Wolfpack take down Wake Forest

The NC State Wolfpack beat No 7 Wake Forest tonight in the RBC center 82-76.  The Wolfpack merely gave up a 20 point lead and somehow pulled out a victory.  The Wolfpack were up by about 20 with 10 minutes in the game, a familiar feeling, just about the time the Deacons began to charge back.  With a little over a minute left on the clock and state only up by 2, McCauley gets fouled and hits one of his shots.  Wake comes back down the court and answers with nothing, Javi grabs a rebound and gets fouled.  He hits both of his, followed by another Wake missed 3-pointer and then a foul with one more free throw by Costner.  Fans rushed the court and the place went wild.  But of course the world could not see the game, unless you were in the RBC Center or payed to watch it on ACC pay-per-view, its really nice to see NC State pull out an upset and stick it to Wake.

What went right?
Free throw shooting, state shot great from the line.
Great play by Costner and McCauley, both had huge games.
Finally stopped the big man, I have been talking about it all season and finally the Wolfpack answer and stop Teague who finished with 11 points.

What went wrong?
Seriously, it happened again, we gave up a 20 point lead with 10 minutes left in the game.
The ACC, for not making this game televised and making fans pay to watch it. Thanks Mitches for playing the game.

Whats next?
850 the buzz, better stick to its word and cover the NC State upset over the result of the UNC-Duke game on Thursday AM. NC State will go to Georgia to take on GA Tech on Saturday at 1:30pm.

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Wolfpack lose 18 point lead, VA Tech wins

The NC State Wolfpack gave up a 18 point lead in the final 10 minutes of the game on Sunday against VA Tech.  The loss puts the Wolfpack at 2-6 in ACC play.  The Wolfpack scored only ONE FG in the final nine minutes, letting the Hokies get back into the game and sending it to OT.  Dennis Horner missed two clutch free throws down the stretch, which may have given NC State the win.

Whats going wrong?

• Point guard position in shambles once again.  With Degand hurt(PE class injury), it looks like Javi needs to step up again.  Keep in mind he gave up 5 turnovers in the second half of the VA Tech game
• Turnovers, still killing us, NC State commited 22 against VA Tech.
• Keeping a lead, many people want to blame this on coaching, whatever it is, Sid better call a timeout next time we are up 18 and talk to the boys. 

Whats going right?

• Ben McCauley and Brandon Costner are both playing well, with 38 combined points and 20 rebounds against VA Tech.
• Tracy Smith has been playing some what consistant, with 13 points against VA Tech.
• Fells has been hot and didn’t play his best against VA Tech but still put up 17 points.

Whats next?
NC State will take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Wednesday at 7pm in the RBC Center. Wake is currently #6 in the country and has one of the best players in ACC in Jeff Teague. NC State has failed in all previous attempts this season to control the opponents PLAY MAKER, as I call it, hopeful they will be able to control Teague while the world watches the Duke-UNC game. Tickets are currently on sale on gopack.com, check out our ticket section for more details.

March Madness 2009 Predictions

March Madness 2009 Predictions

March Madness 2009 Predictions have been released by The Wolfpack Journal team in early February. The Big East leads the pack with 9 teams, followed closely by the ACC with 7 teams.  If NC State wins out the rest of the ACC season, or wins the ACC Tournament they could get a bid. This is how we think the final tournament will look like.

America East Vermont Atlantic Coast Duke Wake Forest North Carolina Clemson Virginia Tech Miami (FL) Florida State Atlantic Sun E. Tennessee State Atlantic 10 Xavier St. Joseph’s Dayton Big East Marquette Louisville Connecticut Pittsburgh Syracuse Villanova Notre Dame West Virginia Georgetown Big Sky Weber St. Big South Virginia Military Big Ten Michigan State Purdue Minnesota Illinois Big 12 Oklahoma Kansas Texas Baylor Big West Long Beach St. Colonial Athletic Northeastern George Mason Conference USA Memphis Horizon League Butler Ivy League Harvard Metro Atlantic Athletic Siena

Mid-American Buffalo Miami (OH) Mid-Eastern Morgan State Missouri Valley Northern Iowa Illinois St. Mountain West UNLV Utah BYU Northeast Robert Morris Ohio Valley Austin Peay Pacific-10 UCLA Washington Arizona St. California Patriot League American Southeastern Florida Kentucky LSU Southern Davidson Southland Texas A&M C.C. Southwestern Athletic Alabama State Summit Oral Roberts Sun Belt West. Kentucky West Coast Gonzaga St. Mary’s Western Athletic Utah State

NC State loses to UNC, looks forward to NCCU

NC State lost 93-76 on Saturday in the RBC Center to the UNC Tarheels. While Fells had a hell of a game with 22 points, it was not enough to upset the No. 2 team in the country. This is the fifth straight lost to the Tarheels, and the 11th in the past 12 matches.

What is going wrong?

• The Wolfpack has yet to stop the playmaker. Each game this year that has had a superstar opponent curry, henderson, hansbrough and the list goes on, the Wolfpack have failed to control him.
• NC State is scoring 68 points on average a game in ACC play, while giving up 77 on average. This is the worst margin in the ACC.
• Defensively we have started to fall apart, giving up 77 points a game is unacceptable for the Wolfpack.

What is going right?

• Fells is on FIRE….. So nice to see the senior stepping up big this season.
• Costner and McCauley are still producing points and getting rebounds.
• Degand has 16 assists against only six turnovers in his last three games

What’s next?

NC State will take on NC Central who has a 2-22 record in the RBC center on Tuesday night. The game should be a blow out and at a minimum a confidence booster…

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

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