Start Staats

14-15 Basketball ACC College Basketball19

Senior night is quietly approaching for NC State Basketball this upcoming Saturday against Syracuse. The Pack will have three seniors on senior night including: Ralston Turner, Desmond Lee and Raleigh native, Staats Battle. This trio has meant a significant amount to this program but Staats deserves to start come senior day.

Duke and North Carolina start their senior walk-ons on senior day so why not start Staats? Syracuse is known for running their 2-3 zone so put him in there for a couple of minutes to start the game off and potentially knock down a couple of threes to bust their zone. He deserves this opportunity from all the time commitment he has put in with the team over the past four years. Battle is the only current player on the team who has played all four years at NC State as well as the first four year player under Coach Mark Gottfried. He is easily one of the most famous walk-ons to play basketball in Raleigh alongside winning The Coolest NCAA Name his freshman year.

A key member of The Swat Team which is composed of walk-ons alongside transfers with Trevor Lacey last season and Terry Henderson this season, Staats has put in hard work everyday in practice to help the team prepare for opponent’s offensive and defensive schemes. Alongside helping the team prepare for games, it will be the last time The Battle Cannon dresses out together for a game in PNC Arena. So Coach Gottfried, please start Staats on Saturday against Syracuse as he can hopefully knock down a three and make PNC explode. Let’s get #StartStaats trending. Go Pack.

 

 

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  • 03/01/2015 at 11:12 PM #76762
    Bsim412
    Participant

    Senior night is quietly approaching for NC State Basketball this upcoming Saturday against Syracuse. The Pack will have three seniors on senior night
    [See the full post at: Start Staats]

    03/01/2015 at 11:39 PM #76764
    Wufpacker
    Participant

    If the rest of ’em play at Clemson like they did on Saturday, I’d be fine with Battle logging 40 minutes of PT vs ‘Cuse.

    03/02/2015 at 1:04 AM #76766
    DrWuffette1day
    Participant

    Good forum post, BSIM.

    The kid is lucky to be on the team. With the DUI….

    He is owed nothing. He caught a HUGE break from the coaching staff for allowing him to remain a team member. He should be grateful to be able to suit up. We’ll see how generous Coach Gott is. I suspect he’ll get a nod in the beginning but it is not a big deal to me either way. I am more concerned about winning the game and the flow of the game than succumbing to this sort of social pressure.

    Before game and/or halftime recognition should be enough. Walk-ons should be inspiring and the hardest workers on the team. Walk-ons are role models for other players. First in and last out – everywhere and all the time. I am not sure he achieved that status but he seems to be affable and well-liked. Maybe this is another culture issue (didn’t he come in with CJ, Brown, and Lewis), which I link to the Lowe years. He became Gott’s when Gott allowed him back on the team. How many other guys would have jumped at the opportunity to be part of the team? I think Coach has a real big soft spot for him. Rightly or wrongly, I view his being on the team as a political maneuver for a local kid.

    He’s very, very lucky to be alive and to be forgiven. He has a bright future ahead of him and I truly wish him well.

    Of course going on Wufpacker’s line of thought, he could play drunk if our stars don’t play well.

    I know I am rough – maybe too much so. This grumpy soul is going to bed but would like to read good things (stories) about Staats’ impact on the team later. Let’s give him some props.

    03/02/2015 at 6:27 AM #76769
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    Dr. Wolf-Soon…

    If you’d been coaching in Chapel Hill back in the day… I wonder if you’d set the same standards for your ALL ACC, NBA bound, star point guard?

    Nor am I sure how it works to have double standards – one for “scholarship” players and one for “walk-ons”.

    Sometimes, and I emphasize, sometimes, the best place for kids in trouble is on a ball team.

    Regardless of all that… Seniors start on Senior night and so does Staats…
    Four minutes at the beginning of the game ain’t gonna change the outcome one bit.

    After four or five years…. He’s earned that.

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    03/02/2015 at 7:27 AM #76771
    DrWuffette1day
    Participant

    Bill,

    You are kind. I know I was rough on the little guy and I was going to tone it down. And yes, there are usually two sets of rules. If the stars break a few rules, they are generally forgiven. For a walk-on to have that level of breach is unusual. Coach did the right thing though for team chemistry. And Staats hasn’t made any more critical mistakes. Our lucky kid learned and coach’s faith has been rewarded.

    Basketball teams should never be halfway houses (state’s program is not). We have seen what a couple of wandering apples can do to a team.

    Ummm, yeah 4 mins can change the outcome of the game. Too long. I was thinking 1 min or maybe 4 times up and down the court. If the game is tight ok but if they pull ahead, we need to sub.

    Congrats to Staat for graduating and being a beloved team member and contributor to the success of the team.

    03/02/2015 at 7:53 AM #76775
    bill.onthebeach
    Participant

    Dr. Wolf-Soon…

    Perhaps to some extent or other… every Team ought to be a “halfway house” or bridge – as in … a bridge from the last place you were and the next place you’re going…

    Afterall… we all are “wanderers” and life is not static and places, especially the good ones, are not permanent.

    AND you need to drop us a line here much more often… even if it’s just to say “Hi!”
    The guys behave better when they know there’s a lady in the house…

    No more “lurking”… OK?

    #NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
    03/02/2015 at 8:40 AM #76779
    DrWuffette1day
    Participant

    Let me try to tone my last tone down post.

    No doubt sports can be an outlet for kids who make bad choices or who are put in less than desirable circumstances. High school is much different than a Division 1 college program, where you have so much public exposure.

    The question becomes how much risk is the coach willing to accept. You figure that kids are not always going to make the right choice so you are willing to take some “knocks” to your program. You assign “handlers” to watch over star “troubled” players. Those “handlers” are often walk-ons. You don’t bring on walk-ons who consistently make bad decisions or if they make a really bad decision- they pay dearly and understand the consequences.

    I think this is what happened to UNC-CHeat to an extent. The problem is when it becomes ingrained in your program and the kids start to believe that they are above all rules (parking, PD issues, classes, agents in the gym and classroom, etc).

    If you let your “knocks” come with players which are designed to play a supportive role to your organization, it hurts the program when your starters make bad choices (and they will from time to time). So now you have what is supposed to be your team’s role model being defended by the program when the kid made a bad choice. Not good. It also could be reinforcing to the starters that they can also “get away” with making bad choices. Coach knows investigated the incident and Staats, I’m sure, suffered. But again, he’s lucky on all fronts.

    What would have happened if he was at Duke? He is no JJ Redick or Greg Paulus. Again, kids make bad choices but starters have more flexibility. Coach is more willing to absorb risk if the kid will perform at a high level and not make more bad choices.

    I believe that this is what originally got Coach V some unwanted attention which blossomed to a mess. I don’t think that any of the kids he recruited were bad kids. Just some good kids who made some bad choices and got in trouble with the law. That gave unfriendly university reps the opportunity to pounce on that and other program areas. I still have affinity towards many of those those players.

    If our starters had not been well-behaved, Staats’ behavior could have been seen as part of a bigger problem. Coach took a chance (and stuck his own neck out) and Staats has come through for him and our university. The easiest and cleanest way of handling this situation would have been dismissing Staats from the team.

    Our football coach was harsher than our basketball coach with discipline issues because he has too much risk with so many players. Coach D realizes the culture issues at stake and at this stage is not going to accept any bad behavior (even bb gun horseplay which didn’t involve society endangerment and the law- I know….I am a woman and probably am a bit harsher with this type of crime).

    Basketball teams because of size can afford to be a little more forgiving. If he starts, I will be happy for the kid. If he doesn’t start, I will still be happy for the kid. It’s not fair putting anymore pressure on the Coach, although I am sure this is a drop in the bucket for him.

    It is amazing the impact of one bad choice. I bet he has wished a million times that he could live that night again.

    I am done with writing here for a while (life is getting ready to take hold again) and have enjoyed the interaction….see ya’ll later.

    Again, good topic.

    03/02/2015 at 9:30 AM #76786
    theTHRILL
    Participant

    Somewhere, Tim Wells weeps.

    03/02/2015 at 9:37 AM #76787
    Mike
    Participant

    No question, Staats starts on senrio day. It is tradition not just at UNX and Dook as you suggest, but at 99% of the programs across the country (OK I made that up but most).

    Walk-ons do not get 4 minutes. They get a minute or maybe the first dead ball, whichever comes last.

    The only excpetion I ever remember seeing in all my time watching college bball was Tim Wells senior night and the snub from HWSNBN. I never liked HWSNBN anyway, but this act further cemented my disdain for him as a person and a coach. It is not like Wells was a walk-on either – just a guy who for whatever reason found the bench towards the end of his sr year. The Robby Benson take this job and shove it moment was in the ACCT, somehow we needed a spark and Wells came in and gave us a huge lift, winning us a game or two if memory serves me correctly.

    03/02/2015 at 10:53 AM #76796
    D Wolf
    Participant

    Staats is not a slouch. He’s a pretty good player who could be a starter at smaller schools. He was awarded a scholarship this year because of putting in the hard work. I’ve seen him scrimmage with the team and he holds his own pretty well. If Coach started Dez at point and Ralston and Staats on the wings we would be fine for a few minutes. I hope he gets his chance.

    03/02/2015 at 1:38 PM #76807
    WolftownVA81
    Participant

    Interesting take on this. I’m not into the social media thing so this appeal doesn’t impact me one way or another. I do think seniors should start and I’m sure Coach will do the right thing regardless of the tweets. If anything, I guess this serves a useful purpose in generating more internet buzz about the program. Companies have figured that out some time ago.

    03/02/2015 at 3:12 PM #76824
    Whiteshoes67
    Participant

    He, lee, and turner start. The tim wells debacle was a season long fiasco of the wood chopper. Sr. Day was just the top of the woodpile.

    I don’t know the circumstances of battles dwi but why is that relevant? He starts. And I hope coach buys them all a cold one for the ride home.

    03/02/2015 at 3:52 PM #76826
    Tau837
    Participant
    Whiteshoes67 wrote:

    He, lee, and turner start. The tim wells debacle was a season long fiasco of the wood chopper. Sr. Day was just the top of the woodpile.
    I don’t know the circumstances of battles dwi but why is that relevant? He starts. And I hope coach buys them all a cold one for the ride home.

    This. It would be very surprising to me if Gott doesn’t start all three seniors.

    03/02/2015 at 6:39 PM #76836
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    I would start all three. I will be very, very angry if Des doesn’t start, at least.

    03/03/2015 at 8:58 AM #76874
    ruffles31
    Keymaster

    Historically, starting (or even playing) senior walk-ons (or non-rotation seniors) is something that Gottfried doesn’t do.

    First year as coach. Alex Johnson, a senior graduate transfer played but did not start in his last home game.

    2nd year as coach. Jay Lewis, a senior, did not start but played one minute in his last home game. Scott Wood and Richard Howell, seniors who normally started, both started and played in their last home game.

    3rd year as coach. Jevoni Robinson, a senior, did not start nor play in his last home game. Jordan Vandenberg, a senior who was in the starting lineup normally, did start and play in his last home game.

    I apologize if I missed anyone else.

    But don’t expect anything different on Saturday. The starters will most likely be Lacey, Barber, Turner, Freeman, and Abu.

    It is what it is.

    03/05/2015 at 9:36 AM #77659
    StateFans
    Keymaster

    I think there is a big difference between the expectations of starting scholarship players vs starting non-scholarship players on senior night.

    Love the post and the conversation!! But, I think you have to start the scholarship guys and try hard to find a spot to put the non-scholarship guys in.

    03/05/2015 at 7:14 PM #77695
    blpack
    Participant

    I hope he will start. It would get the crowd even more hyper and it would be something he would remember the rest of his life. The Oregon State University started 5 walk-ons in their last home game.

    03/05/2015 at 7:27 PM #77696
    Heelh8r
    Participant

    ON the one hand, iirc, this practice was started by Dean Smith, which makes it hard for me to embrace. But as a frequent bench warmer myself, I would like for Statts to get a chance to play. It is a small gesture to show appreciation for the effect that has been made in loyalty to the team and the hard work at practices to help them get better. Let em play Coach!

    03/05/2015 at 7:48 PM #77700
    BJD95
    Keymaster

    Plus, Syracuse does start a honky that Staats can guard!

    I do see a possible case for treating the walk-ons differently, but I personality would rather we not. But it is distasteful and disrespectful not to start a scholarship player like Des. To me, that goes beyond “reasonable people can disagree.”

    03/05/2015 at 8:30 PM #77704
    GoPack83
    Participant

    Technically Staats is a scholarship player. Got his scholarship this year.

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