looks.

  12. Thinkpack17 01/29/2012 at 1:07 PM #

    1. We do NOT lack talent. We lacked execution. 57% from the free throw line, 2X-3X the turnovers of our opponent.
    2. Wood is not the liability you guys want to make him. CJW…our best defender got put in the mixer fighting over screens as well. Their shooters are well coached and use screens well. BOTH sides of the screen are responsible for pick and roll defense.
    3. This was an NCAA qualifier. If we are an NCAA team Lorenzo Brown has to be one of the best point guards in the league. The last 3 games he has been average to bad. I think that is being polite. When he isn’t getting into the paint and making plays for us our half court offense is spotty at best.
    4. My UNC buddy was furious after the UNC/Kentucky game. Roy didn’t call a time out with 10 seconds left and let his boys run in the open court. My buddy claimed “Roy didn’t call a timeout because he would have called a play and he knew that Cal would have just called a better play.” That’s what happened last night. It’s like Bennett was in our huddle. Lo’s our best open court player…maybe let him go with 8 seconds left? Easy to arm-chair QB now but I know Gott maybe thought about that after the fact.
    5. That one really hurts but we are simply not an NCAA team right now. I’m happy with the progress though and I hope we see VA again in the ACC tourney.

  13. Rick 01/29/2012 at 1:16 PM #

    “We do NOT lack talent. We lacked execution. ”

    You are simply wrong. Our team lacks some of the most basic basketball skills and no amount of “execution” is going to fix that. Gott’s hands are tied as to what he can actually accomplish because of a lack of speed, shooting, inside size and basketball IQ.

    We are at least beating most of the crap teams we play.

  14. Master 01/29/2012 at 1:19 PM #

    #5 – In six weeks we will be an NCAA tournament team. Its easy to be a pessimist on this board, but I’ll go out on a limb and say we finish the season strong and make a run in the ACC tourney to give us a solid resume for the NCAAs.

  15. swamppack 01/29/2012 at 1:25 PM #

    We definitely lack top-tier talent. We may have athletes that can play with confidence(and still come up short 1/2 the time) when facing the middle of the pack teams, but look how over-matched we look against the upper-tier teams.

  16. Thinkpack17 01/29/2012 at 1:33 PM #

    “You are simply wrong. Our team lacks some of the most basic basketball skills and no amount of “execution” is going to fix that.”

    We have more than enough to beat UVA.
    Shit. We have more talent than UVA.

    We have enough talent to make free throws. There is a girl on my church league basketball team. She shoots better than 57% from the free throw line. It doesn’t take talent to hold onto the ball.

    The ACC sucks. We will put more talent on the floor than most teams any given night. If you disagree than we obviously don’t see eye to eye.

  17. Thinkpack17 01/29/2012 at 1:43 PM #

    “You are simply wrong.”

    We start 2 players that will be on NBA boards and the best shooter in the conference. We are more talented than most teams in the ACC. If you don’t think so we’ll have to agree to disagree.

    “Our team lacks some of the most basic basketball skills and no amount of “execution” is going to fix that.”

    The only girl in my church basketball league shoots better than 57%…much better. I beg to differ.

  18. Thinkpack17 01/29/2012 at 1:51 PM #

    “We definitely lack top-tier talent.”

    Compared to UNC and Duke…absolutely. But there are some who would even debate that.

    How much talent do you guys think we need to return to the NCAAs? Do we need a roster FULL of NCAA first rounders? Do we need ALL MDAAs? This is a talented roster. Most coaches would love to have these guys. They’ve just had years shaved off their careers by inept coaching.

  19. Gene 01/29/2012 at 2:07 PM #

    “57% from the free throw line,”

    Which is an anomaly. We are a much better FT shooting team. Of the 7 man rotation, only Leslie shoots below 70% at the FT line.

    From ESPN, Howell’s at 70.8%, Painter 72.1%, Johnson 74.2%, Brown 74.7%, Williams 82.9% and Wood 100%. Leslie is at 61.3%.

    Howell, a 70.8% FT went 3-7. That happens. It doesn’t mean this team is chronically bad shooting FT. We just chose a bad night to muck-it up from the FT against a team that values every possession and thus every point.

    I agree we have a lot more talent to have a better record than we have. We could easily be 18-4 or 19-3, with wins over Indiana, Stanford, UVa and Ga. Tech, but the problem isn’t talent.

    The problem is learning how to win. The team was poorly coached for 5 years and I think these guys are just coming around to playing fundamentally sound basketball. To really change things and play smart basketball for 40 minutes will take more than 1 year to break all the bad habits players have picked up and not had coached out of them.

    “If we are an NCAA team Lorenzo Brown has to be one of the best point guards in the league. ”

    Brown is arguably the second best PG in the league, behind Marshall. He’s second in assists, first in steals and averaging double figures. The beautiful thing about Brown is he can do more, a lot more.

    He’s a sophomore in his first year playing starters minutes and at a new position.

    He’s done very well.

    If he can improve his shooting, both when driving to the basket and from behind the arc, he’ll be an NBA lottery pick.

    I think we’re so used to seeing super freshmen and sophomores come into programs and become NBA ready in a year or two that we lose track of the fact most players, historically, have taken time to work on their games and improve, while in college.

    I think that’s also why we lost close games (and Ga. Tech) against the teams mentioned above. We have a relatively inexperienced PG, who has a ton of talent, but is still learning his position.

    If you get frustrated at Brown (I sometimes do) let his wash over you: Second in the ACC in assists (6th in the nation), 3rd in assist to turnover ration, first in steals, averaging double figures and if he works on his shot, he could be even better next year and damn near close to unstoppable.

  20. Thinkpack17 01/29/2012 at 2:22 PM #

    Thank you Gene. And regarding the FT shooting you really went the extra mile in proving my point. 57% is the exception. Howell had a similar night down the stretch in our Indiana loss. Our players are capable of playing. We are capable of going 80% from the line and winning those two games. But we have pockets in games when we regress, we don’t lose any talent, we just fall back on bad habits.

    Lo has show flashes of brilliance. But his last 3 games:

    Last night: 4 TO, 4 Assists
    Vs UNC: 5 TO, 6 Assists
    Vs Miami: 5 TO, 6 Assists

    That ain’t gettin it done. And Lo is better than that, he is a talented player…we just need him more consistent but aggressive. We don’t lack talent, we don’t have a blueprint for success just yet (or depth).

  21. mak4dpak 01/29/2012 at 2:51 PM #

    Sunday watching the women play on Fox South of the Carolinas, and loving the new philosphy of the coach, and being able to do it. Playing all the players for the game, and has made a difference, and we are leading in Blacksburg, with Kustanek, our leading scorer, being scoreless so far. Oops just made two free throws. 2 points. This team just upset Maryland Thursday nite.

  22. mak4dpak 01/29/2012 at 3:28 PM #

    State women win @ VT, by a 65 to 53 score. Go Pack!

  23. MISTA WOLF 01/29/2012 at 4:01 PM #

    It does suck we lost last night and I have to admit I was very depressed about the final outcome. The thing a lot of you is overlooking here is that we didn’t give up. We played flat and didn’t convert on a lot of oppurtunites but they didn’t quit playing. Even with the questionable calls the players didn’t let it get them down. I will applaud them for that.

    Bright side is we win 4 of the next 6 games and we are right where we need to be. 🙂

  24. Gene 01/29/2012 at 4:44 PM #

    “And regarding the FT shooting you really went the extra mile in proving my point. 57% is the exception. ”

    Some reason, I thought you meant the 57% meant we’re a bad FT shooting team. That’s why I pulled up the numbers 🙂

  25. Rick 01/30/2012 at 8:10 AM #

    “We start 2 players that will be on NBA boards and the best shooter in the conference.”

    I guess you and I consider talent differently. I consider it a player’s ability, you seem to consider it his potential.
    There is a lot of potential but it has not been tapped.

    But I can agree to disagree.

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