State loses at Clemson in OT, 72-69

11-12 Basketball117

State put its very slim NCAAT hopes on ice today with a lackluster, often listless showing at Clemson, dropping its fourth straight. Now its only shot is to run the table in Atlanta in two weeks.

The real losers today were the fans, who were forced to watch five extra minutes of “ACC Excitement” (10 if you count the Duke-VPI game before it). State’s immediate goal should be to finish .500, which itself seems like a longshot at this point.

Box Score (ESPN)

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11-12 Basketball

117 Responses to State loses at Clemson in OT, 72-69

  1. choppack1 02/26/2012 at 5:44 PM #

    BJD – Keep in mind, we only had Evtimov and Powell together when they were freshmen. Think about that – we made the NCAA’s w/ one senior, a 5th year junior, and a sophomore and 3 freshmen after a miserable season. And truthfully, that’s the kind of turn-around I was hoping for here. I think all of the ingridients were there.

    Time will tell if what we’ve seen this year will re-occur with Gottfried team’s (we certainly saw the collapses on a routine basis with Sendek.) Coaches can turn things completely around – and I’d argue (and will probably get few takers) – that the team’s turnaround Sendek’s first year was more impressive than this. (Little did we know that slow ball that led us to a very impressive 7-5 record his last 12 ACC games was his “comfort zone.”)

    Season’s not over yet – 9-7 and a couple of tournament wins would be an impressive accomplishment regardless of whether or not we get an at-large bid.

    If we win at-least one of the next two games, I think we can use a baseball analogy and say that Gott advanced the runners.

  2. Wulfpack 02/26/2012 at 6:23 PM #

    This team does have some talent – arguably top half of the ACC talent. Calvin, Lo Brown, Howell. Those guys would see minutes just about anywhere. And Wood was the league’s best three point shooter until this slump came about. I don’t think Clemson has more talent than us. I think they play hard as nails, Which is a reflection of their coach. And Young just made two giant threes. The whole talent argument to me is a bit of a cop out. We have some – not enough, but more than many others. NCSU has always been able to attract talent. And we have a bunch more coming in. But we’ve got to start trying to figure out how to close out games against good teams.

  3. runwiththepack 02/26/2012 at 6:29 PM #

    Another season of raised expectations seemingly dashed by a late-season dive, (albeit against very good competition during said “dive”). Looking back, we were pretty close to breaking through to the upper echelon, when one considers that both the Duke and UVA games could have gone our way with just a little help. With those 2 games, we’d be 9-5 if we just had a little bit more gas, and still a real possibility to dance.

    Watching the Clemson game, it seemed as though what we need as much as anything is better ball handlers. We out-rebounded Clemson. We hit 50% of our shots. Turnovers and assists were pretty even.

    For my 2 cents, it will be great to get a good point guard to Raleigh so that Lo Brown can concentrate on scoring. He has good court awareness, he just isn’t that good of a ball handler. Will Tyler BE that guy? God in heaven, i hope so. We would have won about 4 more games this year if we had an above-average ball handler.

    Brown will continue to dish off assists, even if he isn’t point guard. Look at Scott Wood, who usually gets a few assists in every game. Wood and Brown have good basketball smarts – they just don’t have great dribbling skills.

    It seems as though if we have to dribble more than a little bit, we’re in trouble.

  4. LRM 02/26/2012 at 6:49 PM #

    “I’m disappointed seeing some these responses after a loss.

    Except it was the fourth straight loss, and effectively ended our already-slim NCAAT hopes.

  5. tuckerdorm1983 02/26/2012 at 7:14 PM #

    while the light of the NCAAT may be dimming, the light of NCSU basketball is so bright I can barely look at it.

  6. 61Packer 02/26/2012 at 7:41 PM #

    We don’t need sunshades YET, but I am hoping to get out the Raybans before March of 2013.

  7. choppack1 02/26/2012 at 8:39 PM #

    Tuckerdorm. If I had a dollar for everytime those words were posted on the internet I wouldnt have to work another day in my life.

  8. 61Packer 02/26/2012 at 8:51 PM #

    FSU just laid another egg.

  9. Wulfpack 02/26/2012 at 8:53 PM #

    So Miami now likelyt locks up the ACC’s 5th bid. At least we’ll get priority seeding in the NIT.

  10. tuckerdorm1983 02/26/2012 at 9:42 PM #

    we could end up in 8th place or 4th place but no higher and no lower

  11. stillapackfan 02/27/2012 at 12:35 AM #

    No way we’re 4th.

  12. tuckerdorm1983 02/27/2012 at 7:34 AM #

    on paper it is possible to be 4th, but we have to win out and UVA and MIAMI have to lose the next two to each be 8-8 and Clemson has to lose one of the next two to be 8-8 and we would be 9-7. Not likely scenario

    on the other hand we could lose the next two and MD wins its next two and Clemson wins one of its next two making them 8-8 which makes us 7-9 and MD 8-8 dropping us in the 8th slot. Not likely scenario because MD plays UNC and UVA and probably won’t win either

    5th or 6th or 7th place is our destiny now. After another round of games in the middle of the week the picture becomes clearer

  13. Wulfpack 02/27/2012 at 11:23 AM #

    Not sure that where we finish really matters. We’re going to have to make some serious noise in the ACC tournament for any shot. A loss to Miami or VT and we’d most certainly have to win the darn thing.

  14. triadwolf 02/27/2012 at 11:28 AM #

    Needless to say I am disappointed that we didn’t come out of the last 4 games 2-2 or even 1-3, but we are a much better “team” than last year. While we do have talent, what we lack is a true scorer. Lo Brown is the closest thing we have and I think next year he may be able to score at will, but no one else on our current roster looks to have that ability.

    With our team make up this year we are fairly easy to defend; play decent interior defense (most teams are bigger than us) and take away Wood. While we’ll get points out of 3 or 4 players, we have no one that will go off for 25+ to make up for the one or two guys you take away. In order to win we almost need 5 players to score double figures because there’s no one that can take over a game at this point. Hopefully another season of maturity and working out will allow Calvin and Brown to become more dominate.

    Lowe was not too bad at identifying talent, but he was awful at assembling a team – which is part of our current issues. Sendek on the other hand, knew exactly what he wanted and recruited to that model. Sendek’s problem was that when his system didn’t work he wouldn’t adjust or give his athletes the freedom to take over a game (Hodge is the exception).

    I’m cautiously optimistic moving forward, but for first time in while I’m leaning towards believing that we’re on our way to being a consistent top 4 or 5 team in the conference.

  15. GoldenChain 02/27/2012 at 12:14 PM #

    WTNY.
    I’m sorry you guys have heard that over and over and over. The reality is what else is there? Fire Gott? What would that solve?
    Gott took over an undisciplined team that won 15 games last year and had it being a factor until mid February. When is the last time we’ve been a factor at the end of January much less Feb 20th?

    Good kids coming in and additional time in Gott’s system for the rest means better ball next year.

    I’ve heard WTNY before but I haven’t heard it from Gott, and that makes all the difference.

  16. runwiththepack 02/27/2012 at 12:24 PM #

    Clemson was a tough OT loss, like the UVA loss and Duke loss. But Clemson wasn’t a wtf “L”. The only wtf ACC loss this year was GA Tech, which i had the misfortune of seeing, so this year is definitely an improvement. Vs. FSU sucked, too, but we weren’t “supposed” to win that one anyway, so that didn’t hurt as much as the GA Tech game, in my opine.

    NCSU has occasionally gotten 5* players in the past 20 years. It brings me pain to name some of them. Next year we’ll have two (three? four?) of them on the same team for the first time in who-knows-how-long, if Calvin stays. Please, Jesus, let us have better fortunes with this bunch of stars.

    Expectations are lowered now, but 9-7 would still be a HUGE improvement over the last 6/7(?) seasons. Thanks guys. I see light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m disappointed we didn’t reach the end of the tunnel this season.

    Will our star recruits contribute enough next year to help our current players bring home some long-awaited glory? If just two of them are big for us, and Leslie stays (and improves) we will be very good.

  17. bill-1956 02/28/2012 at 9:06 AM #

    I’m in agreement with Tuckerdorm1983. We are who we are. And right now, I’d rather see us go deep in the NIT (which we can) than lose in the NCAA 1st round (which we could have).

    Coach Gott is getting everything he can from our guys. Not to say they are playing to their full potential every single minute of every single game – but they’re playing pretty darn good. It’s been fun to watch ‘team’ play rather than whatever it was I was seeing the previous 5 years.

    And I hope to never ever see the Princeton Offense again in the ESA, or RBC, or PNC, or whatever today’s acronym is.

    We’d all like to have the UVA, GT, Dook, Clemson games back . . but overall it’s good and going to get even better.

    The future’s so bright; I gotta go find my shades . . . . Honey, didn’t I leave my sunglasses on the kitchen counter? Well, I can’t find them. Somebody must have moved them. . .

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