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[See the full post at: Quarterfinals! NC State vs. Duke Game Thread!]I re-watched the Duke game the other night. Both teams are unquestionably different now. We match up really well with Duke, and missing a player like Suliamon can have a big impact when Duke faces a team like State.
This one could be a lot of fun!
We gotta keep on moving on, but Turner could definitely make a difference, and hope he is in the groove. The defense has been outstanding the last several games.
Really happy about the way this team has come together and turned things around toward the end of the year. For a nice change, we did what we had to do to become a solid NCAA tourney team. We’ve held onto leads, played defense, rebounded well, and Cat has really turned the corner. Great, great job.
Unfortunately, we will lose to Duke today in a pretty solid fashion.
I’m glad we’ll be wearing the road reds tonight. Adidas as I expected either jacked up the color or as someone else pointed out the uniforms are reversible. Either is ridiculous but hey, the guys played great last night and I hope it continues.
I don’t know how to upload photos but check out Nebraska’s uni’s last night. Crisp white with the same crappy design as ours only our jerseys appeared grey. WTF
It’s been a long time since the Pack hung two losses on Duke in the same season. They beat the Pete Gaudet Blue Devils twice in 1995 (and predictably lost to Duke in that year’s Les Robinson Invitational match-up). They haven’t beat Coach K twice in a year since 1988.
So they’re overdue. Go Pack!
I don’t know how to upload photos but check out Nebraska’s uni’s last night.
For whatever reason, I don’t think the ‘img’ tag is working when you’re posting from the ‘front page’ article. If you go to the forums though and then click on the article link you should be able to use the ‘img’ tags.
When posting, copy the url of the image you’d like to upload (you should be able to right click on the image and select ‘copy image url’)
Select the ‘img’ tag from your comment box toolbar and you’ll be prompted to enter the url of your image
Paste the url in and hit ok a couple of times and you should be golden. Feel free to try it out if you want. I don’t think anyone will care if it messes up some and I can always delete extraneous posts if necessary.
Recent games suggest a pattern of improvement (BC notwithstanding) and give me hope for a close, well fought contest. That’s my hope, that we’ll maintain enough focus to put ourselves in position to make a run at winning near the end of the game. I like the tightness and success of the new, more limited rotation, but I worry a little about it from the prospect of multiple games / weekend.
The development of Cat, and the implications of that development for the rest of the team, have been an absolute joy to watch unfold.
In the end, what I’d like to see most is a game that we either win or lose, and don’t have taken away by external elements. We’re due that opportunity.
Go pack!
Take Jah off his game by being extra physical with him. Put Anya on him and double when you can, send Dez in there to foul out if you have to. Also looking to see Cat Daddy defend against a Tyus Jones or Quinn Cook. But Winslow and/or Grayson Allen (if he’s feelin’ it) will be x-factors.
In the post game last night, one of the players said the team likes the Adidas postseason Unis. That’s good enough for me. (but I wouldn’t wear them – that red band across the middle is just awkward)
In my opinion, they are going to have as much trouble with Cat as we are going to have with Big O. We’ll get in foul trouble inside, hopefully they’ll have similar issues outside. If it works out like that, and we can keep it close, I like our chances to pull off an upset.
However, my fear is that we won’t be able to keep up offensively. We had to shoot 62.5% from 3PT, and 55% overall last game. Plus, we got 10 blocked shots. They shot 25% from 3PT and 36.9% overall. We’re not likely to be able to reproduce that level of offense or hold them to that poor level of shooting.
Unfortunately, we will lose to Duke today in a pretty solid fashion.
I see what you’re doing there…
Unfortunately, we will lose to Duke today in a pretty solid fashion.
I see what you’re doing there…
If it ain’t broke, better not fix it…
Personally, I think that Lacey is going to be the difference maker tonight. Duke will be forced to focus on Cat because of his performance of late, and I don’t think that Turner is going to pull himself out of his current funk for more than 8-10 pts(I think he may be hurt more than we know).
So, I expect that Lacey, with his ability to create will be the key. Which I think is good, I’ve really liked Trevor since the first time I saw his play this season, he seems to be always positive and is willing to do the dirty work.
The other key, as it was when we played them earlier in the year will be to limit (not stop) JO, hold him to 20 with a lower percentage (<50%) and keep all four of our bigs from fouling out, and I think we will be ok.
Obviously premature thinking, but Gott should get serious consideration for ACC coach of the year.
nope… he’s unquestionably “over his head”…
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!I bet K focuses on shutting down Lacey. He’ll adopt the same attitude towards Cat that we seem to have for JO which is slow down but not stop him entirely. He’ll put Winslow on TL and tell him to play like it’s a football game.
For me, tonight’s key is RT and the bigs.
Can our bigs score? (see game 1: 35 pts on 16/28 shooting)
Can RT contribute in place of Lacey?IF ({BIGS} && {RT} = true)
THEN
State = VictoriousI think we match up well with Dook, but still going to be a tough game.
We probably wont get the tightly whistled game (they will we wont) but that would also play to our favor if we do. They have no depth at all and Okafor is still sore on the bum ankle. Jones is also banged up, and if we can get their OLB and pass rusher in foul trouble (Winslow) we have a very good chance.
Of course, we still need to hit our shots, but inside out like last time will help. The boys will be ready to play and I expect them to come out ready. They have the confidence they can beat Dook, and more importantly the swagger. No BC letdowns tonight.
Dook can not handle our strength and size inside and look for big games from Abu and KH, and Freeman is different from when we played earlier. I think Kyle will also factor inside. Barber on Jones on D and Lacey and Cook should help neutralize their games.
Very excited about the second half improvement of the team but two facets of play still worry me. Shot selection is still a problem early in the clock. When they fall, everybody looks good, but many of the Turner and Lacy shots last night weren’t good shots. The outcome was good, the shot was not. Past performance indicates we don’t consistently shoot over 50%. THat would be nice but it’s a pipe dream. We can score with Duke, don’t get me wrong, because they’re not great defensively either, but we’ll win this one on the other half of the court.
There’s still significant room for improvement on defense. We gave up 47 in the 2nd half last night to Pitt. That’s abysmal. Too many open looks. Too many second chances. That doesn’t fly against Duke.
Cook and Winston concern me more than Okafor and Jones. I think Barber will handle Jones, or at least limit him if he stays out of foul trouble. They’ll attack Barber and Lacy early and often and push tempo. Duke’s been playing some zone lately, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it at least a little.
They’re a completely different team than early in the season. We are too, with Cat’s emergence, but I still think the outcome will depend on how well we defend them. We should score barring no major foul trouble and dead legs.
Our guards can handle their guards. We just need to manage Okafor. Considering that there is not a huge difference between Freeman and Anya being in the game, I say let those 2 and Washington pick up the bulk of our fouls against Ok4(yes,I just gave him his NBA name)and make him shoot free throws. He can’t make them. Don’t let OK4 beat us down low and we move to Friday!
We gave up 47 in the 2nd half last night to Pitt.
I was concerned that State wasn’t pulling away, but they essentially traded baskets with Pitt, so I don’t think that’s an indicator of a defensive lapse. However, we don’t want to start trading with Dook, because they know how to out the hammer down, and quickly.
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