Don’t Get Too Down on the Pack Because You Were Too High on the Pack

11-12 Basketball Mark Gottfried NCS Basketball101

Yes, I know. Very clunky and convoluted title. Couldn’t make it any prettier.

Simply put, State got its ass kicked tonight. Why? They played a consensus pre-season Top Five team. On the road. Playing their very best (especially on defense and the glass). It happens.

Prior to tonight, NC State largely took care of business, winning 4 of 5 ACC games, all against foes that have no realistic chance of an NCAA bid. Now, that’s nothing to sneeze at – huge progress from Wolfpack squads of recent vintage. But by no means did it give you any rational reason to EXPECT (not hope for) a win tonight. Certainly not under the aforementioned circumstances.

Losing the hardest game on your schedule doesn’t mean you suck. Even losing it in such clusterfuck fashion. It does mean you know you will need your best effort to beat Virginia on Sunday. Coasting on positive press clippings won’t get it done.

The first step is gaining relevance. Relevance does NOT mean that you’ve arrived. That takes time and sustained effort. And frankly, more talent.

There’s lots of basketball left. And we will no doubt have other bad games. It’s still a far sight from the bottomless pit of despair in which we’ve dwelled for so long.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

11-12 Basketball Mark Gottfried NCS Basketball

101 Responses to Don’t Get Too Down on the Pack Because You Were Too High on the Pack

  1. NCStatePride 01/26/2012 at 10:53 PM #

    Thanks for posting this.

    Everyone, if you don’t realize how profound this is coming from BJD, who is hilarious to hear meltdown, you should. NC State is no worse now then it was 3 days ago.

  2. Shadow722 01/26/2012 at 10:55 PM #

    BJD,

    Sober, measured and true about the Pack. But I still hate losing to those people……

  3. old13 01/26/2012 at 10:58 PM #

    Right on, BJD! IMO the biggest problem is they came out too hyped and ran around like “chickens with their heads cut off.” Then, after falling behind so far and having some (hurried and forced) shots blocked, it became a head game. There’s some lessons there for the players and the coaches.

  4. BJD95 01/26/2012 at 11:00 PM #

    Learn, and lay the foundation. Enjoy the gravy of wins when you can. I’m all zen and shit this season, I guess.

    I will always have State vs. Maryland football, 2010 as my finest meltdown masterpiece. Can’t top that, so why try?

  5. triadwolf 01/26/2012 at 11:03 PM #

    I thought it’d be closer, but I really didn’t count on all the bad habits coming out of the closet. We would have lost anyway, but bad shot selection, being intimidated, quick shots, heads down, etc. made it much worse than it should have been.

    Let’s face it, our big guys aren’t very big and this was a match up problem from the get go (by far not the only problem, but the most obvious). It all depends now how this team responds; post season play is still in cards, but they’ve got to move on to Virginia.

  6. SoUrTellinMeTheresAChance 01/26/2012 at 11:07 PM #

    1st…f#uck unc
    2nd…bjd, you making this thread makes me feel better
    3rd…f#ck inc

    And f#ck auto correct

  7. Master 01/26/2012 at 11:08 PM #

    We was rattled… and sceered.

  8. albunde6 01/26/2012 at 11:13 PM #

    Unfortunately, this team “could not throw the ball in the ocean, standing knee deep in the water”. They had a bad night shooting against a team the always plays well against us. Hopefully they will forget this loss and move on to beat Virginia.

  9. wufpup76 01/26/2012 at 11:18 PM #

    Agreed. Good post.

  10. Astral Rain 01/26/2012 at 11:24 PM #

    This was the worst case scenario. Bad shooting night+ team that plays State’s style with a lot more talent who were playing their best+ on the road.

    Unfortunately, plot armor for State is what they give to female characters in Soul Calibur, so there were no miracle overcomings, even with hitting a full-court short.

  11. Hinton Helper 01/26/2012 at 11:30 PM #

    and how much worse would it have been without the 4 banked three pointers and the 80 footer?

    yikes.

  12. redwolf87 01/26/2012 at 11:32 PM #

    Well stated.

    Tonight’s game was the outcome I would have termed a “lose”. Instead of a competitive win/loss to demonstrate we had arrived, it served as fodder for the interminable apologists such as Vitale, Patrick, Goodman (as big an idiot as there is in college basketball coverage), ad nauseum. But, I do have faith that we have the coaches in place now that will use this as a motivational tool, to ensure that we don’t get our ass embarrassed the next time out. The GT response was welcome–let’s see if we can repeat it versus UVa.

    We’re still in better hands than we’ve been in for over a decade. Fight through this and keep the faith.

  13. Primewolf 01/26/2012 at 11:52 PM #

    Whatever.

    The difference in talent was amazing, even considering they played great and we didn’t.

    they were more athletic, smothered us defensively, out jumped us and out quicked us at every position on the floor.

    Our bigs were totally outmatched. I don’t see that changing when we play a good, big team. Let’s face it, Howell and Leslie couldn’t any more guard or outrebound Zeller and Henson that I could.

    What a sobering experience.

    Hope we recover by Saturday.

  14. JeremyH 01/26/2012 at 11:54 PM #

    I think their length was just too much for us, and we’re not the best jump shooters.

    Rational post, good stuff.

  15. xphoenix87 01/27/2012 at 12:08 AM #

    Amen to this. If we were going to have a chance in this game, in the Dean Dome, it was going to be because Carolina beat themselves. They didn’t, so we lost by 20. They’re just really good.

    This game tells us nothing we didn’t already know about this team. Virginia at home is a game that will tell us something. If we win that one, I’d say we’re on the path to the big dance.

  16. ancsu87 01/27/2012 at 12:14 AM #

    I hoped for better but was not surprised to see our guys play tight and slip back into old habits. They also knew what was on the line and what would be said about them if they lost. They felt the pressure and it got to them plus, as said before, the matchup was not good for us.

    It was Coach’s first game in the series too. After the GT game I said I wanted to see how the coaching staff and team responded on the road at WF. The UVa game is another test. Let’s see how it plays out!

  17. Pack1998 01/27/2012 at 12:44 AM #

    If Gottfried sleeps well tonight I’m worried. This better be burned into his memory, and the team as well.

    You can rationalize it all you want . . . but getting our asses kicked by UNC on national TV is simply not acceptable.

    Didn’t expect a win – but would have expected us to hang closer to the spread of 13 points.

    I get why we lost . . . I don’t need the science behind that.

    Our best chance against UNC is likely making it a track meet, we can NOT match up in any half court set against them. Our advantages are on the perimeter and Leslie running the floor.

  18. runwiththepack 01/27/2012 at 12:44 AM #

    “You’ve entered another time, space, another dimentia… (i know, it’s spoza be dimension)… you’ve entered the Wolfpack basketball program.

    They picked a bad time and place to lose their minds. I’m trying not to get too down on them, but i had hoped that they got this out of their system vs. GA Tech. UNC didn’t even seem to play that well, fortunately, or it would have been a 40+ point loss. GA Tech was hitting baskets without even looking at the rim and a certain ref was being an asshole. But I don’t know how to explain this one, except that they were psyched out by all the glorified baby blue.

    I hope they have it out of their system NOW. Geesh. And I’m anxious to see how they respond when the putrid baby blue comes to raleigh. Although I’m disgusted with them, this game could be the motivation that helps them arrive at .500 vs. unc this year.

  19. runwiththepack 01/27/2012 at 12:52 AM #

    ’98,

    Regarding Gott, the camera zoomed in on him during one of the worst stretches of that ugly game. His eyes looked like they were on fire, although he tried to appear calm. He looked like he was trying to swallow a horse pill. I’m glad he didn’t blow a gasket – for every red body’s sake.

    I don’t blame him. I hope he didn’t say anything in the locker room at halftime that he regrets.

    Throw the game film away? Or show it to the team just before they take the court vs. UNC in a few weeks? Unbelievable how they lost.

  20. WeAreCured 01/27/2012 at 1:07 AM #

    All true BJD, but you had still best hit the treadmill Saturday night at 8. I know it’s a Saturday night, but we need you.

    Tonight hurt, but I think of them the same way I did this afternoon. They’re better than the bad teams and a little better than the mediocre teams in the ACC, but they aren’t good enough to compete with great teams just yet. We’re only 3/8ths of the way through the ACC schedule, so there’s time to learn.

    What I wouldn’t give to have a skilled 7 footer on this team…

  21. Wufpacker 01/27/2012 at 1:09 AM #

    Great post, BJD. And for the record, I always thought your best meltdown was after the infamous “letter”, and then the subsequent disappointing (at the time) coaching hire.

    When I played ball as a youngster, I got some good advice. If you want to get better, you have to play against players that are bigger and better than yourself, and then learn how to beat them. We definitely did the first part tonight and hopefully will use it to learn the second part.

    Aside from that, the best thing that can happen is to this team is to gain more depth and get more shooters/scorers. Hard to open up the middle against a team that size if they can pack it in while only closely guarding one guy on the perimeter who can’t create his own shot….especially when his teammates are too shell shocked to even think about giving him any help in that regard.

  22. tjfoose1 01/27/2012 at 2:29 AM #

    *

  23. tjfoose1 01/27/2012 at 2:29 AM #

    Just part of the process. Already come far, but still a long way to go. Foward we still move.

  24. JSRy2k 01/27/2012 at 2:32 AM #

    Wufpacker, I think your second paragraph is dead on, and count me as one who believes we’ll see drastically different results when the Holes come to Raleigh. We may not win, but we’ll learn from tonight and compete then.

    Dribble penetration has a way of opening things up, not only in the middle with bigs stepping to the ball but also on the perimeter with guards collapsing. Too bad tonight was a game of bigs shooting jumpers from 18 feet less than 10 seconds into the shot clock and guards so wound up they’re chucking jumpers over the rim.

  25. El Lobo Loco! 01/27/2012 at 3:28 AM #

    Dang!
    there is always the bad night…. it is unusually bad when it is is against UNX

    Anyway, back to the locker room and live to fight another day

    GO PACK!!

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