NC State UNC Tickets For Sale

Tickets to both North Carolina and Boston College were just release by GoPack.com.  The tickets will be sold together in combo packs at $50 for the two games.  The tickets are in the upper decks of the RBC Center.

The ticket can be purchased by going to gopack.com and clicking on Tickets or by calling the NC State Ticket Office at (919) 865-1510.

Saturday’s game against the Tar Heels tips off at 3:30 p.m. and will be nationally televised on ABC. The game against the Eagles is slated for Wednesday, March 4, at 7 p.m. and will be shown on ESPNU.

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NC State takes down Miami in OT

NC State takes down Miami in OT with a last second 3 pointer by Julius Mays at home in the RBC Center. The final score was 70-70 in regulation, both Degand and Costner fouled out in OT, but Fells/Mays stepped up big making the final score was 84-81. Fells had a huge game scoring 6 of 9 from behind the arc and finishing with 24 total points.

What went right?

• Free throws, finally a game where we shot great from the free throw line at 86%.

• Costner/McCauley played great and picked up 9 rebounds and 33 points combined.

• We are getting hot from beyond the arc, shooting 13-24 from behind the arc for 54% in the Miami game.

What went wrong?

• Rebounds, Miami out-rebounded us 46-25 and BC out-rebounded us 41-26.

• Inconsistent scoring drives and droughts, the Wolfpack fell behind 19 points against BC, only to bring it back to within 3 in the second half.  The Wolfpack then did the opposite and blew a 19 point lead against Miami to go down with 2 minutes left in the game.

Whats next?

The NC State Wolfpack will take on its number one rival in the North Carolina Tarheels on Saturday in the RBC Center. Check the ticket section of the The Wolfpack Journal for possible tickets to the game. For the Wolfpack to stay competitive in the Carolina game, Fells needs to stay hot, rebounding needs to pick up and turnovers need to stay low. I think Sid will go big, the starting line up should look something like this Costner, McCauley, Degand, Fells, Smith.

NC State Coach Kay Yow Passes Away

 

North Carolina State’s Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame womens basketball coach who won more than 700 games, passed away on Saturday morning.  Kay was 66 years old and has been battling cancer since 1987.  NC State hired Yow in 1975 to coach the women’s basketball team.

Kay coached the 1988  gold medal winnning women’s olympic basketball team.  Thoughtout her NCAA basketball career she won four Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships, earned 20 NCAA tournament bids and reached the Final Four in 1998.

Kay was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2002.  NC State University dedicated Reynolds basketball court to Kay and named it the “Kay Yow Court”  in 2007.  Yow will always be recognized as one of the most admired and respected coaches that ever competed on the national and international scene.  The Wolfpack Journal sends it thoughts and prayers to Coach Yow, her family and friends.

“If you start to dwell on the wrong things, it’ll take you down fast,” Yow said in ’07. “Every morning, I wake up and the first thing I think of is I’m thankful. I’m thankful for another day.”

No. 2 Duke escapes the Wolfpack

NC State falls to the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils in the final 8 minutes, 73-56.  The game could not have been a closer replica to last years match up between NC State and Duke at Cameron Indoor.  Just as last year NC State came out swinging, with great defensive play and good shooting decisions, while the Blue Devils struggled offensively.  Second half blues hit the Wolfpack again, as Duke shot 77% from the field and put up 51 points.  The loss marked NC States 12 straight at Cameron Indoor.

What went wrong?
Point Guard play, once again we struggled with who was going to lead the team to the basket;  Javi,  Degand, and Mays combined for 9 turnovers.
3-pointers, the Wolfpack went 3-14 from behind the arc, Herb would not have been very happy.
Ferg, fell back into a rut.  Only put up two 3’s and missed them both, yet played 23 minutes.

What went right?
Costner and McCauley both played great in the Duke game, each scored 15  points and played well defensively.
Defensively in the first half we played great and held Duke to less than 30% shooting and 22 points;  Not much we could have done when Duke shot lights out in the second half.
Tracy Smith and Johnny Thomas, both came off the bench to play good games, Smith had 8 points and Thomas had a great defensive game.

What’s next?
NC State will take on the Boston College Eagles in Chestnut Hill on Saturday at 2pm.  The Eagles are currently 2-3 in the ACC, and had a huge win of UNC about two weeks ago.  Boston College’s Tyrese Rice is the man to look out for, scoring 24 points in the second half against Georgia Tech last Saturday and averaging 18 points a game.  NC State will need solid defensive play to not let him get into rhythm and solid play out of both Costner and McCauley to be able to pull this one out.  Likely starters are Costner, McCauley, Degand, Fells and CJ.

NC State Wolfpack defeat GA Tech in OT

The NC State Wolfpack defeated the Georgia Tech YellowJackets in OT on Saturday at the RBC Center 76-71. The win stopped a 11 game losing streak in ACC play and a 3 game losing streak this season. The Wolfpack still had problems in there backcourt, but got enough hard play out of its front court to pull out the win.

What is going right?
Costner and McCauley both played great against Georgia Tech, it was nice to see them both in double figures.
Ferg, finally came off of the bench and hit 3’s. Something we have been waiting for since the first preseason game.

What is going wrong?
Nothing decided yet on the point guard position. Looks like Degand will start against Duke, due to Mays scoreless and 6 turnover performance against GA Tech.
Fells has hit only 3-15 from behind the arc in the past 4 games.
We are beating ourselves with turnovers, averaging 14 a game this season.

Whats Next?
The NC State Wolfpack will take on the Duke Blue Devils in Cameron indoor on Tuesday night at 8pm. Duke has been forcing its opponents to 17 turnovers a game, this should really hurt the Wolfpack, who have been struggling to keep control of the ball. Javi will likely not play, sore ankle and lack of good play this season. Look for a starting line up of Degand, Fells, Ferg, McCauley and Costner to hit the court, we will need all the experience we have to battle the cameron crazies.

NC State — GA Tech Preview

The NC State Wolfpack are set to take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the RBC Center on January 17th at 12PM.  Both teams are in a must win situation and are posting 0-2 records in ACC play. NC State will need to hold forward Gani Lawal of GA Tech from putting up too many boards, along with protecting themselves from costly turnovers. Check out some of the game day stats below, courtesy of StatSheet.com.

Game Day Stats-
The current spread falls in GA Tech direction at 1 point.
Since 1980, NCSU and GA Tech have met 59 times, with NCSU leading the series with 33 wins.
GA Tech has won the past three meetings.

NC State FSU/Clemson Recap

NC State FSU/Clemson Recap

NC State lost another close one in the final few minutes last night against Florida State University (78-65).  This marked the Wolfpack’s second loss to ACC competition this season.  The first coming at the hands of Clemson last Saturday in a 63-51 loss.

What are we doing wrong?
We will start with the obvious, the point guard position is in total shambles.   Between Javi, Degand and Mays it just seems that none of them are consistent between games.  Each game Sid throws them in one by one, to see who is going to play good that night, in the meantime they commit 10+ turnovers.  My assessment here, bench Javi for the season, start Degand with Mays as his backup.  Which leads to the next problem, turnovers; the Wolfpack need to stop the predictable passes,  predictable routes and the full court press pressure.   All which led to countless turnovers throughout the past three contests.  Finally someone needs to tell McCauley and Costner that the ACC season has started, step it up and play some NC State basketball.

What are we doing right?
Defense, for the most part our defense has held up pretty solid during the first 35 minutes of each of the games. Off the bench scoring has been great, it was really nice to see Williams, T-bone(Johnny Thomas) and Mays put up 26 points combined against FSU. Other then that, we need to work on a lot.
 
What happens next?
NC State plays another home game on Saturday in which it hosts the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a 12PM tip off. Georgia Tech is also 0-2 in ACC play and looking for its first victory. Georgia Tech has been struggling from behind the three point line averaging around 30 percent, but has one of the top scorers and rebounders in forward Gani Lawal.

Final Thoughts…
NC State is currently in a 11 game slide in ACC competition(seriously). It’s time to turn that around and not lose at home in the RBC Center to teams like FSU.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr, fl2nc03

NC State Basketball Outlook Pre ACC

The State of NC State Basketball — 01/06/09
Well, what can we say. 12 games into the season, 3 of them coming as losses with less than 10 points combined. In other words, any of those games could have gone either way. What did we learn out of those 3 losses? NC State needs solid point guard play to take advantage of its veteran front court players. Think about it, NC State has 4 players shooting over 50 percent with Ben McCauley at 57.5%.  As the Wolfpack gain more experience in the guard position, they should be more efficient on offense and commit less turnovers.

Florida Results
The loss to Florida last Saturday was devastating, NC State led by as much as 11 points in the second half and pretty much let one man, Nick Calathes, beat them.   They fell apart in the second half with costly turnovers and some inexperienced play by point guards Farnold Degan and Julius Mays.

Clemson Outlook
Clemson is one of the hottest teams in the league right now, with an outstanding 14-0 record.  They are the top spot in the ACC and number 12 in the country. With all of that said, the Wolfpack should be one of best teams they have played so far and there first real competition.  The two teams will be well matched up in the front court, but look to the backcourt once again to control the games conclusion.  That game will be at Clemson this Saturday January 10th at 12pm.

Roster Outlook

Dennis Horner is getting more playing time with Trevor out, he is averaging 7 points, 4 rebounds over the past 3 games. Good to see Horner finally stepping up and gaining more confidence in his junior year.

Tracy Smith had a huge game against Towson, but a pretty silent one against Florida. Regardless, the T. Smith/McCauley rotation should continue to tear through its competition.

Brandon Coster is having a great season averaging 14.8 points a game and looking way better than last year. If Costner continues to keep his head up, we should be in good shape.

 
Photo Courtesy of Flickr, outlandk