Thursday Compendium

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March 1st, 2012

NC STATE BASKETBALL
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Bret Strelow (FayObserver.com)
Wolfpack’s Alex Johnson comes through in clutch

With Williams enduring a rough senior night, Johnson gave the Wolfpack a welcomed boost. He sacrificed his body defensively and provided N.C. State with a second ball-handler, finding open teammates without putting possessions at risk.

And when Johnson needed to knock down two key free throws with 29.7 seconds left, he delivered, remaining poised even as Miami’s Malcolm Grant jokingly offered to give him $200 if he missed both attempts.

“We’ve kind of let a lot of easy games slip away from us,” Johnson said. “It’s not that we’re not good enough, it’s just maturity level. I feel like I bring that to this team. I’ve been in tight spots like this, so I know what to do.”

Brett Friedlander (starnewsonline.com)
Wolfpack’s NCAA tourney hopes ‘still have a pulse’

Mark Gottfried is a basketball coach, not a doctor. And he didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But that didn’t stop him from making a diagnosis on the postseason hopes of his N.C State basketball late Wednesday night.

“We’re not dead yet,” he said. “We still have a pulse.”

Though the Wolfpack’s chances of breaking its five-year NCAA tournament drought are still very much on life support, at least there are still signs of life after gritting out a season-saving 77-73 victory against Miami at the RBC Center.

State shook off the effects of fatigue, frustration and a disastrous four-game losing streak to play with a sense of urgency it hasn’t had since the second half at Duke two weeks ago. That and the return of junior Scott Wood from the missing-in-action list helped ensure Gottfried’s team of its first .500 or better ACC finish since 2005-06.

The Wolfpack is now 19-11 overall and 8-7 in the league with one game remaining, Saturday at Virginia Tech.

Even if Wednesday’s victory and the performance that helped bring it about don’t end up catapulting State into the NCAA field, it was at least another step forward in the development of a program that is clearly – at long last – heading in the right direction.

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Leslie leads Pack past Miami with 21 points, 11 rebounds

Bret Strelow (FayObserver.com)
Postgame thoughts from N.C. State-Miami: Mark Gottfried is right; the Wolfpack does have a pulse

2. It’ll be a shame if C.J. Leslie doesn’t get the proper recognition for a fine season. We’ve repeatedly documented that he ranks among the ACC’s top 10 in points, rebounds, steals, blocks and field-goal percentage. He had another strong game Wednesday, posting 21 points (on 7-for-10 shooting), 11 rebounds and three blocks. During one sequence, he fired a pass to Lorenzo Brown while making an acrobatic save on the defensive end, sprinted the length of the court and dunked an alley-oop pass from Brown. Right now, I’d have Leslie solidly on the all-ACC second team with Florida State’s Michael Snaer and UNC’s Kendall Marshall. Maryland’s Terrell Stoglin is probably in that group, and I’d currently round it out with Duke’s Seth Curry.

GoPack.com
Wolfpack Outlasts Miami, 77-73

Led by C.J. Leslie’s double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds, NC State pulled out a thrilling 77-73 win over Miami on Senior Night. The Wolfpack improves to 19-11 (8-7 ACC) with the win, while the Hurricanes fall to 17-11 (8-7 ACC). NC State is now 5-0 all-time against the Miami at the RBC Center.

NC State completes the season sweep of the Hurricanes, who came in with seven wins in the last 10 games, as the Pack won earlier in Coral Gables, 78-73.

“Our team’s resilience really impressed me,” said head coach Mark Gottfried. “The last couple weeks we’ve had a series of tough games and our guys responded with a desire to compete. They showed we’re not dead yet, they’ve got a lot of fight in them, and they stepped up and made some big, big plays.

“Richard Howell played terrific, Scott Wood shot the ball incredibly well, C.J. Williams rallied to contribute for us, we had great performances from everybody. That’s what we needed to come in and win a tough ballgame.”

GoPack.com
Official Basketball Box Score — Game Totals — Final Statistics

Jacey Zembal (TheWolfpacker.com)
Wolfpack pulls out 77-73 home win over Hurricanes

NC State made enough big plays down the stretch to snap its four-game losing streak.

NC State sophomore power forward C.J. Leslie set the tone early and played a near-complete game to finish with 21 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots, in the Wolfpack’s 77-73 win Wednesday in front 14,682 fans at the RBC Center.

NC State improved to 19-11 overall and 8-7 in the ACC. The Wolfpack play at Virginia Tech at 6 p.m. Sunday. Both NC State and Miami are fighting to be among the 68 NCAA Tournament teams, but the Hurricanes fell to 17-11 overall and 8-7 in the league.

Leslie said he was challenged this week to step up and become more of a leader and create energy for the Wolfpack. Leslie has scored 20-plus points in three of his last four games.

“I’m just motivating my team right now,” said Leslie, who had his fifth double-double for points and rebounds this season. “We have find somewhere to get it going. We had lost four straight games, so we knew we had to come out and get this one. We wanted this one.

“We’ve been having trouble finishing it, so that’s big for us, and we’ll take that.”

JOEDY McCREARY (AP)
Leslie leads NC State past Miami 77-73

C.J. Leslie had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and North Carolina State withstood a late charge from Miami to beat the Hurricanes 77-73 on Wednesday night.

Lorenzo Brown added 16 points and Scott Wood had 15 with five 3-pointers for the Wolfpack (19-11, 8-7 Atlantic Coast Conference).

They shot 50 percent (28 of 56) and kept Miami winless in Raleigh, while snapping a four-game losing streak and locking up their first .500 finish in league play since they were 10-6 in 2006. That was also the last time the Wolfpack made the NCAA tournament.

Rion Brown scored 15 points and Malcolm Grant added 14 for Miami (17-11, 8-7). Grant’s 3-pointer — with Lorenzo Brown’s hand in his face — tied it at 69 with 1:36 left. Wood countered with a 3 from the wing that restored the Wolfpack’s three-point lead with 1:07 left.

Joe Ovies (WRALSportsfan.com)
Triangle ACCtion: COY, POY and what to do with Hess

According to Joe Giglio, Karl Hess was scheduled to make his return to the RBC Center following the infamous ejections of Tom Gugliotta and Chris Corchiani. The ACC took him off the game in an apparent attempt to further kill the story and it’s not much of a guess to think the conference office isn’t pleased with this news floating out there. The scheduling of officials is supposed to be kept under wraps.

However, the news was going to get out whether Hess worked the game or not. His first game back is going to be news, whether it happened tonight against Miami or at some point next season against a non-conference opponent in December. Pulling him off the game is a bad look, since it only delays the inevitable. NC State fans are going to give that guy hell.

It also sets a potentially bad precedent. Hess isn’t the first ref to screw something up and he won’t be the last. They went out of their way to not suspend Hess, but explain to me the difference in this situation. He’s still not working a game. In addition, what’s to stop a fan base from making the environment unpleasant enough to force the ACC to reconsider an assignment? The home office in Greensboro comes off as weak here.

MULTIMEDIA/PODCASTS

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GoPack.com
Inside Wolfpack Sports – Tom Gugliotta & Chris Corchiani

In today’s episode Don Shea visits with Tom Gugliotta & Chris Corchiani, members of the 1989 NC State ACC regular-season championship team.

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

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40 Responses to Thursday Compendium

  1. Prowling Woofie 03/01/2012 at 12:14 PM #

    ^ I wouldn’t think so… not at this time, anyway. Gott seems to be happy here and with his team (and bosses).

    Howland should never have brought in Nelson – he’s a chump-ass thug, just like his brother was at GT !

  2. papackman 03/01/2012 at 12:23 PM #

    Comments from Terps regarding last night’s UNC/MD game – Baltimore Sun

    “I’ve never seen a big man shoot that many free throws in my life,” said Maryland forward James Padgett, who had 13 points and 13 rebounds.
    “He got a lot of calls. There wasn’t much our big men could do,” said Maryland freshman Nick Faust (City), who had a career-high 17 points. “I would say he got every call he really wanted. He’s a good player though.”

    Who da thought!!!

  3. JasonP 03/01/2012 at 12:23 PM #

    Guess it’s the Wolfpack blood but I’m always skeptical of anonymous “player” allegations against a program and the subsequent blowing out of proportion by sports media.

    Firing Howland would be idiotic, but stranger things have happened. Don’t think Gott would be their 1st choice but he’d probably be in their top 5.

  4. the_phisherman 03/01/2012 at 12:26 PM #

    I’m absolutely amazed we were able to win despite giving up 22 offensive rebounds. It seemed like they got them all with Howell out. He makes such a difference on the boards for us. It’s really key that he learn to stay out of foul trouble.

  5. Hungwolf 03/01/2012 at 12:48 PM #

    The Hess saga may be the reason we don’t get in the tournament. Swofford and his ACC-Chapel Hill staff will be politicing hard to keep us out of the Big Dance. No way does ACC want the Hess incident replayed over and over on TV during the tournament.

    Also where is Swofford in the Green suspension. He can go all the way to Indy to represent UNC as he was introduced as a Tar Heel not ACC commiss. Yet, no word on such a harsh punishment on a NCSU football player.

    My son went to UNC — Maryland game. Said Terps couldn’t even get near Zeller without getting a foul. Zeller was making contact knowing he would get the call. Said the refs were making sure Zeller would have a big game. Then to complete the conspiracy theory: Charlotte Observer Sports headline reads: “Zeller’s Smith Center farewell a rousing one.” State game not even mentioned in todays Observer.

  6. Rochester 03/01/2012 at 12:50 PM #

    I think Howland’s done. If half that stuff is true, that program has spun way out of control and it all comes back to him.

    The Gottfried connection crossed my mind too, but I don’t see him bolting this soon. He’s got a job to do, he’s got a great recruiting class coming in, he probably feels pretty loyal to DY, and he knows most of us love him.

  7. wilmwolf80 03/01/2012 at 1:44 PM #

    NC State fans are a lot of different things, but forgetful is not one of them. It doesn’t matter if it takes 5 years before Karl comes back to Raleigh, he will catch hell when he does and rightfully so. I think the only way to fix the officiating, besides getting rid of the commissioner and head of officials, is to do a wholesale swap with a conference out west. The rotation of officials that work in the ACC are too familiar with the players and the coaches to officiate a bias-free game. As for the game last night, kudos to the players for sticking it out and getting the tough win. CJ Leslie is finally starting to show the intensity on BOTH ends of the floor that we need from him. Thanks to the seniors for all you have done for the program, CJ Williams has become a heck of a player, and Alex Johnson, despite being maligned by some of our fans, has been invaluable this year.

  8. BJD95 03/01/2012 at 2:12 PM #

    As usual, I agree with Cowdog. I understood all but a handful of calls (each way), and it was consistent. Wasn’t perfect. But I can live with that.

    As I said, the Duke travesty was the first Pack loss I blamed on officiating since the Maryland game where Damon Thornton got screwed on a charge and DQ’d for a technical. John Clougherty.

  9. MrPlywood 03/01/2012 at 3:31 PM #

    re: “In addition, what’s to stop a fan base from making the environment unpleasant enough to force the ACC to reconsider an assignment?”

    Here’s how the ACC can contribute to a pleasant environment: Have your refs make consistent calls, quit favoring the blues, avoid grandstanding and stop kicking State’s all-stars out of their seats. That’s pretty simple.

  10. tuckerdorm1983 03/01/2012 at 5:13 PM #

    no chance on losing Gott.

    mathematics for us coming in fourth
    1st we must beat VT
    2nd Clemson lose to FSU or VT
    3rd UVA must lose to both MD and FSU

    NCSU 9-7
    Miami 9-7 or 8-8 we go ahead of them in a tie
    UVA 8-8
    Clemson 8-8

    the worst case scenario is 7th (UVA, Clemson and Miami win their remaining games and we lose ours)
    we lose to VT
    UVA wins both games
    Clemson wins both games
    Miami wins at BC

    UVA 10-6
    Clemson 9-7
    Miami 9-7
    NCSU 8-8

  11. Wolf74 03/01/2012 at 7:26 PM #

    “The officiating was still dreadful. The phantom fouls, especially the one on Leslie, were terrible. Roger the Dodger did his best to keep up from winning.”

    Yep, I was shocked I tell you, positively shocked we won a game against a competitive team with Roger Ayers working the court.

  12. john of sparta 03/01/2012 at 8:51 PM #

    +1 MISTA.
    you beat me to it.
    UCLA has more than
    enough to buy out.

  13. mak4dpak 03/01/2012 at 10:53 PM #

    I could complain about the attendance, with all the empty seats, since I drove from Fayetteville, and got up at work the next day at 515 am. But with people out of town, and jobs to go to, it was a nice crowd, and loud too, and and a nice win to boot. Go Pack!

  14. BJD95 03/02/2012 at 7:02 AM #

    We are still alive for the fourth seed, after UVA’s choke job. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing which shade of blue we want to prevail tomorrow.

    If we are the 4 or 5, we definitely want Duke to win (beatable semifinal foe). But if we are 6 or especially 7 – a UNC win is essential to our staying alive. Our worst case scenario is getting the #7 seed with UNC as the #2. No reason to even think about Saturday if that happens.

    I’m nervous about VPI. They have to be frustrated at their rash of close losses, and could easily take out their frustrations on us (like we did to Miami).

  15. tuckerdorm1983 03/02/2012 at 7:12 AM #

    we can still be 4th, but we can also be 7th.

    four teams are 8-7 (UVA, NCST, Miami, Clem)
    Miami doesn’t really matter because we beat them twice unless of course we lose to VT

    UVA is more than likely going to beat MD and that knocks us out of 4th place no matter whether we win at VT or not because we lost to UVA earlier

    Miami is probably going to beat BC meaning a loss to VT by us will put us at 7th

    If Clemson wins against FSU they could be 4th if UVA loses and Miami Loses

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