Live Blogging from the Central Game

07-08 Basketball112

The Pack takes the court at 7 tonight against a second consecutive D-1 newbie, the North Carolina Central Eagles. Lowe’s squad continues to search the corners of the earth for an opponent crappy enough to provide a comfortable win. Sagarin has 1-18 NCCU at 329, 14 slots behind the mighty Blue Hose of Prebyterian College. I will be front-row, center court (but on the upper level), and God and blackberry willing, live blogging this glorious event. Don’t expect updates more frequently than the media time-outs.

Pregame – There is NOBODY here. A guy just flipped off the fan cam. This amused me, as I am very immature. I am not so crass as to bastardize the national anthem, though. That always pisses me off.

7:12 – Pack up 3, halfcourt O still sucks. Central starts a white guy, FWIW.

7:19 – Up to 12-3 Pack. The people love Simon Harris, and I concur. He busts his ass.

7:22 – Central cuts lead to 7. We are playing great D, but still giving up loads of offensive boards.

7:29 – Another offensive board, followed by a 3. Lead down to 16-10.

7:31 – Grant has made 2 really awful passes to the low post. Each overshot Hickson by a good 3 feet.

7:35 – Simon tries for 3. Very bad idea. 18-12, Pack.

7:37 – Oh shit. Fells just collapsed in a heap holding his ankle/foot.

7:41 – Fells hobbled to locker room, with help. Putting no weight on right foot at all. Grant has 2 fouls, so Javi, Trevor, and Simon all playing together. This does not strike me as a lineup built to score. I shudder at the thought of this lineup in CH on Saturday.

7:45 – JJ is 6-6 from stripe. Has half our points.

Halftime – Javi closes the half with 3 points on 2 nice drives to the bucket. 27-18.

7:57 – Apparently Barry Manilow “Music and Passion” is coming to the ESA. I would rather be shot, I think.

8:10 – 2 Costner 3s key big spurt. 35-18, Pack. Eagles had 11 offensive boards in first half. Wow.

8:22 – Trevor keeps on shooting, and the people really want him to score. Their faith is not being rewarded. Pack leads easily if not artfully, 39-22.

8:26 – Central has a player who is 1-13 from the floor and 0-4 from the line.

8:29 – 1-14 now. 40-24, Pack. Can we hold them under 30?

8:31 – Troubling stat – Ben is scoreless.

8:41 – Ben breaks his cherry with old-fashioned 3 point play. Just under 4 to go and Pack up 45-26. Defense!

8:44 – Trevor scores! The people are pleased.

8:47 – Smith gets block and bucket. Central up to 29, damn it.

Your final score – NC State 54, NC Central 29. The defense holds!

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball

112 Responses to Live Blogging from the Central Game

  1. redfred2 01/10/2008 at 5:40 PM #

    Now O, was that last sentence really necessary?

  2. Trip 01/10/2008 at 6:27 PM #

    Telling stat…

    10 Javier Gonzalez 6-0 176 Fr 11.4 37.0

    That 11.4 is his assist rate, and the 37.0 is his turnover rate. Not even Gavin had a turnover rate near that last year and he was the king of his game.

  3. Trip 01/10/2008 at 7:21 PM #

    Assist/Turnover rate
    Javier Gonzalez 1/1.5
    Marques Johnson 1.7/1

    Javi doesn’t exactly turn it over like crazy himself with 1.3 a game, but the turnover rate above at 37% is saying (If I understand how turnover rate is calculated correctly) that when Javi does something on the offensive side of the court, 37% of the time, it’s a turnover. This just means that Javi is currently very ineffective on the offensive end of the court, as when he does attempt to do something, it ends up with a turnover 37% of the time. Compounding this, is that he rarely gives out assists, which means the only thing on the offensive end that he CAN do to end a possession is turn it over.

    Arghhh. I wish I could say he’s improving in that respect, as he does look like it on the court, but the stats are slanted against that, even with just recent games taken into account.

  4. wolfmans brother 01/10/2008 at 10:40 PM #

    If things continue on the trend that we have seen thus far this season (and I see no indications why our pitifil play won’t amount to many many L’s starting this Saturday) then we should all be prepared for the media to feed us heaping upon heaping of “Herb crow-pie.” The fact is that the media pundits just can’t seem to wrap their head around why we wanted herb gone. And, with ASU’s win against media-darling Arizona last night…in most media minds that is all the evidence they need to prove that “we screwed up” by “running the guy out of town.” In complete honesty, I don’t know where I stand on this issue. I was glad to see him go and glad to get Sid. But, the true tale of the tape is in results. We won’t truly be able to evaluate the situation for at least another 2 years. That, however, will not stop the media from making blanket proclomations rights away. It started tonight on ESPN and will likely continue for the rest of the year. So just be prepared to hear a lot of it and to be pissed.

  5. spanky 01/11/2008 at 12:38 AM #

    It is also hard to justify if ASU has cupcake OOC games. Not to mention that the ACC is the strongest conference. He proved he could be mediocre in the ACC but seemed to struggle getting over the top. Those results are still there and will be forever. He had 10 years to get it done and couldn’t so even if he does do good things at ASU he still could NOT get them done here.

  6. spanky 01/11/2008 at 2:22 AM #

    oh, and agree I’m sure we will be ridiculed for getting rid of Sendek and it will probably frustrate the hell out of a lot of us (me included) bah

    sorry for the double post

  7. Wulfpack 01/11/2008 at 7:16 AM #

    “The fact is that the media pundits just can’t seem to wrap their head around why we wanted herb gone.”

    Should read “why SOME wanted him gone.” I was not one of those.

    We will hear it if and only if we can’t rise to the occasion this year. There is a full ACC schedule ahead. We can either go up or down from here. It’s all in the Pack’s hands as we stand today. Beat UNC Saturday, and Sid will have beaten a team Herb could not twice already. Get blown out, and it’s the status quo.

  8. packgrad93 01/11/2008 at 9:27 AM #

    “He had 10 years to get it done and couldn’t so even if he does do good things at ASU he still could NOT get them done here.”

    Just because he didn’t win championships at NCSU the time he was here doesn’t mean he would’t have if he’d stayed.

  9. Rick 01/11/2008 at 4:37 PM #

    “Just because he didn’t win championships at NCSU the time he was here doesn’t mean he would’t have if he’d stayed.”

    He had a 42 year plan that would have guaranteed a championship.

  10. redfred2 01/11/2008 at 8:27 PM #

    Blah, blah, blah,… “if”… blah, blah blah.

    Let’s see now, “if” I leave and move to ASU, and “if” the expectations are lower out there, and “if” I get out of this rut I’ve been in for so long now, and “if” I change my ways and do things differently from what I did back then, and “if” I get a few breaks along the way, and “if” I have learned anything at all from my past, then I should be able to improve as a college basketball coach in a new environment.

  11. redfred2 01/11/2008 at 8:38 PM #

    I should have continued that last sentence with:

    …like I wasn’t able to do under all of the pressure of the ACC, and during the great opportunity I was afforded by NC State University.

  12. packgrad93 01/14/2008 at 11:29 AM #

    we’ll never know …..

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