McCauley Receiving Deserved Accolades

06-07 Basketball General43

Andy Katz was at the RBC Center for NC State’s win over Michigan a two weeks ago. We talked about some of his comments at the time in this key entry.

Katz followed-up his visit with more praise for the Wolfpack. In this piece at ESPN.com Katz deservedly praises NC State’s biggest surprise this season, Ben McCauley.

Ben McCauley, NC State: The sophomore forward was the toughest player on the court against Michigan on Nov. 27. He gutted out 19 points and grabbed eight boards against more athletic big men. His effort will go a long way toward keeping the Wolfpack in games this season.

McCauley has been nothing short of spectacular this year. I can’t imagine where State would be if he had chosen to transfer in the spring as rumored when Coach Lowe took the job. His presence and the fact that we can project him in a Wolfpack uniform for two more seasons produces a huge impact on the projected future success of the program; I expect him to be a growing versatile force for the Pack.

McCauley has turned in consistently strong performances ALL SEASON, none more exciting and surprising than his play against Michigan’s athletic big men two weeks ago. (Anybody see his line for Saturday’s game against Savannah State? Your CENTER led the team in STEALS with five for the evening.)

Speaking of Michigan, we are very sorry that we did not link to this entry before now. These are the types of archives that we feel makes the blog a special place.

06-07 Basketball General

43 Responses to McCauley Receiving Deserved Accolades

  1. Mr O 12/11/2006 at 8:56 AM #

    He is a suprisingly good athlete. He will really benefit next year assuming he has some big guys to play next to him.

  2. Rochester 12/11/2006 at 9:05 AM #

    He had two sweet steals and breakaway dunks in the game against West Virginia. He finishes so efficiently. I guess you don’t score 2,000 points or whatever he had in high school without knowing what to do with the ball. And, yeah, we would have been screwed if he left.

  3. PackGirl 12/11/2006 at 9:13 AM #

    He had 2 steals early in Saturday’s game, within just a couple minutes of each other that he followed up with uncontested dunks. Seemed like he was the only one playing at that point. Neiman had several steals later on – 2 of which he scored on (free throws once and a lay-up)

  4. Lee Fowler 12/11/2006 at 9:15 AM #

    I like a meat and potatoes guy like McCauley. He may never play in the NBA, but you need at least 1 guy like him. Reminds me of a better version of Tayman Domzalski.

  5. MadWolf92 12/11/2006 at 9:37 AM #

    Would have to be a *much* better version of Domzalski. Tayman was an unapparent scholar, but not a very good basketball player.

  6. PackGirl 12/11/2006 at 9:37 AM #

    He seems to be playing like a man possessed lately, if you pay attention to his facial expressions, etc. He had a dunk towards the end of the game where he grabbed the rim and swung slowly back and forth for what seemed like an eternity, with a crazed-beast look on his face. It was reminiscent of the scene from Young Frankenstein where the 7 ft monster has just been hung and is dangling slowly back and forth from the noose. (And I mean this in the best possible way.)

  7. Lunatic Fringe 12/11/2006 at 9:39 AM #

    I keep expecting him to have a down game where things just do not seem to work out, but he goes out and does it again the next game. The more I watch him play the more I realize that even if he has an “off” night (shot is off, fumbles, etc) that he will never get out hustled by the other team, which is why he has been so consistent.

    Ben is a freak…a freak in the sense that you do not normally get that much “heart” from a player that has that much athleticism.

  8. 98st8 12/11/2006 at 10:03 AM #

    It really does make you wonder, why in the world did he not play last year whebn we were getting killed night in and night out on the boards. He is a beast.

  9. choppack1 12/11/2006 at 10:03 AM #

    First off – I think he’s in excellent shape.

    Secondly – he’s playing w/ confidence.

    Last year, he showed an ability to play w/ his back to the basket and showed that he wasn’t afraid to shoot. This year, it has all come together for him. He’s using quickness and tenacity against his opponents, and he believes in himself. I’m glad we’re seeing it, because I wasn’t sure this would be a strong point of the team. However, I’d say that he and Costner are making this an early strength. It will be interesting to see how they can handle the post threats – and just as importantly – the inconsistent whistles we’ll see in conference.

  10. BJD95 12/11/2006 at 10:24 AM #

    He has an amazingly quick first step. Our frontcourt rotation next year is downright scary. As long as Degand can run the point competently (and Grant doesn’t leave early for the NBA), we could be VERY good.

  11. Wolf-n-Atl 12/11/2006 at 10:50 AM #

    I think he has been a spark for the whole team. My only criticism is that he needs to go up stronger when he has defenders around him. A few times he has kicked it out to the perimeter when he was under the basket. He should just dunk on them!

  12. Rick 12/11/2006 at 10:53 AM #

    “It really does make you wonder, why in the world did he not play last year whebn we were getting killed night in and night out on the boards. He is a beast.”
    The previous coach did not like this kind of play. He wanted heady, cerebral, never show emotion type of play.
    Some players need the emotion to be their best.

  13. Mr O 12/11/2006 at 10:59 AM #

    McCauley did play last year. The reason he didn’t play more was because he had an NBA top 15 pick, a fifth year senior, this year’s best player Gavin Grant in front of him in the rotation, and another potential NBA draft pick who had a great freshman season in Andrew Brackman.

    It is quite easy to see why he didn’t play more last year(even though he did play).

  14. Mr O 12/11/2006 at 11:00 AM #

    That should have ended with “playing in front of him”.

    We had a very deep and experienced rotation last year.

  15. nycfan 12/11/2006 at 11:16 AM #

    I don’t know who this Ben McCauley is, but he is infinitely better than the stiff, tentative player I saw last year. His time on the court was limited by necessity with the guys in front of him, but when he did play, he often looked uncomfortable and never (in the games I watched) showed a glint of the player he is now.

    He is the difference maker for State thus far this year, filling what I expected to be a yawning gap in State’s line-up (in the post) with a desire and effort and skill that fuels this team.

  16. Mr O 12/11/2006 at 11:20 AM #

    NYCfan: Nice post. You mentioned the other part of the reason McCauley didn’t play more last year. He wasn’t this good last year because he was only a freshman.

  17. justaguy 12/11/2006 at 11:25 AM #

    Sometimes players just blossom. Lorenzo Charles did. So did Brain Howard.

  18. Rick 12/11/2006 at 11:25 AM #

    ” The reason he didn’t play more was because he had an NBA top 15 pick, a fifth year senior, this year’s best player Gavin Grant in front of him in the rotation, and another potential NBA draft pick who had a great freshman season in Andrew Brackman.”
    That is four players for a three man rotation (one of which had knees so bad he could barely function). There was time for him, it was just not given. Especially given our scoring droughts and lack of rebounding, it is baffling as to why he would not get more minutes. My guess would be a combination of 1) did not fully comprehend the weave and heave (i.e. he had not learned the value of standing around the three point line looking to chunk a last second three) 2) he was a freshmen and 3) he was nto a good enough thre epoint shooter.

  19. justaguy 12/11/2006 at 11:26 AM #

    Make that Brian Howard.

  20. Lunatic Fringe 12/11/2006 at 11:54 AM #

    I think there is a whole list of reasons why Ben (as well as several other players) are playing better this year than last:

    – 1 year older/mature physically & mentally
    – more familiar with college game speed
    – more familiar with teammates
    – more playing & practice time especially as a unit (out of necessity)
    – coaching staff for putting the guys in positions to be successful

    BTW…I think the most impressive thing about Ben has been is ability to be aggressive without getting into foul trouble…once again…out of necessity.

  21. sholtzma 12/11/2006 at 12:35 PM #

    Very glad to see that Ben is getting much deserved recognition. He is the kind of player I just love to have at State and hate to have to play against. Yes, we need some superstars (and we’ll have more of that kind of potential next year). But give them a surrounding cast of players who have what Ben brings to the court, and THAT will give you a championship team. Kudos to you, Ben.

  22. StateFans 12/11/2006 at 1:13 PM #

    Sholtzma (and others) make excellent points.

    The comments related to this entry and topic are what makes the blog so great!

    Thanks for the great points.

  23. KChill 12/11/2006 at 3:26 PM #

    I love to see fans make excuses for the players not getting the time they deserved….of course players were in front of him, but if we’d bothered to try and develop a 9 or 10 player rotation (just once), maybe we could have finally seen the more up-tempo offense that we’d been promised the past 3 years. Although, we finally got that offense this year, even with only 6 warm bodies.

  24. Mr O 12/11/2006 at 3:39 PM #

    OK, coach’s purposely keep players that could help them win on the bench because they coach’s don’t like to win games.

    Kchill: I wouldn’t call this year’s offense up-tempo at all.

  25. Rick 12/11/2006 at 4:16 PM #

    “OK, coach’s purposely keep players that could help them win on the bench because they coach’s don’t like to win games”

    Nice strawman
    You know we are not saying that.
    We are saying Herb did not like to develop depth. He would play the players that gave him the best chance of winning THAT particular game, not of winning the most games. Then when the inevitable injury came we were ill prepared.
    IMO it is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

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