Lowe Era Begins with Tough Win Over Wofford

06-07 Basketball General85

NC State 92
Wofford 88

Boxscore | N&O Recap | Season Beginning Entry

Quite a few things happened to night to further signal the transition from the Herb Sendek era to the Sidney Lowe era:

(1) State scored 92 points for the game and is averaging 86 points per game in our three outings thusfar this season (2 exhibition)

(2) State scored 52 points in the paint for the game! (Compare that to Arizona State’s 56 total points for an entire game in a 5 point win over University of Victoria the other other night)

(3) State shot less than 20 three pointers in a game.

(4) State is not a good defensive team.

(5) State had no offensive droughts where the Pack failed to score for a prolonged time period.

(6) State actually came from behind to win…

(7) …to win a close game!

GoPack said:

Engin Atsur‘s go-ahead layup with 43.2 seconds remaining gave NC State the lead and his free throws with 2.9 seconds left sealed the victory as the Wolfpack made new coach Sidney Lowe’s debut a success in a 92-88 win over Wofford Friday night at the RBC Center.

* Engin Atsur scored 24 points and provided the Wolfpack its only source of scoring in the first few minutes of the game.

* Ben McCauley is becoming a beast. He scored 26 points, pulled in 5 rebounds and handed out 4 assists while shooting 10 of 13 from the floor.

* Bryan Nieman and Dennis Horner combined for the only 27 minutes of play provided by the bench as the starters carried the load. Of the starters, only Brandon Costner played less than 34 minutes (with 26 minutes).

* State shot 55% from the field for the game and held Wofford to 35% shooting in the second half after surrendering a blistering 65% in the first half to the visitors.

I thought that these comments were some of the best I have seen on the web:

We gave up 34 points in the second half . . . that isn’t exactly giving it away. 68 points a game from our oppenents is something I would welcome.

For a team that has no depth, a new coach, a new system, and a frontcourt that has basically no experience before this year, I’ll take it.

A game where they had to fight to come back, make some in-game adjustments, and learn to listen to and trust their new coach will ultimately be MUCH better for the team than a 30 point blowout.

Nice job hanging in there and getting Sidney his first win, guys. And for those people who are already posting “I can’t wait for Sidney to get his recruits in here”, consider supporting and enjoying the guys we have this year. Ben, Brandon, Courtney, Engin, Gavin, Dennis, and Trevor aren’t exactly scrubs.

By the way, we shot 62% from 2-point range and only took 18 3 pointers for the game. We scored consistently across the whole game and got to the foul line regularly. Nice.

Just win, baby

Additionally, the following comments were provided by some of our readers in a less relevant entry and we have moved them here:

1-0. Defense needs a lot of work. Great game by McCauley, but he can’t do that consistantly against the teams we have to play. Atsur had a great offensive game. We are going to need that every night

Looking for a bright spot, we won the second half 47-34. The theme for the year needs to be, “Any Win is a Good Win.�

For at least a week, Sid is the only undefeated N C State coach in recent history. Tracy Smith, Tracy Smith, Tracy Smith

We dodged a bullet. What a relief. We have a week to work on defense so we won’t get such a scare from Delaware State.

Our offense certainly did well. McCauley had a stud game. (Good thing we never got to see him play last year.) Atsur must be feeling okay, because he was awesome tonight. Everyone chipped in offensively. But we have A LOT of work to do to get to .500.

I think that you guys are missing the point about tonight. It has been a long time since a Wolfpack Squad has come from behind in that fashion.They did not quit.I am not crowning them, by any means, but I am viewing this as a positive attitude change..500 is reasonable I think, although it is still too early to tell what the competition will look like.

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06-07 Basketball General

85 Responses to Lowe Era Begins with Tough Win Over Wofford

  1. SWEETS 11/10/2006 at 11:05 PM #

    Oh my god – A wolfpack team with 92 points – What the?

  2. MatSci94 11/10/2006 at 11:53 PM #

    I listened on the radio, but the energy of the crowd came through it. Breakaways with dunks, some solid play inside (lots of basket + fouls), very few turnovers, and like one of the comments above said, no 5+ minute scoring drought.

    There will undoubtedly be some rough spots, but if they can play like they did tonight, it will at least be fun to watch.

  3. Rochester 11/10/2006 at 11:53 PM #

    I wholeheartedly agree that the guys we have are not scrubs. They all bring something valuable to the table, and they will get every opportunity to make their mark this year. If we had a couple more guys of the same caliber we wouldn’t be talking about a .500 year. McCauley is showing he’s a legit player, though I don’t expect 26 points against ACC opponents. Atsur is the senior leader. Grant showed me something tonight by letting his teammates get the job done and not trying to take over. Fells may be inconsistent at this point, but he’s got monster athletic talent and is always a threat to score. Horner gave us good minutes and hit his free throws. Costner will develop into a frontline talent. And even Bryan Nieman provides a little spark and relief.

    I will cheer as hard for these guys as I have for any team. The reason the team might struggle is because of depth, and that’s not a knock on the guys on the floor. I’d like to thank them all for not bailing out on the team last spring when there was so much confusion, because if anyone had transfered we’d seriously be hurting.

    If/when we can tighten up the D, this team could surprise some people.

  4. bTHEredterror 11/11/2006 at 12:23 AM #

    The D issue was easy to see coming. Most of the guys are younger, and no dominant defensive player was coming back, in the paint or out top. As they progress this should shore up. Man, they can’t give up 54 points in a half! That must be addressed or we will not sniff .500.

  5. WolfPackJack37 11/11/2006 at 12:29 AM #

    As did MatSci94, I listened to the game on the radio. I could feel the excitement and support of the crowd at RBC Center coming through my radio speaker. As the game wore on, I sensed they were getting it together as a team,especially in the second half. Their come-from-behind playing had all the earmarks of the old “Cardiac Pack”. PURE EXCITEMENT!

    CONGRATULATIONS to Lowe & Company. I’m sure that Sid, Monty and the rest of the coaching staff will be working on that defense this week, and we’ll see a “new” defensive look next Friday.

    OK, Wolfpackers, let’s keep cheering them on to many more victories. Like the crowd did tonight…..WOLF…PACK! WOLF….PACK! WOLF…PACK!

  6. Lunatic Fringe 11/11/2006 at 1:06 AM #

    I realize it is only game one, but it was nice to see our new coach make some adjustments at halftime that led to our comeback win.

    Let’s be honest, we were not sharp at all on defense in the first half, but we made adjustments after halftime and eliminated a lot of the easy looks. We forced the Wofford players to beat us off the dribble rather than leaving them open for 3s. Unfortunately, our
    defense is going to suffer this season due to a lack of depth perhaps Red (Ferguson) will help this issue some.

    We also did not try to get it all back at once by jacking up 3s. We kept chipping away at the lead using consistent scoring from the inside & taking advantage of the charity stripe when Wofford fouled us. It should be noted that fouls come more often when you are attacking the basket.

    It is interesting to look at the statistics a bit after the game…

    First Half:
    18-33 55% (FG)
    5-13 39% (3PT)
    4-4 100% (FT)

    Second Half:
    17-36 55% (FG)
    2-6 33% (3PT)
    11-17 71% (FT)

    At a glance, you would think that by shooting more 3s and hitting a better percentage from 3PT that we would have scored more in the first half. However, in the second half the team attacked the basket & took advantage of the free throws.

    We ended up scoring more in the second half of the game than we did in the first half (45 in first and 47 in second) not to mention avoided the terrible droughts that haunted us for years under the old coach.

    The funny thing is that Wofford continued to rely heavily on the 3 PT shot and inevitably lost the game when they cooled down. It is NOT an accident that the FT differential between the two teams was so large (8 FTs for Wofford and 21 FTs for NCSU), because when you do not attack the basket than you normally do not get fouled.

  7. burnbarn 11/11/2006 at 1:54 AM #

    For a team w/o a PG, I like only 9 TOs.

  8. oldflyingfarmer 11/11/2006 at 7:20 AM #

    For a week, not only the NCSU undefeated coach, but the only coach in the ACC that is undefeated. Wish it could last.
    We’ll beat our share.

  9. JimValvano 11/11/2006 at 7:47 AM #

    Let’s not forget that last year’s Tarholes started the season with just a three point victory over Gardner-Webb in the Dean Dome. I would put Wofford on a Gardner-Webb level. As much as it pains me to say it…last year’s Tarholes ended up pretty decent…maybe Coach Lowe can COACH these boys into some winners. I’m just glad we won, and I prefer to look at the unknown i.e. the rest of the season positively for now. GO PACK!!! Congratulations Coach Lowe!

  10. 1.21 Jigawatts 11/11/2006 at 7:58 AM #

    I wasn’t at the game and was only able to catch the first half on the radio but was very happy to wake up this morning to see that our beloved Wolfpack won.

    I noticed in the box score we were out rebounded by Wofford 36-33, with 12 of them being offensive. That stat concerns me (as it has concerned others during the exhibition games). I hope that Lowe & Co. can teach these guys how to position themselves to get the rebound (especially since he who we will not mention his name never did) because we have to limit our opponents second chance opportunities. This will be the area of the game that I will be paying attention to this year to see improvement.

    For anyone at the game, was Wofford’s OReb’s due to the ball coming off far from the basket after their missed 3’s or did they position themselves better than State?

  11. crackdog 11/11/2006 at 9:02 AM #

    “For anyone at the game, was Wofford’s OReb’s due to the ball coming off far from the basket after their missed 3’s or did they position themselves better than State?”

    Quite a few of them were from long rebound off of missed threes, but several times they got the board with one player in the paint to our three. That was upsetting. Other times, we went aggressively to the boards and came away with it- both Ben and Brandon did this at least once. They’re still learning to get position consistently.

  12. Pack Laddie 11/11/2006 at 9:06 AM #

    Also have to remember that due to the thin bench, the guys may not be able to defend as aggressively as they would like to, in order to try and stay out of foul trouble. We simply cannot afford for any of the starters to have to spend a lot of time on the bench with foul problems.

    Sid said they were too “passive” in the first half, but did a much better job defending the arc in the second half.

  13. graywolf 11/11/2006 at 9:22 AM #

    It’s only one game but I look forward to the future. Congratulations to the team and Coach Lowe.

  14. PAPacker 11/11/2006 at 9:28 AM #

    One other encouraging thing is the balance in assists. 5 players had between 3-5 assists which says there is a lot of dishing, passing, ball movement coming from multiple sources. Also, apart from Costner no one came near fouling out. I know it was Wofford, but playing under control is a good thing, although of course the d in the first half was weak.

  15. PAPacker 11/11/2006 at 9:40 AM #

    Sorry for the tangent, but it is valuable. Packpride has an excellent column on Amato from cutigers.com entitled “Wolfpack on the Edge.” It is on the lower right side under ACC stories. It gives a very good perspective from outside the campus. If the situation is this clear from 5 hours away, why is it so hard for the State administration to see what is not working? Wendell Murphy where are you?

  16. Gene 11/11/2006 at 9:56 AM #

    Also have to remember that due to the thin bench, the guys may not be able to defend as aggressively as they would like to, in order to try and stay out of foul trouble.

    I say cue up the tape of the ’96-’97 Wolfpack team. No bench. Severely undermanned. Beat all expectations and got a post season tournament, because they played intense defense.

    SFN: What was this team’s scoring average? Wasn’t this the team that scored in the 40s in some ACC games? There is a reason for this on both sides of the equation

    If this years team ever decides to play hard on defense all the time, we could be good. If not we’ll be squashed by ACC caliber opponents.

    Duke’s gone the last several years with thin benches but still played very tough defense for an entire game.

    SFN: (1) Duke’s ‘thin’ bench is better than no bench and (2) The 5 players on the floor for Duke at any one time are usually comprised of 5 McDonald’s All-Americans.

    Fans shouldn’t make excuses for a lack of effort from this years team, no matter how warm and fuzzy our memories of Sidney-the-player are.

    The Michigan game, in a couple of weeks, should be an interesting test to see how we stack up against a decent team from another major conference.

  17. Lock 11/11/2006 at 10:26 AM #

    I like what I see so far! I think pointing out the second half score is very useful here; Wofford shot ungodly well for the first half. We were competitive all game, and that’s all I ask of the team this year. They more than delivered. Here’s hoping for a 2-0 start.

    Just, really guys. For the love of god, what relevance does the ASU game have on ours?

    SFN: It seemed obvious that the point was being made about the six things that were immediately different in the transition from systems.

    I do like (and yes, I did miss this during the previous era) the energy Lowe shows on the side of the court. That’s always nice.

  18. BJD95 11/11/2006 at 10:42 AM #

    The kids fought, and fought hard. That was the most impressive aspect to me. We need to cherish each and every win this year.

  19. partialqualifier 11/11/2006 at 11:23 AM #

    Great Article again SFN!

    Great posts by all of you giving State credit for finding a way to win. To those of you who keep thinking this team is gonna “make a run”….may I suggest that you invest in A LOT of Pepto-Bismal! Sit back, relax, and just enjoy the ride. These kids are gonna be fun to root for!

    A couple of notes if I may:

    1-Like Northern State, Wofford used a 4 guard offense. That will give State fits all year. In the first half we were getting beat off the dribble and guys were coming to help…which played right into Wofford’s stand-still jump shooters’ hands! They set their feet, caught the kick-outs and nailed what seemd like a million 3’s. And for the first time all year I saw a Pack coach make meaningful adjustments to help his team win a game (and yes I am talking about you CTC!). In the second half, our guys stayed on the perimeter and didnt help as much! I dont care if it was Wofford….great adjustment!

    2-Our guys have not been playing outstanding competition, but they have fought hard and not quit! There are times when you are just about ready to charge the court in frustration, and you think that this team has no chance. Then all of a sudden here comes 8 straight field goals and an 18-2 run. They are scrappy and are not easily discouraged. They will need a lot of both all season. But I just love the way they fight you….never letting down…and just when u think the bottom is going to fall out they go on a run! Note to Herb: You can fight tooth & nail, and you can chop wood….and still be fun and interesting and score 90 points! Note to Pack Fans….how great is it to see 18-0 runs go our way fro a change?

  20. StateFans 11/11/2006 at 11:46 AM #

    ^ As always, these are fantastic comments.

    When faced with the defensive challenges of a 4 guard offenses, we MUST take advantage of our presence on the post on our offensive end of the floor.

    To this point, Ben McCauley has been able to deliver when given such an opportunity.

  21. Gene 11/11/2006 at 12:31 PM #

    SFN: (1) Duke’s ‘thin’ bench is better than no bench and (2) The 5 players on the floor for Duke at any one time are usually comprised of 5 McDonald’s All-Americans.

    All well and good about Duke getting more Burger Boys than most any other school, but we should still be head and shoulders above the likes of Wofford, St. Augs, and NSU, in terms of talent.

    I can stomach losses in the ACC, if we’re competitive. I can stomach losses to in our OOC schedule to Michigan, Alabama, Cincinnati, and W. Virginia, if we’re competitive.

    I’m not going to be able to stomach OOC losses to the likes of UNC-G, UNC-W, etc. anymore. Watching those losses happen, at Reynolds, during the Les Robinson-Era should only be a once in a lifetime experience.

    With the close calls we’ve had, in the last three games, I’m thinking we might have a loss to a smaller school along the way, unless we see some serious improvement in terms of our defense.

  22. tooyoungtoremember 11/11/2006 at 2:37 PM #

    “I can stomach losses in the ACC, if we’re competitive. I can stomach losses to in our OOC schedule to Michigan, Alabama, Cincinnati, and W. Virginia, if we’re competitive.

    I’m not going to be able to stomach OOC losses to the likes of UNC-G, UNC-W, etc. anymore. Watching those losses happen, at Reynolds, during the Les Robinson-Era should only be a once in a lifetime experience.”

    Dude, give our team a break. We may lose to a team you think we shouldn’t lose to this year. But given the extenuating circumstances of this season, you shouldn’t have a fit about it. At least give Coach Lowe one season where there are absolutely NO expectations except to play hard every game, not give up, and do everything with class and sportsmanship along the way.

  23. ShootingGuard 11/11/2006 at 4:13 PM #

    “I say cue up the tape of the ‘96-’97 Wolfpack team. No bench. Severely undermanned. Beat all expectations and got a post season tournament, because they played intense defense.”

    The 96-97 team didn’t play “intense” defense the entire game. The “defensive” strategy for that team was (1) limit baskets for the other team’s offense by milking the clock every time on our OFFENSIVE end (2) keep it close to the very end, and (3) then give it all you have for the last few minutes and hopefully steal a victory. That worked in a lot of ways, but it also ruined us on the recruiting trail for a while because our games were so ugly that no one wanted to sign up to play that kind of ball. Lowe, so far, is refusing to do that and has chosen to run uptempo, even with only 5-6 players, to show recruits that he intends to play uptempo even at the risk of being blown out right now while the rotation is super thin…

    “If this years team ever decides to play hard on defense all the time, we could be good. If not we’ll be squashed by ACC caliber opponents.”

    The guys could have played a lot SMARTER on defense than they did in the first half last night, but questioning the effort of the guys that played last night is ridiculous. As just one example, Atsur was literally about to fall down with minutes still left in the game, playing on bad wheels and a bad achilles, but he couldn’t come out because the only subs we have are a walk-on and a top 125-200 freshman. You can learn and play smarter, but you can’t play any harder than our IRON 5 + 2 played last night.

    “Duke’s gone the last several years with thin benches but still played very tough defense for an entire game.”

    Comparing the mess Sendek/Fowler left to Duke-ESPN-Nike & their referee advantages as well is completely stupid. A better comparison would be to Coach K’s 2nd team after Banks and Dennard left, then maybe we can talk. I mean, gee, if Duke’s guys would have only played harder on defense in 1982 and 1983, they wouldn’t have had back-to-back losing seasons. I mean, really, Coach K obviously did not believe in defense and had no coaching skills in getting his guys to try harder on defense—how could that terrible Coach K and those loafing players not build on a program that had just been to the NCAA finals a few years before and won an ACC Championship the year before arriving?!?! Surely Lowe and all of the experienced players he has and all those championships they have under their belts can give us fans a little effort out there on the defensive end…

    “Fans shouldn’t make excuses for a lack of effort from this years team, no matter how warm and fuzzy our memories of Sidney-the-player are.”

    Pointing out the OBVIOUS is not making excuses. There is only so much you can do on defense with all of the experience wrapped up in 1 role player, your “star” being a former doghouse guy, 3 guys who almost never played for the former coach, a top 125-200 freshman, and a walk-on. I mean, gee, let’s go with a full-court press next time!! 90 feet of hell, baby!! Because we are SOOOOO deep and don’t have to worry at all about foul trouble. I mean, seriously, if Ben or Costner or anybody gets in foul trouble, we can just send in guys who know how to play “intense defense” and have winning seasons like Tom Emma or Chip Engellend or Richard Ford or Doug McNeely, and I am sure Coach K would be more than willing to give Sid some tips on getting the most out of walk-ons and rebuilding programs with lockdown defense and immediate winning seasons.

    “The Michigan game, in a couple of weeks, should be an interesting test to see how we stack up against a decent team from another major conference.”

    Now that’s true…This would be a great win and would do wonders for the program as would a win vs Bama and some success in the ACC…Of course, we may get beat and get beat badly…But I seriously doubt it will be because of lack of effort…

  24. Woof Wolf 11/11/2006 at 4:33 PM #

    Good stuff ShootingGuard.

  25. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/11/2006 at 5:46 PM #

    I was at the game and it was pure joy to see Wolfpack basketball again. Seeing the Arizona State score above just made me smile inside because we don’t have to deal with that BS anymore.

    Wofford had a very small, fast team that couldn’t miss in the first half. They had some open three’s but they seemed to hit everything they put up regardless. I looked at their roster about at one point and it looked like they have 10 players listed as guard. I don’t know how many actually played but we didn’t match up well with this team. With that said it also allowd us to throw the ball in the middle to McCauley at will. Ben played great but I expect he will not always be playing teams with a bunch of guys this small.

    State came out of the locker room during half with 7 minutes left in the half. Lowe must of made his comments brief and to the point. Is halftime shorter in the NBA? I haven’t watched more than about 2 mins of an NBA game since the Johnson/Bird era so I have no clue.

    Fells’ made comments on the radio after the game about playing tight D so I’m it is clear that Lowe is focused on the D.

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