Looking to Saturday Through The Lens of 2007
NC State’s strong play and run to the ACC semi-finals has people asking if this team can exceed the run achieved by Sidney Lowe’s first Woflpack team in 2007. (Link)
Can this N.C. State team go a step further than its 2007 edition and actually win four ACC tournament games and a berth in the NCAA tournament?
My answer that question is a resounding, YES! for one primary reason – depth.
Coach Sidney Lowe has developed his bench and these players to the point where any scholarship player has the experience and the talent to contribute in a pinch. Heck, even seldom used Johnny Thomas has ‘replaced’ Josh Davis as the hustle/hard work guy and Jordan Vandenburg has taken playing time from recently emerging Deshawn Painter. Richard Howell’s emergence means that another offensive option exists on the ‘second team’.
The 2007 team barely went five players deep and was clearly lead by a heroic effort from Brandon Costner. This team doesn’t have such a heavy reliance on a single player or such a limited set of half court offensive options. This team has already benefited from very strong play in two different games from a host of contributors making this run much more balanced.
With all of this said, I think that the ‘hidden’ differentiating factor in the Wolfpack’s recent play from our regular season struggles is the play of Farnold Degand. Degand has exerted energy on both sides of the floor and his ball handling and speed has been key in quite a few plays that were breaking down and needed saving. The “Degand Difference” is very real. Don’t forget his very first game this year when the Wolfpack had a second half offensive explosion to win on the road at NCAA Tournament team, Marquette.
The biggest key to the rest of the Wolfpack’s weekend is clearly Javi Gonzalez’s ankle. State does NOT have the depth – or consistency -to weather this kind of loss in the backcourt and Gonzalez’s strong play on both sides of the court since the Pack’s win over Wake Forest is clearly the key to our recent emergence.
The N&O gives your five things to watch as you look ahead today’s semi-finals in Greensboro.
9 Responses to “Looking to Saturday Through The Lens of 2007”
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Very similar run IMO. The other difference besides the depth issue – I don’t think this Duke team is as good as ’07 Carolina. If, God willing, we get by GT, I think we would match up better with Duke. But we have to win today of course (as does Duke).
The depth factor may be a little overrated. The 07 team didn’t have the semblance of being “out of gas”. We were just outmanned. And Reyshawn Terry couldn’t miss.
I’d like our chances vs Miami better. Beating Duke twice would be difficult. But I don’t want to count any chickens just yet, GT will be a tough game.
The huge difference in refereeing in last nights games should be noted as well. Karl Hess worked the GT-MD game and to me it appeared his crew literally stole the win from MD and gave it to GT. I was pulling for GT, but from a relatively impartial viewpoint, his crew made numerous mistakes.
Contrast that to the State-FSU game, which was one of the better officiated games I’ve seen lately.
I sure hope Hess doesn’t work our semifinal or the final should we make it.
Big difference from 2007 to 2010. I agree we are definitely not totally reliant on one player and we are a very good defensive team at this point. When you look back on this season it will be marked by missed opportunities within conference play. We are obviously a better team at this time than a lot of teams that will receive at large bids to the NCAA but due to loses to Virginia, UNC, Clemson and GT we only have one way in. Hopefully we can build on this run and have a special season next year. But not matter your opinion of Lowe this team has improved a lot, especially on the defensive end. This sure makes the weekend a lot of fun.
Captain, I think since Hess worked the GT-UMD game, he will not work our game. This would definitely be an advantage. Well…and advantage for both team to have a well officiated game.
One of the first questions Lowe received in his press conference after the FSU win was “How does this team compare to the one in 2007?” The first thing Lowe said was “We only had 6 scholarship players in 2007″.
I’m worried the 2 AM bed time is going to kill us today. I wish we had the legs to press GT the whole game, or at least all of the second half, but I’m afraid we are going to run out of gas.
I thought the officiating crew in our game did an outstanding job.
I lampooned Mike Wood in the game thread, but I thought they were great last night. Upon watching the game again on DVR, I caught several instances of the crew telling guys from both teams not to hand check and to get out of the lane to avoid 3 seconds calls.
Once on each end I heard “Clear out of there, Soloman (Alabi)” and then on the other end I clearly heard “Ok, Tracy – get out of there”.
^That’s the kind of officiating I can definitely live with. They didn’t take the game over with their whistles and gave each team fair warnings to keep the game balanced.
That said, Hess is not working the Duke/Miami game – so I’m really worried that his crew is doing our game. I’d much rather get the Wood crew again.
One last thing, Javi Gonzalez was brilliant in the second half last night. And for depth, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a “blue team” come on the floor for a couple of minutes today to rest guys. Painter, Davis, Thomas, Mays, Vandenburg etc. …
Looks like Duke is pulling away and will be able to coast to the final with wins over UVA and Miami. Talk about a red carpet!
We’re in for a dog fight today. But hopefully GT feels as if they have done enought to get that NCAA bid and they overlook us. I will say this – we need to press the crap out of them. They looked horrible late in our loss to them in Atlanta and they looked horrible against the press late against Maryland yesterday.
If we can survive and advance, Duke’s going to be awfully tough to beat considering they haven’t had to work very hard to get to the final. We’ll be playing for the 4th time in 4 days, and trying to make history. We can do it. If we win, I’m there in Greensboro tomorrow. Go Pack!