Pack/Hoyas: Sunday 12:15

11-12 Basketball36

Photo credit: Greg Mintel, NewsObserver.com

This is a brave, new, surreal world for the Wolfpack, who will play deeper into March than their Tobacco Road brethren over in Durham.

State will face Georgetown Sunday at 12:15 (it will also be the only game on, too). We’re due a little revenge, too: some of you may remember that State lost to Georgetown in the 1989 Sweet Sixteen after “the worst call in NCAA Tournament history.”

Fun fact: State’s 58.5% FG% was the highest for a team in the NCAA Tournament since 1989 (per ESPN bottom line).

More to come.

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11-12 Basketball

36 Responses to Pack/Hoyas: Sunday 12:15

  1. Pack78 03/17/2012 at 8:26 AM #

    This will be a tough one, but I really like the way this team is playing. BTW, my brackets took a real hit yesterday…

  3. vtpackfan 03/17/2012 at 8:36 AM #

    89, Hoyas, sounds familiar.

  4. theTHRILL 03/17/2012 at 8:41 AM #

    “Fun fact: State’s 58.5% FG% was the highest for a team in the NCAA Tournament since 1989 (per ESPN bottom line).”

    Unbelievable

  5. EdMar 03/17/2012 at 8:42 AM #

    I just sent a Thank You note to Director Yow with a copy of a letter I sent her last March 8th.

    Parts of the letter:

    I am a 1974 NCSU graduate …………..give you my 2 cents worth on our Men’s Basketball Program…..

    Just twenty years ago State had a great basketball tradition that favorably compared to UNC, Duke……….but we are now most of the time competing for the bottom 3 or 4 positions.

    I am not a basketball expert and have not seen any of Sidney’s practices so I cannot claim to know or pinpoint our “issues” but this is what I see in games:

    – Our talent is not at the same level as UNC or Duke but at least matches the rest of the teams in the ACC.
    – We have not learned some important basic things in 5 years including: how to screen and how to block out, we do not have a reasonable substitution pattern, we are not disciplined on offense and we lack a good end of game strategy.
    – Our players do not seem to be getting substantially better with each year of experience
    – The most glaring issues to me seem to be the lack of consistent effort on defense and overall hustle.

    ….we appreciate Lowe’s taking over our coaching job at a time when no one seemed to want it but he has not been able to translate his knowledge of the game and his love for NCSU into a winning formula.

    Sidney has recruited better players and it could be reasonable to say that as they get experience they will get better, but I’m afraid that will not happen ….I believe is time for a change.

    ………If we do not get an established great coach, maybe we can hire a coach that gets a good effort from the players, shows steady improvement and at least makes us competitive.

    WOW. What a difference a Coach makes. Thank you Ms.Yow

  6. Rick 03/17/2012 at 8:43 AM #

    Gottfried, in his FIRST YEAR, just matched the best year Herb had in TEN YEARS with 23 wins.

    Let that sink in. Gott equals Herb’s best season in his first year, with a team that was bottom of the ACC for 5 years running…

    Without his “own players”…

    He also did not have to play the pathetic schedules Herb did to rack up wins. He play one of the hardest schedules in the country.

    Those of us that knew we could do better than Herb’s “5 tournaments in a row” are now vindicated. Herb has proven what kind of coach he is by his failure at ASU and NCSU has shown why we should expect more.

  7. BJD95 03/17/2012 at 8:50 AM #

    Wow, the sole national game. Haven’t seen that in forever. I like that I won’t be missing any other games. For example, I certainly want to be able to cheer on the mighty Creighton Bluejays. 🙂

    When you play selflessly, pass the ball with purpose (all our guys now do that, even Calvin), and wait for good shots…good results will follow much more often than not.

    You won’t find a seventh man anywhere less afraid to take a big shot than Pringles. That’s pretty valuable in a tournament setting.

  8. Rick 03/17/2012 at 8:52 AM #

    “You won’t find a seventh man anywhere less afraid to take a big shot than Pringles. That’s pretty valuable in a tournament setting.”

    Strangely enough you are right. His single mindedness makes him a huge asset. Now if we could teach him so post up moves too he could be incredibly effective.

  9. BJD95 03/17/2012 at 8:54 AM #

    The round of Sixteen would also feature a “1 round early” rematch of a classic V-era painful loss. We had a lead late, but Danny Manning led Kansas to a win in the 86 regional final. Which led me (as a sullen youth) to kick in my bedroom closet door. 🙂

  10. GAWolf 03/17/2012 at 9:18 AM #

    You need to watch the entire press conference on the NCAA website. Gottfried still gets hit with questions about our unreasonable fan base despite the fact that we have been complete vindicated. Gott handles it very well and rightfully calls us a positive and he’s thankful of our fans because many programs don’t have that sort of support.

  11. CHASSman 03/17/2012 at 9:19 AM #

    I am so proud of what this team has done this year. I will be rocking my pack sweatshirt everywhere I go in east Tenn this weekend.
    Now lets go beat the Hoyas.
    Take notice of what could be, Amile.

  12. BJD95 03/17/2012 at 9:27 AM #

    It is what I’ve always said – the kind of person who would view sharing a media market with the blues, and the high expectations of an engaged fanbase as anything other than positive selling points…that type of individual is doomed to fail anyway.

  13. Hungwolf 03/17/2012 at 9:37 AM #

    Gott handles the questions I agree. Roy gets the same crazy questions often reporters try to bait Roy. One tried to do so yesterday in the press conference after the UNC game. For some reason during this year’s tourney if you have noticed the refs are telling players and coaches to sit down. At tip off yesterday at the UNC games this happened. Roy was clearly upset about it, telling the ref that the rule says players can stand during a dead ball. Reproter tried to get Roy to comment on it, but Roy caught him trying to bait him. I think working for ESPN has been great experience for Gott and knowing how to handle the media.

  14. bill.onthebeach 03/17/2012 at 9:54 AM #

    From what I saw yesterday….Georgetown plays the old Big East — hacking, banging, slash and burn, trash talking , in your face — style of bball.

    … and they enjoy playing that way too!

    In a game where fouls called are in the low 30s — that may help keep Howell, CALVIN and Painter in the game, but puts a lot of pressure on Williams, Brown and Johnson on both ends of the floor.

    Opposite case is true in a game where fouls called are in upper 30s -low 40s: our bigs will be sitting at crunch time.

    Not saying the outcome depends of the style of officiating…

    Our coaches have GOTT to come up with an antidote for dealing with Georgetown’s physical intensity.

  15. redcanine 03/17/2012 at 10:09 AM #

    I trust that Coach Gott & Co. will have a great game plan tomorrow. Someone (if not the whole team) will have a great game for the Wolfpack.

    Defensively, we need to force them into turnovers. We can do this. Go State!

  16. BJD95 03/17/2012 at 10:22 AM #

    We can definitely do it. Is it probable? No. Plausible? Most definitely.

  17. ADVENTUROO 03/17/2012 at 10:26 AM #

    From Columbus,

    You gotta love this team and the coaches (despite their persistence in wearing light BLUE shirts). Folks up here are great. Seemed to adopt us. Guess that when you see someone with RED on and the word STATE in the logo, you have a “bond”, however the Aztecs met the same criteria. Obviously our crowd was bigger…

    Also exchanged emails with Debbie Yow last night. She seems like one happy lady. Emailed me first thing this AM with the game time.

    GO PACK.

    FWIW,

    Coach G. tied a record yesterday (not for winning an NCAA tournament game in a light BLUE shirt, but probably a FIRST for NCSU).

    He is now tied with Les Robinson for “first year” NCAA appearances. Coach Robinson won the first and lost the second. HOPEFULLY Coach Gottfried will have a NEW record!

  18. NCSU84 03/17/2012 at 10:33 AM #

    Any word on CJW’s ankle?

  19. Wufpacker 03/17/2012 at 10:36 AM #

    “This game takes you to incredible highs, and it also takes you to incredible lows”

    Yadda yadda yadda. The conference is still 3-2 without you. Suck it, Duke.

  20. gcpack 03/17/2012 at 10:40 AM #

    Supposedly last week Amile Jefferson was going to make his decision known. If he hasn’t announced yet our continued success in the NCAAT and Duke’s early exit hopefully will grab his attention and influence him.

    Any update on where Jefferson stands now?

  21. WolfBlood 03/17/2012 at 10:42 AM #

    Duke sucks, I knew they’d go out early. Didnt think that early but it happened. We should be beating them on the regular before too long.

    W O L F P A C K ! ! !

  22. Texpack 03/17/2012 at 10:45 AM #

    We had the same, early, only game on time slot when we last advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating UConn. I feel like we’ll give a good account of ourselves even if we don’t win. I have always hated the thuggish Big East style of play. I’d especially like to exact revenge for the call.

  23. tvopack 03/17/2012 at 10:55 AM #

    I think some of us need to calm down and stop emailing Dr. Yow about the really light blue shirt. It looks close enough to white to me. I just don’t like it if Debbie Yow thinks we are bunch of complaining babies.

  24. BJD95 03/17/2012 at 10:55 AM #

    Being physical doesn’t phase us in the least.

  25. BJD95 03/17/2012 at 10:57 AM #

    MG can coach in footie pajamas as long as he wins, for all I care. And his dress is perfectly professional, which is the image we want to convey. No tomato red blazers.

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