Where to start. Poor preparation. No defense. No rebounding. Poor coaching in a game that should have never been played.
After compiling a 17-0 historical record over the Pirates, NC State loses the program’s first game in history against East Carolina. Prior to tonight, ECU was 0-57 against ACC opponents. Most ACC opponents weren’t dumb enough to discount their program and put themselves in an un-necessarily risky position to play on the road. Of course, most ACC programs haven’t historical been steered by a man more interested in political gain and avoidance of conflict than what is best for his athletics program.
In games that mean everything to one team and nothing to another, a random guy can get hot (like Hinnant) and strange things can happen.
Now you know why smart Athletics Departments don’t schedule out of conference, in-state games on the road. Lee Fowler may think he knows basketball, but he doesn’t know dick about management or how to steer NC State.
Fowler BETTER have had his lazy ass at the game and not at his lake house or off on some golf excursion.
Coach Sidney Lowe’s honeymoon is over. This team is inexcusably bad.
As Mr. O said in a previous entry:
This team isn’t going to do anything this year until Brandon Costner and Ben McCauley show up. I have no clue what happened to those two guys in the off-season, but they are horrible. Costner in particular because he is certainly getting his opportunities. Airballing free throw? Hardly drawing iron on layups and wide open three point shots? Maybe last year was just a fluke. At this point, he is the next Marcus Melvin in Europe….wow he just turned it over again.
Why the hell do other teams get tons of offensive rebounds against us but we hardly ever get one? Rebounding is positioning and hustle. We are severely lacking in both.
Is there something going on with the team that is not public?
We have no point guard. We’re not going to have a point guard next year. We’re probably not going to have one the year after that.
Lowe’s not going to be the coach that long, so…who knows when this will get fixed.
I hate to say it, but Sid needs to take some lessons from Ol’ Roy when it comes to getting your team hyped up, and more emotional during a game. We just dont look functional out there most of the time. Ben does not look happy, and tries to do too much the little time hes in there. Degand just doesnt contribute much at all, and is below par in just about everything. When this season started, I thought we were going to win 10 ACC games easy, now Im not sure we will win 5.
Is there something going on with the team that is not public?
They suck balls.
We have no point guard. We’re not going to have a point guard next year. We’re probably not going to have one the year after that.
We don’t need a stud point guard. Atsur wasn’t your typical PG, who was going to beat you off the dribble. He was smart and took care of the ball and could hit shots, when it counted.
We really do miss him a ton this year.
Any other winter sports worth following, other than college basketball?
I need to find something else to get excited about, because NCSU basketball will never recover from the mess we had at the end of the 1980’s.
It’d take a miracle, right now, to put us back to where we were. Get over thinking about “this is NCSU…tradition…blah…blah…” and accept the fact we suck balls and have sucked balls for the past 15+ years.
Unless we stumble across some uknown would-be Hall of Fame coach, there’s no hope left.
I’m just that damn down from the last two losses.
You know, I guess I’m actually fortunate that I’m such a “young” NCSU fan… This is the first real disappointment I’ve felt. I don’t think the season is over yet.. but those “still early” excuses are fading uncomfortably fast….
“We don’t need a stud point guard.”
Yeah, but we don’t have ANY point guards. We’ve got Kelsey Weems.
Can we fire Fowler?
We’re the laughing stalk of the state, heck, the entire acc.
I’m about to destroy the filter…
What in the living fuck happened out there tonight? Just got back from the company Christmas party, I’m about 4 rum & cokes deep…are you guys seriously telling me we lost to fucking ECU in basketball????
God almighty, I never thought I would revisit the Campbell loss, but this is damn close to it.
This team has SERIOUS, SERIOUS problems. There’s is no fucking reason we should be 4-3 at this point with losses to New Orleans & ECU…E-C-FUCKING-U!!!!! I don’t know what the problems are, but Sidney Lowe better figure them out, or he will be out of a job soon. Herb got 10 years…Lowe will not, and SHOULD NOT, get that much time.
Maybe ole’ sidney shouldn’t give ECU bulletin board material by running his big fat mouth. Feel free to quit using the “game should have never been scheduled” BS too, it gets old. Funny how Operation: Blame Fowler kicks in when you lose. Had you won, it would’ve been “Hell yeah! Great win to pad our resume!” Looks like you only get one more mulligan (or should I say, lossigan) there Gavin…
GO PIRATES!!
Yeah, but we don’t have ANY point guards.
We have a red-shirt project transferred from ISU and a kid, who wasn’t getting much big college attention, in Javi.
Both needed to be “diamonds in the rough”, like Juan Dixon was for Maryland, for this team to be truly successful. I just thought we had enough talent in other places to cover up for whatever deficiencies we were going to have at PG.
Honestly, what scares me about the near future is the fact we have scholarships stuck with players, who aren’t going to be good ACC players like Ferguson and probably Gonzalez and maybe Degand, for another two to three years.
We only have two free scholly’s for the ‘09 recruiting class, unless someone leaves.
Don’t look for a bumper recruiting class to come in and save our sorry buts anytime soon.
SFN:
Thanks for the edit. My posts are more to the point now.
Sorry if the emotional (drunken) rants dont fit in with what your trying to do.
here
I did not see the game. Instead of bashing Lowe and Fowler, can someone inform me on the X’s and O’s which may have accounted for the loss. Did we fail to rebound? Did we miss 3-point attempts? Was the defense lousy? I think most would agree that the talent is in place and, based on his run last year, Sid is a decent coach. So what are we not doing?
no, we can’t fire Fowler . . . he knows basketball. At this pace we made need his ‘expertise’. Shame on the whole damn lot for what happened this evening. Are they trying to make us miss football season?!?
This team is embarrassing. I love Sid for what he did last year, but this team looks poorly coached every time I’ve watched them. It isn’t that we don’t have a point guard, it isn’t that we were tired against Michigan State, it isn’t that people are “trying to figure out their roles”. The team has no heart, that’s the problem, and after last year I never thought I’d say that about Ben McCauley, who did nothing if not hustle, and I never thought I’d say that about a team coached by Sidney Lowe, who seemed to inspire his players to dig games out even when everyone was running on fumes. The truth is this team is giving the effort of an NBA team, and that won’t cut it in college basketball.
“Any other winter sports worth following, other than college basketball?”
Come to the women’s basketball games. They’re young (11 freshmen and sophomores), have an All-American level player (Khadijah Whittington) and, unlike the men, they actually play defense, rebound, and hustle constantly. To top it off, if it doesn’t make you feel good cheering for Kay Yow, you have no soul. Seriously, Reynolds needs bigger crowds. Come watch the women, at least they play like they care whether they win or lose.
whoa whoa whoa. lets not get crazy. how young a team are we? only one senior. if we didn’t have such a great end to last season would we have high expectations this year? no. people hating on sidney after barely one full season should settle down. let’s see how the rest of the season goes. if we come together, make another great end of season run, and make the ncaa tourney then everyone going “oh woe is me for being an nc state fan” will be saying “hooray for sidney”. if you are a fan who has stuck it out through the les robinson and sendek eras for the last 15 years then you know how to handle adversity. especially early in the season. just wait and see what happens. if we get better we will be REALLY good. if we don’t then we will be average and go to the NIT again.
we haven’t even gotten to the acc season yet. all i’m saying is just wait and see. yes losing to ecu is probably the most embarassing thing that will happen to us this year (even worse than the beat down by MSU) but when I look at our team, I see a team waiting to break out and just not having that “light bulb over the head” moment. just wait. when we do, everyone else will be saying “woe is me who has to play nc state”
eatcrow,
enjoy the rest of your bball season. i bet you have a great one.
and maybe the football team that you really care about will man up one of these days and win a game against a real team
Lowe went 5-11 last year and went to the NIT. Yeah…LOVE what he did last year.
When he was hired, I thought he’d be a spectacular failure. At the start of the year, I was thinking, “Hey! Nice to be wrong.”
Duh. Spoke too soon.
Absolutely horrible. The problem looks so obvious to all of us. Why is it so f’ing hard to fix??
It was bad but I think there’s still time to turn it around. ECU’s 3 point shooting was huge and most of them were contested. I wish Coach would try some quicker combinations such as Javi and Farnold both on the floor or starting Horner over Costner. Having Johnson at the 2 could help too. It hurt when Fells sat with 2 fouls in the first half.
family and I have had season tickets for v, robinson, and sendek. ive seen it all. the preseason expectations are what screwed me over. i shouldnt have expected anything different this year than what ive always seen.
i hope im wrong, but maybe we are just cursed.
CStanley….that’s funny….you were supposed to be eating fried turkey with me tonight…..if you had done that the world would be right and we wouldn’t have lost to EZU
Great win to pad our resume???? Someone on here was talking about how difficult a time they had explaining to someone else that even if we would have won 100-30 it would still lower our RPI rankings… an embarrassing game that should have never been played.
what is our ppg vrs. oppg?
“ECU’s 3 point shooting was huge and most of them were contested. ”
That’s because we have a way of letting chumps like ECU play like champs.
Did we fail to rebound?
Yes. Especially late in the second half, when the game was tied up. We let ECU 3 or 4 offensive rebounds on one series and with less then two minutes left, down by 5, we let them rebound their miss, which really hurt our chances of coming back.
I see a team waiting to break out
We’re in a friggin’ coma. If losses to UNO at home and being blown out by MSU, who has struggled against every other team they’ve played this year, didn’t wake this team up nothing will. Pull the plug. Scrap our basketball team. Who needs the embarrasment.
if you are a fan who has stuck it out through the les robinson and sendek eras for the last 15 years then you know how to handle adversity.
All I’ve handled is adversity, ever since I showed up on NCSU’s campus in the fall of 1992.
I want to learn how to handle success, something I will never be able to do as an NCSU fan, unless we stumble across a talented young coach, like Billy Donovan, for example. But I don’t think Lee Fowler has the brains to find someone like that, and he’ll be AD as long as he wants to be AD.
I hope Lowe was going to surprise us with pumping some energy into this program, but unfortunately he has surprised us, by losing to UNO and ECU.
Davidson’s going to kill us. I shudder to think how badly Carolina’s going to blow our asses out of the gym in Chapel Hill, to start ACC play off. We’ll probably so emotionally scarred from that beat down, we’ll just pack it in during ACC play and go 0-16.
We suck that bad.
noah - Lets not play revisionist history here. Last season was undoubtedly a success. Nobody expected anything from that team, especially not after Atsur went down, but we got better throughout the year, pulled off some big upsets, and made a solid end of the year run. I think the majority of the blame has to be on Sid for this year’s performance, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do a good job last year.
^unfortunatey i agree
^^
We stink.
This team is so piss pitiful in every phase of the game. The fact that you’re going to witness 40 minutes of a uninspired defenseless and turnover infested game time and time again is almost comical. The saddest thing is that Sidney and the boys look like they could absolutely not give a shit. I hope to hell this isn’t a return to the days of Les Robinson but it sure as shit looks like it. We have no point guard and will not have a point guard for at least two years to come. 3 down and 1 loss to go Gavin.
All I’m waiting for is women team to beat ECU tomorrow.
if we gave herb 6 yrs to get to the tourney, i’m not willing to throw sid under the bus after a year and 7 games. that being said i’m discouraged and wanna know what the f is up with costner. anyone? seriously, he played like shackleford a couple of games back in 88′.
Was Gavin’s prediction a sarcasm to the team performance during the team practice at the beginning of the season?
the most depressed i’ve been about basketball since the 2nd round Vanderbilt loss …
bad team, unprepared, lack of focus, intensity, desire and hustle
that spells loss to elite CUSA team ecu
i can take losing … but watching a loss transpire due to players playing like p**sies and letting E f’n CU dictate the ballgame to us is unacceptable
we LET them gain confidence and believe they were the better team … mccauley and costner look like they are just coming out of comas
defense was non-exsistent … inexcusable
i love sidney and i’m not ready to turn on him and the team … but this team is very easy to hate due to their “effort”
lush:
the fun thing about ECU basketball right now is that the losses don’t hurt at all and the wins feel great. Thats the beauty of having few expectations heaped on one of your programs (see: UNC Football, Duke Football, etc).
If by winning a game against a real team, you mean people like state (see: Chuck Amato getting fired) or UNC (see: TJ Yates eating crow)? Or did you mean UCF? Call me next time state goes to a bowl game (or wins their division for that matter)…
“maybe we are just cursed.”
I wish it were that simple.
If we are cursed it is a curse of believing that we are better than we are…of playing five guys playing one on one (excepting JJ) … of not getting gritty when the going gets tough. And probably a curse of not listening to the coaching staff. Towe and the assistants have seen it all. These players seem to think they know it all.
If I were Lowe I’d get them off of the bus and make them run gassers until they puked and writhed in pain. And then make them watch some game film and run some more gassers.
These kinds of losses are devastating to our tradition and program. Pathetic in every way. We the best facilities in the nation. We have a great tradition. We have 2 national championships and 10 acc championships. The greatest player ever played for our team. It has been 15 years since we had a two year probation. There is NO EXCUSE EVER to lose to a team like ECU after already being upset by a no name (UNO) earlier in the season.
Before any time out I would have liked to see Coach Lowe knock over every folded black that had been set in place for the five walking off the court. Anyone within ear shot could have heard declare that “there would be plenty of time to sit on your a$$ once you’ve completed your run back to Raleigh!”
My name is Joseph Duprey, and I am an anonymous critic of all things NCSU Athletic’s Dept. I will not spend another dime of my hard earned money on anything associated with the Wolfpack Club.
I don’t care if TOB has to defend the pile of dirt that is housed in CF Stadium with a scrappy, upstart team. If there is a thunder storm during a pre season scrimmage then they can bus themselves over to Dorton Arena and strap on some roller skates. Don’t let them construct a friggin’ golf course on the last tract of scenic property over at Centennial. It’s already salt in an open wound that WF’s most beloved alum is designing the God foresaken project.
About the only way I could donate a Unicef box full of pennies to Lee Fowler and Bobby Purcell is if we decide to change the Men’s Basketball uniforms. The players names will be taken off their backs and replaced with;
North Carolina State College
00
of Agriculture and Mechanichal
…on the front it will say;
Generals
00
…because we make eveyone look like the Harlem Globetrotters. Good night everyone, and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
If we don’t fire Lee Fowler soon, I’m gonna go nuts. Bring back Charlie Cobb. Please!
and one more thing, if I may: swallow a little pride, pack away some of that hubris, and take off the rose colored glasses and start accepting and taking responsibility for the defeats as easily as the wins. I mean seriously, being in the ACC isn’t a free pass to beating everyone out of conference. It is time to embrace the fact that ECU (and other schools in the state/region) are catching up to the power conferences (esp the ACC).
The fact that the other conferences are catching up has nothing to do with us losing tonight. Duke just handily beat Michigan….a good big ten school. There is no reason why we shouldn’t pummel ECU. The reason we can’t is because we just flat out stink.
untill i see sweat coming off everyones dome, we wont win another game.
noone is mentioning the fact that gavin and jj rocked the bald dome. i know yall saw it, does it mean they are trying to support clowe’s bald dome? i think they played harder than everyone else, maybe everybody should shave the craninum?!?!?!
“Lets not play revisionist history here. Last season was undoubtedly a success.”
Actually, last season we played a lot of key games like we played this one. After we beat VaTech and UNC-Ch back-to back we were either 3-4 or 3-5…We then proceeded to lay an egg or two w/ substandard effort. Against BC, Duke and Clemson our effort sucked. The revisionist history is that last year our effort was solid and consistent. The sad truth is that if the effort had been there for the entire year last year, we may have found ourselves in the NCAA tournament.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I thought that maybe we’d turned the corner w/ the way that we played in the NIT last year. Unfortunately, it’s as if every body - players and coaches - has forgotten how hard you have to work to get to a high level. This year thus far is absolutely horrible. Yea, we’ve somehow managed to win one tournament - aside from that tourney we’re 1-2 against 3 squads that won’t sniff an NCAA tourney bid unless they win their conference tournament.
Folks - this game isn’t Fowlers fault. Actually, the humiliation is perfect. It drives home how bad things are right now and how bad they’ll remain unless the team and staff does something different.
^ No they’re not… although I can see how you could assume that after the 3 pt clinic show they put on tonight.
Have them play Carolina, or Duke, or any other ACC power and you’ll see how horrible ECU is.
Actually, wait till we play those teams and you’ll see how horrible we are and maybe put some perspective on ECU/NC State
A couple of points…
eatcrow…shut the hell up.
2…Seriously…sit Costner’s fat ass on the bench…playing Trevor fucking Furgeson over him. Hell, play the fat guy who sits on in section 332 and eats 25 hot dogs every game over him. Brandon doesn’t deserve my dog’s minutes right now.
If he wants to play and he wants to win, he’ll show up. Otherwise, let him sit his fat ass down and get his school payed for while he contributes jack shit to the basketball team.
Night.
“I mean seriously, being in the ACC isn’t a free pass to beating everyone out of conference.”
yeah, your right. acc teams lose to kentucky, ucla, arizona, and michigan state. your delusional ass thinks ECU belongs in the same class? go back to greenville and catch/spread your std.
Watch out for Davidson in two weeks. They had UCLA down by 18 points in the first half today. They are smart, patient and passionate. They will expose our weaknesses. If we don’t improve our perimeter defense and rebounding they will rout us. If Hinnant scored 30 on us, I am afraid to consider what Curry will do. Sid and staff need to make some real progress in the next two weeks or we are toast!
Even Gopack.com can’t swallow this lost
http://www.gopack.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9200&ATCLID=1350477
Exactly…..we are just gonna get thrashed by the Holes.
Eat Crow,
I’m enrolled in three cedit hours at EZU, and spend my mornings unclogging the shower drains in the Pirate Womens Locker rooms. Any chance that fat check that Holland promised to me will come before X-Mas?
I’m not trying to excuse anything, but this team is last year’s team without Atsur. We were terrible last year when Atsur was hurt.
This team needs a leader, and we don’t seem to have one.
No heart, no brains, no pride, no balls. Pathetic in every way. Grant and Costner combine to miss 4 straight FTs in a row down the stretch - including an airball!
Our athletics program in general is starting to look more and more like a complete joke. There’s just no excuse for it.
This team might perform better in the NCAAT but how the hell are we going to get into the tournament if we can’t win games now.
ECU was 0-57 against ACC teams before tonight.
At this point, I’d advocate playing Simon Harris until he dropped. At least he’d put a body on somebody, I bet.
ECU had one possession late where I swear to God they had 7 shots. It would be hard to do that playing 3 on 5.
go catch an STD? haven’t heard that one before?! Thats a good one! No, really, have never heard that one. Seriously, thats great. I have never heard that before. Really, thats it? I have never heard that one before. Thats hilarious! STD?! Ha! Thats funny! I can’t believe I haven’t ever heard that one!
……
Guess you never saw the survey where UNC, ECU, NC State, Duke, WFU, and UNC-W all had the same percentages on students with STD’s. Or the part of the survey where a lot of the number can be contributed to high school sexual activity…
Good thing you can’t get anything from fucking cows over there off of Lake Wheeler Rd, or you guys would be in a hell of a mess!
“Actually, the humiliation is perfect. It drives home how bad things are right now and how bad they’ll remain unless the team and staff does something different.”
^ Choppack, the humiliation isn’t perfect until he has to dip into his own 401k to pay off the deficit Purcell has run up.
“Oh no!! Looks like another pipe just burst in the Murphy Center!!”
Gavin, JJ and the 7 dwarves.
Coming into the year, many of us were concerned about perimeter shooting, turnovers (i.e. PG) and defense. We were poo-poo’d by sunshine. Conversely, we were ALL comfortable with our front court. Well, the shooting, turnovers and defense have ALL been as bad as we feared (i.e. vomit the koolaid) and the front court, with the exception of JJ, has bombed horribly. Costner and Mac have simply dissolved into nothingness. They are, maybe, the 5th and 6th best players on the the team. MAYBE. Upside? Costner’s only pro options will be free dinner from the C-league champions at the local Y.
As for Sid, he seems to be out there managing egos when he should be stomping the living crap of these kids. Oh, but wait, he’s just playing for March. Yeah, got it.
I feel sorry for Gavin and JJ. They are trying.
I have to say I am utterly shocked. I missed the game as I had a Christmas party with friends and family, but I recall watching the ECU/G. Mason game last week and telling my friend “If we lose to ECU next week, it’s over.” Sadly, those words are coming back to bite me.
It’s over. What in the hell has happened?
In the 70’s, Thompson, Burleson and Towe padded their scoring averages against EZU in major blowouts year after year. Now we suffer the humiliation of being the first ACC team to ever lose to them. Unbelieveable!
BJD - You’re right. But getting a new AD isn’t going to fix our b’ball program. We didn’t lose tonight because we played in Greenville - we lost tonight because right now, we’re a horrid basketball team.
Right now, I’m just too disgusted for words. Our team is quickly digging a hole that will be hard to get out of. It’s a very bad sign when after every game you have to say, “There’s still plenty of time to improve - and all is not lost.”
you want to talk scandals? seriously? Do I need to pull out the reason why jimmy airball was asked to….actually, bought out of his contract???? You really want to go there?
Go read the rules/by-laws/laws and tell me where terry went wrong…
aside from it “looking” bad, it was perfectly legit. Good idea to do what he did? nope. Will he be bought out of his contract for it? nope.
Tonight I felt like Grant and Hickson were trying their hardest and everyone else was watching. I am ready to see what Tracy Smith can do if given some steady minutes and a little freedom. I hope M. Johnson is a lot better than expected.
I just went back and read all the posts. I hear some talk about NIT this year. What are you guys smoking? NIT? This year? Let’s see, at this rate how many ACC games do we win this year? I’ll put the over/under at 4.
More like 0
chopack - I’m not saying that last year’s effort was always consistent. However, we had basically no bench, and we played half the year without a point guard. This team has no excuse for going full out all the time, there are plenty of bodies on the bench who can give you a breather. For the circumstances, last year was a success. For a team that is deeper, a year older, and brought in a stud freshman, this year has been an unqualified disaster.
“I’ll put the over/under at 4.”
I’ll put the mortgage on the under.
WOW!! really defensive. only reason to be that upset is if its true. i guess there’s a bigger problem than i thought.
Hould read: SFN Thread hits Rock Bottom. ECU fans loot and raze arena; Lowe’s Honeymoon kicks off in Ronoake Rapids to take in Parton show.
Well…my work shift is coming to an end. I guess I am gonna go home and try to forget about tonight’s disaster.
Here’s something to think about - maybe what we’re seeing is the direct result of coaching that DOES treat some games more important than others. I’m all for the red blazer bit, but every game is important. Our effort had been lacking in every game we’ve played w/ the exception of ‘Nova. Think of last year - and how often the problem wasn’t just the lack of the point guard, but poor D and effort. I can only think of a handful of games - at UNC, at GaTech, UNC in the tournament and at WV - that we lost where I really felt like our guys were doing everything they could to win.
Watch Coach K’s teams play - w/ the exception of last year, they leave everything out on the court every night out…same w/ Roy’s squads. Right now, we seem to be playing like a very bad NBA team.
I could handle this if it was just 1 game - but for the effort and execution to be substantially subpar for the 3rd straight game, well, there’s just no excuse for it.
upset? nah. never messed with any ecu chicks…
it is a bigger problem than you thought…you guys better look into it over there and dont let the N-O find out!
seriously though, if you guys need another coach fired, just give ECU a call…we can take care of it for ya!
night guys
and who the fuck from greenville is going to talk about fucking cows. we study animals. and we are clean enough to attract and have sex with humans(who aren’t diseased). get over yourself
xphoenix - I see your point and I pretty much agree w/ you. I’m just saying, that maybe last year we saw the exact same problems. We just excused them away the way some excused the effort against Michigan State due to fatigue.
In Johnson’s first game of eligibility, I would start him, Ferguson, Horner, Harris, and Smith. They would stay on the court at least until the first media timeout. Then, put the starters back in and let’s see who plays like they give a shit.
the media just might be about picking us for dead last in the league … ohh … huh? that was last year ??
seriously, at this point - with this type of “effort” 0 ACC wins is a distinct possibility … do i think that will happen? no … but play like tonight and it’s not improbable … just unreal
c’mon sid! i love ya! no more nice guy … time to kick some guys out of the locker room they don’t deserve like Izzo did after MSU lost to grand valley state … to get a fire lit under the collective a*ses
North Carolina college basketball poll
1. UNC 6. Wilmington
2. Duke 7. ECU
3. Davidson 8. UNCG
4. Charlotte 9. NC STATE
5. Wake
The sad thing is that this could actually, no bullshit, be a reality.
I don’t know what the hell just happened with that but UNC to Wake are ranked 1-5.
Hey Gavin, how many losses is that? 3? In how many games? Shut your freaking mouth.
You forgot App St. on that list.
Hell , maybe High Point will turn it around.
No excuses tonight. This team is a joke right now, and heat deserves to be on Sid now.
BJD95 Says:
In Johnson’s first game of eligibility, I would start him, Ferguson, Horner, Harris, and Smith. They would stay on the court at least until the first media timeout. Then, put the starters back in and let’s see who plays like they give a shit.
Agreed. This is when and where you find out who gives a damn and who doesn’t. Start yanking minutes and see who wants to win and who wants to ride their scholly for free tuition.
Chop me up as another one that THANKFULLY had to go to the work Christmas party tonight! I just got in and saw this shit and WOW! This is an all time low. Davidson, another in-state school is gonna absolutely spank us. We definitely drank the kool-aid too soon on Sid and this team. How sad it is to be 24 years old and the best accomplishment I can remember from my years is a Sweet Sixteen and a Gator Bowl win?! I get absolutely nauseated when people talk about the 83 Championship! That was ages ago and for someone who was born in July of 83, you can’t exactly say you witnessed that! There is no excuse for one of the largest state schools in the Southeast, hell on the east coast to do so poorly in athletics. -Sigh- Back to drinking and dreaming…
The View from the Cheap Seats: This the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper (T.S. Eliot).
I really don’t know how to respond to this, I heard the first 2 minutes of the game on the radio when we were taking it to the basket, playing hard, drawing fouls… So I was thinking “Hey… Sid must have done something ! “..
I turn on the TV to watch the game… I wish I hadn’t. ECU could not miss a 3 point shot if they wanted to, and the type of circus shots they made were sickening… But every time they made one, we never punched back.
Originally before the game I posted that we needed to fix this and this, and this… screw that list. We need to fix our heart. We need to find that passion for playing; If we find that passion, I can guarantee that the other problems will fix themselves.
I agree with BJD95. Put all of those other guys in, Fergy might brick every 3 pt shot but atleast he’ll fight for a rebound once in a while.
“In Johnson’s first game of eligibility, I would start him, Ferguson, Horner, Harris, and Smith. They would stay on the court at least until the first media timeout. Then, put the starters back in and let’s see who plays like they give a shit.”
I like this idea
I thing Chop got it right, Sid’s not consistently getting the team up for these games. This is awful.
You know ‘K’ is out there screaming and yelling every practice and Duke is intense from the first minute to the last of every game. Sid needs to drink a little of that Kool Aid and tear into these guys. Maybe he’s read the press and thinks we’re good. Clearly we are not and it is worse this year because we clearly have talent and more depth.
When the talent is there and the in game performance is not, I have to look at the coach.
Guards, Guards, Guards
Its all that needs to be said. College basketball is a guard dominated sport. If your team has good guard play then you will have a chance to win, if your guard play sucks you will lose 90% of the time.
So that brings us to the Wolfpack. You can throw Costner, McCauley hell most of the team under the bus and Lowe along with it, but I think we would be missing the point. Its not necassarily Javi, or Degands fault, they just aren’t ACC Div 1 guards, at least not at this time. They just aren’t and no bitching is going to change that fact.
Here is how I see it. The wolfpack is at best a one dimensional team. Its basically down in the blocks basketball. So while I wish I could blame Lowe’s coaching on the loses, I believe, he knows what he has and it ain’t a lot. He basically has to come into every game knowing that there only hope for victory is down low, spread the floor leave a big guy inside one on one and hope he can score. Or if the other team packs it in on him (which is happening more and more now that everyone can see we are one dimensional) then kick it out and hope someone, anyone can hit an outside shot. Unlike last year when Atsur could drive, kick it out to fells, grant or costner and they could shoot an open look or ball fake and take it to the rack. They just don’t have that this year. They didn’t have it last year when Atsur was out. Basically this team is last years team without Atsur. And that team stunk.
So Sidney has what he has, a small forward who is our best drive penetrate guy, a point guard that if he can’t shoot or penetrate is basically a wasted body on the floor, our most athletic power forward who came in 30 pounds overweight, and a phenom-frosh who is the only one who’s role without a point guard can still get it to the rack. So as long as NC State goes without experienced guard play this team will struggle and struggle mightely. Just watch the teams this year that make a run deep in the tournament(from cinderallas to the big boys)the ones with either senior guards or guard phenoms will make the biggest noise. I just hope that by the end of the year we see some improvement from Degand and Javi, the wolpacks future and Lowes might rest in their hands.
This loss is certainly disappointing, but I’m not yet ready to go Chicken Little like some of you guys. Recall last year at home we had to come back to beat these guys. I’m distressed by the poor effort on the boards and on defense, but that can be addressed. I would have hoped a 10 day layoff would make the guys hungry, apparently not.
But we were poor last year in the early going, and had some head scratchers all year long. It’s basketball so a single early season upset doesn’t end the year, we can recover.
As far as the PG situation goes, I didn’t see Degand last night, but guys (Costner, Fells) need to hit shots for him to get assists. He’s not turning the ball over, and seems to be improving his shooting from the field.
And speaking of Eatcrow, enjoy that unholy ass-whooping to Boise St. Best get a double mortgage on the double-wide to pony up for Skipper, too. He’s bound to get a real job soon.
And I can remember saying, “can’t wait for basketball season.”
I’m not yet ready to go Chicken Little like some of you guys.
What has NCSU basketball done in the past 20 years to give you confidence we can do better.
We fell off a cliff and we’re just kidding ourselves that we can climb out of it.
We’ve stratched our way up a bit in some seasons, but haven’t ever come close to getting over the top and will likely never come close to getting over the top again.
To get over the top you need the luck to hire a future Hall of Fame coach, which we don’t seem to have.
i wake up to the fact that we lost
This loss is going to haunt Coach Lowe. If this team doesn’t show some dramatic improvement before the end of the season, we’ll be hearing cries of “Lowe must go!”
Little wannabe schools like ezu always scream loud when they pull one off as if one makes a case for their belonging in the athletic elite.
That being said, we’ve got problems.
I’m tired of the excuses. I tired of losing. I’m tired of getting excited about NCSU athletics season after season, year after year only to again be totally let down. This loss brings back memories of Campbell, I had hoped that we had gotten beyond being a less than average program that loses to teams like Campbell and ECU and probably Davidson. I sat in my seat for the last home football game, watching the seconds count down to another disappointment and hope of some post season play. The scoreboard quickly reminded me at 37-0, another season of hope, heck another game of hope turned into another embarrassment. The loss last night to ECU has broke my back for NCSU athletics. I had hoped to one day in my lifetime see NCSU athletics bring home a National Championship to Raleigh, or atleast contend for one. After last nite, after the last home football game, I am thankful for the NCSU Collegiate Bass Team for atleast giving me something to be proud of. They brought home a National Championship to Raleigh, http://www.boatusangler.com/tournament_results2006.asp
Anyone want to buy some season basketball tickets? I need a down payment on a boat so I can finally follow a winning team from NCSU.
I had the misfotune of being there. That is my first look at my beloved Wolfpack this year. I did see ECU get smoked by Winthrop (My little Girl calls them Win Throw Up). Anyway, I will grant you that ECU came out hyped and Hinnant could not miss and it takes some of that to get a big win. But State acted like they did not watch any tape. Like they had no offensive plan. Early on their strategy was to watch Grant hog the ball and never pass. Late in the 1st, it was “stand around and watch Hickson”. In the second, I think it was “just launch the ball toward the glass, ECU will get the rebound”. Costner shot a frickin airball from the foul line.
Thanks Syd. You look good in a red blazer, but I have to take my kids out to the car and listen to every ECU student call their friends who got into State and laugh at them because “He man, we just f@ckin’ beat your team in basketball, Ha hah!”
We beat them by two TD in football, and lose to them in basketball. Neither of those should have happened. What is wrong with the world???
“Just watch the teams this year that make a run deep in the tournament(from cinderallas to the big boys)the ones with either senior guards or guard phenoms will make the biggest noise. I just hope that by the end of the year we see some improvement from Degand and Javi, the wolpacks future and Lowes might rest in their hands.”
Sid should know this better than anyone… if that’s the only reassurance that I see, it’s that he knows how to be a big time college basketball point guard. Our points are still young… maybe there’s still time to coach and guide, but from what I’ve seen, no one has been coached at all.
“Thanks Syd. You look good in a red blazer, but I have to take my kids out to the car and listen to every ECU student call their friends who got into State and laugh at them because “He man, we just f@ckin’ beat your team in basketball, Ha hah!””
That’s ashame. The game should’ve never been scheduled in ECU. I will never, for as long as I live, forget nor forgive what happened last night. It’s inexcusable and there must be accountability. I’m cancelling my Wolfpack Club membership until they can prove to me that they’re worth my money. They have to make some senior leadership changes (above head coach) to earn my money back. Wolfpack athletics (not just football and basketball) is rife with disappointment and downright failure. If I hired someone to do a job for me that failed as miserably as the Athletics senior leadership, I would’ve fired them back in 1999.
The title of this post is THE problem. How do we know that last night was “rock bottom”? We still have SC State and Western Carolina on our schedule. From the coaching staff, through the players, right on down to us fans, we have entered this basketball season with an arrogance that I would normally associate with the fans in CH. We all (myself and Gavin Grant included) beleived what the press told us, and thought that we were entitled to win, based on who we were. We the fans, the players, and the coaches need to get over our selves, and hope and pray that we can get a win, each and every time out for the remainder of the season. NONE of them are gauranteed.
“That’s ashame. The game should’ve never been scheduled in ECU. I will never, for as long as I live, forget nor forgive what happened last night. It’s inexcusable and there must be accountability. I’m cancelling my Wolfpack Club membership until they can prove to me that they’re worth my money. They have to make some senior leadership changes (above head coach) to earn my money back. Wolfpack athletics (not just football and basketball) is rife with disappointment and downright failure. If I hired someone to do a job for me that failed as miserably as the Athletics senior leadership, I would’ve fired them back in 1999.”
This should be relevant to all who visit this site. If so many are visiting here that the server continually crashing the site, then maybe we ought to put our collective thoughts together (whether anonymous or not) and come up with some worthwhile ideas of how he can help crash our Athletics Dept.
Here’s something to think about - what’s our record if you exclude tournaments since Lowe arrived? I don’t think it’s very pretty at all.
This shouldn’t be taken that I don’t believe Coach Lowe can get it done. In spite of what I’ve seen thus far - I still do. I also know that he has to learn how to coach the college game and motivate college kids. However, thus far the results aren’t encouraging.
Sid can still turn this thing around, but as I said earlier - it’s bad when you have to say that after every game.
A week ago, when BC’s athletic director made his comments about his players having “fun” - I mentioned that the “fun” doesn’t always last. If you are playing sports - you have fun when you win - period. Anything besides victories sucks any joy that you are having dry. When I heard Sid’s PC and he mentioned his number 1 rule was “have fun” - I was glad to hear those words. Unfortunately, the fun part is complex. I guarantee you that no one has enjoyed themselves in our last few non-tournament games.
Finally, to those moaning about scheduling this game - I understand. However, I don’t think it matters who or where we play right now. We’re just not a very good basketball team at this point.
The most disappointing thing about this loss is that it was very similar to the New Orleans disaster–9 point lead in the second half, a couple of wasted possessions when we could have stretched the lead to double digits, the other team hits some threes and gets some second chance points off of offensive rebounds to close the gap and boost their confidence, and before we know it we have lost another game that should not have been close. We learned nothin from New Orleans and we were lucky at the Old Spice Tournament.
Being a 30 year old Wolfpack fan, and beginning my Wolfpack following in the late 80s - I have to say this season is setting up to be one of the largest disappointments in my life as a wolfpack fan I am sure from reading above, many of you feel the same. To save space in the StateFansNation comment section, I posted by rambling response to this game over on my little blog…
http://thestateofthepack.blogspot.com/2007/12/is-this-packs-reality.html
what a defensive effort the past three games.
THe Countdown is on…..
vs. Villanova- 3 steals
vs. MSU- 2 steals
vs. ECU- 1 FRICKIN STEAL
Thats a total of 600 minutes of play and 6 dang steals.
that’s an avg. of 1 steal per 100 minutes of play
The entire team has 25 on the year(1400 minutes)
javi gonzales has 5 in a mere 58 minutes of play
Brandon Costner has 1 in 199 minutes
A name that doesn’t get mentioned much from last year is Bryan Nieman, and he had 20 steals in 524 minutes,
Atsur had 26 in 810 minutes
Even T FERG had 5 steals in 200 minutes last year
This Team needs to get their heads out of their a$$,
And their hands on the Ball or the Beatings will continue.
I can’t figure out why anyone would question JJ Hickson and Gavin Grant.
Grant - 25 pts, 6 rebs, 0 TOs, 0 ast(might be an issue?)
Hickson - 15 pts, 8 rebs, 2 asts, 2 blcks, 2 TOs
Costner - 2/11 fgs, 0/4 3s, 3/5 fts, 6 TOs, 10 rebs
With Costner the effort appears to be there(10 rebs), but he just isn’t hitting shots. On the season he is shooting .305 from the floor and .269 on threes.
There are only three players doing anything consistently on the court:
Hickson .723 fgs, 18 pts, 8 rebs
Degand .474 fgs, .462 3pt, 22 assists, 12 TOs, 3.1 rebs
Grant .456 fgs, .400 3 pt, 5.4 rebs, 19 assists, 16 TOs
These three players account for 56.7% of our scoring, 58% of our assists, 47% of our rebounding.
Where is everyone else?
THE SKY IS FALLING! Geezus folks this isn’t the end of the world. Sid can just throw out the 10 year long Sendek excuse “We’re a young team”.
It looked like we came out ready to play… we attacked the basket and got easy attempts. It looked like JJ was learning to toss out of a double team. Then we started making some bad passes for TOs and they hit a few 3s and the game became a contest.
On the bright side, we played the best 2 minutes of the season to open the 2nd. I am disappointed to say those are the ONLY two good minutes of the season we have played to now. Costner really came out fired up.. he got a couple of rebounds…where he actually worked for it and also got a couple of deflections and a couple of scores too.
ECU finally scores where Fells got beat (again) and GG goes and put his arm around him and they are all smiles….our guys were all smiles for a lot of the game and I am trying to remember why they should be smiling. That was the end of the game for us. What happened? Did we think we could come out 9-0 and the game was over?
I am beginning to worry about JJ’s hands. He really has not shown a good handle on the ball this season. I am constantly amazed by the TOs he and Costner (in particular) have.
I think that coach should go deep to his bench and stay there for awhile. It doesn’t matter any more… we must have a very good ACC season now and he needs to find some players in a hurry that have heart and hustle… i really don’t care who they are, but I am tired of seeing guys play that are mailing it in.
I posted this last night but I think it got lost in the transfer…
Is Sidney having some issues at home? He doesn’t seem himself this season, I remember last season he was very animated on the bench, yelling at his players and such… this year he’s saying good things, but not showing that passion that he used to have when the game comes. I’m not trying to make up excuses for last nights pathetic excuse for a “Game”, but maybe Sidney’s taking this whole “My son is going to jail” thing hard? We never really found out how it hit him last season because it happened after the NIT.
I only say this because one of the guys I know is acting similarly to Sid and he is having some marital/kid issues and it’s really weighing down on him. I did notice that Sid is rocking the championship ring but not the wedding band in a lot of recent pictures. It’s probably just speculation though.
As far as guards go, come on down Marques Johnson !
I, too, am disappointed….but sober. It would appear that most of the comments came after quite a bit of partying…none of which was for the Pack…
It was U>G>L>Y with a Capital U… BUT, that is why the game is played. Hinnant had a PHENOMINAL night…and we did NOT slow him down.
Chemistry may be an issue…Motivation may be an issue…Sidney’s personal problem (son) may be an issue…Loot at ASU…
I am NOT selling my LTR @ the RBC and will continue to send my hard earned $$’s to the WPC. (I actually made them by stealing a Santa suit, collecting donations at Christmas, and investing them in the stock market…only I lost most of it when WJC’s and Al (I’m fat and green) Gore’s dot.com bubble burst…otherwise I would have retired THEN…not in ‘06). Everyone ELSE was ranting…why NOT ME?
I thought that the top 25 rating was OVERBLOWN…just as the V man did several years ago. Sid, I suspect, is spending some quality time at the grave site…and will come away with some corrective action. I do NOT think we should rev us the bus and wait outside the RBC to ambush the team…I think some UNX idiot already tried that in the name of whoever and was equally unsuccessful.
What I want to know, is what med’s the posters are taking for their hang overs so that I can invest in THAT stock.
The sun DID come up this morning and there will be other games to play this season…we have our perfunctory 24 hours (V TALK) to mourn. For those who do NOT understand the excitement of the ‘83 team…try reading Tim Peeler’s book or reading the WRAL blog.
THERE IS A REASON why the V Foundation exists (even though Pam chose a BLUE logo…) and the V’s magic is contagious.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO MAKE NOISE…overload the ADMIN and the WPC server with a movement to put the V’s name on the RBC court…
GO PACK…