NC State Falls to Temple 76-72 In the NCAA Opening Round

A season that began with great promise ended with NC State losing its opening round game in the NCAA tournament 76-72 to the Temple Owls.

The loss came in the typical way that we’ve seen NC State lose all year: not showing up to start the game and leaving itself far too much work to advance in the field of 64.

The favored Wolfpack started the game lethargically, playing poor defense and with a lot of standing around when it had the ball, leading to a 38-22 halftime deficit.  That lead proved to be too large for the Wolfpack to overcome as it staged a solid second half comeback, and as a result, the team that was picked to win the ACC and to make some noise in the national tournament accomplished….nothing.

Box Score

12-13 Basketball ACC & Other NC State NCS Basketball

193 Responses to NC State Falls to Temple 76-72 In the NCAA Opening Round

  1. Packster 03/22/2013 at 8:11 PM #

    An end to a disappointing season. The season was not without some good moments. The wins over UNC and Duke were especially sweet. We won 20+ games. We accomplished some things. The whole problem with this team this year is that it never really gelled as a team. We had some great individual efforts at times but overall a weak “team” and that came back to bite us in the end. Looking forward to next year with some youth to see who we can slip up on.

  2. TheAliasTroll 03/22/2013 at 8:13 PM #

    “Like it or not, Dakich pegged this team early on. We did nothing to prove him wrong. He saw the personalities and lack of effort, and called us on it. ”

    That son of a b!tch he was right wasn’t he.

  3. ringo 03/22/2013 at 8:15 PM #

    Tend to agree somewhat wulf. Am also perplexed by Warren’s apparent problems. He had the green light, why have a ‘tude? That’s why I can’t blame one guy, although Leslie seemed like a natural lightening rod, he was NOT the only problem. Maybe if he would have been 100% dialed in, it could have led to others being the same. But that lack of leadership is also on Lo, Wood, and Howell somewhat.

    I pray Warren gets on board 100% next year. It should be his team. If he ain’t happy with that, well, maybe there’s no fixing that problem.

    U darn tootin’ Dakich was right. I thought so at the time too. Competitive fire from this bunch was AWOL. I think it even wore RP’s enthusiasm down towards the 2nd half of the year and he seemed like a Chris Corchiani type fireball.

  4. ringo 03/22/2013 at 8:28 PM #

    More I think about it, Howell should have been the one to confront Leslie. They all seem to let it pass though. Lo Brown never got mad all year. Wood would just seem pi$$y.

    As far as Leslie, I’m not even sure if it was a problem with trying too hard sometimes too. He has about the worst situational awareness of any “good” player I’ve ever seen and yeah, defense was slack at times. In that case you had to go to Leslie 1st and get him a bucket to keep him interested, which we seemed to do. Then you folks complained about “featuring” Leslie. Well, Gott had no choice IMO if he wanted a productive Leslie.

  5. redcanine 03/22/2013 at 8:32 PM #

    We had 5 players who averaged double figure scoring (!) and yet the team still had “chemistry” issues? So who’s pissed about not getting the ball?

    I’d be pissed if I always had to protect an open rim because my teammate was always getting beat off the dribble. That’s wear Calvin usually gets into foul trouble.

  6. ringo 03/22/2013 at 8:33 PM #

    Chemistry issues may have been non basketball related. Who the freak knows. Probably was.

  7. JeremyH 03/22/2013 at 8:35 PM #

    I agree that it is very frustrating to hear about chemistry problems, we had enough of that crap in the Lowe era..Good comments about RP ringo. I thought I saw some magical stuff when Purvis and Lewis were out there some times, and including with Warren. Lewis is the cerebral point guard I want running the show. I think the future is in good hands. And we should welcome Leslie and Brown to come back for their senior season, we would then have enough depth to help enforce good habits.

  8. wolfpackdawg 03/22/2013 at 8:38 PM #

    @Wulfpack

    Hell, UNC, in a very down year, even had a better year.

    This is what pisses me off the most

  9. GoState91 03/22/2013 at 8:53 PM #

    From the start of the season this team never handled the high expectations well. Today’s game did not surprise me. It was a microcosm of the whole season. Poor defense, missed free-throws, not playing hard for an entire game, poor coaching etc. Next year’s team will have no expectations. Maybe they will handle that better. Hopefully we don’t lose too many underclassmen to the pros or transfers.

  10. ringo 03/22/2013 at 8:55 PM #

    Think I’m gonna watch Hoosiers tonight. I need to watch ball but can’t take the real thing yet. I’ll be pulling for Jim Larranaga. Don’t care about Miami, but he seems like a class act. It would do the ACC wonders for Miami to win it. It would probably help us next year with league perception.

    Outside of Johnson, their team seem like they are decent guys too.

  11. TheCOWDOG 03/22/2013 at 9:07 PM #

    Wolves lick wounds. And survive .

  12. choppack1 03/22/2013 at 9:09 PM #

    It’s funny the comments you see….I see some blaming CJ Leslie, Brown, Painter, TDT, Wood, Warren, and Vandenberg….

    You see the trend…Again – if you think any of our starters loaf – ask yourself why are they getting the minutes.

    When things were going well – I saw guys who were pulling for each other. Leslie and Zo certainly did. When he was injured, Zo was total class and positivity on the bench.

    Again – I’d like for the board to think back to a certain football coach who was just canned and what he did AND more importantly didn’t do.

    Like Gott – he had a track record. While past performance doesn’t guarantee future results, you certainly can’t ignore them….and what I think most of us should realize, is that what we’ve seen this year, is exactly what we’ll see in the Gottfried era. If we’re lucky, this type of year will be typical.

    I remember when Herb’s team played that Bama team he coached. I saw these magnificent physical specimens giving an uneven effort. Herb’s gang of cerebral basketball players beat them on their home court. That team had an elite high school talent – Richard Hendrix…

    I was hoping Gott had learned from his mistakes. After this year, I’m not so sure. Go back and read Tuffy’s post from a few weeks ago. I imagine some of you will go back to blaming the players.

    Me, I think attitude and effort is a reflection of leadership. Again, if every year is like this, I can handle it for a little while.

    At times, we played beautiful basketball and it was thrilling to watch. However, ultimately, we didn’t do the little things that champions do…and unfortunately, we may never do that unless Gott changes his approach.

  13. vtpackfan 03/22/2013 at 9:33 PM #

    If have to keep up bringing up Bama, over, and over, and over again, then you are going to be that f’ng guy. No coach has ever succeeded after having past pitfalls ever. Or wait, maybe they can. Perhaps when they succeed elsewhere people stop comparing him to the past. Maybe it’s just when the opportunity is there, somebody whacks them over the head with it.

    Find one friggin post in two years that you wrote where Gottfried has been doing things well here that he didn’t at Bama. By the time you find one that other old coot here will remind us about rooming with Auburn and Bama Grad students and all their astute wisdom.

  14. BloggerEsquire 03/22/2013 at 9:36 PM #

    Does seem funny. Weren’t folks worried about Gott leaving for UCLA after last season? Weren’t folks worried about Lutz getting a head coaching opportunity somewhere and bolting after one year too?

    It was a disappointing year based on what the team showed us last March. But even ignoring those expectations, 4 returning upperclassmen starters? Seems like 3rd place in the ACC should have been the floor with a down UNC and only three other NCAA-caliber teams. Just one less ACC loss and the rest of the WTF losses would have been excused. Instead, the MD, UVA, WF, and FSU losses were emblematic of the team this year, and how failure wasn’t the refs fault (see our ACC tourney loss last year), but the players’.

    Howell did seem to live up to his potential. Regardless of where he plays next year, hope Zo’s immediate future isn’t hobbled by his injury.

  15. Packstrength90 03/22/2013 at 9:43 PM #

    People,

    State fans are the most loyal on the planet. We’re so hungry for success that when we get a taste of it we go crazy. I bought into the pre season hype myself, but look where we are:

    1. We have the top recruits i the nation giving us a serious look.

    2. We have been to the big dance two years in a row after a 5 year drought.

    3. The team next year will be competitive especially if Brown and Leslie decide to give us another year.

    4. We beat the blues for the first time in a long time

    There are more positives and we should appreciate them instead of dwelling on the negatives. And I’m tired of the state fans busting on the guys. If CJ is guilty of anything it is trying too hard. He played a great game today and kept us in the first half. His one glaring mistake – shooting the three tuned out to be a positive as well. Anyone who says the team would be better without him is either a UNX troll or has no clue. I hope he and Zo are back next year.

    If the state fans get down on the players, that will be seen by the recruits. If we want to help we will be supportive of our guys no matter what. Let Gott light the fires in person and in private where it will actually do some good.

  16. TheAliasTroll 03/22/2013 at 9:54 PM #

    Gotta agree with choppack. It is damn worrisome to me that the same problems we all saw at the beginning of the year were not corrected and ended up doing us in immediately in the post season. I mean, that is a red fukkin flag.

  17. choppack1 03/22/2013 at 10:00 PM #

    vtpackfan – I don’t see that he HAS done anything that he didn’t do at Alabama. I think he walked into a good situation here and quite frankly, in his first year, he did a great job.

    If I go to restaurant and their food sucks, I’m not going to be surprised if I go back a couple of years later and sucks again. Sorry, I’ve got a memory. I’m not saying that Gott sucks – I’m just saying like TOB – we probably know what we’re going to get.

  18. Wulfpack 03/22/2013 at 10:02 PM #

    Leslie bolting for the D league will be addition by subtraction. If he hasn’t gotten it in three years, what makes one think a light bulb is suddenly going to go off?

    He was a problem. You cannot deny that. Gott has likely had it with him.

  19. burnbarn 03/22/2013 at 10:18 PM #

    JG’s comment about transfers was spooky

  20. ringo 03/22/2013 at 10:24 PM #

    chop,

    IMO they “loafers” got the minutes because:

    a. we were thin
    b. he wanted to win big

    We had the opportunity to win big. It didn’t come together it seems because of “chemistry”. Let’s see how he does going forward with this. Next year will not have the expectations. Hopefully we can add a baller or two this year and go 8 deep at least for next year. Then let’s see if there is endemic “loafing” being tolerated.

    IIRC Gott beat Herb in Raleigh. Gott also won 3 conf. championships at Murray St. So there is that past. He had more success at Alabama than anyone not named Case, V, or Sloan has had here. Our ceiling is higher than Alabama’s, period. After 2 years winning 48 games is not too bad. In fact it’s very good.

  21. choppack1 03/22/2013 at 10:26 PM #

    I don’t think so. I think Leslie is a good kid who struggles with self-confidence and sometimes tries to do too much.

    While he does have a selfish streak, you don’t see him being “mean.” Quite frankly, if he had more of a mean streak, it would be better.

    Remember, Leslie is the 4 or 3 in our offense – while he’s gonna touch the ball a lot, I can’t blame our problems on him. Aside from the game at UNC, I don’t think he made the mistakes which cost us those games.

  22. choppack1 03/22/2013 at 10:30 PM #

    ringo – why were 2 players called out most frequently for loafing allowed to log tons of minutes when they had a back-up (at least for the first part of the season.)

    Regarding the rankings – I don’t disagree with you. But I think we all agree, there’s a huge-ass gulf between Case, V, Sloan…..to Sendek…….to Lowe and Robinson.

    And yes, at this point, Gott is squarely in that spot between the 3 champs and Sendek. I do think Gott will be able to assemble the talent to make those kind of runs. I’m just hoping he starts playing more guys AND demanding his guys play better D and box out…If he does, I think he can definitely join those 3.

  23. ringo 03/22/2013 at 10:35 PM #

    I want him to do the same thing. I think he has made mistakes this year to be sure. Look, it had to be a tight rope to walk, we can all see that. He is responsible for making them play hard, I agree. But other than the cliche team building stuff which I’m sure he did (along with a trip to Spain), not being an insider I will give the benefit of doubt to the adult when we have good evidence of head case mentality/activity from said loafers.

    Again, I think he wanted to win big. Maybe it was a mistake but winning will a lot of time take care of chemistry. He tried to win past the problems. It didn’t work….well at least the winning big didn’t work. I don’t count 24 wins a disaster given recent (25 year) history here.

  24. 13OT 03/22/2013 at 10:46 PM #

    I’m not a UNC troll and I do have a clue that if Brown and Leslie return next season, it will be a re-run of this season. Why wouldn’t it? There’s no magic button to press that will turn these two into real team players as long as they believe their future is in the NBA.

    Neither of these players will ever want to play defense badly enough to excel in that area. I don’t see anything special in the way of defense in our 3 freshmen, either.

    This season was by no means a disaster, but it stunk. We were picked to win the ACC and ended up 5th. We were picked 6th nationally pre-season and ended up completely out of the polls. We weren’t particularly sharp in the ACCT, and we looked like a Sendek team in the NCAAT today.

    We have two starters departing and two juniors who may or may not return. We have 3 freshmen with some promise who’ll be experienced players next season. We still have a decent coaching staff, and I keep hearing that we have good recruits coming in.

    Things should be ok next season, but if it were up to me, Brown and Leslie would not return. Another year in college would probably make them better players and raise their NBA stock, but I don’t believe it would make our team better or raise our program’s stock.

  25. choppack1 03/22/2013 at 10:52 PM #

    Ringo – You are right – those wins aren’t a bad thing. However, I am judging this year from the perspective of potential – not from the historical context of NC State basketball.

    I am disappointed in this season because we had the potential – and the good fortune (from an injury perspective) – for it to be very special.

    One of the unique things about college basketball is that it gives a team 3 distinct opportunities to accomplish something:
    1) The conference regular season
    2) The conference tournament
    3) The NCAA tournament

    In retrospect, the regular season and conference tournament were satisfying compared to the tournament. But I think we can all agree that we underachieved in all 3 of those.

    And part of the reason I’m upset about this is that I know this mix of talent and lack of major injuries doesn’t always come together.

    The other reason is that this season was a chance for Gott to prove his growth during his sabbatical from coaching. Instead, it tells someone like me that maybe he hasn’t really changed, or at least, changed enough. (Consider it TOB’s not going for it at Clemson on 4th and 1 RW’s junior year.)

    None of this means that great things can’t happen for Gott at NC State. It just means, there was a great opportunity this year, and it slipped away.

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