Fairfield (5-3)
	vs
	NC State (8-2)
	Sunday, December 18th, 2:00pm TV: ACC Network Extra

12/17/2016 10:27:48 PM

First!

Yurtseven triple double incoming

12/17/2016 11:17:40 PM

Nice, a legit game thread

12/18/2016 12:03:59 AM

Meats back on the menu boys, get that optimism oven piping hawtttttttttttttttt

12/18/2016 12:10:50 AM

Here is to seeing continued defensive improvement, dennis smith continuing to shoot threes better, and a solid performance from Yurtseven.

12/18/2016 8:16:14 AM

So is ACC Network extra espn3?

12/18/2016 9:20:24 AM

^yes

12/18/2016 9:35:03 AM

Quick glance at their wiki informs me their last NCAA tournament appearance was 1997....where as a 16 seed they lead 1 seed UNC by seven at the half, lol.

You were almost legends

12/18/2016 10:24:55 AM

Are we any good? Haven't watched since the Illini loss and face declaring our team sucked donkey balls

[Edited on December 18, 2016 at 11:42 AM. Reason : ]

12/18/2016 11:41:44 AM

Maybe. The good news is Illinois hasn't lost a game since. So I guess they aren't really that bad. Considering we were without Rowan and Yurt and it was our first road game. Oh sure it's a spin, especially considering our struggles after that against Boston and Tennessee state. But regardless, it means blind optimism can still be alive and well

12/18/2016 12:24:54 PM

^basically, yes.

we can tell ourselves we're still good until proven otherwise now that we're at full strength.

12/18/2016 1:10:32 PM

We were underdogs vs Illinois

12/18/2016 1:43:01 PM

lol at ernie myers saying "we" and then correcting himself to "they"

12/18/2016 2:15:43 PM

^"our huge lineup"

12/18/2016 2:29:59 PM

Granted, it's easy when you're the tallest person in the building, but I like what I've seen from Yurt. He's got a jump shot but he also knows he's a center and works to get post position on every offensive possession. He also recognizes double teams and willingly passes out of them. Basically, he understands how basketball works, unlike most of the talented big me we've had over the years.

12/18/2016 2:33:29 PM

did yall hear? fairfield has been off for 12 days

12/18/2016 2:44:59 PM

ugh man DSJ and Abu are trying to make it a 3-way race w/ rowan for worst defenders on team

if you see an open 3 you usually see one of those 2 w/ a lazy/late close out

12/18/2016 3:15:29 PM

the problem is DSJ keeps going under the screen. 29 of Fairfield's 39 field goal attempts have been 3's. You know what they're wanting to do. They dribble right behind the screener, wait for us to go under and shoot up an uncontested shot. I've noticed Dorn and Hendo going over the screen....Dennis keeps going under though. Fucking stupid.

12/18/2016 3:17:17 PM

Abu with 4 turnovers so far

12/18/2016 3:46:07 PM

Ho hum another EZ win blowout by our pack

12/18/2016 4:03:53 PM

Man we are good as heck

12/18/2016 4:44:47 PM

was this game just too much of a beat down for some analysis and discussion?

12/18/2016 5:53:52 PM

probably.

12/18/2016 7:06:08 PM

Just got back from the game.

Henderson is v. good. Dorn had an off game. Yurtseven makes the team much better, even if he hadn't rounded into shape quite yet. Rowan is much better in short bursts than playing 30+ minutes, but he's still the awful at defense. Fairfield had a midget make a 3. Baby Corch might be the worst walk on I've ever seen play.

12/18/2016 8:25:52 PM

Quote :

"Baby Corch might be the worst walk on I've ever seen play"

yeah he's bad

12/18/2016 8:27:13 PM

At one point it was a 6 pt game in the 2nd half. We are not a good team. We have talent and potential, but we still play lazy defense and make a lot of stupid turnovers.

12/18/2016 8:37:41 PM

So a really good team gets lazy and loses focus before re-focusing and routing their opponent...sounds like a lot of top 25 teams that play against crappy teams.

12/18/2016 8:49:35 PM

ehh we won by 20+, i'm not sweating fairfield cutting it to 6. we dominated the majority of the game. not sure you can take much else from this game tbh

now, i'm not saying we're a great team by any stretch. just that there's no reason for this game in particular to have you worried.

saw this on backingthepack:

Quote :

"over the past three games we’ve held our opponents to a combined 35.6% from the field and 21.2 from 3."

[Edited on December 18, 2016 at 9:02 PM. Reason : n]

12/18/2016 8:56:44 PM

Quote :

"At one point it was a 6 pt game in the 2nd half. We are not a good team."

lol are you sure there isn't a more negative number for your pessimistic ass to focus on?

i ain't saying we're great, but that's a pretty silly takeaway for the game.

12/19/2016 12:19:43 AM

We've been tied at least once in every game, therefore we suck

12/19/2016 7:27:50 AM

Small sample size, but Yurt really does change everything for this team. Double him, and he'll find the open guy. Don't cover him, and he'll stick the jumper or bunny hook. He's much better at d than I gave him credit for too.

We've seen some of the best interior passing in Gott's tenure over the past few games. It starts with Yurt, but his passing seems to make everyone else better passers too. That big-to-big alley oop to Kapita was beautiful

Like Justin said, Rowan can be really effective in short spurts. Everybody knows he's good at shooting and bad at defense, but I forgot how smart of a player he can be. Always seems to make the right pass/play.

Smith has to cut down on the dumb turnovers, but other than that, it's hard not to be excited after this game. We've got two more warm-up games before the real ones start.

12/19/2016 11:49:17 AM

is there a video of the game up yet? I missed this one.

12/19/2016 12:43:17 PM

i want to see this kapita lob dunk

12/19/2016 1:02:08 PM

Quote :

"Small sample size, but Yurt really does change everything for this team. Double him, and he'll find the open guy. Don't cover him, and he'll stick the jumper or bunny hook. He's much better at d than I gave him credit for too."

I missed the game but I was ready to crown Yurt as the GOAT big we have had at State in decades after his game against App. He does so many of the little things that may not appear on the stats, but has a positive impact on the team. None of the bigs we have play like bigs other than Yurt. Abu has a nice jumper, but we have plenty of good shooters. Anya is too one-dimensional and doesn't know how to pass or dribble. Yurt has all of the intangibles and is a smart player. Combined that with all the good players we have and the future is looking much brighter.

12/19/2016 1:23:43 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn5rfNtSdPw

12/19/2016 1:45:05 PM

^^The thing about Yurt is that he's nowhere NEAR as good as he could potentially be. You can tell he's still thinking too much out there at times and still has some adjusting too do. And he obviously might struggle with some of the bulkier guys in the ACC.

But the skill level and overall feel for the game is off the charts, and it carries over to everyone else. There was a possession in the second half that ended with a Yurt layup following a drive and dish from Mav -- but the entire possession featured fantastic ball movement ... best I've seen in the Gott era.

Great post moves. Great passing in and out of the post. Great p'n'r potential with Smith. If he can shoot decently from 3 this year and not be awful on defense, then holy shit we could be good.

12/19/2016 2:03:01 PM

Link to Game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Yu6Qx0nCw

12/19/2016 3:07:41 PM

thanks^

12/19/2016 3:39:18 PM