Kudos Athletics Department! SFN doesn’t have a history of holding back criticism of the Athletics Department when we feel it is deserved. Being that we have no agenda outside of honest commentary and analysis, it isn’t nearly as hard as some think for us to offer praise when deserved. It was announced this week that […]
Miami, Pack Basketball “in middle”
Don’t look now…but NC State has a very important basketball game against the University of Miami on Sunday in the RBC Center. Gregg Doyel ranks the game as one of the ten best of the weekend, also stating that the games this weekend are “crummy”. Herb Sendek is 0-1 against Miami after losing in Miami […]
ACC Bowl “Beauty Contest” to Change
It looks like this year’s arguable shafting (depending on your point of view) of Boston College and Georgia Tech will be less likely in the future, per this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. Key excerpt: In the future, the Charlotte, Nashville and San Francisco bowls will tell the ACC which teams they want, the schools will tell […]
Being Competitive – A Real Example
There are two words (and all of their derivations) that I’ve come to hate over the last year or so…â€?expectâ€? and “competeâ€?. These two words are certainly not complicated to spell, pronounce, or use in normal conversation. However when they are used on sports message boards, the meanings can become nearly incomprehensible and stretched beyond […]
Some Thursday Sports Levity
From the reliably funny website “The Onion,” the following recap of the year in sports. My two favorites: Jan. 4—USC wins the FedEx Orange Bowl to claim an undisputed No. 1 ranking and the national championship, defeating Oklahoma in the first half 55-17, Auburn in the third quarter 21-9, and a combined Utah/Boise State all-star […]
Byting the Bowl Ticket Obsession
I have always been proud of State’s strong football fan support, particularly on bowl trips. This season, there have been various discussions about NC State’s Meineke Car Care Bowl ticket sales that feel just a little ‘different’ than normal. I am not in agreement with the direction of some of the conversations. So, in the […]
RPI and the ACC
Now that we’ve seen what the RPI rankings of Final Four teams look like, let’s look to see how various ACC coaches have done with respect to the RPI rankings and head-to-head comparisons. Notes: – For simplicity, I will only look at those coaches who have taken their team to the NCAA tournament at least […]
Fowler Talks to 1090…no…really..he does
Even though this is dated, I couldn’t let it go by without chronicling it. “Coach Fowler” gave a 10 minute interview to Triangle Sports Talk 1090 a couple of weeks ago. To be fair…I thought that his comments were pretty good. The problem is like the little boy who cried wolf — he just talks […]
RPI and the Final Four
To me, it was always intuitively obvious that a team’s record versus the RPI Top-50 was a key stat to use when evaluating a team or when evaluating a coach over time. Anyone can beat the Stetsons of the world (current RPI – 326), but it takes something more to beat good teams. However, some […]
NC State, The 4th Best Team In Iowa?
What looked like a “good loss” a couple weeks ago, isn’t looking that waynow. Iowa lost to Iowa State tonight in Ames, Iowa. They also lost to a good Northern Iowa team earlier this week. On the flip side, Notre Dame beat Alabama earlier this week. It will be fun to watch Iowa, ND and […]