Thursday’s “Throwdown”

= > Throwndown
ESPN names its Thursday night games “Thursday Throwdown”. Obviously, they only use the abbreviated version of the official title — “Thursday Throwdown, kick in the stomach, break a leg, spit on, and embarassing beating within an inch of your life.”

= > Remind me Again?
Wasn’t it just last year when you were telling me that had won 4 in a row over Carolina and that they weren’t that good? Yea…that was you. Weren’t we supposedly still better than them last year (in your mind) since we were 11-5 in the ACC and they were only 8-8 (despite the obvious that we tied in the RPI, both advanced to the same round of the NCAA Tournament, and were SWEPT by them).

Let me make sure I get all of this right:
* Roy Williams took the almost identical group of players that were coached by Matt Doherty and had lost 4 in a row to NC State. Now Carolina has won 3 in a row over our group of identical players that had previously won 4 in a row over their group of identical players. Tell me more about how whomever is coaching you doesn’t matter?

= > Playing not to lose…errr…playing so the other team can’t score 100
I don’t know what I was more embarassed about on Wednesday night. Was it the way that they beat the living crap out of us or was it that we literally (and cowardly) held the ball and tried to milk the clock throughout the second half in hopes that we could shorten the game and keep it “closer”.

= > Clarification
Was that Tony Bethel out there playing? Just wanted to make sure.

= > Throwndown, Part II

Thank the Lord that Carolina only gets two points for every dunk. Hasn’t anyone told them about the NC State offense?

One Wolfpacker counted 11 dunks by the Heels…and that feels low!!

= > Bright Future
It wouldn’t be my comments without my routine comments about how much I love Cedric Simmons. Heck, Simmons was on the floor for a total of three seconds before he scored on Thursday night.

I am really going to enjoy watching Simmons develop under the tuteledge of the same coaching staff that have developed such outstand post players as…umm….(head scratch)…ahhhhhh…(awkward silence)…help? Well, it isn’t fair to expect that we would have developed any big men after only a decade. Let’s at least get somebody onto an NBA roster and then we’ll focus on that.

= > Quotables
With 3:20 minutes to go in the first half, ESPN’s in-studio basketball analyst (Doug Gottlieb) was already referring to our game in the past tense. LOL!!! Obviously he doesn’t realize that this is just part of our gearing up for a replication of our 1983 miracle run. BWAHAHAHAHA

More of ESPN’s comments tonight can be found just below this entry on the Blog.

= > The Numbers
Sendek drops to 5-14 all-time against Carolina. Sendek is now 15-52 in regular season games against Carolina, Duke, Maryland and Wake Forest for a 22% winning percentage.

Sendek ACC Regular Season Win Loss %
vs. VPI/Miami 0 2 0%
vs. UNC/Duke/Wake/UMD 15 52 22%
vs FSU/GT/CU/UVA 43 24 64%
Total 58 78 43%

= > Overheard
Post of the night from BJD on PackPride’s Message Boards.

“I enjoyed the game with several nice folks at MacGregor Ale House. The nice thing is they turned the TVs to ESPN Classic at the end, and they were showing State/MD from 1974. My, how things have changed.

I mean, they wre posing for dunks. It was an exhibition for them. Somebody should have punched a Hole squa’ in the nuts. Where is Kenny Inge when you need him?”

= > Overheard, II
From beowolf:

“Even though several of uncch’s players had the flu, and even their head coach had a fever and could barely talk, they somehow managed to squeak out a close, hard-fought win over our boys tonight. There’s no shame in losing by four scores in Chapel Hill — three TD’s and a FG.

I know some of you are thinking, Wull, when we have guys who are sick, that excuses us for losing. I mean, you can’t expect to beat West Virginia and St. John’s when people don’t feel so good. This is different, OK? Don’t ask me how, it just is.

The bottom line is, we’re 3-5 at the halfway point. Not too shabby! A few extra free throws in a few contests and we could have been 4-4, with some losses that were even closer. Still, you just wait for what we’re going to do the rest of this month. It’s going to be special! Before March Madness will be Herb Sendek’s February Fabulousness!”

= > Overheard, III
From ThomYorkpack:

“The most disturbing thing about the game tonight to me was the lack of confidence and effort I saw at from the outset. This team KNEW it was going to get its butt handed to it tonight, and the play reflected that belief. Their was a terrible lack of focus and belief–and this was against UNC. How can that happen in a rivalry game? The way we came out and basically laid down for UNC tonight is symptomatic of the lack of leadership from the head coach.

On to year 10!”

= > Proud
I just wanted to say congratulations to my alma mater for their efforts last night. If you can read that statement and immediately form an assumption

Sincerely,
Jeff Brock
1993 BA, NC State
2001 MBA, UNC-CH

General NCS Basketball

6 Responses to Thursday’s “Throwdown”

  1. JPS 02/03/2005 at 11:05 PM #

    C’mon, JB; 5-16 isn’t all that different from 5-15. And we only lost by four scores. Granted, as noted above, they were three TD’s and a FG, but still … Don’t give up; don’t ever give *gaaaack!* up!

    Sorry; something stuck in my throat just now. Don’t know what that could have been.

    P.S. There’s still time to get your bumper sticker for this season!

  2. BJD95 02/03/2005 at 11:06 PM #

    HERB MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. JPS 02/03/2005 at 11:39 PM #

    BJD: Can you be more specific? “Go” is rather vague. For example, there are several Russian translations of the word “go.” There’s idte and khodit, which are to go on foot (that is, walk); yezdit and yekhat, which are to go by transport; ukhodit, which is to depart on foot; uletat, which is to depart by plane; and ueszhat, which is to depart by train or car. There’s also proberat, which is to run; and uberat, which is to run away.

    Basically, I’m in agreement with you that Herb must go. Having said that, I prefer for him to uletat or ueszhat, since those would be the fastest and since they imply departure rather than merely going. Nevertheless, if he must leave on foot, I prefer for him to uberat rather than idte.

  4. Trout 02/04/2005 at 8:27 AM #

    – IMO, the best UNC team I personally have ever seen. They are hands down my pick to win the NCAA. I think on a neutral court, they beat Illinois, easily (not like last night easily, but that’s another story). Coaching does matter, and Roy Williams is one of the best of all time. I think he gets that NCAA title this season

    – Ced Simmons, as JB mentioned, continues to shine. If Herb Sendek is NC State’s coach in the future, what changes to the “hybrid Princeton” will be made to integrate his talents in the low post? He should not be a setting ball screens on the arc like most big men in our offense.

    – Andrew Brackman has hit a wall, or has become intimidated, or something. Any NC State fan who thought Brackman could challenge Marvin Williams for ACC ROY saw last night just how much of a fallacy that thought was.

    – Dont tell me performance doesnt get you calls. I thought the refs let the teams play and did a good job, however on several drives to the basket I thought Jules would get a foul call, but he didnt. Last year, when the team performed better and Jules was playing better, he got those calls. This year, he does not.

    – Good to have Bethel back, but I see somewhat of a disconnect between what he wants to do and what I “thought” our offense game plan was. Many times Bethel was pushing the break, and ended up making some mistakes. Didnt look like he was trying to run the “Princeton hybrid.” Personally, I didnt think NC State ran the “Princeton hybrid.” Whether you like the offense or not, if the PH is your offense of choice, it would help to run what you practice.

    – I’d like to say that Herb joins Gary Williams and Paul Hewitt as coaches to have their ass handed to them at the Dean Dome this year to help ease the pain. However, I’m a NC State guy first, so what WE do is most important, and last night we didnt do much to stop UNC. I’m not even upset at McCant’s throat slash, because when he made that gesture, it pretty much was over.

  5. ncsu4life 02/04/2005 at 8:28 AM #

    tragically hilarious post jb… I feel as though I have been shot with a tranquilizer aimed for elephant after watching herb ball.

  6. BJD95 02/04/2005 at 10:27 AM #

    Good Lord, JPS, you expect to much of this humble Engineering School graduate. Especially considering that I was inebriated at the time of said posting.

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