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We haven’t had a change of heart on this. My understanding is that the Athletics Department isn’t allowed to go in the “State” direction because of a decision that comes from the UNC Board of Governors. It *may* have been the NC State BOT (as that would make more sense), but I’ve heard the BOG doesn’t like that branding and wants it to be NC State.
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this information and starting the thread. I follow the performance of the wrestling team through their Twitter updates, but that is about it. So, having this intel is appreciated.
I’d like to point out that even though I think a lot of what many of you have said is crazy and low and mean and offensive that I don’t demand that you take it down or that you be censored. And, I don’t demand that you apologize to me for your offensive thoughts and comments. It is an interesting approach, isn’t it?
I could get ‘offended’ dozens of times a day if I chose to be offended – watching TV, listening to the radio, reading websites and interacting with others. I am going to try the approach I am learning from others of constantly proclaiming my offense to the world and demanding that everyone that says things that I don’t agree with take back their words and issue me an apology (even if the comments have NOTHING to do with me).
Ooops…just heard Howard Stern make a crass joke about religion that isn’t even my own. I need to go tweet how horrible of a person he is and demand that he apologize to me and others for something that has nothing to do with me! The old me would’ve just turned him off.
McCallum seems to get it so much that he might understand the mindset with which this post was written. He probably notices some little digs, backhanded compliments and the nuance of mentioning things that shouldn’t be mentioned.
McCallum seems to maybe understand the irony with which some of those points were made.
You don’t have to tell the folks at SFN about hate and how uneducated criticism is the default position of folks ‘on the internet’. It is so sad.
Unfortunately for all of us — there is a contemptuous coterie of local ‘media’ personalities and bloggers that is the EPITOME of the snark and smarm and haughty judgement of anything that they think someone else is thinking. The judgements of how awful everyone else is can be insane.
I guess it isn’t hard to imagine when they grow up on personalities like Keith Olbermann who can have nightly “Worst Person in the World” segments on their shows.
Just imagine if they wouldn’t have given Jerian Grant an extra free throw in of a game that was tied at the end of regulation. Entire season would look different. The incompetence is no surprise.
Video below gives a little insight into the timeline here. It is amazing to me that they don’t seem to care that they are punishing kids who had nothing to do with the problem. I thought that was just an insane idea!!! #UNC
I can’t believe the lengths that Jim Boeheim will reach to NOT have to go to the ACC Tournament in Greensboro!!
When I see stats like this: “in games this season where State is up/down by four inside the 3:00 mark, the Wolfpack is 1-6”
…I unfortunately can’t help but think about coaching.
This definitely feels like an issue that we have had across all of Gott’s teams…not just this year’s squad (that has nobody left over from year one and two of his tenure).
It would be interesting to see what Gottfried’s record is while at State in ‘close games’ as defined by something like one possession games. Then it would be interesting to segment the games into buckets of good teams vs not so good teams. For example, we beat UNC-G in a one possession game last year. UNC-G! Not quite the same as constantly losing to the tougher ones.
Confirmed that (WR) Vernon Grier from Charlotte and (QB) Jakobi Meyers (Kent State commit) have both committed to the Pack over the weekend.
No — it was a ranking of only the top 10 in the ACC. Not the whole conference. We were #9 based on those particular rankings. Generally considered Top 35 this year BEFORE some late commits (that might include Johnny Frasier).
I’d like to know the +/- with Cat on/off the court for the Duke & UNC games. It looked very much like our offense was so much more productive when Martin was on the floor and Cat was not.
Thanks for sharing. Looks like he plays defensive end…which, I guess becomes a position of higher importance now that Drew Davis’ career has been cut prematurely short with injury.
In relation to the previous post…we tweeted this a couple of day ago:
NC State now sits ~#31 in the RPI having played the 7th toughest SOS in America. Currently has 4 wins over Top 100 teams. #NCAAT
— statefansnation (@statefansnation) January 12, 2015
SI’s Bubble Analysis has us as “in the mix” in this article. I’m guessing they are trying to project how things will be and not putting us as “lock” yet. That’s fine. But, if the article were to be written from the perspective of “if the tournament started today” then we would definitely be a lock.
North Carolina State (12-5, RPI: 32, SOS: 7) — The Wolfpack dealt Duke its first loss of the season, and scored themselves a major differentiating win in the process. Fellow bubble teams are going to be hard pressed to show off as equally impressive a win. N.C. State is now 5-4 against the top 50 and has only one loss — at Purdue — outside the top 100.
I also think the author meant that we are 5-4 vs the TOP 100, not the top 50. If we had 5 wins vs the Top 50 we would absolutely be a lock.
#4A North Carolina Tar Heels (12-4, 2-1) RPI: 14 SOS: 6
Marcus Paige is a gamer. Ever since PJ Hairston was dismissed by Coach Roy Williams last year for repeated off-court incidents, Paige has come on strong and has been responsible for several W’s the Heels earned in the closing moments. At this point, I am not sure there is a more proven crunch-time player in the conference. His game winner on Saturday against a Louisville backcourt that is becoming known for it’s on-ball defensive tenacity was just one more line item for the bio. As an undersized junior, his heart is rarely paralleled by his opponents.
The Tar Heels are ranked 301st in 3-point makes per game. They simply do not shoot it well. They crash the offensive glass though, and now that teams are measuring which of their players miss with the best efficiency, Paige is clearly among the leaders. Simply meaning that he draws a crowd on his forays to the cup, leaving his rebounders without a body on them, so they can convert the putbacks with ease.
Roy Williams doesn’t hesitate to use his bench either. Every player has utility, whether its simply to foul, or for a given match-up’s sake. On Saturday, Pitino played three of his guys (Jones, Rozier, Harrell) 37 minutes or more; of all the Tar Heels only Paige played 30 minutes or more, and it was exactly 30 minutes. It was eye-opening to watch them bully the Cards, outrebounding them 40-30, and 17-9 on the offensive end.
The Tar Heels haven’t looked like world-beaters but they don’t look likely to be beaten by many in the world either. If I had to compare them to a Heavyweight boxer, they’d be Ken Norton. Ready to go 15 rounds, hit as hard as anybody in the game, but eventually going to lose some of the judges’ love due to a lack of panache and charisma.
This Week: @ NC St (Weds), Virginia Tech (Sunday night game of the week! And what a game it’ll be as UNC will sport four guys at 6’9? or taller to VT’s one lone freshman Satchel Pierce, if Joey Van Zegeren remains suspended. Has a team ever been held to single digit rebounds before?)
Mobility: With a pair of wins, they will at least lock down this four spot by themselves for the week. Cracking the top three will be difficult this year.
Great work, as always from VaWolf!
Add to it this view of the entire conference and I think there is a lot of great information in this thread.
#4B North Carolina State Wolfpack (12-5, 3-1) RPI: 32 SOS: 7
The battle for #4 will occur on Wednesday night when NC St. hosts the arch-rival Tar Heels. UNC’s SOS is 6th. So they are neck and neck in terms of that metric. UNC has one less loss. Both sported signature wins last weekend with NC St. handily defeating Duke, and UNC pulling out the win vs Louisville. A hat tip to our own Mike McDaniel who predicted the NC State upset over the Blue Devils.
NC State made the NCAA tournament via the new-fangled play-in system where extra 10 seeds are added to the at-large pool. It took them 22 wins. Coach Mark Gottfried has them well on their way to a similar campaign assuming there are no health concerns. It is a veteran led team with starting junior PG Trevor Lacey on his way to earning all-league honors (I have him pegged for 2nd team right now), and senior Ralston Turner offering steady perimeter production as well. Sophomore guard Anthony Barber is rounding into a nice 3rd option, and allows Lacey to play off the ball some and focus on scoring.
On the inside, the ‘Pack has a rotation of guys earning solid minutes, but none they rely on too heavily. Sophomore Beejay Anya is averaging an incredible 3.1 blocks per game in just under 20 minutes per contest. His having lost some 65 pounds in the offseason has increased his mobility and allowed him to play for longer stretches. If he can develop some hands to go with the position his posterior earns him on the block, he could develop into a double digit scorer at some point, even if it isn’t this year.
NC State has a very good chance of getting to the turn at 6-3 in the league. The second half of the league schedule also looks like it could be converted into a 6-3 record. At 12-6, the Wolfpack would be shoo-ins for a top five seed. They have just one questionable loss (Wofford); the other losses were to West Virginia, Cincinnati, UVA, and @ Purdue. They now have their signature win, having gotten scorching hot this past Sunday vs Duke. A couple more of those head-to-head wins against top tier ACC squads like Notre Dame, UNC, Louisville, or Syracuse, and they could be looking at a bye in the ACC tournament.
This Week: North Carolina (Weds) , @Florida St (Sat)
Mobility: They could shoot all the way up into the #2 spot if they win both games and Louisville beats Duke. This is a team that seems to know what it can and cannot do, and plays within those constraints. Credit the coaching staff and the heady leadership of Trevor Lacey for the pack staying within themselves.
packalum44 –
I don’t understand why you think we are so far away from the NCAA Tournament.
We are currently #44 in the RPI having played the 10th toughest schedule in the country. If we win one of the next two games we will easily have a Top 35 RPI with 4 wins vs the Top 100.
I don’t have any concern about the future of the Wolfpack women’s program. Wes Moore and his staff breed more confidence in me than I could imagine. Moore is a stud who will absolutely make it happpen.
Here is Jason Whitlock “pretending to like & respect Stuart Scott”. Interesting intel in there…but it feels to me as though dead spend is taking one point that Whitlock made about a single situation when trying to apply it to Whitlock’s overall view of Scott.
To be fair, I think you can like someone without necessarily respecting their work or having to think that everything they ever did was without fault. We’re all talking about Stuart as being this amazing sports media talent… and, to be fair, the jury would never come back unanimous on that point because of his unique style. Scott’s catchphrases and style were not appealing to everyone when he first hit the airwaves — to be honest, I couldn’t stand it. I lived with five other guys in the late 90s and they couldn’t stand it. either. It felt contrived and like he was trying too hard. We didn’t want all that crap in our news… We just wanted the news. And no one should have to apologize for that.
But Scott clearly grew and matured into someone very good at their trade as opposed to just a goofy guy on TV with a shtick. And, evidently, one of the things made him so unique is that he genuinely did not care about the folks who did not love his style. At the end of the day, he and his style had a tremendous impact on sports media and our culture.
I think it is perfectly fine for someone to hold the opinion that Scott wasn’t greatest sportscaster of all time but still have a high opinion for him and the way he lived his life.
I guess it is not weird that he had to come out with this statement in light of Virginia Tech struggles in recent years. I’m sure the fan base is frustrated to see the program fall into the middle as it has.
Nonetheless, and historical look at VPI shows that Frank Beamer is THE Godfather of the only success that they’ve ever had. Of course he deserves to craft his own exit whenever and however he would like (as long as he is meeting a minimum benchmark of success and not running a rogue program).
Very moving and interesting.
Video from Rich Eisen at NFL Network linked here.
