Hi all – hope everyone’s having a good Saturday and that your weekend is off to a good start. In addition to Pack-WVa tonight, throughout the day there’s tons of college basketball, the first bowl game of the season, plus a couple of NFL games on today as we draw in on the NFL Playoffs (cue Jim Mora soundbite!). Please use this thread as an ‘open’ discussion for sports happenings – then we’ll transition into the game thread.
N.C. State (9-2) vs. West Virginia (9-1), Gotham Classic, ~9:30pm @ Madison Square Garden; Tv: Espn2
N.C. State heads into New York tonight for their first neutral court game of the season (let’s hope it’s the first of many neutral site games). The Wolfpack enters the Gotham Classic contest against West Virginia after a solid, bounce-back win over Tennessee on Wednesday evening. A great opportunity lays in front of the Pack tonight, as a neutral court victory over a solid Power conference opponent would carry a lot of weight on Selection Sunday if the Pack is in contention for a berth.
So, what exactly is the Gotham Classic? In addition to the linked page above, the ‘Richmond Times-Dispatch‘ offers the following:
“The Gotham Classic is comprised of seven teams in a competition held at various sites. N.C. State and West Virginia play in the Gotham Classic only in this Showcase Round. Richmond, Pepperdine, Howard, South Alabama and IUPUI face one another in a round-robin format.”
Richmond and Pepperdine qualified for tonight’s ‘Showcase Round’ through the round-robin, and will play at 7pm. The Wolfpack and Mountaineers will take the court approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Spiders-Waves game.
As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers are off to a pretty solid start at 9-1. Their RPI currently sits at 34 and they have wins over Boston College and UConn by virtue of winning the ‘Puerto Rico Tip Off’. West Virginia’s only blemish is a home loss to athletic but inconsistent LSU. The Mountaineers are ranked, primarily due to the victory over UConn before the Huskies started showing their flaws. That’s not meant to slight WVa’s accomplishments – it just goes to show how unreliable media rankings can be early in the season. West Virginia trailed for much of the game against opponents BC, Monmouth, and Marshall … so it will be interesting to see what we get out of the Mountaineers tonight.
As for style of play, the Mountaineers rely on pressure defense and rebounding – Bob Huggins staples. They’re not overly efficient on offense (of course, Tenn wasn’t a good shooting team yet nailed seemingly 500 threes against the Pack), instead relying on offensive putbacks and turnovers to create scoring opportunities. If the Pack backcourt can handle the WVa pressure and physicality, and if the team grab the majority of their defensive rebound opportunities then there may be chances to run and get out in space – a style of play that definitely favors the Wolfpack. I like the match-up and it will be very interesting to see this game play out. Regardless of the outcome, this will hopefully be another contest that helps the Pack put together the pieces of the puzzle (it’s all about working towards March, baby).
GoPack preview snippet with links to game notes and stats
Two videos today 🙂  :
Enjoy the game everyone and Go Pack!
