Speaking of expectations: NCSU in top ten preseason polls

12-13 Basketball College Basketball Debbie Yow59

Mark Gottfried’s NC State basketball program continues to attract some major national media attention!!

Just today, two different preseason polls from national outlets – ESPN and NBC – have projected next year’s Wolfpack to start in the top ten in the country. I think they are assuming Leslie comes back. The excitement of college basketball has come back to Raleigh.

Just a note for all of the fans (and Lee Fowler and Jim Oblinger) with whom the bulk of SFN authors argued for years — if NC State starts the first week of the 2012-2013 basketball season at these rankings, it would be single-week ranking higher than ANY ranking that the great Herb Sendek achieved in TEN YEARS of opportunity as the head coach at NC State (and another six years at Arizona State, for that matter).

Can you smell what the Gott is cooking?!

Number six in this preseason poll

Number four in this preseason poll

Number five in this preseason poll

And we ended up twenty in the final ESPN poll.
Final ESPN poll

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.

12-13 Basketball College Basketball Debbie Yow

59 Responses to Speaking of expectations: NCSU in top ten preseason polls

  1. Sweet jumper 04/03/2012 at 10:15 AM #

    Oh hell yeah! 20+ seasons of massive mismanagement. Thanks Woodson, Yow and Gottfried for putting a stop to the BS. The sleeping giant has awakened. Watch out when he starts to walk because he will leave a trail of destruction–starting with his closest neighbors. GOOOOOOOO PACKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!1

  2. TopTenPack 04/03/2012 at 10:47 AM #

    Can we help out NC State and its marketing efforts?

    NC State wants to be called “NC State” not “NCSU”. This blog attracts lots of traffic and attention. Let’s help out to keep a consistent message and image for our university.

    ——-

    http://www.ncsu.edu/brand/category/editorial-guidelines/

    North Carolina State University
    *North Carolina State University at Raleigh* is the full, official name of our institution and may be written when explicitly required on official documents. Editors should otherwise avoid using this name because of the implication that another branch of North Carolina State University exists in another city.

    *North Carolina State University* is the preferred form of the university’s full name. It should be paired with the university’s identifier on the front or back covers of publications and on World Wide Web (WWW) pages. This form should be used on title pages, in addresses and on first reference in text.

    *NC State* is the preferred second reference, mainly used as nouns (i.e., “Welcome to NC State”). Because “university” is missing from this short form, be cautious using it as an adjective; i.e., “NC State Department of…” may be confused with a State of NC department.

    The “university” is also a preferred third reference.

    Note: Editors should exercise caution to avoid confusion with units of North Carolina State Government or units at other universities, and the creation of incorrect names, (i.e., NC State Libraries).

    *ncsu.edu* (lowercase) is the university’s domain address in electronic mail and Web addressing. Although this is the URL for the university, “NCSU” should not be used to refer to the university in any form of communication. NCSU Libraries is the only exception.

  3. 808WOLF 04/03/2012 at 10:58 AM #

    Yeah…. What he said^….

    On a more interesting note, does anyone know what, if any, pre-season tournament our boys will be plAying in? Maui invitational would be an ideal venue to show the nation that THE PACK IS BACK!

  4. DC_wolf 04/03/2012 at 11:03 AM #

    Go NCSU!

  5. Hawkeye Whitney 04/03/2012 at 11:20 AM #

    Awesome. I think Gott can thrive off of high expectations. Let’s see how the N&O, News and Record and Charlotte Observer rank the ACC next fall. My guess is that they won’t allow themselves to put us ahead of the blues. Watch them rank us as “a solid third who might surprise some people this season.” They will call us still “unproven.” We get so much more love from the national media than we do in the State of North Carolina.

  6. WTNY 04/03/2012 at 11:35 AM #

    I agree with TopTenPack that we should use “NC State” whenever possible.

    Regarding the editorial guidelines posted, I find this very odd:

    “*ncsu.edu* (lowercase) is the university’s domain address in electronic mail and Web addressing. Although this is the URL for the university, “NCSU” should not be used to refer to the university in any form of communication. NCSU Libraries is the only exception.”

    Why not use ncstate.edu ????

  7. JeremyH 04/03/2012 at 11:48 AM #

    Go NC State University!

  8. JSRy2k 04/03/2012 at 11:52 AM #

    Recruiting should be bolstered with the exposure. And, I believe we’ll back it up. This team was incredibly consistent for a bubble team.

    One concern: How will the loss of CJ Williams senior leadership affect us?

  9. Pack Mentality 04/03/2012 at 12:11 PM #

    We are State…just like our jerseys say.

  10. Packfan28 04/03/2012 at 12:18 PM #

    We are who we think we are.

  11. Hungwolf 04/03/2012 at 12:19 PM #

    Swofford just crapped himself? No way he can fake smile at NC State being the ACC favorite for more than a minute!

  12. MattN 04/03/2012 at 12:32 PM #

    I thought it was supposed to take years to build a program?

  13. Rick 04/03/2012 at 12:34 PM #

    “How will the loss of CJ Williams senior leadership affect us?”

    I think both he and AJ were great leaders but I hope the other players learned how to be a leader from them.

  14. Rochester 04/03/2012 at 12:37 PM #

    This must be wrong. We cannot compete in the shadow of our neighbors from the near west. It’s foolhardy to ever expect to be as good as them. We should just be happy beating BC and Va Tech once in a while.

    HA! Loving the Gottfried era. Dare to dream, then go out and make it all happen.

  15. Codebrown 04/03/2012 at 12:40 PM #

    Winning!!@#

  16. Khan 04/03/2012 at 12:49 PM #

    Carolina State is back, baby!

  17. nav 04/03/2012 at 12:54 PM #

    As much as I’d love to drink the Kool-Aid, I just can’t imaging NC State deserving to be ranked in the top 10 preseason. I would put our team somewhere in the mid-teens. We got a really good draw in the NCAA tourney and played some average to below-average teams in the ACC tourney. Of course this is depending on if CJL comes back or not.

  18. TNWolf 04/03/2012 at 1:09 PM #

    The Big Lead is another one. They put us at #5. Hope we can live up to this. Would be a lot of fun.

  19. TNWolf 04/03/2012 at 1:20 PM #

    Here is the link for The Big Lead Ranking.

    http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2012/04/03/college-basketball-top-25-for-2012-2013-very-very-early-edition/

  20. Texpack 04/03/2012 at 1:23 PM #

    I think Lorenzo Brown and Scott Wood will fill the leadership roles of CJW and AJ quite nicely. Lorenzo Brown really developed into a very good player over the course of the year. He stepped up and took big shots at critical moments late in the season. How lucky are we that Lo had to spend a year in prep school and got to have an extra year under Gott as a result?

  21. anonimus 04/03/2012 at 1:35 PM #

    This is awesome pub for the program. Off season contenders means little though. Let’s hang an ACC tourney banner.

  22. mikeak01 04/03/2012 at 1:53 PM #

    and CJ Leslie wants to be called that and not Calvin………. so go NCSU!!!

  23. NCSU84 04/03/2012 at 2:56 PM #

    What the national media calls us (NCSU, NC State, North Carolina State University,…) makes no difference to me with one exception – do not call us UNC at Raleigh (them is fight’n words).

  24. ryebread 04/03/2012 at 4:00 PM #

    I love the positive press, but it really doesn’t mean anything. These are the way, way too early rankings. We don’t even know all the players going pro, or where all the recruits are going. Really, you can put 40 names in a hat and draw the rankings out in virtually any order at this point.

    As for the actual preseason rankings before the start of next year, a lot of that has to do with whether Leslie sticks (and if we add anyone else). With Leslie, I think we SHOULD be a top 3 squad in the ACC.

    Even with Leslie and no more additions by UNC and Duke, I would actually pick us third. Simply put, until we actually beat UNC and Duke, I’d pick us behind them. We’ve got to go and earn it. We’ve been far too mentally fragile for far too long. I also still remember year two of Sid — where we were picked and where we ended up.

    I’m excited though! Go Pack!

  25. WolfpackWorld 04/03/2012 at 4:16 PM #

    “do not call us UNC at Raleigh (them is fight’n words).”

    Or Carolina State.

1 2 3

Leave a Reply