12 win season

1/3/2010 8:31:03 PM

a not shitty version, when it's done:

1/3/2010 8:33:31 PM

I just hope we do better against Duke in a few weeks than Clemson is doing

1/3/2010 8:35:03 PM

LOL

awesome shot

1/3/2010 9:13:50 PM

I HATE NC STATE SHIT

1/3/2010 9:14:32 PM

^^ come back when your school wins a national championship in a revenue sport

1/3/2010 10:16:41 PM

Does EZU even have a revenue sport?

1/3/2010 10:37:03 PM

I hope next years freshmen can shoot free throws. The biggest mistake made at the end was not having Mays in the game. He shoots better than Degand does at the line.

1/3/2010 10:43:36 PM

I still want to punch something because of that game.

1/3/2010 10:46:43 PM

^^Don't know about Brown, but Harrow is an excellent FT shooter from what I've seen/read.

1/3/2010 10:49:15 PM

^Good! Put him, Wood, and Mays on the court in this situation next year and we will win.

1/3/2010 10:51:57 PM

fuck that. mays wouldn't have shot free throws because he would've gotten the ball taken from him and we lose by 1 on a layup

1/3/2010 10:55:16 PM

i'm not a math major, so somebody's gotta help me out

Javi had 1 assist and 6 turnovers

what was his A:T ratio?

1/3/2010 10:56:53 PM

6:1

1/3/2010 11:00:01 PM

Every State game I just sit there thinking to myself, "How will we screw this one up?" It is a sad state of affairs. Javi didn't do much all game till the end, just when it looked like he was starting to play decent.

1/3/2010 11:02:00 PM

wow... that sucks

1/3/2010 11:42:57 PM

i don't think i've ever dreamed about sports but i dreamed we lost by 11

even my subconscious is down on nc state

all i could do is laugh when that dude hit the 3 - it barely phased me

the duke football loss on the other hand...

1/4/2010 12:13:02 AM

It's losses like these that make me want to just become like the others who focus on school and don't care about NCSU athletics.

1/4/2010 12:24:08 AM

jk

rumor was the timing was off somehow

but i just looked at it but it seems fine.

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 2:51 AM. Reason : g]

1/4/2010 2:47:39 AM

Did Degand purposely miss that 2nd free throw?

Myself and a few others questioned this and if he did he needs to be cut immediately.

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 2:57 AM. Reason : I mean WTF is that strategy, if you make it, we CANNOT lose]

1/4/2010 2:49:42 AM

^my initial reaction was yes to that question and subsequent statement.

just fucking try to make it, it will either go in or miss with an odder bounce, FUCK.

1/4/2010 2:52:18 AM

Quote :

"I mean WTF is that strategy, if you make it, we CANNOT lose"

sure we can. foul on a 3 pointer. vanderbilt FTL


---


and everytime i watch that shot go up and in, a little part of me dies. emotion: oh shit!....... figures.

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 3:21 AM. Reason : .]

1/4/2010 3:19:46 AM

Ok so after finally calming down I've come up with some post game thoughts.

I do not completely fault Lowe's fouling strategy at the end of the game for the loss, although doing it a 2nd time was playing with fire. I do fault his decision on who to have in the game at certain points. I know Horner looked like a gamer by coming back out after injury and gutting out the game, but he couldn't hit a single thing all day and hasn't been able to for a while. There was no need to have him out there. Also I don't see why we don't post Howell and Smith up and do some high/low post play, same goes for Vandenberg, he can alter shots and pull down rebounds and right now that is a lot more than what Horner is bringing.

Mays is a TERRIBLE PG and should only see the floor for about 10 minutes a game to give some people a rest. However he should've been in at the end of the game because he can hit his FT's. Farnold is not a good shooter at all, but I do think that right now he is easily our 2nd best option at PG. Mays should've been in at the end because all he would've had to do was catch the ball on an inbounds. I would've had Tracy throw it in with options of Javi, Wood, Mays and Howell/Horner.

This is a young team and as terrible soul crushing that game was today we are 10 times ahead of where I thought we'd be this year. Are we good? No. But we're competitive and I just hope Sid is learning about who he has to have in games in situations. Scott Wood is looking pretty good right now and I'd love to see us run some set plays to get him open looks. We have played a few good teams with much more experience and talent and held our own and are simply one talented guard away from a very good record (Lorenzo Brown would've helped a lot). This hurts and is a game that we should've won and with better end game awareness (same with the 'Zona game) we could've pulled out a W. I know a lot of this goes on Sid, but let's be honest if you're a player on the floor you know which one of your team mates you want shooting to win the game for you - don't get it to Farnold.

1/4/2010 3:23:16 AM

The only thing that would have made this better is if Degand had seen an open Horner at the FT line..

and passed him the ball..

and Horner goes up for a monster dunk..

and bricks it, sending the ball flying back towards midcourt..

when a Florida player grabs it and heaves an alley-oop..

to Dan Werner for the game-winning dunk.

1/4/2010 3:32:13 AM

Quote :

"Also I don't see why we don't post Howell and Smith up and do some high/low post play, same goes for Vandenberg, he can alter shots and pull down rebounds and right now that is a lot more than what Horner is bringing."

Because howell and vandy are freshmen who don't have the skills to play high-low. They don't even have a single go-to post move. Hell, I'm not even sure smith can score going left. Nevertheless, smith, javi, and wood are the scorers. Howell and vandy need to be scoring off of putbacks and hustle. This is how it has been for freshman bigs since time immemorial. Can't really rush it if they don't have amazing physical tools.


everything else is more or less correct.

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 3:52 AM. Reason : .]

1/4/2010 3:46:05 AM

I'm not sure that Howell has the polished low post moves to really be able to completely compliment Smith down low, but I just figured that he'd at least be able to post up on a block to help with our inside/out game and move to the FT line for a jumper or a dump down to Tracy. Especially with Mays in, there is no way in hell Mays is getting close enough to the lane to give Tracy a pass. Vandenberg has virutally no offensive game right now, but I'd much rather have his length, shot blocking and rebounding in the game than someone like Horner who is only useful if he can hit his open shots. Same goes for CJ Williams right now. They have to be some kind of outside threat, or at least a complimentary scorer and right now they're doing absolutely nothing.

I would love to have a starting lineup of Javi, Mays, Wood, Tracy and Vandenberg. Vandenberg also goes a long way to help out Tracy in the post on defense because it is no secret that Tracy's defense is lacking and then Tracy handles the post offense and Vandenberg can clean up any misses he gets to. I'd also like to see Mays start over CJ because the only thing Mays has proven in his time at State is that he can hit open jump shots. Put him in a situation where Javi handles the PG duties, Degand backs Javi up and Mays moves around without the ball and hopes to get himself an open shot. I like Howell's potential, but until he develops a good low post game (with that body of his I'm assuming they'll be working on that a lot) and defensive prowess then I don't think we'll see him getting anything, but solid bench minutes.

1/4/2010 4:10:16 AM

Awesome, we were one of the first clips on Sportscenter this morning...

1/4/2010 6:02:41 AM

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 6:15 AM. Reason : ...]

1/4/2010 6:14:24 AM

Howell is awful, just awful. Its almost a cruel joke when he is out there; like they just found some 6'8 ogre and but him on the court. I mean stop shooting 3's.

1/4/2010 6:50:55 AM

Howell didn't shoot well, but he was pulling down some monster rebounds, he eats a ton of space.

I think the fouling strategy was fine. If Degand and Javi had made their two free-throws then we could have played normal defense being up by 4 or 5.

1/4/2010 10:38:24 AM

I'm perplexed at many of the commentary on this page.

1) Horner is one of our top 3 players at this point in time, along with Smith and Javi. You can criticize leaving him out there injured, but the idea that Vandenberg is a better or more complete player at this point especially in crunch time is foolish. Vandenberg brings good energy, shot blocking and rebounding but is still a developing player.

2) At the end of the game we need people that can handle the ball first, and hit free throws second. Having our best foul shooters is a good concept, but does us no good if we turn the ball over first from either a 5 second violation, bad pass, not coming to meet the ball, or sloppy ball handling. Mays will have to stay on the bench until he becomes a more mature player and ball handler. We can consider having a poor free throw shooter like Smith or Degand inbound the ball.

3) Horner is our best complement to Smith offensively, as he can reliably pass the ball from the opposite post and give him space to work with his inside/outside game. Unfortunately this leaves us without much shotblocking presence and average post defense, but at least Smith and Horner have both improved at defending their man in the post. We will need to use some zone (and become more effective at stopping penetration than we were against Wake) against some bigger frontcourts.

1/4/2010 11:20:42 AM

Quote :

"I'm perplexed at many of the commentary on this page."

Yeah, lots of fools are perplexing on here. In fact, a lot of 'em sound like morons.

1/4/2010 11:25:45 AM

I seriously get tears in my eyes everytime i watch this...it's very heartbreaking.

1/4/2010 11:34:46 AM

I don't think that right now Vandenberg is better than Horner, and I don't think Howell is either (I think Howell is gonna need until next year to finally develop some real moves from the block), but Horner has not made very many shots at all in a long while. Early in the year he was playing well, but right now he simply isn't, and hasn't been since we hit the meat of our OCC schedule. When Wood was not shooting well Sid stuck with him because he probably needed time to adjust and played great defense, Horner can't really use either of these excuses. I think the one thing I fault Sid the most at yesterday is leaving Horner in hurt, when Howell was at the very least pulling down some strong defensive rebounds. And if Degand really did miss that last FT on purpose then he is back down to the level of Mays on the dumb ass decision making scale.

1/4/2010 12:00:35 PM

Also add that statistically Horner is one of our best free throw shooters. The only complaint I had was having wood inbound the ball he is a decent ball handler and a good shooter so I would have rather seen Smith inbounding.

1/4/2010 12:03:06 PM

I didn't have a problem with Horner out there at the very end, just at other points in OT. I would've had Smith inbound as well, but I think aside from working FT's Sid has to start to shorten his bench. Williams/Mays/Howell/Painter don't need the minutes they're getting right now and the only way I'd play any of them is if Mays takes CJ's spot and actually will be aggressive and start shooting open 3's - something CJ hasn't done this year. And Howell needs to develop a low post game before he can be left in for a chunk of time.

1/4/2010 12:18:31 PM

Quote :

"The only complaint I had was having wood inbound the ball"

1/4/2010 1:20:17 PM

^ lol do you remember last year when Costner was good for 2 TOs a game just from throwing the ball in? Wood has messed up maybe 2 times all year. I can't criticize that, Lowe just needs more than 1 good FT shooter on our team. It's ridiculous that Javi is in the 60s as a PG. Or that 90% of Horner's misses have come with >2 minutes left in the game or in OT. Completely unacceptable

Quote :

"1) Horner is one of our top 3 players at this point in time, along with Smith and Javi."

This is difficult, because Horner is a shell of himself anytime we play a team with equal or better talent but I honestly can't think of anyone who can challenge him for that spot right now. We would have lost the Elon game without him, so there is that. I expect by the end of the year Wood will have passed him.

As for Howell, he needs to play more. Potentially he could be our best rebounder and he has decent skills as long as he isn't stupid about it. I'd like to see 20-25 minutes in the Holy Cross game as long as we have a good lead. Bench him any time he takes a three with more than 5 seconds left on the shot clock

1/4/2010 3:30:18 PM

Howell needs to play More????

1/4/2010 3:34:11 PM

Howell does need to play more. He is the most talented freshman with the possible exception of Wood, and will begin next season as a starter. Sometimes he forgets he isn't Wood though.

1/4/2010 3:46:44 PM

in games where he plays more than 12 minutes, Howell is averaging 10 and 4.5


i had no idea.

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 3:54 PM. Reason : play his ass, Sid]

1/4/2010 3:53:33 PM

howell is not good right now, and you could argue that the stretch he had at the end of the first half was a big reason we lost this game

but he has the ability to be the 3rd big guy we need in the ACC, especially if Horner continues to not show up against teams that have talent that can guard him

your other options are painter or vandenberg. choose wisely


[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 3:57 PM. Reason : ^ yea, though that's what? 2 games?]

1/4/2010 3:55:28 PM

The only saving grace is that we were the better team. We did everything right and they hit a lucky shot.

Shit, plenty of poker players hit a 1 card 1% out once in their lives, doesn't mean they made the right plays to get in that position.

Not that we should have ever let them have the chance, but we were the better team.

1/4/2010 3:58:23 PM

i've calmed a bit since my friend told me this:

Quote :

"Just so I don't run my head through my apartment window I'll just tell me self it's karma for the sham win against Nova a few years back."

1/4/2010 3:58:32 PM

Howell owns the defensive glass + we struggle to rebound the ball = Howell should play more.

(even though he's good for at least two WTF turnovers a game and an ill-advised 3pt shot)

1/4/2010 4:01:42 PM

He is better than Horner

1/4/2010 4:08:04 PM

lol, not yet he isn't

1/4/2010 4:08:55 PM

Quote :

"He is better has more potential than Horner"

Fixed it for you.

1/4/2010 4:15:44 PM

since this year is just about a total loss, why not plan for next year and just have an all freshman starting five

1/4/2010 4:17:02 PM

I still want to kill something after watching that game

1/4/2010 6:10:50 PM