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BjD: Amen brother. One has to also question why she was allowed to sign a coach with certain red flags to the type of contract that she did. Seriously, who is going to buy out Gott?
Ah, so Yow’s judgment is clouded, but yours is completely unbiased. I understand that’s how you see it. From my perspective, your judgment is just as biased as hers, just in the opposite direction.
Respectfully Tau, that’s a great example of selective quotation. I led that section with a statement that says my view of him is jaded and has been poor since the day we hired him. I’m also saying that Yow probably is biased as well, which is a concerning thing if one (like me) does not believe that Gott is good for NC State basketball. I’ve also repeatedly stated that my opinion means nothing, and it is the powers that be’s opinion that matters.
You seem to take issue with my posts, so what’s your opinion?
This seems to directly contradict your opener quoted above. If Gott has what “very, very, very few” other programs have, it stands to reason that all but “very, very, very few” head coaches should want to coach here. Or could it be that you overstated the first part?
I have no clue first hand as to the inner workings of the discussions of our last basketball hire. I merely highlight the “inputs” to this program. Find me 30-40 coaches that get paid more. Find me 30-40 assistants who are willing to give up head coaching jobs (which they are doing well at) to take assistant positions because they’re paid more money. Find me 30-40 programs that average higher attendance. Find me 30-40 programs that have better facilities. Find me 30-40 programs that combined offer these things, and then you can justify Gott’s overall average performance. Given I’m not objective, you are welcome to go find them.
Another excellent example of your bias showing through. In 2014-15, we advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating Villanova (RPI #4). In 2011-12, we advanced to the Sweet 16 by beating Georgetown (RPI #11) and San Diego State (RPI #27).
We had to beat those types of teams because we are playing from a weaker seed. That makes it considerably harder to advance and there’s a mountain of statistical data that shows that.
My point is absolutely correct that most at large teams in the NCAA tournament have top 50 RPIs. For a middling power conference team, which we are, to make the Sweet 16, one has to string together 2 straight wins against RPI top 50 teams. Heck, maybe an upset happens, and one of those lower seeds that are conference champions breaks through, and the middling power conference team gets to play a team outside of the top 50 in RPI in the second round. Maybe the power conference team actually (gasp) has a high seed, and gets to play one of those in the first round. You are right though, most teams probably don’t have to beat two RPI top 50 teams to make a Sweet 16. Most Sweet 16 teams probably have an easier path than my original statement.
The point is the same — making a Sweet 16 isn’t a great accomplishment for ACC teams that make the bracket. Last season, 6 of our conference peers did it. If one is hanging one’s hat on Sweet 16 appearances, then that’s not a strong argument.
Unfortunately, in my experience, hope and optimism don’t win basketball games.
I loved V as our coach and as Tau said, another V isn’t walking through that door. His message to cancer patients is inspirational and still relevant 20+ years later.
In a way though, the “hope” speech is one of the worst things for NC State athletics and basketball. We have “hope” built into our DNA as opposed to looking at the cold hard reality. It’s particularly bad in men’s basketball where it has morphed into the WTNY culture.
I hope we meet our team’s potential this season — ACC top 4 regular season finish, Elite 8 or beyond in the dance. I would like nothing more than for that to happen. There’s a mountain of prior data that suggests it won’t and we’re starting to formulate a picture of this season that suggests we may not reach that potential.
We’ll probably shell BC and then we’ll have hope that “Gott gets it,” “we’ve turned a corner,” “UNC was only one game,” etc.. Unless it is paired with fixing the actual issues at hand, it will be nothing more than Fool’s Gold. And, well, we’ll have hope.
Given so many new pieces, I do think there would be a greater likelihood of that happening next year rather than this year, but at some point you have to part ways and stop saying wait til next year.
DSJ will be gone next year. So will Abu, Anya and possibly Henderson. Chances are we have 1-2 transfers. Only the doctors and Freeman know if he’ll ever play baskeball again. This is the year.
To your point, you need to leave the next coach with something to work with. It can’t be that we let the ship totally run into the ground. It makes it that much tougher, and it makes it a tougher sell for the next candidate.
People laud the brilliant move Yow made by canning TOB before the ship ran aground and before all doubt we needed a change was removed. We got a “better” candidate as a result of doing so. Let’s use the same strategy in basketball.
I said early on that a 6th place finish in the ACC would be solid. I wouldn’t bet on that currently.
I feel like the target this year should have been (and still should be) a top 4 conference finish. The way the ACC tournament is set up now, there’s almost no way to win it without securing that double bye. If Gott can’t bring home any hardware with this roster, then it’s not going to happen.
To me, regular season finishes speak more about a program’s health, direction and whether we’re actually building anything. They speak way more than squeaking into the dance and then putting together a 2 game winning streak against teams with top 50 RPIs. An ACC team ought to be able to do that, and we punched a record number of Sweet 16 tickets as a conference last year. That metric isn’t nearly as impressive as the apologists suggest.
So if it were me running the show, I would be getting things in order now to put ourselves in the best position to make a solid hire in the no too distant future (something I don’t think we’ve done previously).
Exactly. It is fine to “make a decision” at the end of the year, but I think we should have seen enough by now to know what it will be. We need to start lining things up.
It doesn’t work linearly like that. You are forced to look at Gott’s record against the elite teams in college basketball.
That’s exactly the point. People seem to ignore what Gott has to work with. This isn’t NC State football. We have a massive stadium, top attendance, are a basketball team in a basketball conference, all games televised or streamed, Gott is paid a huge salary, his assistants paid more than most head coaches, we have a huge recruiting budget, a big sneaker company with AAU circuit funneling players his way, nationally televised games in prime time even as an unranked team, one of the top S&C guys in the business being focused on basketball first (most places are football first), a great practice facility, a museum of our program’s past accomplishments (SIC), an army of suits in the sidelines and seemingly 100% support by the AD. There are very, very, very few jobs in college basketball that offer this package, and only a handful of elite programs that can offer something more.
So, when the excuse mongers roll out the “we can’t hope to compete” argument, what teams are they really talking about? There are maybe a handful of elite programs that offer more than we do. I’d argue that the average Power 5 team has a bigger delta between what they offer and what Arch has to work with at Dayton than the “we can’t hope to compete” delta that Gott faces.
Those elite programs own Gott like they own everyone else. He can’t punch up a weight. He can’t even punch consistently at his own weight — which is where that conference record DOES matter (and is consistently mediocre .500 at NC State and Alabama). We’ve seen what we can do. UNC laid out a 51 point whipping on us that should have made it clear, if the beatings by Miami, Illinois and Creighton didn’t already this year, the losing record last year, or the other disappointing seasons didn’t.
To look for a successor that might have a chance against them, you have to look for someone who is good at playing up a weight class. Tony Bennett did that VERY successfully at Washington State, and now has done so at Virginia. They made a great hire and I was vocal about it at the time. They passed us why we messed around with Sid and Gott. Mark Few, Randy Bennet, Greg Marshall, Shaka Smart, Andy Enfield and a handful of others have as well, but we’ve either missed on them or they are not leaving their current gigs.
Arch is doing it very well, and could POSSIBLY do it here but more importantly is someone who we might actually be able to get to come here. Why I’m vocal is because we’re fixing to miss on him in the same way we’ve missed on Marshall, Smart and others because we’re holding out some crazy hope that patience with Gott will finally be rewarded. That’s the definition of insanity.
Look, you are obviously very down on Gott. IMO it is clearly influencing your perspective on all of this, which leads you to overstate his cons and understate his pros. I’m not saying he I think he is the long term answer, but I think he obviously deserves to coach this season out and see where the chips fall. So talking about firing him now is premature IMO, as is talking about who should replace him.
I admittedly have been down on Gott since the day we hired him. That’s because I watched his program at Alabama and had a pretty good idea of what we were going to get. I thought he was HWSNBNv2 in that he was good enough to significantly improve, meet the necessarily minimums to keep his job, but never really win anything. I figured he’d have player attrition, poor defense, poor fundamentals, and he personally would have off the court issues. So far that is EXACTLY what we have seen. So yes, my patience level for him is much lower, because I’m looking at his total track record, and the fact that the same issues he had at Alabama are happening here.
I don’t think he should be fired today, mid-season. I would understand if the real decision makers had seen enough and did do it, and felt like they had their interim insurance plan in Schroyer (which were the rumors when we hired him). I do think he should have gotten a wake up call with very clear expectations about what this year needs to bring or he should be. A 51 point beat down after the other bad losses thus far this year should have been cause for a “come to Jesus” meeting.
I also think that Yow needs to step aside before this thing will really get fixed. She’s got a poor track record with the revenue sports, with men’s basketball in particular, and has been quoted by those in the room with her as thinking that “Gott is the perfect coach for NC State.” If I lack objectivity, then I’d suggest that she might as well given her long personal relationship with him and her proximity to retirement. I want what is best for NC State. She might be clouded by a long friendship and wanting to maintain that after her working days are over.
Yes, he has fewer resources, etc., but to compare his P5/BE record to Gott’s is apples and oranges.
You are right. Comparing their conference records compares the programs against peers. Some peers have more, and some peers have less. Arch’s record against conference opponents is superior.
In every one of those games we’re talking about, Arch was clearly against an opponent with superior resources. We should compare Gott’s records in those sorts of match ups. By my mark that would be games against Duke, UNC, Louisville and Syracuse in conference as well as Kentucky, Kansas, UCLA, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan State, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Michigan non-conference. I’m sure Gott can match Arch’s record there.
I’m not saying Arch is a savior. I know Gott’s not the answer, and there is a lot of evidence that Arch would do better. Also because of his connections and MUCH lower salary than Gott, it is a coach we can likely get. I tend to think he’s the guy, but will get snapped up by a high major (in that list above) and then we won’t be able to touch him. We should make a move now as opposed to continuing to piddle around with Gott.
Agreed, but I must have missed where anyone has been running down V in this discussion. Who did that?
There was some nonsense in here about Gott running superior practices versus V and Gott being a great task-master. It is an example of that behavior. Gott’s great paired with a slight on V. V won league and national titles, in a time when the ACC’s non-conference record was far superior to what it is now and when the high majors had great teams that stayed together multiple years. Get back to me when Gott wins that first conference or national title and we can start comparing them.
I’d agree that we didn’t lose by 51 because of DSJ. He may have had a bad game and was off to a rough start in the 4 minutes I watched, but you can’t pin that on him. It requires a lot of collective sucking to lose by 51. Cut the guy some slack. He just came off of one of the all time great games ever by a NC State player.
There are two things in all the coaching debates that tire me:
1) Running down the players to defend the coach: Whether it’s WTNY because the next crop are better, or “the coach doesn’t miss shots, tackles, etc.” or “our players aren’t that good” or whatever the reason, many of these types of posters cannot seem to find the same level of “constructive criticism” about the coaching staffs. They seem to forget these coaches are paid millions and assistants hundreds of thousands while the players are paid a fraction of their value to the university, are the ones training and conditioning, risking injury and trying to balance a course load too.2) Running down former coaching greats to prop up an obvious current underachiever. We see it with V and we saw it with Sheridan in football season. I’ll give you guys a clue — V could take either roster from Saturday night’s game and wipe the floor with Gott.
But by all means, carry on with why this team isn’t all that talented and should be happy sneaking into the tournament. We’ll look back and debate just how much talent was squandered this year.
With that said, I’d have much rather had Dino Gaudio than Lutz as 1st asst.
The things that happened at Wake under Dino’s watch (or lack thereof) were not good. There’s a reason no one has hired him as an assistant. The #1 assistant is the guy that is supposed to take care of a lot of the day to day operations.
I don’t think Lutz is a great coach. I think he’s above average and hasn’t had a big platform to work from. He’d have been a better hire than Gott though.
I’d toss Frank Martin in there
Yep, Martin is a better coach of Gott. I could rattle off 20 that make less money than we pay that are better coaches.
Just curious, if we bring in Archie
You mention Arch, who would be my #1, #2 and #3 candidate wrapped up in one. I went and checked and Arch is 24-11 (.685) against the Power 5 + Big East. In every single one of those games, Dayton has fewer resources, exposure, recruiting budgets, etc. than their opponent.
Arch’s overall record against “NC State’s peers” is better than Gott’s high water mark while at NC State. He’s doing it with Dayton’s resources, not NC State’s.
Let that sink in…..
Just curious, if we bring in Archie (or whatever other coach you want and think we could get) after this season, are you expecting him to meet these criteria next season? If not, when?
The next coach will and should get his/her obligatory time to build a program. The amount in part depends on the state of the roster left by Gott. If we have standard Gott attrition after this year, then it could be rough next season. Say what one wants about Lowe, he left the cupboard pretty well stocked — with talent and incoming recruits at every position. That helped Gott get a quick start.
We’re in year 6 of Gott which is different than year 1 (the straw man). Gott’s had two mulligans. If he disappoints yet again this year, then that will be three seasons of under performance. More importantly, he had trends that were red flags when we hired him that have continued. I tend to think that past performance is indicative of future performance. I see a lot of similarities of his time at Alabama as I see here.
For me, given the reservations with the hire, and the on court performance, I’ve personally seen enough. I’d seen enough last year, and thought he should have been gone then. Of course, I will fully admit that I have less patience for him because I thought he was a bad hire initially.
I fully admit that it doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the administration and big money donors think. It matters what all those that are season ticket holders think and whether they vote with their wallets.
I don’t understand how he can say those things then tout Lutz as better than Gott with the same mouth.
My big thing when assessing performance is to judge it against inputs. Lutz did more with less at Charlotte than Gott at Alabama. As a common benchmark, both had victories (and losses) to HWSNBN while he was coaching State. The difference is that Gott did that with Alabama’s resources. Lutz has never had a platform similar to what Gott has at NC State, or what he had at Alabama.
I feel the same way about a coach like Charlie Strong at Texas and his viability at NC State. If a coach can’t win at football at Texas, then they’re likely not going to be able to do it here with much fewer resources and a lower spot on the pecking order (yet also be forced to deal with some Goliaths). A coach might or might not succeed from a smaller program with lesser resources moving up. The challenges are different though, with the latter having challenges related to growing pains.
I also think that just because two people are working together, different outcomes might happen if the boss/employee relationship is different. I tend to think we’d have been better off with Lutz as a head man, X’s and O’s, task master and Gott as a first assistant, recruiter, player’s coach. We’ll never know.
You are ridiculous to think Lutz “would have been better” than Gott. You can argue Greg Marshall, but not Lutz.
Lutz was actually in coaching when we hired him. Gott was announcing. Lutz did more relative to resources at UNC-Charlotte than Gott did at Alabama. Lutz had lived in the shadow of UNC and Duke and knew how to carve a niche out. I wouldn’t have targeted Lutz, but he’d have been a better hire than Gott. Gott was a horrible hire. Lutz is no longer here, and we’re doing worse relative to talent.
That’s not even mentioning all the candidates that would have been better than Gott. Marshall? Absolutely. I’d say the same about Cronin or Kruger. That hire was a case study of what not to do.
Who is “we”? Debbie Yow? Woodson? The Wolfpack Club? The fans? Gott hired Schroyer. Do you know dumb this sounds?
Go search for some articles about Schroyer’s hiring. The question was why a head coach would quit a head coaching job to be an assistant here, particularly a head coach whose team was clearly improving and the fact that Gott was on the hot seat. There were reports coming out that Yow was hedging on Gott. Remember, Gott had some health problems at the time. Maybe he thought he might be stepping aside?
Please be clear, I don’t think Schroyer is the long term answer. The defense has, if anything, regressed. If we had an opening today, I highly doubt Schroyer would be on the candidate list.
I just KNOW Gott isn’t the answer.
what play-in game did we lose? don’t recall that
Apologies. We lost the first round game (after winning the play in game) against St. Louis in a complete melt down. That was the year we squandered TJW, which was the single best player to wear the Red and White since Julius Hodge. We were probably only in the tournament because TV wanted to see Warren (the ACC POY who had come on really strong down the stretch).
This may not matter to the point of your post, but I don’t recall either of the losses in the sweet 16 as fitting “the results were clear early.” Against Kansas in 2012, we led at halftime and ultimately lost by 3 points. Against Louisville in 2015, we led at halftime and ultimately lost by 10 points.
Maybe you viewed those games differently than I did. I had zero expectation that we’d win either. Against Kansas, the first couple of times down the court we tried to inside and then got it swatted away. Against Louisville we came out and took a lot of awful shots. Both times, superior coaches made adjustments at halftime and quickly pulled away at the start of the second half. It was sort of like our nice little story was over, but it was time for the real teams and coaches to start.
Are you saying that Gott should be fired today? Or at the end of the season? If the latter, then don’t you need to let the rest of the season play out before making the decision to fire him? I certainly hope you aren’t saying he should be fired today.
I think Yow should turn in her resignation today to be effective at the end of the student calendar year. This problem isn’t getting fixed until Yow is gone. She’s not hired well in the most important sports, thinks that “Gott is the perfect coach for NC State,” seemingly has a poor reputation among men’s college basketball coaches, preached patience last year waiting for the Rescue Squad, has put a baffling contract structure and buyout around Gott (for no good reason), had a hand in firing Lutz (who IMHO would have been a better hire than Gott), etc.. I think she’s done a lot of good work here, but I don’t think she’s going to be the one who fixes the revenue sports.
If I were Randy, I’d put Gott on notice. I’d be crystal clear that only a top 4 ACC regular season finish or ACC tournament championship keeps him safe unless he makes a deep NCAA tournament run (Elite 8 or beyond).
This is the fourth time we’ve been blown out this year — Creighton, Illinois, Miami and now UNC. Every road or neutral game against a team with a pulse has been brutal.
That RPI looks good due to clever scheduling but it doesn’t really pass the eye test (paired with our results thus far) for giving the team the benefit of the doubt. It left us unprepared for conference play as we’ve looked lost outside the PNC.
For those thinking this was a one time thing, how much do you really need to see? Have you forgotten last season? Have you forgotten starting the season as #6, underperforming and then losing a first round 8/9 game? Have you forgotten the epic meltdown to lose a play-in game? Are two different 2 game win streaks in March (which were followed by defeats where the results were clear early) and a fear of hiring another Lowe blinding you?
Gott bought good will by blaming asssistants last year and saying help was sitting on the bench. He has already blamed the players (#6 year) and can’t do that this time because they were part of what saved his bacon last year. If this trend continues this year, he’ll have no more excuses.
Of course I think Yow needs to be gone before this gets fixed. Yesterday would have been enough for me if I were Randy.
I cut the game off after 4 minutes. My 3 year old son asked why and I told him we had way better things to do than watch garbage.
If there’s any good out of today, maybe it is that the excuse mongers finally see Gott for what he is. Nope, it is because the game was rescheduled, our star player set a poor tone, Roy is a HOF coach, it was cold outside, etc.. Some seemingly will never wake up.
The Emporer has no clothes. He was a bad hire and the worst type of one because he’s just good enough not to get fired, yet never good enough to win anything of note. I disliked the hire from second one and was done with him last year. Maybe the rank and file is starting to wake up.
There were rumors that when Schroyer was hired that we were hedging on Gott. If he imploded, the reigns would be handed over to Schroyer. Well, I’m not sure I’ve seen many implosions as bad as today’s results, so it may as well be Heath time.
Yow’s got to go before this gets fixed. If I were Randy, I’d have a meeting with her tomorrow morning asking for her early retirement. It is going to be hard making that endowment push when beat downs like that are being dolled out. She’s bad for business. It can be spun that she’s improved things greatly and has done all here that she can (both of which are true).
StateRed44: Gott recruits better than HWNSNBN — particularly in that he recruits all positions and spaces the scholarships better. HWSNBN ran a much tighter ship and his players were better fundamentally. The differences run much deeper than just offense vs. defense.
I’d personally like a bit more focus on fundamentals and defense. The ceiling will be higher.
We looked as good last night as we did bad against Miami. I’ll hand it to everyone involved in the program that they bounced back nicely. This one was seemingly never in doubt from the opening bucket by Yurt.
I have watched both triple doubles by NC State players. DSJ had a great night and did it against a real team (no offense to Hodge, but App State isn’t exactly ACC caliber). If he does nothing else, he’s forever in the ACC history books. I think he’s just getting going though.
Anya played a great game. He was a rim enforcer, an energy guy and has a bit of a nasty streak. I love it.
Abu looked the best he has all year. He took high percentage shots, looked to dunk any time he was near the basket and was active on the boards. This is exactly what we need out you! 🙂
Let’s build this and go beat UNC. They are NOT as good as the number next to them. Yes, it will be a challenge at UNC with ACC officiating, but it is doable.
A bit?
If he whiffs this year then thats a wrap. He should be fired even with his insane contract. I think if he just goes in on the bubble then his seat should get warm.
But who are we kidding Yow isnt going to fire him under any circumstance.
I tend to agree with you on this. Flare up? Have people forgotten mulligan #1 (year 2 where we started #6, backed into the tournament and lost an 8/9 game)? Have they forgotten that we had one of the best players to lace it up for the red and white in 30 years (TJW), and lost a last 4 in play in game? Have they forgotten last season and the offseason?
Do they not understand that DSJ is a one and done, and this roster will only be around for one season? The time is now for Gott. I don’t think the roster is getting any better for him. If Gott misses the tournament with this roster, he should be gone and Yow with him if she tries to stop it.
The reality is that he won’t miss the tournament, but he’s seemingly trending towards underachieving relative to the talent on the roster. When that happens, Yow will do nothing as Gott is her man.
If I were Randy though and Gott underachieves, I would probably be asking for Yow’s early retirement. She’ll have done about what she realistically can at NC State. Almost every measurable element has improved under her watch. It’s time to pass off to a successor to try to take “good to great” in the revenue sports. Bring someone in and let them “assess” Gott and DD on the final year(s) of their contract. I’d directly link athletics to the goal of raising the overall endowment as part of a new AD’s metric of success.
VaWolf: I always love your work. It is one of the main reasons that I keep coming back to this site. Nice job.
The ACC is strong and that cuts both ways. On the positive, losses probably won’t hurt the RPI too much, so we can get a lot of teams in. On the negative side, there are a lot of potential losses and then teams don’t look that good against “the eye test.”
With the talent on the roster, we SHOULD be able to go about 13-5 or even 14-4 and secure one of the top 4 spots. There’s 6-7 coaches in the league that could do that with our roster.
The reality is we have Gott coaching, will start slow and are already 0-1 in conference after laying an egg. Anything that is 9-9 (or worse) should have heavy scrutiny on Gott. We need to grow up fast.
Suffice it to say, if DD and Gott had similar success of some of these other coaches, there would be nothing but joy in Wolfpack nation and NC state tickets would be a hot commodity.
chop: One has to think that if the crown jewels were performing, not only would ticket sales be up, but alumni giving would as well. At least that is the lie that proliferates to justify going big with sports spending.
With NC State’s big endowment push, one would think the Chancellor would want the revenue sports to be performing. Wrestling and swimming and diving are great, but they don’t cause people to open wallets as much as football and basketball.
Quick thoughts:
– The game vs. Miami was horrible. We looked more interested in partying at South Beach on New Year’s Eve than playing any basketball. Abu was about the only one who showed up to play.
– Sadly, laying an egg early in conference season is predictable with Gott.
– We have enough talent to secure the ACC double bye. We have a NBA point guard, a potential NBA prospect playing center, our all time leading shot blocker in the middle, a backup point guard that can actually defend fairly well, 3 good shooters, and 2 motor guys. That is enough talent to win and win big. Does anyone actually believe if given this lineup a coach like K, Roy, Pitino or Boeheim wouldn’t be a serious title contender? Heck, what if Tony Bennett or even Larranaga had this roster?
– Getting talent to you is part of coaching, and Gott’s been good at that. I will give him credit as one cannot win without talent.
– Gott is a mediocre coach on the court and as a program runner. He’s now got ~ 20 years of power 5 experience. He’s got a program with more resources now, but also tougher competition. At both Alabama and NC State he’s a .500 in conference coach, and his non-conference and overall winning percentages are about the same. This guy is what he is, and that’s not really going to change.
– There’s a lot of basketball left to be played this year. The floor for this team should be the Sweet 16, and the reasonable reachable goal should be to secure one of those top 4 ACC spots that get the double bye. By doing that, the seeds will be favorable enough to possibly win the ACC tournament and to get a very good national seed, which would open the door to the Elite 8 or beyond.
– Yow loves Gott and isn’t firing him. Those two are seemingly a package.
– Gott’s teams do tend to improve and peak around tournament time. That means we need to be patient and wait and see how this plays out.
– If we fail to meet the floor this year, Gott should be gone. He will have squandered a king’s ransom. He will not be though.
– If I were Randy and Gott underperforms this season, I’d ask for Yow’s early retirement. She’ll have done here what she could feasibly do, but more loyalty to Gott (NC State’s most important coach) isn’t going to be rewarded.
– I said last spring and I still believe that the BEST thing that happened to NC State basketball in a long time was Archie signing that extension at Dayton. Hopefully it keeps him out of play this offseason.
– For all those who were screaming about DD during football, I felt (and still feel) that by doing so, it has hurt our collective credibility to voice legitimate concern about Gott. We just look like the lunatic fringe. DD is a pretty bad game coach, has a terrible overall record, and doesn’t manage the media and fan base well, but against resources and input$, he is acceptable. Gott’s got a machine that is top 15-20 in every measurable way except his coaching performance. He’s the poster child for doing less with more. We are a basketball school in a basketball conference, and there should be considerable scrutiny of him. Instead because of the “noise” around football in the fall, Gott seems like a saint to the AD.Good win in a game that I thought from before the first kick was never really in doubt. Vandy wasn’t going to beat us throwing and I figured we could control their ground game. People loved to bang on the D and Hux, but outside of a couple of games we were really good against the run. We looked faster, stronger and just better at almost every position.
Forgettable bowl to end a forgettable season, but it was nice to be on the positive side of a lopsided result. It sure beats last year’s bowl game against a middling SEC team. It sends the seniors off in style and gives all the players something to look back on fondly 20 years from now.
Next year is next year, and we’ll see if we’ve actually got any momentum based on who we end up with on signing day. There’s also seemingly a couple of transfers on the roster, so we’ll see what happens there.
That was a fun game to watch. Fairfield isn’t good, but as stated with the App game, it is a glimpse of what this team can be. I’d put Yurt in the high post with BJ, Kapita and Abu rotating down low. The offense looks much better when it is Smith/MJ and Yurt as the primary distributors with our wings able to catch the ball in good scoring position. With TH, Mav and Dorn, if they’re selective, they can all be highly efficient.
The defense is showing signs of improving. If nothing else, the additional depth gives us a better distribution of the fouls.
It’s kind of a shame that we are playing from behind with respect to team development. We’re basically in game #2 of everyone. We’re going to need to grow up quickly in ACC play.
DSJ and Yurt are as advertised. I think they’re only going to get better.
MJ is the steal of this recruiting class though. If he improves that free throw shooting, he’ll be the anchor of our backcourt over the next 3 seasons. He plays very smart, is a good on the ball defender, distributes well and can electrify a crowd with some of his moves.
Don’t sleep on Kirk. Granted he’s getting in at garbage time, but he looks like instant offense to me. He reminds me a lot of some players in the HWSNBN era that kind of got buried but could light it up with some PT. It seems he needs to work on defense and some situational awareness.
