Yes, State plays at ECU tonight. And, no, we do not think that the trip makes any sense. (Neither does Sidney Lowe). But, other than this link to a preview of the game we are not going to spend very much time on ECU today.
Some relevant bytes today:
* The N&O composed a very great blog entry on the status of local teams one month into the season. They said the following about NC State:
For all of N.C. State’s personnel adjustments this season — the loss of Engin Atsur, the addition of J.J. Hickson — the biggest concern has to be its rebounding and team defense.
State has been out-rebounded in four of six games, holding the edge over Rider and William & Mary. New Orleans, and to a lesser extent, William & Mary, both had their way with N.C. State’s defense, especially to the baseline.
And then there was the clinic Michigan State put on during an 81-58 win in East Lansing.
Suffice it to say, whatever ground N.C. State made up on UNC and Duke last March, has been lost.
* Despite some of the frustrations being felt in the NC State community, the Wolfpack heads into tonight’s game with ECU with a solid RPI of #36 and the 19th toughest strength of schedule in the country.
* We had some great bytes yesterday that you shouldn’t miss. 850TheBuzz followed through on some of the Herb Sendek comments with this blog entry that we enjoyed.
* For the record, Sendek did NOT give an interview to ‘Trey’ Robinson of the N&O. To this day, Sendek as still not granted a one on one conversation with any of our local media that painted him in such a favorable light for a decade. (Don’t forget that the primary reason old Herb is in the business is because of the importance of ‘relationships’) Old Trey just pieced together his article on generic press conference quotes…which were probably pretty damn easy to gather at an ASU Basketball press conference.
* We are excited to see Trey’s article on Matt Doherty that surely is coming soon. We expect the Doherty piece to be a lot more juicy since Doherty – and Bill Guthridge before him – were both more formerly pushed out of their jobs compared to Sendek who had the full support of his Athletics Director and chose to leave for another job that he had secured.
* 50 years ago TODAY ACC Basketball changed forever when “a network of 12 television stations scattered through the South and along the East Coast showed the black-and-white images of North Carolina’s 79-55 basketball victory against the Clemson Tigers at Woollen Gym in Chapel Hill.” (Link)
* Boston College and Maryland kick off conference play this weekend.
