Around The Dial

General NCS Basketball15

I hesitate to even log an entry this morning in light of VaWolf’s awesome “Looking for Brackets” entry that you should read here. Additionally, there are other entries beneath this that may be of interest to you (so many folks visit on only look at the top entry and miss other recent submissions).

But, in addition to the Pack’s trip to Atlanta yesterday, I thought that I would share some random comments and thoughts on the weekend:

* Correct me if I am wrong…but, NC State almost never makes an appearance on ESPN’s College Basketball Gameday in any manner. We don’t even get a Cedric Simmons dunk spliced in the middle of the incessant dunk highlights put to music. What’s the deal? I’m not even asking for them to come to Raleigh and put us on a spotlight game. Just get give us a couple of highlights and maybe choose one of our games once in a while!

* Speaking of Gameday, did you know that Rick Barnes’ University of Texas has been the feature game of ESPN’s Gameday THREE TIMES in the last year and a half of Gameday’s trips to college campuses? I guess that State can continue to dream to ONE DAY be a national fixture in basketball like Texas. It must have been their history and facilities?

* Digger Phelps calls George Washington over-rated and projects that they will be exiting the NCAA in the 2nd round. VaWolf points out, “GW is 20-1 after a nice road victory yesterday. They are also 10-0 against teams 201+. Their overal SOS is ranked 200+ in all of Division I. I think that GW is way over-rated by the voting polls. How much credit do you give GW for beating up a bunch of patsies?”

* I am seriously enjoying NC State’s current basketball season, but I would be blind or stupid if I had a deep-rooted “expectation” about success in this year’s NCAA Tournament until I see the Pack step up against Boston College, Carolina, and in the ACC Tournament in light of our record against “good” competition as there seems to be a very clear line between the top programs in the country and “the rest of us”. Now that we’ve lost to GT, my excitement has obviously dampened even more as the opportunities for a true “peak season” comparable with our peers of the last 15 years (since FSU entered the league) year continues to dissipate quickly.

* Take for example UConn’s 42 point win over Seton Hall last night. That is the same Seton Hall that also lost to Duke by 53 points and beat State in Raleigh by 22 points.

* Additionally, in a trend that mirror’s Herb Sendek’s history in Raleigh, this team also is struggling mightily against “NCAA Tournament-type” teams. Sorry, but that can’t help but scare me. NC State is currently 1-4 against teams ranked in the RPI’s Top 35 and 4-4 against teams in the Top 50 (thanks to Alabama for moving on up). Until we exert some muscle against “Top 30 teams”, how can we truly believe that we are a Top 30 team?

* Quick question — because of the pod system in the NCAA Tournament, what kind of seed does State need to earn to be “guaranteed” an appearance in Greensboro in the 1st and 2nd rounds?

* I attended the State-Maryland game last week in the RBC Center. Lots of thoughts on the experience…one disappointment that I had was the omission of any mention of Bill Cowher and the Steelers’ appearance in the Super Bowl. How did the gameday operations folks overlook ANY mention of the Super Bowl just hours before the game? NC State had Sean Locklear and Bill Cowher getting ready to kick off on the world’s biggest stage and there wasn’t a single “good luck” to either of them? Does ANYONE in Raleigh actually know what the word ‘MARKETING’ really means?

* JJ Redick commented that the Duke-Maryland rivalry is different from the Duke-Carolina rivalry because of the presence of more legitimate feeling of true dislike.

* Dan Bonner proposed Coach K and Dave Leitao as ACC Coach of the Year candidates. Frank Dascenzo also chimed in on COY and other awards today. What do you think?

* ACC Basketball Today ran a nice piece on Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena. WOW!! What a wonderful facility this is going to be!!! I wonder if UVA will struggle in their first 3 years in the facility like State did the ESA/RBC? Using the timetable that is so acceptable to so many Wolfpackers — since Dave Leitao is only one year into his job, we shouldn’t have to worry about the Cavs being competitive with us or the mid-tier of the ACC for at least another 5 or 6 years.

*
ACC Basketball Today is a television show that comes on Fox Sports South every Saturday morning. About the same time as ESPN’s College Basketball Gameday. Tivo is a wonderful thing.

* You’ve got to see Jen Sterger’s Confessions of a Cowgirl! She has made it all the way to Sports Illustrated (and beyond)!! Who is this girl? What is the deal? The story is outlined for you here at SI.

General NCS Basketball

15 Responses to Around The Dial

  1. Fish 02/12/2006 at 1:52 PM #

    We are no where close to being a Top 20 team.

  2. RickJ 02/13/2006 at 8:40 AM #

    The Greensboro Pod question is an interesting one. Unless something crazy happens, let’s put Duke in one slot, leaving one open. I not sure about this but I think the general principal is that the highest seeded teams are placed in the closet geographical Pod. The 2 games at a POD do not have to be in the same Regional. The higher our seed, the more likely we would be placed in Greensboro but there is no guarantee. You really need to look at the locations of the other PODs and then start looking at teams. At first glance, there appears to be a heavy concentration of high seeds in the Northeast (UCONN, Villanova, Pitt, WVU). I can’t believe there are enough PODs in the Northeast to accommodate all of these teams. I bet one of them ends up in Greensboro.

  3. ADS95 02/13/2006 at 10:44 AM #

    The 8 pods this year are:

    Greensboro, NC; Greensboro Coliseum
    Jacksonville, FL; Veterans Memorial Coliseum
    San Diego, CA; Cox Arena
    Salt Lake City, UT; Huntsman Center
    Dallas, TX; American Airlines Arena
    Dayton, OH; Dayton Arena
    Detroit, MI; Palace of Auburn Hills
    Philadelphia, PA; First Union Spectrum

    Given that, I’d say that we need to be a 3 seed or at least leapfrog a couple of squads. While that may sound unreasonabe given our proximity to Greensboro, remember that last season, even a 3 seed would not have landed NC State in Charlotte since Duke and Carolina were both there with 1 and 2 seeds.

    For argument’s sake, lets assume today we are the last 4 seed and look at the top 15 RPI teams (as of today) that should get located preferentially to us, and you will see why it doesn’t fit to put us in Greensboro.

    Its pretty safe to predict that Duke will be in Greensboro. That leaves one open slot there.

    Philadelphia looks booked to me: UConn and Villanova at 1 or 2 seeds.

    Oddly enough, Memphis is geographically closer to Dallas than any of the east coast pod slots. So we will put them out there. Texas gets the other Dallas slot, which leaves Oklahoma a little miffed, but so be it. We’ll assume LSU goes to Jacksonville.

    That leaves two slots in Dayton, two in Detroit, and one in Greensboro for Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan State, Illinois, and NC State.

    Going in order, Tennesee is geographically closest to Greensboro (283 mi), but Dayton is not much further (303 mi) so we will put them there.

    Pittsburgh is closer to either Dayton (260 mi) or Detroit (280 mi) than Greensboro (430 mi), so we will put them in Detroit.

    Ohio State is 75 miles from Dayton. They go there.

    Iowa City isn’t close to any pod, frankly. Dayton is the closest at 480 miles. My hope with them is that they get sent somplace warm instead of someplace close, so they go to Jacksonville or San Diego.

    Michigan State would be a logical lock for Detroit, which books it up. They are currently 11th in the RPI, so we’d call that the third 3 seed.

    Here’s where it gets interesting, and why I think we’d need that final 3 seed in order to get Greensboro.

    Illinois is 235 miles from Dayton and 388 miles from Detroit. Neither is particularly close…but they are the defending NCAA runner-ups. What would be the easiest for the committee would be to place Tennesee in Greensboro and them in Dayton and putting us some place else. Unless our very close proximity to Greensboro is taken into consideration, we don’t get there as the last 4 seed. We need to get seeded ahead of Illinois at a minimum.

    Since we are #21 in the RPI today, we need to leapfrog West Virginia and perhaps Northern Iowa as well, although as a mid-major they could get dropped a seed or two lower than their RPI.

  4. Trout 02/13/2006 at 11:07 AM #

    Right now, I’d bet NC State is headed to Jacksonville.

  5. class of '74 02/13/2006 at 11:10 AM #

    Who knows where we may be headed, #5 or worse seed has no control of their destination.

  6. RickJ 02/13/2006 at 11:10 AM #

    ADS95 – Incredible post & thanks!

  7. VaWolf82 02/13/2006 at 11:26 AM #

    Wow, thanks for that look at the pods.

    Now can someone explain why we want State to be in the same regional as Duke? Personally, I want to go somewhere that doesn’t include Duke or UConn.

    Would it be all right with you if I copy that and paste it in an entry on the front page? I don’t want that to get missed.

  8. Trout 02/13/2006 at 11:35 AM #

    ^ NC State and Duke can both play in Greensboro, or any POD, but be in different regions.

  9. Krpatel 02/13/2006 at 12:26 PM #

    Jenn Sterger is smoking HOT! So are her friends. Makes me almost regret going to NC State. Almost!

  10. choppack 02/13/2006 at 1:13 PM #

    “NC State and Duke can both play in Greensboro, or any POD, but be in different regions.”

    Thanks Trout – that was my question all along.

    About the arena – Don’t get me started on that. It’s clear that UVa’s arena is going to be a basketball palace. I’ll use this analogy. UVa is getting a sports car – sleek, sharpe and spectacular – not a multie-purpose monstrosity. We got a Ford Taurus – new and functional – but….

  11. Chief93 02/13/2006 at 1:36 PM #

    ^^ The Wonderbra is a fantastic invention.

  12. Jim 02/13/2006 at 2:35 PM #

    UVa is also paying ~$120 million for that new arena. We didn’t have anything close to that kind of money for our new basketball arena. We got the RBC for a fraction of that. Plus we get a check every year in the $7 million range for our take as part-owners.

    We are nearing the $110 mark in football-related building in the last 5 years, however. Don’t get ME started on the return we are getting there.

  13. Jim 02/13/2006 at 2:49 PM #

    ^ The $7 mill. is over and above what we make on bball tickets BTW. It is for our share of parking, concessions, etc . . . for non-NCSU events.

  14. choppack 02/13/2006 at 4:15 PM #

    Jim – I know and in a lot of ways that Ford Taurus makes more sense that a 2 seater. Of course, I know which one I’d rather drive!

  15. ads95 02/13/2006 at 9:05 PM #

    RickJ and VaWolf82…glad you liked the analysis. Be my guest at copying it to the front page. It would probably be worth re-analyzing once a week or so…

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