NC State 82, #7 Wake Forest 76

#8 Wake Forest (18-4) 34 42 76
NCSU (13-9) 42 40 82

Boxscore

Perhaps the best coverage is from long-time sportswriter A.J. Carr:  “Wolfpack Knocks Off Deacons” (News and Observer)

For a moment, let your imagination run rampant.

Picture the No. 10 ranked team in the ACC beating the No. 7 ranked team in the nation. Envision N.C. State guard Farnold Degand out scoring Wake Forest’s player-of-the-year candidate Jeff Teague. Close your eyes and see Brandon Costner going on a scoring spree.

All that and more happened  Wednesday night at the RBC Center, where the Wolfpack emerged from the depths of the conference to conquer Wake 82-76.

In my book, Carr is the best scribe the N&O has and it is good to see him back covering the Wolfpack.  I first met him in the late spring of 1974, when I was in the seventh grade and he was kind enough to bat tennis balls back and forth with me and regale me with tales of my heros, Thompson, Towe, Burleson, Rivers and Spence.  There’s not much A. J. hasn’t seen in the ACC, and his write-up gives the Pack their due.

Joe Ovies of 850 The Buzz posted some great player interviews in their write-up of the game.

The AP chimes in with “Wake’s second-half rally falls short as NC State prevails” (ESPN)

Three days after squandering an 18-point lead with 13 minutes remaining, North Carolina State was in nearly the same position again.

This time, they held on for the win.

Let’s hope that these are signs of future things to come.

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08-09 Basketball NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe

98 Responses to NC State 82, #7 Wake Forest 76

  1. GAWolf 02/11/2009 at 11:35 PM #

    We should make a team and wear rubber President masks just to joke the joker.

    Here goes Ratface. His next commercial should certainly be for Hair Color for Men.

  2. wufpup76 02/11/2009 at 11:36 PM #

    ^I’m not usually too big a believer in this type of stuff, but I had really strong feeling they were going down watching them (Wake) in warmups

    They looked more than lackadaisical, they looked unconfident. We really knocked them back on their feet, and you could literally see the confusion at times on how to attack our zones and box

    It also looked like they thought they could wake up at any time and just turn it on and win … You know, that simple (he he he)

  3. kyjelly 02/11/2009 at 11:37 PM #

    Great win very happy for BC/Fells and Ben way to go. Think Strickland had a big role in the game plan too. Now lets keep it going saturday.
    Howlie^ Still a bit early for apologies.

  4. GAWolf 02/11/2009 at 11:37 PM #

    Good night, Pack nation. Today was a good day.

  5. Greywolf 02/11/2009 at 11:39 PM #

    Aspects of coaching… player development and strategy
    Player Development:
    Degand played very well at speed — I credit coaching
    Javi played extremely well and with confidence — I say coaching
    Smith had 10 ORB’s — I say coaching
    Fells played lock-down D w/o jacking up wasted shots — coaching
    The entire team played with confidence in the face of VT melt-down — this is big-time player development
    There is more but that’ll do for tonight

    Stategy:
    Box and 1
    Triangle and 2
    Degand AND Javi breaking the press
    Without actually seeing the game, that’s all I’ll say.

    As for Sid not playing the players we think he should, without knowledge of the injury situation, I’ll pass on passing judgement. Ben played with a stomach virus tonight. He could not further “injure” himself. Degand did not play vs VT. With a swelling knee he could make the injury worse. Coaches have to make these calls with both the team’s AND the player’s best interest in mind.

    Asserting the because Sid played a player or not PROVES he doesn’t know how to coach is IMO a little over top. I suggest we give Sid a little more room in such matters. WTF do we really know about why players play or not.

  6. jasondeans 02/11/2009 at 11:39 PM #

    I’m don’t think firing is the answer. I’ll admit my frustration gets the best of me at times and I think it’s the answer to our problems but we really owe him a few years to develop as a coach just as we allow our freshman to develop.

    What concerns me is the same problems continue to plague us. It’s ridiculous how predictable our problems are! Everyone in the building tonight could see what was about to happen. Sid must learn to prepare and correct these problems.

    Also while it’s important to pat our guys on the back tonight – it’s also important that they begin to understand that a program at our level (resources, fan base, facilities, etc) should be celebrating ACC titles NOT our third conference win. HE must make it clear that, for example, while tonight’s win is a great victory…it wasn’t pretty and we have a long way to go to reach our goals. I think that would be received much better by the fans and go a long way with setting expectations with his team. An occasional upset is not enough.

  7. Alpha Wolf 02/11/2009 at 11:40 PM #

    If anything, this game proves what this team is capable of. Now let’s see if they can go to Atlanta and do it again.

    I don’t buy Teague’s bull, Fells stole his candy and that’s the truth of the matter.

  8. levelsixtyfour 02/11/2009 at 11:40 PM #

    “I wonder what “celebrities” will be teeing it up in that.”

    Peewee Herman

  9. packk 02/11/2009 at 11:42 PM #

    Gah enough of the UNX coverage – how about State???

  10. com state10 02/11/2009 at 11:52 PM #

    God I love the RBC when its rockin, and boy do I love this school!!!

    Just got home from the game, everythings probably been said.

    Two things different Sid did tonight from what I have seen in the past.

    1. Quick timeouts when Wake would hit 2-3 consec. baskets or he saw something he didn’t like

    2. He practically met Fells on the OTHER side of the court hittin’ his chest and high fivin’ him for his defense on Teague.

    FIRED UP!! GO SID!! GO PACK!!!!

  11. Greywolf 02/11/2009 at 11:55 PM #

    Coaching thoughts
    The front of hand, the back of the hand…
    Had you rather NOT be good enought to get a 20 point lead to lose?
    OR
    Had you rather be capable of getting a 20 point lead and have a good team come back and you lose it?

    Remember Bobby Bowden saying, First you lose close, then you win close. Then you win big.
    Sid is actually did just that. VT was a close lose. Wake is a close win. Now let’s win big.

    The Carolina Canes on their road trip lost close to Vancouver 4-3, beat San Jose close in a SO, then won big 7-2 over Phoenix. Come on pack, make Bobby right. 😉

    IMO Sid is getting it done a little at a time. You have to put in a little at a time. You can’t just tell them everything and expect immediate results.

    Sid, you are doing just fine. You and the coaches hold the line.

  12. Alpha Wolf 02/11/2009 at 11:55 PM #

    Greywolf, I thought Degand was being punished over academics in the VT game.

    This may not be a popular opinion around here, but I am glad he did that, if that’s the way it went down. Academics matter, and keeping everything on the up and up is vital.

  13. Classof89 02/11/2009 at 11:57 PM #

    I’m still not going to get excited until I see how they do on Saturday in Atlanta. How many times have we seen what we think is a “turn the corner” performance this season, only to have them come out and stink up the joint (like the game at BC after the win vs. GaT in January)? One hallmark of a good coach is the ability to wring some level of consistent performance out of your team. If we played every minute of every game the way we did tonight, we’d be talking about the NCAA bubble, not the NIT bubble…

  14. JeremyH 02/11/2009 at 11:58 PM #

    hahah.. they just showed it in epsn.. and Scott van Pelt was like “what is this.. a home movie?”

  15. redfred2 02/12/2009 at 4:35 PM #

    “How many times have we seen what we think is a “turn the corner” performance this season, only to have them come out and stink up the joint…?”

    Oh, I don’t know? Could we say three years…and then add a decade to that…and then add another…

    Whatever it is, Sidney Lowe is absolutely not “the father” of that oh so familiar feeling surrounding Wolfpack BB.

  16. TheACCForums.com 02/12/2009 at 5:52 PM #

    Was my first chance to rush the court at RBC and it was an amazing win. Sidney seemed to be coaching much harder than normal and up until 8 minutes left in the game I was VERY pleased with his effort and how it translated onto the floor. Now after the 8 minute mark i don’t know what he was thinking, but hopefully he saw that it didn’t work effectively and learns from it. The game could have just as easily be lost due to trying to run down the shot clock on EVERY possession and taking horrible shots at the last second. I thought Tracy, Javi and Farnold played their best games of the season and Brandon, Courtney, and Ben all played their hearts out as well. Now just keep it up guys.

  17. Astral Rain 02/12/2009 at 6:00 PM #

    Yeah, the two football games I got to attend when I was there- got to rush both times (Syracuse win and FSU win) Remember one of my buds getting pepper sprayed after the Syracuse one carrying the goalposts.

  18. BSIE80 02/12/2009 at 7:42 PM #

    College basketball has always had a game of runs. 20 point comebacks or near comebacks happen quite frequently. This also happens with the best of teams. I remember this happening to some of GW’s best Maryland teams. I believe we have also done this to UNC over the years.

    We have been on the short end of holding on to games because we have lacked the go to guy, inexperienced guards, etc.

    To win one against a good team is a positive sign. We needed the experience of getting it done. Now we have confidence that we can do it.

    We would be better at it if we had that go to guy; Henderson, Singler, Lawson, Green, MCLinton, Rice, Teague, etc. Fells should be that guy but he isn’t.
    Preparation/practice is important, but nothing substitutes for “hands on” experience in a real game environment.

    With respect to the strategy of “milking the clock”. We must learn to do this also. All of the best teams can do this. Next time you watch Duke when they get the lead, at the end of the game they start “milking the clock”. UNC does not do it so much with this team, because they are such an offensive oriented team. They kill u with their offense, but they are very much the exception.
    Now, did we start to early with it last nite, not so sure. I think we were trying to avoid making a bad play more than milking the clock. Especially, after we had 3 consecutive turnovers giving them 7 pts.

  19. choppack1 02/12/2009 at 10:42 PM #

    BSIE – as someone who has watched a lot of basketball, if there’s one coach w/ whom a large lead is more tedious than Sendek – it’s Coach K.

    His team blew a 9 point lead in the last 3 minutes of the ACC Championship vs. UMd.

    His team was leading Louisville by 8 points in the second half in his first national championship game.

    His team led UConn by 5-7 in the last few minutes of the semi-final loss to them.

    I can’t remember the year (it may have been 2002) – but his squad blew a 16 point 2nd half lead vs. UK.

    The point is – w/ a 35 second shot clock – it’s a huge gamble to not run your offense if it is being effective.

    Don’t get me wrong – there’s a time to do it. And it’s very tempting to do it because of simple math.

    Meanwhile watching some ASU-UCLA. First off, I think we could probably beat both of these teams – I don’t think either one is quick enough or big enough to win more than 6 games in the ACC.

    Secondly, HWSBN is playing a match-up zone – and running on offense that looks similar to the MPO that he ran here w/ Simmons and other other big me.

  20. redfred2 02/12/2009 at 10:47 PM #

    BSIE80, I don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but the air starting coming out of the ball with a 15 point lead at the 7 minute mark. Again, don’t know if it was a planned strategy, fatigue, or the thoughts of earlier games creeping into the STATE player’s minds, but that’s too early for any team to start a slow down.

  21. wufpup76 02/13/2009 at 2:05 AM #

    “I can’t remember the year (it may have been 2002) – but his squad blew a 16 point 2nd half lead vs. UK.”

    ^That was the Will Avery game, and I think you may be correct on the season … There have been few point guards in the ACC that were worse decision makers than Will Avery (IMO) … Avery more-or-less lampooned their lead in the 2nd half

    Speaking of huge leads squandered, Northwestern was up by 14 points tonight over Illinois with just over 4 minutes to play and still lead by 6 under a minute to play … and lost in regulation by 1 point … It was an NC State-esque meltdown … I felt really bad for them

    ^^About the non-aggressive play down the stretch in our game, Fells had said in some postgame comments that Coach Lowe had asked them to pass the ball at least 5 times before putting up a shot late in the game … Of course Coach Lowe said we should have taken advantage of the 2-on-1’s and hitting ahead against the press … I’m guessing there was some type of misunderstanding or miscommunication, b/c there were quite a few times where we should have taken advantage of numbers – but all’s well that ends well for a change 🙂

  22. choppack1 02/13/2009 at 4:55 PM #

    “Fells had said in some postgame comments that Coach Lowe had asked them to pass the ball at least 5 times before putting up a shot late in the game … Of course Coach Lowe said we should have taken advantage of the 2-on-1’s and hitting ahead against the press.”

    Interesting – I hope Lowe read that.

    I think he’s probably saying, if you’ve got a 2 on 1, take it…if you don’t, set up the offense and let’s pass it around 5 times.

  23. NCMike 02/16/2009 at 2:32 PM #

    A half empty gym rushing the court, then not nowing what to do…sad.

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