Your “Closing Ranks” Notre Dame Open Thread

02/18/2017Wufpacker16-17 Basketball ACC & Other ACC Teams Coaching Carousel College Basketball General Mark Gottfried NC State NCS Basketball112

OK folks. It was leaked. It was confirmed.

Change is coming, but not until after the season.

Oh, and you can go ahead and plan on hearing this sort of stuff for the next several months at least (years if we whiff on the hire)….

So congrats, NC State fans.

You got what you wanted.

But also know this: You made it clear 11 years ago that Herb Sendek making five straight NCAA Tournaments wasn’t good enough — proof being how you nudged him to Arizona State. And now you’ve also made it clear that Mark Gottfried going to four NCAA Tournaments in a six-year span that included two Sweet 16s isn’t good enough either. And the only coach you had in between those two coaches is Sidney Lowe, who never finished better than ninth in a 12-school ACC.

Which leads to two questions:

1) What are you after?

2) Are you sure you can get it?

Can’t get it if you don’t try, buttmunch. But you know what, Mr. Sportswriter? It doesn’t matter anyway because….

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Closing Ranks

Five games left (at least). I for one plan to forget the other noise and support the team. Yes, that does include its current coach.

The man may not have gotten us where we’d hoped, and it IS time for a change. But let’s not forget where we were. Show coach your appreciation. He’s hearing enough negatives these days as it is.

It hasn’t been that long ago…..

Bottom line….Gott is still one of us for the time-being. And you, Wolfpack Nation, have a chance to send him out with class and dignity.

We won’t be favored in any of our remaining games. Time to pull together as the underdog and wreck some seasons…

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The Carolina Game

If you think for one second I’m planning to talk about and/or link highlights to that abomination, you don’t know me very well.

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Notre Dame at NC State

Tipoff: Saturday, February 18, 12noon

Coverage: ESPN

Line: ND -5.5 (from a -1.5 open…wow), o/u 157

Pack Returns to the Hardwood against Notre Dame (GoPack.com)

Pack Tracks
– NC State fell to rival UNC-Chapel Hill, 97-73, Wednesday evening. Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., led the Pack with 27 points. It was the 14th time this season and ninth time in 14 ACC games that Smith has led the team in scoring. Maverick Rowan (12 points) and Abdul-Malik Abu (10 points) also reached double-figures for the Pack.
– Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., has shot 50 percent or better from the field in four straight games. He is averaging 20.8 points and shooting 56.9 percent from the field in the Pack’s last four games. For the season, Smith is shooting 46.6 percent from the field to rank 10th in the ACC. He now leads ACC freshmen in five statistical categories: points (19.0), assists (6.74), steals (2.04), field goal percentage (46.6) and minutes played/game (34.4).
– Home court shooting: NC State has shot 50 percent or better in nine of its 15 games at PNC Arena this season, including four of its seven home ACC games. For the season inside PNC Arena, the Pack is shooting 50.1 percent from the field and averaging 86.6 points per game.
– In seven league home games this year, Dennis Smith, Jr., is averaging 22.1 points on 49.5 percent shooting, 9.4 assists, 6.6 rebounds and 2.43 steals per outing. Abdul-Malik Abu is shooting 61.7 percent from the field and 82.4 from the foul line in league home games.

Noting NC State
– Mark Gottfried will not return as NC State men’s basketball coach following the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. Gottfried is in his sixth season leading the Wolfpack. Gottfried will remain the NC State head coach through the remainder of the season. Plans for the search process for a successor will begin immediately.
– Ted Kapita‘s double-double at Duke made him the sixth NC State player to record a double-double this season. Abdul-Malik Abu (4), Dennis Smith (3), Torin Dorn (2), BeeJay Anya (1) and Omer Yurtseven (1) have also recorded double-doubles this season. The six players with a double-double tie for the most in the ACC with Florida State, UNC-Chapel Hill and Syracuse.
– Inside the numbers: Two stats that are a good predictor of the result for NC State – rebounding and opponent field goal percentage. The Pack is 9-3 this season when it outrebounds its opponent, but just 5-10 when the opponent wins the battle on the boards. This season when NC State holds its opponent to 45 percent shooting or worse from the field, the Pack is 10-1. NC State is 4-12 if its opponent shoots over 45 percent from the field.
– In the Pack’s 14 wins this season, opponents are shooting 39.2 percent from the field (355-906) and averaging to score 70.3 points per game. In the Pack’s 13 losses, opponents are shooting 50.8 percent (427-840) and averaging 91.5 points per game.
– Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., has 12 20-point games this season. The most for a freshman in ACC history is 19 by Kenny Anderson in the 1989-90 season. Last year, Duke’s Brandon Ingram had 14 and Florida State’s Dwayne Bacon had 12.
– Smith is one of 12 players named to the midseason watch list
for the Wayman Tisdale Award (national freshman of the year) and is one of 10 players named as a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award (best point guard in the country). He also is one of 30 players on the Naismith Trophy midseason list.

Notre Dame Basketball: NC State Preview (OneFootDown.com)

Three Weaknesses

Transition Defense: The Wolfpack are allowing opponents to get 23.8% of its shots in transition this season. That ranks 319th in the country.

Scoring Defense: The ‘Pack are giving up an average of 80.5 PPG this season, which is 323rd nationally. That doesn’t bode well against a team as offensively adept as Notre Dame.

Three Point Defense: You be sensing a theme here with NC State, and that is they simply putrid defensively. Opponents are sinking 8.4 threes per game (297th NCAA) and are shooting 35.8% from three (217th NCAA). This matchup screams in Notre Dame’s favor.

[snip]

Prediction

Notre Dame 88 – NC State 72

To put it bluntly, NC State has just been down right terrible over the last six games. They’re giving up an average of 91.5 PPG over this stretch, and a date with one of the best offensive teams in the country is something I doubt the doctor ordered. They’re also playing for a lame duck coach.

Notre Dame is going to score, and they’re going to score a lot. I expect NC State to keep it close in the first half because this is a home game and they have a decent offense themselves. That being said, I don’t think they can run with a team as good as ND for a whole game. The only way I see ND losing this game is if they shoot poorly from the outside, which has happened this season.