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“The 2015 Wolfpack stand at least a reasonable chance to end that drought and deliver something long sought after and truly cherishable to the University and fanbase: some meaningful postseason hardware.”
I cannot believe I am reading that sentence on this site. Has Hell frozen over?
I don’t think this is our year, but it is nice to see such optimism. We certainly can win or lose against anyone.
I like our chances today.
It’s funny, not really thinking too much about the ACCT – I just can’t stretch my brain around us getting past Duke again. They are playing really well now.
But thinking a lot about the NCAAT. No matter our seating, the second round game looks brutal. That’s always the test for me. If you can get through to the second weekend, you’ve done something. Sweet 16! An extra week of the season to enjoy. To me, that would qualify this season as vastly over achieving.
Obviously, a measure of true success is no longer sweating the first weekend, but focusing on the second and third weekends. Hopefully we will get there.
“Staats Battle late 3 leads Pack past Cuse”
Brilliant! That is the grand prize winner for best title for a post all season.
The team played very well today. It was a joy to watch. And clearly, there is still PLENTY of room for growth. The bigs had several opportunities at point blank shots of which they did not take advantage.
Looking back at the preseason discussions, I think a 10 win ACC season and a forth consecutive NCAAT invite likely, we should be very pleased.
And interestingly, as radio pointed out, Gott beat all four of the ACC Hall of Fame coaches this year.
It’s all icing from here.
“It’s not Gottfried, Lowe or Sendek. It’s not TOB, Amato or MOC. It’s just good ole mediocre State.”
I hate that statement, but cannot disagree with it.
Looks a lot like the Nebraska jersey (or theirs looks like ours), just the name is different.
I still like the blacks.
Great write up and I LOVE THAT PICTURE. Kind of glad it came a day after the rest, gave us another fun article to read about the game of the year. (so far)
Just saw an article on SI listing the Pack as the 29th best defensive team in the country. Unbelievable! After the WF mess, I (for one) thought the season looked bleak. Now, two weeks later, we’re feeling pretty good about being in the NCAAT and getting identified as being a good defensive team.
Crazy! The Pack roller coaster in action.
A very special win last night. We went in with a clear game plan and the team, for the most part, executed it. Credit to the coaches and the players. A signature win, no doubt.
But more importantly, the team has played consistently well three games in a row.
Wish you’d left Coach Smith out of this.
But great, great win. Out PROGRAM continues to move in the right direction. We beat a very talented, well coached team on their home court with their crowd going bonkers. Very difficult to do.
This was no fluke. No freaky shooting night, or single player playing over his head. This was hard work, start to finish. I don’t remember getting any easy shots.
Very proud of the Pack coaches and players. As some of you noted, TL did the right thing just dribbling out the clock. But I never expected otherwise, that is how you play the game. I had forgotten about those ‘not so classy’ examples some of you mentioned.
Welp, I don’t see us beating the Blues in Dean’s dome. Gott’s never come within 10 points of winning there, I expect more of the same.
So that leaves BC, Clemson and Cuse.
BC has lost 8 in a row coming into Pitt (to make it 9) and then they get us. Like Va Tech, a game we cannot lose if we want to present ourselves as NCAAT worthy. I don’t think they can beat us, but we can definitely fool around and let them win.
Clemson scares me – mostly since they beat us in Raleigh. They’ve beaten Cuse, Pitt and us for their best wins. We’ll get them in SC right after they beat Ga Tech. This will be the toughest game of these last three, I think. We’re gong to need some luck with this one. Not feeling good about it at all.
‘Cuse’s best win was against Louisville, they’ve got the toughest part of their schedule leading into us. At ND, at Duke, UVA at home, and then here in Raleigh. They look about the same as us, they’ve got 17 wins, we’ve got 16. I’d say definitely winnable, especially since we are home.
So I think we win two, and need to win two in the ACCT. And that is going to be very difficult.
We should wear black until we lose, then bonfire!
GO Pack, let’s see if we can break the ‘one win in a row’ pattern.
Wow!
Is Len’Nique a female Trevor, or is Trevor a male Len’Nique?
Wish we could get them both on the same team.13OT – While I agree with the emotions, looking through the committee’s eyes, we only have one loss outside the RBI Top 100. And that was the WF debacle.
According to the rankings at the time the games were played, Purdue, WVU, Cincy, UVA (2), UNC and ND would all have been upsets. (Purdue has since slumped)
So that leaves four losses to make us mad. Wofford (by 1), Miami (by 5), Clemson (by 11) and WF (by 4). Wofford is apparently pretty good, the last time I looked, their RPI was 49 – ours is 43. But those other three are the ones that keep me awake at night.
Give us those three and we are at 18/8 and 9/4 and pretty comfortable. Makes me crazy!
All I can say is that snow/ice days make for great posting.
Pup, Phoenix, Va – great stuff, fun reading!! (I would have used caps (certainly cap worthy), but as noted above, it might have been filtered)Can’t get too cranked up until we see this team win two games in a row in 2015.
However, i do like the way the schedule is laid out in front of us. I like having another week to fine tune. Clearly, that previous week made a big difference at the “Yum! Center.” (hilarious name!) Another week preparing for the stretch run should help.
I’ve slammed Gott, but have to give him (and the coaching staff) a ton of credit for this game. The team played well in the first half, and then played better in the second. Great win, just hope we can deal with success.
Brilliant insight.
Two more shots for a special win. I dread the idea of going to Orange County in 10 days desperate to save the season. That is a recipe for disaster.
It would be nice to win this one, but our track record leads one to believe this will be a bad loss. Our three double digit losses this season have been to “defense first, last, and always” teams – UVA, WVU and Cincy.
Great post, thank you. Like you, hard to draw conclusions.
1) Love that picture!!
2) “…we’re at just past the halfway point of the ACC season…” – I know it is true, but it really seems longer. So many peaks and valleys.Field Goal Percentage – Would be nice to correlate with number of shots taken. Just a guess, but when the external guys aren’t hitting I suspect they place more emphasis on running the offense – which should get the bigs more, and better, shots. When Trevor and Ralston are hitting, who needs to pass? (in their minds)
Well, we’ve always said that Gott’s strength was recruiting first, offense second, and I don’t know what order the rest would fall into.
Recruiting:
2014 – I like our freshmen, but they are not elite recruits. As noted above, no McDonald’s All Americans. I’d say that Abu was an elite athlete, but he’s still learning the game of basketball – so not an elite basketball player.2015 – Barring a big, last minute surprise, next year will be worse. No one signed early. We are on some lists, but I don’t see any major talent headed to Raleigh.
Offense:
If our 3PT shooting is falling, we look pretty good. If not, we seldom can figure out any alternatives.So Gott’s “strengths” aren’t working right now, and they seem to be trending in a negative direction.
In the back of my mind I keep thinking, Debbie Yow is a basketball coach. She knows a lot about coaching. She knows the difference between a good coach and a bad coach. We’ve heard Gott pay a lot more lip service to playing defense this year. (“we’re gonna be a good defensive team this year”) I’ll bet that is directly related to some “coaching” he received from her. I’ll bet she called him out on his lack of defense. (just a guess/hope) And so he talks a lot more about it, knowing she’s focused on it. But it isn’t happening on the floor.
I think a lot of Ms Yow. She really seems to be trying to upgrade the overall athletic program. I wonder if she’s GOTT somebody on a short leash, and if he doesn’t deliver soon ….
What?? Refs make mistakes??? (did Hell freeze over and I missed it?)
Notice they are only acknowledging late game errors in both the WF and VT games? So they are saying those are the only mistakes they made? No, they are acknowledging that those two
- likely affected the outcome of the games!
Hey guys, what about the rest? The missed calls? The inconsistent calls?
I think they should be writing letters every week, probably to every ACC school.^^13OT – Love that lineup. I think you get more energy, better defense, and – based on the way RT has played of late – not much, if any, loss of offense. Caleb and Cody sub for each other.
I think you rotate in RT and Dez for rest breaks at the 2 or 3 and situational substitutions, RT for some instant offense when we are in a slump, Dez for some energy and defense.
Nard’s got no offense, so he should only be called to give KW and Malik a couple of minutes’ rest.
BeeJay’s run out of gas. Last guy off the bench. Basically he only plays if KW or Malik is in foul trouble. (which means most games)Great update, thanks for all the work. Loved every word of it.
I missed this early in the week … and now we blew the WF game. Eight days off to right the ship. (hopefully)
But an interesting development, how does Cuse declining post season play (including ACCT) impact this whole scenario? Or does it have any impact at all?
EW
Wonder how Gott would compare with previous Wolfpack coaches, including Jimmy V and Stormin’ Norman? No idea, but it would be interesting to know as a baseline since we can’t compare with coaches outside the program.Gott’s having a rough year, no doubt. The team is young, but Duke’s really young (only 1 SR, 2 JR – I think) and they seem to be plodding along okay. They don’t really play Duke style defense, but they get it done.
I just don’t think Gott is breeding the toughness required to overcome adversity. With four former head coaches on the bench, you’d think someone could figure it out. This league is brutal. You can’t relax, you can’t get down over a mistake, you have to keep fighting. Does not seem to be happening.
BTW – The picture made me laugh, have not seen that cat in ages.
