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Oh, there will be adjustments. That’s why I only say “slight favorite” despite State having more advantages (no Jones, no Yum! Center) over the last game, which was a clear Pack win.
But a favorable matchup is a favorable matchup. And basketball is very much a matchup-flavored sport. Pitino would rather be faving Nova, I assure you.
We’ve played 35 games so far, and I’ve probably been wrong something like 35 times. So I’m going with Louisville all the way, and you can thank me later.
🙂
It’s all about the good juju homey.
But a favorable matchup is a favorable matchup. And basketball is very much a matchup-flavored sport. Pitino would rather be faving Nova, I assure you.
Agree.
watching SC at lunch and something struck me. The notes for Louisville says “4th straight S16 appearance”, which we all agree is impressive… then right next to it, is says- NC State “first S16 appearance since 2012″… as opposed to “second S16 appearance in 4 years”. Its not like 2 trips to S16 in 4 years is a bad thing, but they just dont want to admit it.
Agreeing with a lot of what I’ve read, and hoping we keep playing well. I think turner is the key personally, if he has even a decent game I think we win it. If he struggles again it will be a battle. It makes me nervous playing a good team that we beat earlier who has a HOF coach. A la Duke in the acc tourney. Hope we learned from it. Can’t wait for Friday, Go Pack!
I couldn’t help but notice how many times State players left their feet on a head or fake pump shot. Pitino will be instructing his players to initiate contact once the defender gets airborne. Gott to emphasize blocking out and making sure Cards are one and done on offense.
I bet Ralston has a huge game. Play Dez Lee he plays with a (righteous) chip on his shoulder.
3 point dogs playing with house money. Play with heart and win the damm game.
It’s been interesting to me that the media is focusing on how we were totally lucking to beat LSU and that Villanova shot poorly and that’s why they lost. It makes me wonder if most of these guys actually watched the games.
We dictated the LSU game for 30 minutes; if not for a total let down for the last 10 minutes of the first half, we win that game by double digits. Now we did play poor defense for those 10 minutes and LSU missed some shots and free throws, but we shot poorly from the 3 point line and RT had another off game. Was there some luck – yes, but if you really watched the game we were the better team.
The general media take on the Villanova game just irks me. We controlled that game from the start and dictated flow the whole way. We severely limited open 3’s, took away the dribble drive and dominated inside. Did they miss some open shots? Yep But we sure as hell did too. RT was non-existent as an offensive contributor and we shot poorly from 3, yet we still controlled the game. This was not a loss for the wildcats because they played poorly; our guys imposed their will on Villanova and dictated the whole game without playing their best basketball.
Playing UL again scares me a bit as it is difficult to beat good league teams twice in the same season. RP will definitely have a defensive wrinkle(s) to throw at us and we’ll have to adjust. I agree that we should be slight favorites, but we will have to play well to move on.
I think Michigan State is getting too much credit for shutting UVA. Tho Hoo’s have been shutting themselves down all year and have been playing on the edge the whole season. It finally caught up to them yesterday.
There wasn’t a lot to glean from the NI/L’Ville contest. NI looked overmatched the entire game. State beat L’ville handily the first time around, it wasn’t a fluke. They were missing a player, but it was a home game for them, so that evened out. I think that coaching is the X factor this time around. Pitino will do his best to coach them up, and IMO Gott made all the right moves on Saturday. Who will be on their game?
I stand corrected. Not sure why I thought that, especially since he put up 20. I seem to remember reading something about the Cards being in disarray mentally when State won, and melded the suspension/dismissal with that.
Makes the road win even better 🙂
I’m sorry, I’ve listened to both the First Take and His and Hers podcasts from today and there was hardly a MENTION of NC State. It was always, “we know what happened to Villanova,” or “I’m sticking with Michigan St.” Can we get some props? Our run is not that unlikely, given the totality of the past four seasons and all the ups and downs. When we are on our game, we CAN be great. When is the national media gonna recognize at least the potential we have? Geez. This time in 2012, everyone was fawning over us. I guess I do like being the underdog, and I think our players are more comfortable in that role, but still. It’s a little frustrating to have your talent downplayed every year.
THE NI game was useless from a scouting perspective, ‘Ville had better players/athletes at every position and that was the story.
Chris Jones played last time against us and played well. Harrell did not get that many looks in that meeting, for whatever reason. They will most certainly look to establish him this time. Need to continue to play the type of defense we played against UNC, LSU, and ‘Nova.
Thinking back to the first half of ‘Nova, there were some decision-making and shot selection that could see improvement. It was mitigated since we held them close (helped by them missing shots) during that first half. Got to keep playing smarter, value every possession, every rebound, at this level and stage.
I like the idea of getting Turner going, but I’ll also stick to the mantra that we must go inside early and often. We would not be here if not for timely isolations and sharp-shooting, but if we want to make a run here-on-out, continue to integrate the bigs into the offense, to the benefit of the “general” future. We are deeper; take it to them inside early and often. (We were +10 rebounding last meeting, get the ball up on the rim!) Obviously penetration is key, and at this point is available to all guards given their shooting ability. By now we should have realized relying on the jumper too much does not lead to sustained success. (See Villanova as a cautionary tale.) Keep doing the things that work!
I hope that the staff has a counter for every possible strategy that Pitino can come up with. Hopefully we can avoid the second Duke game scenario which I thought attributed to lack of preparation time and being less fresh.
CBS reseeds the S-16
14. NC State (East). You knock off a No. 1 seed, I have to put you 14 at worst, no matter the seed. The Wolfpack have wins over two No. 1 seeds; they beat Duke back in January. Mark Gottfried’s team always is capable of letting bad luck affect good fortune, but in pulling out a double-digit comeback win over LSU and then pounding Villanova out of its game, the Pack’s back in the second weekend for the second time under Gottfried. B.J. Anya, Trevor Lacey, Cat Barber and Malik-Abdul Abu. They can beat Louisville, absolutely.
hardly a MENTION of NC State
Edit: Michael and Jemele named Cat as one of their five figures in sports who are doing too much due to his comment about Barry. Figures.
The media can downplay us all they want. I would rather the team listen to the downplaying than to have smoke blown up their butts. It serves as better motivation to receive the Rodney Dangerfield treatment. Beat Louisville and then either Oklahoma or Sparty, and the media will have no choice but to accept that this is a talented young team with a ton of potential. Our team knows who they are, and so do our fans. That’s all that matters. Winning will bring our just deserts to the table.
Beat Louisville and then either Oklahoma or Sparty
I’m down with two more wins and I believe this team can definitely deliver. I’m actually more confident going into this Louisville matchup than I was with the Nova one.
I’ll let Montreal shoot as many threes and deep twos as he wants to. He’s trying to show out for NBA scouts. Their whole team is. If we don’t get stupid, well beat em, or they’ll beat themselves.
Not complaining about the game being shown on TBS, but it seems to me that CBS dissed us to show a game featuring a #12 seed against Gonzaga. There are still a good number of people who don’t have cable tv who will miss the State-Louisville game. CBS generally steers clear of games that interfere with their affiliates’ “sacred” time slot of 5pm-7pm, and I don’t understand why they’d choose a game that will start and run through that time period of 4 to 7pm on the West Coast. Had the West Coast game been on TBS, that wouldn’t be an issue. UCLA may be a brand name, but THIS Bruin team SUCKS in my opinion.
Seems like we just can’t get any respect, even when we’re on national tv.
^ Meh, don’t worry about it. We’ll be on the main frequency when we’re playing Duke in the Final Four. 🙂
FWIW, ESPN’s “re-seeding” had US at #7 (second in the East to #6 Sparty), and the Holes way back at #14. I like that one way better.
“Michigan State and Louisville is gonna be a great game”….Jay Bilas
Look forward to Cat saying, “What the …. wrong with Jay Bilas?”
Jamele on His/Hers is Mich State grad. She has been shouting their praises for weeks even when they really did not deserve it.
I’m sorry, I’ve listened to both the First Take and His and Hers podcasts from today and there was hardly a MENTION of NC State.
^Espn2’s morning shows are tabloid. They’re always going to sensationalize and focus on mostly hand-wringing, negative ‘talking points’. The only thing remotely redeemable about ‘First Take’ is the lovely Cari Champion. Straying a bit off topic here, but Espn made a wise decision when they split their programming between Espn and Espn2 and basically chopped EspnNews (which they should re-brand at some point). For a while, Espn couldn’t decide what to show where and in what direction to take everything. Every show, including SportsCenter, started to devolve into lowest common denominator clickbait crap. They were hemorrhaging viewers and receiving a ton of backlash.
Finally someone with a little reason and logic split the programming – Espn for main SportsCenter style programming and Espn2 for tabloid programs, with EspnNews being used as auxiliary programming and live sports coverage (ECU basketball was on EspnNews quite a bit this season – good for them. They’ve got to be happy about that). Now people who enjoy tabloid programming can watch it on one channel, and people who don’t enjoy it aren’t having it rammed down their throats on every channel they turn to. I can finally tolerate SportsCenter again in the mornings if I have it on in the background while I’m working. I don’t have to hear about Tim Tebow every 10 seconds nor do I have to listen to middle school level debates about who Lebron James included in his group photo on InstaGram.
^ Meh, don’t worry about it. We’ll be on the main frequency when we’re playing Duke in the Final Four.
^Unfortunately, Final Four is TBS only this season. No CBS coverage. I think this a mistake on CBS’ part, but Turner broadcasting probably forced the issue in whatever deal they made. Only the championship game will be on CBS.
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