Twenty Turnovers in Win Over Hapless Central

I listened to parts of each half, and it wasn’t very impressive. I heard at least two 10-second calls against State PGs. And the Eagles were actually up 10-2 at the first media timeout. Thankfully, State pulled away in the last ten minutes to avoid an embarrassing score in this morning’s paper.

But against a 2-23 opponent, NC State committed a whopping 20 turnovers, including 10 by Wolfpack point guards. Here’s your full boxscore. Notice that nobody is in double figures except the three seniors who went 22 of 31 from the floor and scored 57 points.

Also worth noting was that Tracy Smith played only five minutes; and Farnold Degand played only three minutes while Javi Gonzalez and Julius Mays received 15 and 19 minutes, respectfully.

It appears that Johnny Thomas (9 points in 17 minutes) continued to flash athleticism and solid hustle. The N&O’s article about the game is linked here.

Then N.C. State’s Johnny Thomas took his game above the rim, soaring for a showtime dunk that fans will get a chance to see on highlight tape re-runs if they missed it Tuesday night.

Shortly after the energetic reserve delivered his electric “Johnny Thomas Special,” the Pack also took off and secured a 87-59 victory over the resolute Eagles, who performed better than a 2-23 opponent.

The Wolfpack is now 12-8 on the season.

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.

08-09 Basketball

42 Responses to Twenty Turnovers in Win Over Hapless Central

  1. Alpha Wolf 02/04/2009 at 9:40 AM #

    Tracy Smith with a whopping five minutes — why is that, I wonder? Is he in Sid’s doghouse?

    And Degand gets as many minutes as Enrico Kufuor.

    Odd substitution patterns at least from the boxscore.

  2. wpackman33 02/04/2009 at 9:40 AM #

    Well, i didn’t listen to it or watch it or anything but i did see updates and was a little upset that we were up by only 10 at the half and had committed so many TO in the game.
    But the end result is what we wanted and were hoping it would be. I know there has been a lot of negatives thrown out on this board the past week or so and i can honestly understand everyone’s frustration. I’ve been very frustrated myself, but from where i’m at, i can’t do nothing about it but just be positive and cheer on this team no matter how or what they do. i’ve always been a pack fan and i always will. The wolfpack teams will always have my support.

    Although the “higher authorities” and administration, not so much.

    GO STATE!!!

    BEAT VA. TECH!!!

  3. Dr. BadgerPack 02/04/2009 at 9:56 AM #

    BJD- Those three had 9 of the turnovers as well. 🙂

    On a more serious note, the rebounding discrepancy is utterly disgusting, but this time it is in our favor.

    Other boxscore/game items:

    -Thomas had a career high, which is nice.

    -19 assists on 33 FGs, which isn’t terrible… but then again, the number of turnovers exceeds the number of assists. The most troubling aspect of that is the 9A/10TO composite from the point guard trio. A 1:1 ratio is at least palatable from bigs, but the bare minimum for a good PG is going to be around 2:1.

    -Briscoe tossed in 28 points (insert “we should have signed him commentary), but this isn’t the first time he’s scored a ton. 28 one other time this year, and exceeded 30 on 3 occasions. If memory serves, he tossed in 24 against Arkansas as well in fewer minutes.

    -The FT shooting wasn’t all that good. Some of it I’ll chalk up to Costner having an off night, as he’s better than 55.6%. But that number needs to come up.

    -Largest margin of victory of the season.

    -The non-conference season wraps up, and there are exactly ZERO losses in there that fall under the embarrassment category. Sadly, that is a step up from last year, when we couldn’t even say that.

  4. 61Packer 02/04/2009 at 10:02 AM #

    I was there for the whole game. Thank goodness this concludes our non-conference schedule, the worst in memory. All season I’ve wondered why we don’t come out early in a full-court press against these small teams and take them out quickly instead of letting them hang around for so long. It wasn’t sloppy, it was just uninspiring basketball that seems to have become the standard in the RBC Center. This one should’ve been played in Reynolds.

  5. ktoh 02/04/2009 at 10:05 AM #

    ^ Was there 10,000 there? Geez that was a heck of a non league schedule.

  6. Wolf Dog 02/04/2009 at 10:15 AM #

    I didn’t go to game. Glad to hear JT had a big game would like to see him play more. I thougth I heard Degand was not going to play much to rest his leg and to give the other PG’s some time. I never worry too mcuh about a little sloopy play on games like this. It happens with most teams.

    I don’t want to go back to Reynolds, but then again I’ve been there done that unlike the younger kids. It is old. It has too many bad seats. Some seats had blind spots. get the wrong seat and you left the game with a sore neck. And it tickles me to hear people complain the place has empty seats for these light weight games. It has always been that way, even back in Reynolds.

    Off Topic: Todd Fuller was on 610AM with the PAC MAN (Billy Packers son) in Charlotte yesterday. How about this fact: Todd Fuller was drafted higher than Kobe Bryant!

  7. vtpackfan 02/04/2009 at 10:16 AM #

    Lowe went with a smaller line up against NCCU leaving Smith coming off the bench. McAuley was really into scoring to start so Smith came off much later then usual. Once it was obvious that Smith was going to be matched up with what would be considered a small wing in the ACC there was nothing much to gain by him loging a lot of minutes a useless game.

    A lot of rakes out of our main three hands turned into those 9 specific TO’s with atleast two errant Fells passes (those are a given no matter who we play). Besides the two 10 second violation I’m not going to get a hemroid over the TO’s. A large amount of them were on fast breaks, alley oops that hit the back board. It’s hard for Sid to yank the guy and slap him across the face like folks want there to be when the same guy just set up a player with an assist for a highlite dunk.

  8. Clarksa 02/04/2009 at 10:22 AM #

    I read somewhere that Degand’s knee was bothering him so that’s why he didn’t play much.

    Pointless game at this part of the season and now it is time for the stretch run…

  9. com state10 02/04/2009 at 10:26 AM #

    Do you guys know of anywhere I could get a video of the Thomas dunk?!

  10. Dr. BadgerPack 02/04/2009 at 10:29 AM #

    I also see the crack research department at the N&O credits Costner with a “career high 25 point,” however I’m sure it’s a typo as it’s really easy to have spell check convert “season” into “career”.

  11. Daily Update 02/04/2009 at 10:32 AM #

    So how are we looking for the post-season?

    12-8, 2-5

    @ VT (59)
    Wake (6)
    @GT (107)
    @UNC (3)
    UVA (111)
    @Wake (6)
    Maryland (68)
    BC (55)
    @Miami (38)

    3 wins puts us at 15-14. Assuming a 1st round loss in the tournament, then we finish at 15-15 and should make at least the CBI.

    Games likely to win:
    UVA

    Games likely to lose:
    UNC
    Wake
    Wake
    Miami
    VT

    Possible wins:
    Maryland
    BC
    @GT

    Stealing a game against Miami or VT increases our chances significantly.

  12. ruffles31 02/04/2009 at 10:36 AM #

    I don’t know if Degand was hurt or not but when Lowe sat him down when the score was 10-2, that was it for him for the night. He didn’t play another second. Also, I don’t remember Smith playing any in the second half.

    There were some weird lineups that took State a while to figure out. NCCU was playing 4 or 5 guards sometimes and spreading the court and doing a lot of penetration and dishing. When they hit their threes, it made the score be closer than what the feeling of the game was. No one really ever thought that we would come close to not winning the game.

    I thought Costner and Fells (sans a few “interesting” turnovers in the backcourt) both played well. Costner got a lot of points on offensive putbacks.

    I have never seen a game where the rebound difference was 38. State outrebounded them 52-14. The Pack even had 19 offensive boards. With the height difference, it should have been pretty lopsided. Only the 20 turnovers made the game closer than it should be.

  13. BJD95 02/04/2009 at 10:37 AM #

    I would probably give us about a 25% shot at making the NIT or CBI. 0% for the NCAAT.

  14. Wulfpack 02/04/2009 at 10:42 AM #

    I think we are likely to win against UVA, GT and Maryland. That would gives us 5 conference wins and we would be CBI bound in all likelihood.

    VT, Miami and BC are possible wins. The reason I put the Hokies in there is we have ruled them of late. Win a couple of these factoring the three wins above and it’s on to the NIT.

    UNC will trounce us. Maybe we can steal one against Wake for the high point of the season???

    NCAA bid is all but gone given weak performance in the non-conference schedule. Must go 6-3 for consideration. 5-4 (for a 7-9 ACC record) will not do the trick with this team.

  15. Noah 02/04/2009 at 10:46 AM #

    Well, hell…”Sid” would have “led” us to the “post-season” two out of three years! Give that man an extension!

  16. Noah 02/04/2009 at 10:47 AM #

    Thomas’ dunk was part of the WRAL highlight package last night. It’s probably on line.

  17. anti-smurf 02/04/2009 at 10:51 AM #

    Let’s see…cupcake, middle of ACC seaons after a rivalry game. Not suprised it was sloppy. McCauley even commented that the place was “not full” and they had to pump themselves up. Understandable – it is NCCU afterall. We won – that’s all I care about.

    Anyone know why CJ Williams was the only one not to get any PT? He went from starter against FSU to nothing the last few games. What’s the deal? Hurt, doghouse?

    Another question – is it too hard to settle on a starting 5? The “big” lineup seems to be working, why chnage it? He should know his rotation by now. But that’s just my opinion.

  18. choppack1 02/04/2009 at 11:11 AM #

    DU – Thanks for including.

    This second half should be interesting. From now on, we have 5 games left against teams > 50 in your rankings…Of the 7 conference games we’ve played thus far, in our other tests, I think we only played 2 teams > 50…and one of those was on the road (BC) – which of course is our most frustrating performance this year.

    Here’s how I look at the rest of the year:
    *a 6-10 conference finish is the least we should expect at this point in the “Lowe” era. If we hit this # – while I won’t be happy, I won’t be po’d either.
    *If we somehow phenagle 7-9 in conference, I’ll be thrilled. If we win our first round ACC tourney game – even if we don’t get an at large bid, our name will be on the board. To me, that’s a huge step in the right direction. (I think if that’s the case, our record would be 18-13 on Selection Sunday – not bad at all w/ this team.)
    *If we go worse than 5-11 – I’m hoping that the university leadership takes the first step towards a fresh start and fires Lee Fowler.

  19. wpackman33 02/04/2009 at 11:18 AM #

    i agree anit-smurf. The rotations and substitution patterns have been crazy. I’d like to know how many changes to the starting five that we’ve had all season long. Plus, with players like CJ starting one game and not playing at all later on, how do we expect guys to develop when there playing time is so erratic.

    I would think that after 2/3 of the season gone we would’ve established some type of foundation or consistency.

  20. wufpup76 02/04/2009 at 11:30 AM #

    As for postseason chances –

    NCAAT –

    We would need to get to 8, 9, or 10 league wins before even approaching the bubble – so this is highly unlikely … 10 wins would certainly do it, as we would have won 8 of 9 remaining league games – some on the road and at least one against either the Holes or Wake

    If by some miracle we get to 8 or 9 league wins, we would more than likely need at least 2, maybe 3 wins in the ACC Tourney based on our non-conf. performance … Remember VaTech went 9-7 and reached the ACC semis last season but were left out due to lack of top 50 rpi wins and a subpar nonconf. performance (Great game in the semis when they lost to the Holes by 2 – after losing to them by 50 earlier in the season … Now that’s improvement)

    So, NCAAT chances are extremely slim … either win 8 of 9 down the stretch or go win the ACC tournament

    NIT –

    Chances are actually pretty slim here as well. Ever since they tightened up their selection process you see a lot fewer poor to average power conference teams getting in. I’m guessing we would need to get to at least 5 or 6 league wins and quite possibly one or two in the ACC tourney … We barely got in in ’07 even after making that run in the ACC tourney that season

    CBI “OR” CollegeInsider –

    Yes, they have added yet another postseason tournament this season … Meaning if you don’t get selected for any of the NCAAT, NIT, CBI, or CollegeInsider then you pretty much sucked hard … So far as I know both of these tourneys field 16 teams … Combine that with the NIT and NCAA fields and you have an unreal 129 Div. 1 teams participating in the postseason … Hello college football

    I have no idea what it really takes to get invited to either the CBI or the CollegeInsider, nor do I know if we’d even choose to participate

    So there you have it … there are 4 postseason tournaments and as of now we’re not really on pace to make any of them … Though admittedly I didn’t study up on CBI or CollegeInsider selection processes

  21. BJD95 02/04/2009 at 11:47 AM #

    CBI took Cincy last year with a losing record, but they played a brutal schedule. UVA made the CBI with a .500 record (IIRC) and a lousy conference performance. Think the new tourney only takes teams with winning records.

    6-10 or 5-11 plus 1 ACCT win = NIT or CollegeInsider.

    5-11 = CBI.

    4-12 or worse = Jack Shit.

  22. Pack Leader 02/04/2009 at 12:30 PM #

    Johnny Thomas is the SF of the future. i see that kid becoming Gereld Henderson by his senior year. After a summmer of working on his jump shot he will be very dominate.

  23. MP 02/04/2009 at 12:31 PM #

    >”Well, hell…”Sid” would have “led” us to the “post-season” two out of three years! Give that man an extension!”

    Maybe you could clarify the intent of this comment. It reeks of saber rattling. Have you called the Athletic Director to voice your opinion? Somewhere I heard that he gets a kick out of hiring new coaches, so maybe you should discuss your concerns with him.

  24. robopack 02/04/2009 at 1:04 PM #

    I have been waiting for someone to compare JT to GHenderson. I think that’s fair. JT has flashs that look Hendersonesk. He’s got a long way to go though…

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