(8pm Update) State’s First Basketball Practice Doesn’t Make Hometown Newspaper

head_up_your_ass.jpgSay What?  No Room for NC State Coverage?

Saturday’s News & Observer told the world that basketball is back in style at Duke. At Carolina, Roy Williams relishes the role as the favorite.

But, Sunday’s News and Observer somehow found room in today’s sports pages for an article about former UNC-CH quarterback Darian Durant’s play in the Canadian Football League, a 59 year old jockey winning a horse-race, and NASCAR needing to fund diversity efforts…but they couldn’t find space for the hometown major conference member’s open basketball practice that was held yesterday with the two top high school recruits in the country in attendance.

Saturday was undoubtedly a busy day in the sports world with almost all college football teams in the area taking the field; Game 6 of the ALCS; and the local NHL team’s action…but it’s still hard to believe that with the #1 high school center and the #1 high school point guard attending State’s practice that the N&O couldn’t find the requisite space for some coverage if nothing more than a throw-away mention in Tim Stevens’ recruiting column. Heck, there was fourteen full pages of sports coverage today. For the record, we weren’t the only people to recognize this today.

I don’t believe in black helicopter conspiracies where the media are concerned, but I do believe that the media is often grossly incompetent and overlooks a lot of their readers’ interests.  My theory on this oversight falls back to the recent headcount reductions and effective merging of the N&O’s sports department with that of the Charlotte Observer. All of the other sporting events on Saturday simply spread the limited resources of the newspapers too thin and made it impossible to cover everything.

When you end up with a non-Triangle-centric sports editor sitting in Charlotte making decisions – these are the decisions that you get. If the N&O wonders why their circulation is dropping, perhaps they should look at these types of editorial decisions for a clue.

Post-script note: To be fair, we need to let you know that the N&O’s ACCNow Blog did acknowledge the Wolfpack’s practice on Saturday afternoon with a picture and a blog post that was less than 50 words and didn’t include the words Derrick Favors.

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Since the N&O couldn’t spare the time and/or space to cover the event, fortunately SFN reader xphoenix87 gave his take on the practice.

– I’m always hesitant to believe talk about a guy really dedicating himself over the summer, yada yada yada. Talk is easy in the offseason, and often never amounts to anything. However, the talk from Brandon Costner is for real. He looked a good 15 pounds lighter at least. Definitely trimmer and much more explosive than he was last year. He didn’t do much during the scrimmages, but he looked great.

– Javi Gonzalez looked better than I ever would have imagined. He was making good decisions, and he was making them instantly, instinctively. He was strong with the ball and looked confident, everything that he wasn’t at the beginning of last year.

– The highlight of the practice was when John Wall responded to a chant by standing up and throwing up two wolf signs. Everyone went absolutely nuts. Both Wall and C.J. Leslie were in the house along with Favors.

– There was definitely an emphasis on getting the ball into the post. Several times as a team drove down the floor, Lowe would repeatedly yell “SEE HIM” to the guards as McCauley posted up.

– Farnold Degand is obviously not back at full speed. He wasn’t awful, but he certainly isn’t 100% yet.

We have addded some comments from some other friends of SFN who sent us some eye-witness accounts:

– We’ve heard a lot of buzz in the offseason about Dennis Horner and I thought his body looked much better and he looked much more agressive/confident. He just looked comfortable, which manifested itself in good shooting.

– McCauley also looked ‘smooter’ than last year (not sure if that is the best way to explain it). Generally, his activity resembled more of the 2006-2007 season than that of the 2007-2008 season.

– Fells may have been the best player on the court – which isn’t really a surprise when he asserts himself. Obviously, it appeared he was asserting himself.

– Tracy Smith continues to be so solid that it is hard to highlight any one item. He will play a lot this year.

– There is no doubt that the recruits – particular CJ Lelie and John Wall – are comfortable and familiar with the current players on the team. Wall seemed to be talking a lot with Courtney Fells.

08-09 Basketball Media

50 Responses to (8pm Update) State’s First Basketball Practice Doesn’t Make Hometown Newspaper

  1. MatSci94 10/19/2008 at 1:44 PM #

    Raleigh has a newspaper?

  2. old13 10/19/2008 at 1:55 PM #

    It’s hidden in ACC Now in the online N&O.

  3. 1.21 Jigawatts 10/19/2008 at 2:10 PM #

    Yet in the ACC Now blog they didn’t even mention that Favors was at the practice, just Wall. Just a 3 line write up by Rachel Carter who’s been at the N&O since 2002. While Duke had a full article about their practice, listed on the main sports page.

  4. BAC79 10/19/2008 at 2:23 PM #

    Is that not a picture of our government at work?

  5. JeremyH 10/19/2008 at 2:44 PM #

    was anyone at the practice and can make comments, particularly on favors and wall appearance?

  6. BoKnowsNCS71 10/19/2008 at 2:51 PM #

    The Raleigh News and Observer sports department is a Raleigh/Charlotte dichotomy. Sporting news via the paper media is just going to keep deteriorating.

  7. oldflyingfarmer 10/19/2008 at 2:59 PM #

    I never expect more from them. I haven’t spent a dime on them for years. I will look at someone else’s paper, but not with my money. They are liberal and anti-State.

  8. Afterglow 10/19/2008 at 3:12 PM #

    JeremyH-I read some stuff on the Two Very Good Reason to Attend Saturday’s Open Hoops Practice-Blog.

  9. Ismael 10/19/2008 at 3:35 PM #

    that picture is awesome. says it all. Actually, back up a little bit to the re-recruitment of Devonte Holloman. Look at the writeup that the N&O did, i think it was Tim “UNC” Stevens, actually no it wasn’t, it was Langston Wertz from the Charlotte paper, which to me is stupid to put charlotte-centric articles verbatim in a Raleigh paper. The title of the article was something like “Holloman interested in UNC”. In the article Holloman just mentions that he’d like to take another look at UNC-CH but inside the article he talked even more about other schools like TENN, where he recently took an official, etc. The title made it sound like he was gonna commit tomorrow to ol’Butchslap. Should have read “Holloman reopens recruitment”. That’s it. But Wertz knows at least who HE’s trying to polish the knobs of, and that’s UNC-CH homers. That’s what i hate about some of the aspects of the N&O sports section. But having a full writeup about Duke and leaving off NCState, relegated to just pictures on the blog site, is awfully telling. And we of course don’t care if they cover duke or unc or whoever. But to ignore NCSU who is literally right around the corner from them, is ridiculous. WRAL is getting bad for that too but not AS bad.

  10. 61Packer 10/19/2008 at 3:51 PM #

    This is the News & Observer, a paper that assigns home-based writers to cover Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and East Carolina sports, but assigns a Charlotte-based (Observer) writer to cover the Wolfpack. This tells me all I need to know.

    Look, Wolfpack sports have become a train wreck since the early 1990s, and last season’s men’s basketball was a head-on. Until we start winning again with some consistency, no news is good news.

  11. Dr. BadgerPack 10/19/2008 at 4:15 PM #

    Just to play Devil’s advocate– which came first, the crappy coverage? Or the crappy media treatment by our SID?

  12. JeremyH 10/19/2008 at 6:42 PM #

    Afterglow, I would have loved to see discussion of what happened in the practice rather than so much attention to newspaper coverage. If we get these recruits and start competing nationally, there will be no way the media like this newspaper can avoid us.

  13. RTPMedic 10/19/2008 at 6:53 PM #

    “Raleigh has a newspaper?”

    They did…it was called the Raleigh Times. The N(o)ews and Observer bought and gutted it like fish.

  14. whitefang 10/19/2008 at 6:55 PM #

    Yeah it pisses me off too… On the other hand:
    Look, the N&O has always put State on the back pages when possible. In fact we bitched about it in the late 70’s when I was in Raleigh reading the Disturber eating breakfast at the frat house.
    But our school needs to pull itself up and become relevant again. We share a media region with UNC, Duke, ECU, Hurricanes, and even the Panthers.
    When Rivers, Sheridan, Thompson, Valvano, etc were kicking butt we could not not be ignored. It is our (or our school’s) responsibility to make this happen again
    Just win baby… sure it ain’t fair. But start to BE the biggest school – not only in students and athletic club members – but in expectations on the court and on the field. The freakin coverage will take care of itself.

  15. Clarksa 10/19/2008 at 7:18 PM #

    “This is the News & Observer, a paper that assigns home-based writers to cover Duke, UNC, Wake Forest and East Carolina sports, but assigns a Charlotte-based (Observer) writer to cover the Wolfpack. This tells me all I need to know.”

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure I read that Ken Tysic (sp?) lives in the Triangle area…

  16. Alpha Wolf 10/19/2008 at 7:33 PM #

    True, Clarksa, but he’s originally with the Charlotte Observer.

  17. Trip 10/19/2008 at 8:09 PM #

    Don’t forget to add in that Johnny Thomas is going to be a beast if his knees hold up. His athletic ability is ridiculous, he was able to leap high enough to contest/block shots from way bigger people (Mccauley/Costner) and easily looked the most “in shape” of anyone out there I thought besides maybe Fells.

  18. Greywolf 10/19/2008 at 8:49 PM #

    “Look, the N&O has always put State on the back pages when possible.”

    You know that’s not right. When the graduation rates are poor, that doesn’t get back-page treatment. Coach Amato’s pressers. etc., made the main sports page.

  19. SMD 10/19/2008 at 9:02 PM #

    A humble request – is there ANYTHING you guys can do about the UNC-CH ringtone ad that keeps on appearing? I know that ads keep the site going, and I know that the whole thing is automated to a certain extent.

    And that shows the larger problem in a nutshell. Even some automated computer ad program doesn’t designate between us and Chapel Hell. If there’s anyway to have the people that buy your ad space rewrite the code to omit the Tarhole ads, I think we’d all appreciate it.

    Thanks!

  20. Defenestrator 10/19/2008 at 9:24 PM #

    ^ i concur … the unc ads are really a turnoff 🙁

  21. Noah 10/19/2008 at 9:24 PM #

    The title made it sound like he was gonna commit tomorrow to ol’Butchslap. Should have read “Holloman reopens recruitment”. That’s it. But Wertz knows at least who HE’s trying to polish the knobs of, and that’s UNC-CH homers.</blockquote?

    You DO know that reporters don’t write their own headlines, don’t you?

    Expecting anything other than wire-copy from the current version of the N&O is folly.

  22. TOBtime 10/19/2008 at 9:53 PM #

    No, we won’t get our fair share from the N&D as long as the unx/Duke media “rivalry” exists. How ironic it will then be if 1 or both of the prospects attending the practice last Saturday actually commits to NC State. Maybe you DON”T need a journalism school…

  23. spanky 10/19/2008 at 10:12 PM #

    You know, i don’t understand this whole “winning will help this” mentality… Was Jim Valvano not winning at the end of the 1980’s????
    Was Stormin’ Norman not constantly pissed about the baby blue coverage of the local paper? I just don’t believe that will help our cause with the N&O… Nationally, sure, but not the N&O

  24. turfpack 10/19/2008 at 10:23 PM #

    And all of you are surpised- WHY?
    Most of you probably don’t know of, or remember hatred and crap of State during the Sloan & V years of those so called sportswriters at the NOBODY&OFFERS-ANYTHING paper.

    Start kicking some blues asses and that can change,they will have to climb on the bandwagon or look like the idots they are,plus we want care what they say.

    SID -PLEASE ,SO LET IT BE SAID SO LET IT BE DONE!

  25. packpowerfan 10/19/2008 at 10:49 PM #

    What’s bad is this could be a turn off for recruits who want press coverage. How is Favor’s gonna feel when the Raleigh paper doesn’t even mention him?

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