DBR knocks it out of the park WRT State, Lowe.

A fantastic game recap/assessment from Duke Basketball Report on the game last night and the State program that gives us this gem:

It must be the most frustrating thing in the world for Lowe, who wore his big-game red jacket to Cameron. If you look back at his stats when he was at State, they were never overwhelming. Yet he was a superb leader for his team who got his guys to be steady and when they were in a close game hell would freeze over before he made a critical mistake. He was not just a good leader, he was an excellent leader.

He sits there and he is bound to see the mistakes coming, and he’s surely told his guys what to do and not to do. And they are effective for most of the game. But at the end, when his knowledge and experience should be most valuable, they simply can’t do what he has tried to teach them. They rush, they dribble too far, they try to make passes that are a stretch, and slowly, his team crumbles under the pressure and fails.

You can think back to any number of reasonable point guards in the past (or contemporaries for that matter), and they don’t have to be great ones, just good ones, and imagine them at State. How much better would they be? What about Terrell McIntyre? Bobby Frasor? T.J. Bannister? Charlie Ward? Keith Gatlin? Larry Drew II? For that matter, Sidney Lowe?

Just one steady guard who knew what to do in the clutch would make this team a viable tournament team. One steady guard and one reliably intelligent small forward could put them deep into the tournament.

(Continues)

I can only imagine how maddening it must be for Sidney Lowe to watch his guards perform the way they do given the type of player he was. You can hear that utter frustration in his voice and read it in the quotes following each game.

There's a disconnect between Sidney and his guards that he's trying desperately to bridge, and that is this: How does a coach instill in his players something that came so easily to him? As coach Lowe has said time and again, the staff is stressing the importance of protecting the ball and staying aggressive while playing within yourself and your abilities. We admire the greats who innately possess this gift, like Tiger, MJ, Jack Nicklaus and others. Julius Hodge had it, and it turned a gangly 6'7" stick into a scoring, steals and assist machine.

Somehow, someway, Sidney, Monte Towe and Pete Strickland must find a way to unlock this in Mays, Degand and Gonzalez. It appears to be coach Lowe's greatest task since taking the State job two years ago.

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If I'm Sidney Lowe...

...and today, I'm glad I'm not, but if I were, here's the lineup I take forward for the rest of the year:

• PG Mays
• SG Williams
• SF Johnny Thomas
• PF Costner
• C Tracy Smith

with a bench of

• PG Degand
• SG Ferguson, when healthy
• SF Fells
• SF/PF Horner
  
• PF/C McCauley

Play your starters as long as you can, for as long as they can expend the kind of effort they showed last night in the second half, and spell them with your bench only when necessary for rest/fouls.

There will be growing pains putting a lineup that young out there, and probably some grumbling from the old guard relegated to the bench, but at this point it's time to move forward with the lineup of the future. Trying to placate the remaining members of the previous coach's lineup with playing time hasn't worked; in fact, it blew up in Lowe's face last night as cold, unused players that had rightfully ridden the pine for most of the second half entered the game and promptly shot the team out of it.

There will be talk and debate about Lowe's lineups and substitution patterns for the rest of this season if Lowe continues to play two different lineups--old guard, new guard--in the same game. Screw that. Reward your young players that hustled last night, let them gain some ACC experience, and see where the chips fall.

(The one exception to the old guard/new guard theory you'll notice is Brandon Costner in the starting five. I think he's the most talented player on the team right now, and he plays well when he goes all out. His effort level at the beginning of the FSU game was the primary factor in State jumping out to a 12-4 lead. I think if you surround him with guys going all out, playing smarter basketball, his effort and level of play should rise to that of the guys on the floor with him.)

JMO.

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Sour grapes? Ehhh...maybe.

The NCAA Tournament field was set yesterday evening, and one of the first teams left on the outside looking in was Arizona State. Herb Sendek's Arizona State.

It may be sour grapes on my part, but frankly I'm glad they didn't get in.

Had they gotten a bid, it would've been just another feather in the cap of Carolina, Duke and college basketball fans in general who said we ran off a great coach in Sendek. I had this very debate with some coworkers yesterday while watching the selection show. I can only imagine what kind of nonsense I would've heard had Arizona State made it in.

I wish Herb no ill-will. He did a fantastic job rebuilding this program out of the depths it had fallen during the Les Robinson years. He brought in one of the best players in the program's history in Julius Hodge and he took us to five straight NCAA Tournaments. I hope he has all the success in the world out in Tempe.

But not right now.

Not while State tries to find itself as a basketball program. Because while we fight amongst ourselves--both the team and the fans--as to how to attack the problems of returning to where Herb left off as a tournament-caliber team and then exceeding that level of success, local fans of the blues and even members of the media will continue to snipe at us for being unreasonable, unrealistic and irrational.

One of my coworkers said something to the effect of, "Who could you bring in better than Herb? Who would want to have to compete with Duke and Carolina right up the road?" My response was, "Was Rick Pitino afraid to go to Louisville with Kentucky up the road?" I suppose I could've made a case for Bob Huggins going to Kansas St. with Kansas right in their backyard for one season before leaving for his alma mater at West Virginia, but the Lousiville comparison is very appropriate to our situation--a team with multiple national titles but whose recent success had faded (prior to Pitino's arrival).

I guess Carolina and Duke fans just don't GET it. I don't know if it's their own success that clouds their perspective, or our lack of any tangible success over the last 20 years, a combination of the two or none of the above. But they really, TRULY believe we had the best coach we could ever expect to have in Herb, and that the level of success we were experiencing with him (1 win over a non-Doherty-coached Carolina team in 10 years, 1 Sweet Sixteen appearance) was the best we should hope for.

Nevermind the fact that when one of their programs experienced a brief blip of ineptitude, they kicked his hindquarters to the curb just as fast as you please. And when you ask them about their lack of patience as a fanbase for ousting one of their own, they'll simply reply, "But, we're Carolina."

Pssh.

I still think Sidney can get us where we want to be as a program. It will take time, and these knuckleheads asking to fire Sidney after two freaking years are idiots for doing so. I can't see throwing any coach out until he's coached a full squad of his players--especially given the grumblings of separate factions within the team forming of Herb's players versus Sid's. If, after year four or five, the same lack of effort and execution are there or our young talent hasn't developed any from year one to year four, then we can re-examine the argument.

But for right now, I'm 100% behind Sidney to get it done, and I'm 110% sure we're better off in the long run without Herb here in Raleigh.

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State Vs. Miami: One Man's Opinion

State Vs. Miami

It's make or break time for State. One bullet left in the revolver, one last chance to do something positive to build on for next year.

Miami is a team State has beaten once already this season, so that alone is reason to believe we can pull a win off today. State's recent history in the tournament (8-5 over the last 5 years) also suggests that we could pull the upset.

The downside is that Miami is playing better than they were when State shocked them in January. Jack McClinton is playing out of his mind at the moment, commanding enough attention in the Pack's gameplan that Sidney pretty much plans to blanket him for the entire game. Could we see a box-and-one defense today?

As for State, they have got to get more production from both their starting lineup and their bench. Too many players have disappeared this season for me to feel comfortable about this team. Costner, of course, is the big piece of the puzzle missing this year, but role players like Dennis Horner have completely gone MIA this year, as well. Horner's perimeter scoring is especially missed; were we a more dangerous team from outside I feel fewer teams would sag down on our "bigs." And Courtney Fells is a here-one-game-gone-the-next type player. It goes without saying that today we need him in the former category, not the latter.

Short of an upset, I want to see State look like a "team" on the court. I want to see effort; I want to see hustle; I want to see good ball movement and a sense of purpose on the offensive end of the court. If McClinton gives us his best shot against reasonable defensive pressure (I'm realistic about our defensive capabilities) and we lose, so be it. Going down swinging is better than quitting.

If we play like we did against Carolina in the RBC Center, that will be unacceptable, and the players will have no one but themselves to blame.

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Missing: Brandon Costner

Brandon, if you're out there and can hear the sound of my, uh, blog(?), come home. We miss you.

Kinda of lost in all the warm fuzzies after the near win against Duke was the continued disappearance of Brandon Costner. Zero points on 0-3 shooting. Five boards and not much else.

It's been a hard fall from grace for Costner, who was cementing himself as one of the ACC's bright young stars by this time last year. He had one of the great ACC tournaments of any State player, and had the Pack won against Carolina he probably would've placed himself alongside Randolph Childress as two of the top ACC tournament performers of all time.

But this year has been a "Promise Unfulfilled" year of staggering proportions. Early on there were hints of chemistry issues with he (and McCauley) and the new guard being brought in by Sidney Lowe, particularly with the amount of minutes and attention J.J. Hickson was getting.

I can't speculate as to how valid any of those reports are or were, but they definitely seemed validated by Costner's play throughout the year. He rarely has seemed "involved" in the flow of the game while on the court, and his sieve-like defense has been particularly painful to witness. In the home game against Carolina, Brandon all but pulled up a chair to watch Tyler Hansbrough rotate to his side for an easy dunk.

Coach Lowe has tried desperately to get through to him in a manner of ways; letting him try to play through it, later benching him to try to send a message, then blending him in with other player combinations. Sid has figuratively thrown everything and the kitchen sink to get through to him, and to this point it's not worked.

But with the ACC tournament on the horizon, perhaps the opportunity to shine in Charlotte will awaken the Brandon Costner we remember from last season. If he does find his game there, Lordy Moses, imagine what this team could do! We haven't had a consistent long-range threat all year, and his size and athletic skill presents all sorts of matchup problems on the perimeter.

If he starts hitting a string of threes to open Thursday's game and can continue to shoot well from there on out, just about every other piece of the offensive puzzle for State could fall into place: Hickson will have more space inside to operate and face fewer double teams from Costner's man sagging inside. J.J. would also have more space to pass from the interior, allowing him better opportunities to find other open shooters. Teams would be less-apt to play zone against us.

The key question to ask Brandon is: "Are you will to give it everything on the defensive end?" To this point he seems stubbornly content to only play on one half of the court, and we're not a good enough offensive team to overcome 5-on-4 basketball on the other end. If he gives enough defensively to simply not be a liability (forget lockdown defender), and shoots as well as we know he can, this team could do some great things.

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'83: Should we just move on already?

As I was riding into work today I was listening to 850 The Buzz, as I'm apt to do, and the topic of conversation centered around the '83 Championship.

This year, of course, is the 25th Anniversary of said title. Tonight, WRAL plans to run a special at 7:30 on the title run and all the magical moments that surrounded it.

It was a special time for my university, and it's one we--as State fans--always will treasure. But I think I have to agree with the hosts, Adam Gold and Joe Ovies: It's time to move on.

We've been living in the past for too long. When I started at State, '83 was just over a decade away. Now it's a quarter-century. I was at Technician when we put together a 15th Anniversary piece, and I remember thinking then that 15 years was a long damn time away. Now it's a decade longer.

We need to focus on the here-and-now, because that's all we have to show to potential recruits. We can point to some trophies in a glass case--so can San Francisco and Oklahoma State. But kids today know nothing of our past success, unless they just so happened to grow up State fans with parents who shared it with them as a child.

Cold reality: In a year or so, a college freshman will have been born in the 90's. Given that our last real solid team--with Corchiani and Monroe--was the 1990-1991 squad, the entirety of these kids' lives will have been lived AFTER our last great team. Even scarier: The kids born during the year of our last ACC title, 1987, are beginning to graduate college this year.

It sucks, because it means I'm old.

It also sucks because it means there's no legitimate reason a top-flight recruit should know of State ever having been a great program. No more so than they should think the same way of Houston. We haven't posted any measure of real, tangible success (read:titles) in their lifetimes.

All we have are old trophies and great memories, but those can't recruit for us anymore. We have to sell what we have, not what we had.

Unfortunately, we're competing against programs in the area that have tremendous built-in recruiting advantages. Duke and Carolina don't have to recruit at all, really--they choose. I could sign three McDonald's All-Americas with my eyes closed at one of those two programs. The hype for the Duke-Carolina games seems to get bigger each year, and has turned into its own self-hyping phenomenon. Are we surprised that the two top programs in the league by a good margin are Duke and Carolina, and have been for a decade?

All that success builds the recruiting pool for these two schools across the country. Hell, one of the top point guard prospects in the country, John Wall, is right in Carolina's backyard in Cary, and despite his own admission that he grew up a Carolina fan, he wasn't offered because they ALREADY have too many top-flight PGs on their roster! When you have the luxury of not offering the best talent in the country because there's no room on your squad, a trained monkey could coach your team to 20-win seasons year-in and year-out. (Which makes you wonder about Matt Doherty...)

All of this is to say: we've got a tough fight ahead of us, and it's not made any easier by where we're located. But, we've got to shed this anchor of the '83 championship, because all it's doing is weighing us down at the moment. The more we scream about past titles and miracles and magic, the more desperate we appear to the outside world--including recruits.

Sure, show them the trophy case. Make your point about returning to that level of greatness. But if Sidney's wise--and we're wise as a fanbase--the '83 and '74 championships will be near the end of the recruiting tour, not near the beginning.

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From the PackPride.com vault: The early years...

I have had the rare privilege over the last few years of being a contributor to one of the largest--if not most-visited--N.C. State sports sites, www.packpride.com. James Henderson and the folks at Scout, who run and host the site, have been kind enough to let me pitch in my two cents on Wolfpack sports over the years.

What follows is a collection of articles I've written throughout the years. Hard to believe the first one I wrote way-back-when in 2002. Remember that time? Yeah, that's when we were lighting the world on fire in football. Seems hard to believe it's been five and a half years since.

*sigh*

Anyways, enjoy some classics from the year of our Lord, 2002:


The Nature of the Rivalry (10/5/2002)

For most of us, it was not a choice we remember making. We were born into it. Raised up in it. Given no other choice but to devote ourselves to it. It’s the Rivalry: State vs. Carolina.

The ACC anything but predictable (10/22/2002)

The conventional notions of who belongs where in the ACC have been thrown out the window.

The Pack--This Year’s Maryland? Hardly. (10/29/2002)

The successes of Maryland in 2001 and N.C. State in 2002 are strikingly similar. 2003 is where the similarities will end.

Were we ever so young?

More to follow...

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The call.

Man, I hate crap like this.

Not because it's a call that went against us. It's just a bad call to make in that scenario, because when you make it, you open the door for conspiracy theorists who clog up the normal flow of a basketball discussion.

Was there contact between Ben and Demarcus? Of course. But was it enough to justify a call in that situation, with State clinging to a one-point lead and Duke in the midst of a comeback? In my opinion, no.

The conspiracy theorists are also bolstered by the fact that Nelson hooks Ben on the way to the basket. The whistle toots at that moment in the play, not when Ben makes the most contact with Nelson.

It feels kind of like the traveling call against Corchiani in '89 against Georgetown in the NCAA tournament...a whistle blown by an official who felt because of the bang-bang nature of the play that something must be called, but unsure of what, exactly. And he has about .5 seconds to make a decision. And just like the Georgetown game, the team coming in with the higher prestige gets the benefit of the doubt.

I hate conspiracy theorists in college sports. I don't believe that there is any real call from on top to boost Duke or Carolina through uneven officiating. But gosh, doesn't it just seem like they get all the breaks like this?

View the complete entry of "The call."

So close...

...yet so far away.

(apologies for the Hall 'N Oates reference)







DUKE 87
NC State 86

Man, there's nothing that hurts more than losing a home game to Duke by one point. Especially when you've led most of the game and--after shooting ridiculously well from the free throw line the first 3/4 of the game--you suddenly go cold from the free throw line trying to seal the deal.

Three-for-six down the stretch when Duke was charging like a roided-up bull just didn't get it done. You have to play nearly perfect in all phases of the game to pull off that kind of upset. We did it in 1998 against Carolina in the Dean Dome; we didn't do it today.

Two of those three crucial misses were on Javier Gonzalez, but it's tough to get too down on the guy after his gutty performance today. Ben McCauley's 19 points bested his 18 by one, but he had three assists to only one turnover against a Duke defense known for its tenacious D. He repeatedly brought the ball up the court against tough pressure and didn't fold. Kudos to you, young man...here's hoping you use this game to propel you into a productive offseason.

Tracy Smith and Trevor "Turd" Ferguson had good games again. Smith made the most of his 22 minutes in a starting role, scoring 14 on 4-5 shooting and a perfect 6-6 from the line. Turd chipped in with another nine, giving him 37 over the last three games. These two could be the cornerstone, along with Gonzalez, of the rebuilding project Sidney faces next season if Hickson leaves for the pros.

Speaking of Hickson, he pitched in eight in 18 minutes, along with five rebounds. He just hasn't taken over games over the back half of this season like I thought he would. I'm not sure if it's freshman fatigue or just an increased level of competition, but his resume for an early exit at this point looks pretty sparse. I think he needs to return for another year to get stronger physically and more mature mentally. He still breaks down defensively too much in trying to crush an opponent on his way to the basket. Once he learns how to play a tough defensive game within the overall defensive scheme, the blocks and highlight-reel defensive plays will come to him.

I was encouraged to see State play some matchup zone tonight. It kept Duke from beating our players off the dribble repeatedly, preventing the drive-n-kick threes that break a team's will. And offensively, the team played well enough throughout most of the game to get even ol' coach K to play a little zone to slow down our attack.

But at the end of the day, an "L" is an "L." As good as I felt about certain parts of this game, the inability to close it out, when up as much as 13 in the second half and up eight with under 4:00 to go, makes this a tough loss to swallow. It's indicative of how young and inexperienced our guards are. While Duke was surging late in the game, we turtled up and turned off the killer instinct that earned us the lead for most of the game. It's been shown time and time again--when you play not to lose, you almost invariably do. And the two misses by Gonzalez late in the game were probably a function of some freshmen nerves, as well.

Give Duke a ton of credit. They made every big shot and free throw they needed down the stretch to win it. They are an embodiment of their tough-as-nails coach. Beating them is no small feat.

The question for this team now is, "What do you take from this game?" Will they respond to the almost-coulda-shoulda that came as a result of their much higher effort level? Or, will their spirit--already fragile at this point--crumble in their final games of the season?

We shall see...

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