Ben McCauley reinforces much of what SFN has said about last season, in a surprisingly candid interview with GoPack.com. There are several notable passages, but we’ll start with:
I have been here in Raleigh all summer, getting my body right. I have lost 10 to 12 pounds. Last year, I started the season a little heavy. So now I feel good. I had an ankle problem from something that happened in the Clemson game, but it is 100 percent now. I am really looking forward to the season.
Obviously, that’s great news. It was overshadowed by Costner’s lethargy, but Big Ben was clearly a step slower last season. Next:
There are two things, besides the chemistry and the style of play, which was significantly different, that not a lot of people talked about. One was not having Engin Atsur back at the point and then losing Farnold Degand. We were doing well at the beginning of the year with Farnold. We won the Old Spice. We went on a little winning streak for a little bit. We beat Davidson at home, which turned out to be a really good win. When he went down, we had a freshman in Javi Gonzalez and essentially a freshman in Marques Johnson. That is one thing that was overlooked a lot, because everyone was concentrating on everyone not getting along or not playing the right way. That may have been the case sometimes, but we also had some bad luck with injuries and that had some impact on how we played.
Although the line for public consumption last year was that the chemistry was fine, McCauley finally confirms on the record that there were problems. As we said, problems 1A and 1B were PG play (after Farnold went down, went from a C-minus to an F) and the huge rift based on a personal situation. Ben does talk about “style of play” - which can only be a thinly-veiled reference to the “feed Hickson” strategy. But note that even though he was the player most affected by Hickson’s role in the lowpost, Ben paints it as clearly secondary to overall team chemistry and lousy PG play. On that note:
Farnold is lifting, doing a little bit of running, which is good. He’ll be ready come practice time. He is itching to get back and playing. We are itching to have him back.
Like Coach Lowe, Ben is seemingly putting all of his eggs in Farnold’s basket. My contention remains that the fans’ like for Javi’s scrappy style is clouding their judgment on his actual level of play - which was pretty awful. He’s a backup at best, and may not be capable of being a solid backup until his junior season. A good sign for the backcourt? Read on:
The younger guys that are now moving up to be older guys, specifically Trevor and Dennis, are doing really well. Trevor got a lot of confidence at the end of the year. That has given him a lot of confidence.
Confidence is key to Ferguson’s ability to provide passable play at SG. We think he’ll be the starter, and it’s good that his mind seems right going into the season. Here’s a warning flag:
Brandon is playing this summer the way he played in the ACC Tournament. He’s not completely there, but he is on his way. He has lost weight. He is in the gym, lifting, getting stronger. I can personally tell his attitude is different than last year. You can tell there is a little fire in his eyes. He wants to play well for his fellow teammates, specifically Courtney and me.
Maybe I’m seeing too much black cloud and not enough silver lining - but that sounds like evidence of continuing divisions on the team. Fells, Costner, and McCauley are really the last remaining “Sendek guys” - unless you count Dennis Horner. Still, Costner needs to play with fire to be good. But he also needs to be a good teammate, and not just to the guys that were on his side last year. I also interpret this as a veiled shot at Gavin Grant:
We have great guys on the team this year. They have a positive attitude.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
Interesting
I have no idea what to expect.
I have decided to expect very little and maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.
If there is player division this year it bodes poorly for Lowe. It means he cannot manage egos which seems to be as important as coaching when you have the top players on your team.
I think you’re spending too much time in the tea leaves. The last two quotes especially are a stretch. Maybe he’s focused on them because they’re from the same recruiting class and they’ll all be gone after this year? That makes a lot of sense to me.
As for the last statement, it’s only meaningful if you emphasize the words ‘this year’ the way you did. Unless you heard him emphasize those words that way, it’s impossible to infer that type of meaning. It sounds like typical sports talk jargon to me. “We have great guys on the team this year. I just want to go out there and win some games for my momma and Jesus.” The same kind of thing EVERY athlete says.
About the Costner/Grant situation, what proof is there for that? As far as I can tell, it’s a rumor that was started on TWW that picked up steam because they need some reason for Costner to suck last yaer.
Nice summation BJD - and great last line.
We at NC State need to stick to our strengths. Finess has never been what we’re about, and McCauley or Costner are exactly that. I have yet to see Sidney use his street cred and get some ballers in here that we need to turn this program around from being a pushover, to one who pushes. I don’t know if Valvano had some kind of power (Mafia type), but he was able to get the Chris Washburns in here that gave NC State the intimidation factor it needed to put away other teams. Sidney needs to not only use his strength, but take a page out of what made NC State so successful, which is getting players that everyone feared at all times. Yeah, some may call us thugy or Big East, but that is the type of reputation Sidney has built for himself, and we need to use it as best we can. Sidney, use your power of pursuasion and get some Latrell Sprewell, Ron Artest, Ben Wallaces up in here, we all know you can do it.
Also, Matt Doherty (former coach at UNC) used his street cred and got Rashad McCants & Gang to go to UNC, and that team went on to win the ACC and National Championship.
Interesting quotes.
First off, one thing that really concerns me is the continued “we were playing good until we lost Farnold” statement.
We definitely started off OK. However, we also lost to UNO and ECU. And there was those not-too impressive performances against UNC-P and W&M.
This ignores the fact that we started the ACC season at 4-4 w/out Degand.
I guess my main thought is that if this team and coaching staff think that we played w/ Farnold in the first half of the season is OK - then we won’t ever be anything special.
Also, about the playing for Courtney and Ben bit - this worries me too. I’m more than a little concerned that we still seem to be ripe for more chemistry issues - and that possibly not enough has been done to bridge the gap between the former staff’s players and the new staff. (And I’m not blaming anyone specifically…)
I don’t want to run our current group of folks down. We have all seen what they can do at their best. Let’s make the best of this group that we have right now and try to inspire them to go .500 in the ACC. That would be remarkable. But after this class is said & done, Sidney had better get those ballers in here. And please refs, this year, when you see that Duke is about to be defeated by us, do not change your strategy & officiating mid-game to ensure a rescue.
choppack1
I agree with your statement. We have players that seem to have different agendas, and are not cohesive as a unit.
“everyone was concentrating on everyone not getting along”
Including the Athletic Director when giving an interview on a sports radio show. Hearing him utter those words, echoing the very same anonymous commentors he rails as useless, was the last straw for me.
I had given him the benifit of the doubt by and large up until then but at that moment he was completely ineffective in job and the most base core. You do not speak negatively about this young mena in public in any circumstance as the top administrator. Let your stance be known within the framework of the chain of command, the system either works or it doesn’t. It is the coach and coach only perogative to air any dirty laundry for fans and followers.
I love the McAuley’s effort but I don’t understand why people worship his game, or upside to it. He is a solid, slightly above average ACC player in a time when there happens to be less depth of great players in the ACC.
We need for our BigBen to be Ben Wallace, not Ben McCauley. I can tell you Ben Wallace wouldn’t let a pesky Paulus drive right into the middle of the lane & score a bucket on us. He’d let’em know how skinny Paulus was right off the bat.
vtpackfan - About the AD - you are correct. He doens’t need to communicate why things broke down - that’s not really important. What matters is that things broke down - and regardless of why, breakdowns of this magnitude are not acceptable.
I agree with packfanistan. A little too much was read into a few of those quotes. But with that being said, I wonder if McCauley was nudged by someone else within the program to be that candid during the interview or if he did it on his own accord. If it’s the latter, I hope he hasn’t gotten himself into any trouble with the coaches of the rest of the team.
And Bynum State, give it a rest. You say the same thing over and over and I’m starting to just skip over reading your comments.
Yes, I could be reading too much into some of the quotes. Maybe, maybe not. That’s why I added the line about mileage varying.
I am 99.9% confident that the Grant/Costner thing was very, very real. Sourcing is definitely not TWW.
I think Ben’s candor is a good thing. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, after all.
Before Degand’s injury (about the same time as the event that blew team chemistry all to hell), we weren’t GOOD, but we showed flashes of being pretty decent. We were just extremely inconsistent.
Down the stretch, we were pretty consistent in our shittiness. IMHO, we only had a better first half ACC record because of how the schedule broke out.
“He wants to play well for his fellow teammates, specifically Courtney and me.”
I read this more as a “wanting to send the seniors out on a high note” quote … at least, I hope that’s all it was
The last quote seems pretty generic / routine to say …
For the record, I do love my little Javi - but agree that Farnold should get the starting nod if he is 100% (or close) … Farnold has way more defensive prowess than Javi at this point and seemed to be finding his way in running the team prior to the injury
favors has narrowed his list down to 6 schools and we made the cut…i think 15% shot is very reasonable estimate…also seems that top 40 recruit and favor’s AAU teammate noel johnson might be visiting raleighwood in the fall…6′6″ shooting gaurd…think athletic version of woods (no slight on woods, the kid put up 40+ against tough AAU competition!) go Lowe and Harris!
I have vowed not to say anything negative this year about the basketball team or the people running it (this will expire the day after the Final Four in 2009).
Therefore, I will only say…I can’t wait until football season.
That bit about putting all our eggs in the Farnold Degand basket worries me, since he hasn’t played a full season of competitive ball in what, 3 years? he’s never done it consistently on this level, and he’s rehabbing from a major knee injury. look at the problems toney baker is having. what’s our back-up plan at point guard? javi and julius mays. that worries me greatly.
I have a question that some of you may help me explore or understand better. There have been a lot of comments about the offense being run through JJ Hickson and his inability or unwillingness to pass the ball. One of the things I watched last year was this very thing, especially after folks started complaining about his trouble with double-teams, etc. The most consistent thing I saw was that players rarely cut to the basket to give JJ an available passing outlet. It was almost like everyone was waiting on him to make a Superman move against two or three defenders. The way I was taught basketball was that the best way to beat a double-team was to go to the rim when your defender left to double-team your big man. Our players rarely did that. Is that JJ’s fault?
Elrod - I think in today’s game - it’s more likely for the big man to look to someone on the wing for kickout for a 3. But still, I see where your coming from - and I have no idea why either our players weren’t coached to do that or allowed to stay in the game if they ignored those instructions.
Bynum, I would much rather lose every game with quality people than win with thugs.
There is some need for attitude and determination, but Washburn, Wallace, Artest etc. NO THANKS! I will root for Orange County boys in blue before I would root for thugs.
^Yeah, it’s one thing to worry about losing a game, it’s another thing to worry after finals in December about losing players to academic failure (or jail). We can find guys who play with toughness who aren’t goons. We’re not Temple.
I understand exactly what you’re saying, chop. Best example I can give is from our hated rivals at BBU. If someone doubles-down on Handjob, what happens? A slashing wing gets a crowd-pleasing dunk or, if the slasher is covered, a quick pass to the opposite side for an open 3. That’s one reason why Handjob was not doubled that often; it was team suicide. Could we do that? Sure, but for whatever reason we valued something else more than effective teamwork.
Bynum:
“…but he was able to get the Chris Washburns in here that gave NC State the intimidation factor it needed to put away other teams”
That is perhaps the poorest example you could offer! Perhaps the NYC connections or the DC connections but Washburn played almost one whole season and (at least in my mind) started the downhill tumble for Jimmy V.
I certainly agree that we need to get people on the mat and take it to them!!! Seems like for 12 years now, if we win we barely win and when we get beat we get beaten badly.
I think I remember reading on here last year that going into the season someone with ties to the team was worried because there was a lack of work ethic and general focus on the upcoming season. I wonder what the evaluation is this year compared to last year.
As far as what happened last year… you don’t have to like your team mates off the court, but on the court you have to put the bullshit aside and get the job done. I have played with plenty of jerks, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t keep trying to do my best.
Look here TooYoungToRemember, the reason I seem to repeat myself on this topic is because it is an important one to be noticed, especially for those that ARE too young to remember. It wasn’t always this way. There is no need to go after finess, if that’s what you call a lack of motivation, when we have a coach with good enough street-cred (his son actually helped him gain some of that)to get the real ballers into our program. Let’s go State!!!
And TooYoung, I actually support your desire to skip over posts. Most people that are “casual” fans or fair-weather fans may not want to delge into philosphical conversation about what has made NC State successful in the past, or what we can do in the future to gain & maintain a solid program with good basketball. If you are that casual fan, going to the roundtable of articulate discussion might not be for you. Nevertheless, you are a State Fan and I am proud of every one of you that put time into the site to aid in that rebuilding.
“And TooYoung, I actually support your desire to skip over posts. Most people that are “casual” fans or fair-weather fans may not want to delge into philosphical conversation about what has made NC State successful in the past, or what we can do in the future to gain & maintain a solid program with good basketball”
I can promise you recruiting thugs like Washburn (and whatever other putzes you keep posting) are NOT why we were successful. Only a fool would think it and even a bigger fool would repeat it ad nausem.
Rick, to me it doesn’t reflect well on our program when you recall one of the more successful eras of our program as one that consisting of “thugs”. I wouldn’t regard that period of time as that. I would rather say that during the early to mid 80’s we were a pretty good team with good players. There is no reason to add insult to injury by calling the times in history that we were good as a “thugy” time in NC State history. Some may even say that there is an underlying hint of racism in that. Only you know if that is the case or not. Now I personally don’t think you are trying to play the race card here, but some may view it as that, which is something you will have to deal with should any of the offended opine. Those were good players we had during this time and I wouldn’t go undermining our achievments in that period of time by trying to taint it with “thugisms”. And moreover, there ARE other members of that team that I am referring to that played good basketball for us. Don’t try to minimize that era as merely the “Shack & Wash” era as there were other players with major contributions during these times.
Big Ben, if you needed to expunge this off your chest as therapy, then do what you must do. But past is past, and hopefully you and your teammates and your staff have learned from last year, and are capable of putting it past you very quickly.
“I have vowed not to say anything negative this year about the basketball team or the people running it (this will expire the day after the Final Four in 2009).”
Noah, a steak dinner says you can’t restrain yourself!!!! LOL!!
Bynum, I believe Tracy Smith has that physical toughness you speak about. As he gets more playing time this year, I bet he will take pride in defending the lane against the likes of Paulus and Lawson if they chose to drive.
WolfEyes, looking forward to seeing him!! That’s all I want is some toughness. I hated seeing Paulus drive right down the damn lane & watching defenders in awe as if he is some unstoppable force. Of course, the way the officating was in those two Duke games, he probably thought defending good wasn’t worth the fouls he’d be charged with. But it is nice to see us on the recruiting trail looking for signs of diligence & toughness. I don’t mind some finess, as Duke’s whole team is that & UNC has that in Ellington/Lawson. There is a place for it, but you have to have some grittiness & gruffness to go with it, which I think we lack right now.
“specifically Courtney and me.”
Aren’t McCauley and Fells both seniors? That’s the way I took it, he wants to play well for the seniors.
http://www.gopack.com/sell/SellHome.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9200
Is this what our Football jerseys are gonna look like this year?! If so… I HATE the 3 Wolf logo(seems it has overtaken Gopack.com…), but I like the simplicity of the uni.
I think you don’t give Javi enough credit.
Yes he was a freshman and he did pretty good considering some of the talent he had to play up against last year. His work against Paulus was enough to prove his desire and heart.
I think by his Junior year he could be much more than just a backup, but he will have to start hitting those 3’s in the game like they say he does in practice.
I’m interested in seeing these team take the court, and how they play. I’m not expecting great things this year, but I do expect and see the possibilities for the coming years afterwards. I want to see Ben shock some people this year, ….a year when he can actually get the ball more again.
Bynum State Fan
Aug 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am
We need for our BigBen to be Ben Wallace, not Ben McCauley.
Ditto
Bynum, I was content with containing my criticism to your posts and not stooping to insulting your personal attrubutes such as your level of commitment as a fan, but since you insist…
“Some may even say that there is an underlying hint of racism in that. Only you know if that is the case or not. Now I personally don’t think you are trying to play the race card here, but some may view it as that, which is something you will have to deal with should any of the offended opine.”
This sounds like you’re either a spineless lawyer or a mother-in-law who’s trying to stir up trouble. Forgive me for not giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you’re a spineless lawyer, bringing thugs that act like Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman to Raleigh probably puts more money in your pocket as you defend them in court for doing something stupid off the court and giving the university a bad reputation. And if you’re a mother-in-law you’re probably incapable of seeing the bad things your precious little babies bring to the town with them. It was a group of “physical” (read “dirty”) players that took our starting point guard out last year. Do you really want our team to have that same kind of reputation?
Regardless, from now on me and my “casual” fanhood will just skip over your posts and not continue to feed your trolling. I won’t worry because even a “serious fan” such as yourself can’t do all the recruiting. I’ll leave that to Sid & Co. Thank God.
Why does God hate us? Bowens out for season.
Sacco- Are you serious?! I heard there was a scrimmage tonight on the radio earlier as it was raining… and I had the feeling that someone would fall. WHY BOWENS?!
Ben gave an almost exact summary of what Roy Williams said about what happened to this team last year. I personally have a good feeling about coach Lowe and the direction we are headed. With some luck at the point we could be a bubble team come tournament time.
Too Young, I meant no harm towards you in my post, and the comments were not directed towards you. I was just saying there are some people that are merely spectators, and care nothing more about this subject, and then there are those that do the dirty work to try to make change. Every program has coaches and staff that are content with the status quo, and there are those that push for excellence. You might get the same result out of both, put the effort & desire to become better is what I am looking for. My most sincere apologies go out to you if I have wronged you in any way. That is not my purpose in any post. It is my wish that the younger generation of fans out there understand that this is something that we shouldn’t become complacent with. We have been better, and we will BECOME better. But we will not get there by accepting current situations as “It is just the way it is and always will be”. The University of NC fired a guy who took them to 2 final fours in 4 years (Guthridge). They were not content because of the lack of good recruiting that had been done, and in spite of 2 final fours in 4 years, he got ousted. We should not accept failure and continue to pay for it. I imagine fans that are around college age haven’t seen NC State at it’s best, but I would like to see them unacceptive of the results they are getting. I know an overnight change won’t take place, but I want to see a culture of attitude & toughness emerge, even out of this group, and that IS something that can change in an acute manner. I meant no offense in my posts towards you or your comments. Like I said earlier, feel free to skip my posts. Just because someone has the right to post doesn’t mean they have the right to be read. BTW, I enjoy your commentary, even if I don’t accept your premise all the time.
dear God bynum, use paragraphs!
Football looks to be shaping up great:
1. Toney Baker’s knee - lingering injury (2nd worst 2 word combination in sports) that puts him “on the shelf for a while”
2. Clem Johnson’s broken jaw - JC transfer that was supposed to start in an already thin group at safety
3. Donald Bowens’s spine - My personal favorite player and most electrifying player out for year. Career ending? (Absolute worst 2 word combination by the way)
Looks like God really does paint the sky UNX blue for a reason. Over the top I know but I think it sounds cool.
Wow… BJD normally you and I fall on the same side of things, but you definitely read into the undertones and context of this article the exact opposite way I did, and I must respectfully disagree with your commentary.
That first paragraph is a response from Ben to counter what he believed the media and fans felt about the team, he wanted to point out some things that “not a lot of people talked about”. If that isn’t blatantly obvious I must need glasses or a chance to re-enroll in english 101. He’s trying to explain why “besides the chemistry and the style of play” the team had other major issues that affected their game…
“That is one thing [Farnold getting hurt and a freshman PG] that was overlooked a lot, because everyone (read: The Media/Fans) was concentrating on everyone not getting along”
And how the heck do you see a positive statement about a player who appears to have finally woken up, makes a commitment to end his selfish attitude, gets back into shape, puts serious time in the gym and desires “to play well for his fellow teammates (all of them), specifically [the seniors] Courtney and me” as division and personal agenda?
As several others have mentioned, thats about as canned a press conference/interview statement as you’ll ever hear an athlete make… and you infer massive division among the players?
And the full last quote:
“We have great leadership in the seniors. We have great guys on the team this year. They have a positive attitude. They want to redeem themselves. We kind of embarrassed ourselves in the way we played last year. I think if we can concentrate on those things and concentrate on what we can do, not what we did last year. We have to think about what we can do if we play the right way, play together and play hard.”
Yup, sounds full of division and personal strife to me… yeesh.
Sigh, I shouldn’t be writing this late, and maybe I’ll be eating this post mid-season… but somehow, I seriously doubt it. G’night.
I agree, people have forgotten that Javi is not an ACC calibre PG.
Wake up folks, can’t you see that Bynum is just messin’ with people’s heads. Probably a Carolina fan. As far as Javi lets remember that besides being a true freshman he also had an injury to his hand for much of the year. How different might his (and the teams) play have been had he been healthy and able to hit the 3 consitantly? Just wondering.
We have been in the cellar for 2 years and I see no reason to think we will dig our way out of the cellar this season with the talent we have. Sorry for the bad attitude but that has become part of NC State basketball since JTV was forced out by the BOT.
I hope I’m wrong.
Agree with the folks that think we’re reading between the lines a little too much to pull some of the meaning from BenMcCauley’s quotes. Honestly, I don’t think the dude is that deep.
Regarding the point guard, agree that while Farnold at full speed might be our best option, that is only because we don’t have many options. Until we get the point guard position shored up by bringing in some TOP TALENT we will be mediocre AT BEST, no matter who else we bring in. As God is my witness, I don’t understand why the top PG’s aren’t lined up at the door to learn from Lowe and Towe.
Regarding Bynum’s comments about getting some tougher players in here, I for one have no problem at all with his use of Chris Washburn as an example. You folks gotta realize there is a distinction in wanting a Chris Washburn type PLAYER and Washburn type PERSON in the program. For all Washburn’s faults as a person, I don’t ever remember him doing anything on the court that would be considered thuggery. That being said, he was a tough player and would take it to you and would not back down. Its no accident he went in the draft as high as he did. I’ll take a whole team of Washburn PLAYERS. That doesn’t mean I want even one Washburn PERSON. There is a difference and I believe this is what Bynum is trying to say…and I for one agree.
We’ve been way too soft for way too long. Its time we got some bodies in here that aren’t afraid of contact and will let the other team know that they’ve been in a game.
I’ll be honest- if Bynum had stopped his wishlist at Ben Wallace, I might have agreed. Wallace is tough, a really impressive rebounder, and it rubs off on his team. As a result of his play, he’s won an NBA championship.
But with the litany of other names he’s listed, I’m positive that he’s trolling. Ron Artest, Chris Washburn, Latrell Sprewell, Rashad McCants? Every single one of them had serious issues either off the court. If you really aren’t a UNC troll, then pick your examples better- there are plenty of tough players who didn’t steal stereos, choke coaches, punch fans (!!!!), or run off the coach who recruited them and describe college as “prison”. You can’ expect to name names like that and not have readers remember the whole character of the person.
I know they had serious issues off the court, and I for one do not advocate kids doing illegal stuff. But I DO NOT accept the premise that because someone is a tough player on the court means they will automatically be a “Thug” off the court. Ask anyone in the NBA if they want Ron Artest guarding them. I am most sure their answer will be no. That is why he keeps getting contracts despite his off court bad behavior. Rashad McCants was a good defender, as well as Laimbeer and others I have mentioned. Just so happens that a lot of them have had bad off-court behavior. But so have the “finess” players as well. I think we can go after tough-minded and physical kids without risking a moral failure. Thanks Wulfpacker for understanding what it means to have physical players and the benefits thereof. I just don’t agree with the premise that finess= “good moral player” and physical= “Thug” . I don’t consider Karl Malone, Bruce Bowen, Dikembe Mutombo thugs, but they will be sure that the Paulus’s and Lawson’s do not drive right down the middle of the lane & score without feeling some resistance. I wouldn’t waste my time if I was any other fan on this site. I have a much younger brother that goes to school here.
If you had mentioned Karl Malone, Bruce Bowen, and Mutombo instead of a who’s who of troublemakers you’d have probably had a bunch more people agree with you.
I do not post looking for affirmation on my stance on things. I post what I think. There are times when most agree, and there are times when most disagree, it just comes with the territory of being honest about what you think. I do not have any harsh feelings towards anyone who might disagree with me on this subject. Hell, on another thread they may be singing my praises. I just say what I think. I still stand by my assessment that getting those calibur players will better our basketball program. Of course, I don’t like to see kids demean their opportunity in life by messing it up. But going after finess type players just because some perceive it as taking a moral high-ground is not the answer to improving our wins to losses ratio. Heck, even Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had off-court issues. Most consider Kobe a prototype finess player. And a lot of those physical kids that are deemed untamable kids are still manageable in the college ranks AKA Rasheed Wallace. But this has been a great subject to ponder, and I am sorry if I have offended/persecuted anyone regarding it. You are all my NC State brethren.
Charles Shackleford and Chris Washburn were tough? And feared?
By whom exactly? I remember both of them being extraordinarily skilled and extraordinarily lazy players.
If you want to bring in guys like that, fine. If Sidney Lowe wants to bring in guys like that, I’m very hopeful that someone will be standing behind him with a 2×4 and a list of new coaches.
We need to have that 2 X 4 you speak of behind him NOW. We have a choice. Either be complacent with the status quo and continue to accumulate L’s, or we can take a different route and get some kids with some guts in this program and see what happens. I really doubt we would go downhill trying different types of kids than we have right now, at least no more than we are already undergoing. I would lay off of him for a while if he were to get better kids in here, and work on this pansie attitude that we cohesively have here. Why would you want to wand a 2 X 4 towards him for trying different measures to make NC State successful, as the way I see it things aren’t working well up to this point.
Shackelford and Washburn were so lazy they took us to the final eight and had we not been playing Kansas at Kansas, we probably would not have not blown the lead in the second half and gone to the final four.
This game was a good example why the NCAA does not schedule home games anymore in the trournament.
Rock chalk jayhawk…beat us!
Noah is spot on with his assessment of Washburn and Shackleford. They had flashes of absolute brilliance, but that was all flashes. The success that we enjoyed while they were at State was probably due more to Valvano’s drive to succeed than any drive they had. I saw them each at Reynold’s about 4 times sitting just behind the visiting bench and NEVER got the since that anybody feared either one of them.
Just give me a Rodney Monroe, Chris Corch, Googs, DT, and Tommy Burleson and we’ll take on anybody!
Unfortunately no player of DT’s caliber will ever set foot on a college court again.
As for the rest, I could definitely settle for that lineup, maybe with a Hodge or Del Negro type player added in for good measure.
Regarding the tough vs finesse argument… I don’t think a player necessarily needs to be feared to be considered a tough player. Of course I’m talking about both physical and mental toughness. Players like Grundy, Gugliotta, Del Negro, Hodge or even a Todd Fuller all come to mind. They’ll take the other team’s best shot, won’t back down, and especially won’t be rattled out of their own game by anything the opponent does.
Another way of saying this more simply is to get players that play aggressively, that play to win. Players that have a killer instinct and when they are up by 5 they want to make it 10, when up by 10 they want to make it 20. We’ve been playing NOT TO LOSE for way too long. Any lead seems almost to be considered a fluke and the team strategy seems to become playing to hold the lead rather than to build upon it. Playing tentatively like that, no matter how much talent is on a team, takes a team out of its rhythm and will result in mediocre results at best.
Earlier in the thread (at least I think it was this one) someone made the comment that when we win its by close margins and when we lose its by a lot. This is exactly why that occurs. I for one don’t believe that this attitude is a product of the current staff and I fully expect that we will see it change as some of the current players cycle out of the program and new ones come in. I am hopeful that we will see this attitude change even sooner, as we did see flashes of it in Lowe’s first season as head coach. Last year was HOPEFULLY a fluke season that can be written off as an outlier or fluke or whatever due to personnel conflicts or team chemistry or injuries or whatever else might have been ailing last season’s team causing them to underachieve. Whatever the problems last season I don’t think it can be used as a good guage, although it certainly seemed that Lowe wanted, but most of the time was unable, to assert his will for the team to play more aggressively (of course this inability might end up being more than a fluke as well, in which case we’ve got bigger problems).
Also, the attitude of a team on the court is going to start with whomever is running the point. I believe we are only one talented and aggressive PG (a la Corchiani or Lowe or Towe…someone not afraid to take control) from seeing this type of aggressive team attitude return. Hopefully Degand can be that guy, but I suspect we won’t see it happen fully until Lowe is able to recruit a top drawer PG into the program.
I am not going to be fooled by any small talk this offseason…last year was too much of an eye opener…
I can not explain clear enough how truly terrible i believe this years team will be…
“Only you know if that is the case or not. Now I personally don’t think you are trying to play the race card here, but some may view it as that, which is something you will have to deal with should any of the offended opine. ”
You accuse me of being racist again and you will not be posting on this site anymore.
“Charles Shackleford and Chris Washburn were tough? And feared?
By whom exactly? I remember both of them being extraordinarily skilled and extraordinarily lazy players.”
Noah is spot on and it just shows how little this Bynum character knows. I am leaning towards a troll.
Testing to see if my posts show up … if not, could some one at SFN shoot me an email so I know why I seem to be on double-secret probation?
If you can read Rick, I said I didn’t think you were, but your responses speak for themselves.
“If you can read Rick, I said I didn’t think you were, but your responses speak for themselves.”
??
So I’m not but I am? Logic is obviously not your strong suit.
I definitely have mixed feelings about it, especially since it’s still happening when considering the results on the court last season, but it’s late August, and we’re still on the radar screen of the #1 big, and also the #1 point guard, recruits in the nation. Like I said, I’m kind of confused right now as to what this actually means regarding NC State’s BB program in the long run, but it’s definitely a good thing, and it’s great to see NC STATE continually popping up on all of the recruiting sites.