Evitmov’s Demotion

General NCS Basketball44

Prior to the start of his sophomore season, the popular Ilian Evtimov encountered a horrible knee injury that sidelined him for the entire season. At the time of Evtimov’s injury, the world famous NCSEC (NC State Excuse Club) immediately went into high gear and before you knew it was proclaimed (I think by Coach Sendek?) that “Ilian Evtimov is the Philip Rivers of the basketball program.”

Rivers ended up All-ACC, All-American, one of the top passers in NCAA history and perhaps the greatest quarterback in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. I guess now that such milestones cannot be projected for Evtimov, the poor guy has been demoted from being Philip Rivers to just being “NC State’s Glue”.

As anyone who has read this blog in the past knows, Ilian Evtimov is Jeff’s hero and we don’t appreciate the demotion that Ilian has been given!

We don’t have a clue if Evtimov is going to be ready for the big match-up against Carolina on Wednesday night. We would rather he be well for the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. But, we do notice that the NCSEC is in full force all over the internet right now. (Do these people put an asteric beside State’s win over Carolina in the mid-90s when starter Dante Calabria was injured?) It is ridiculous how much whining and excuse making is going on out there.

To quote one of our author’s responses on one of the excuse-laden threads on Pack Pride (Hey, JB – you swore to me last week that you were never posting on Pack Pride again!):

Q: How do we beat UNC without Evtimov?

A: The same way that they beat us without Rashad McCants last year.

If our “BEST TEAM IN DECADES” cannot beat 4 freshman and 2 players that entered their program as walk-ons on our HOME FLOOR (in light of our past performance against them)….then we NEVER will.

Why do we bother having “interchangeable parts” if the parts aren’t interchangeable enough to absorb the loss of a single player that has never made 1st, 2nd, or 3rd team All-ACC?

We are in the TENTH year of this program and their season is an anomoly that of which we must take advantage. We were told by our Athletics Director that this was going to be our year against them, I fully expect it to be.

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General NCS Basketball

44 Responses to Evitmov’s Demotion

  1. BJD95 02/21/2006 at 9:16 PM #

    One of my 4 year old twins said “Stinky Carolina…going down!” on the drive home today. I’ll choose to take that as an omen.

    Double Hansbrough and make the other guys beat you. If they do, tip your cap to them. But don’t let their one above-average offensive player have his way. Plus, single coverage will land Big ced in fast foul trouble. Then Hansbrough will REALLY go off.

    Anyone else notice that Hansbrough has the head of an 8-year old? Both in size and youthfulness. Freaky stuff.

  2. Mr O 02/22/2006 at 12:03 AM #

    It would be interesting to have UNC play us without their best freshman and their player with the most experience(Hansbrough and Noel). That is essentially what we will be doing tomorrow night if Evtimov doesn’t play. Still, we definitely have the edge going into the game and should be favored to win.

    This is a huge week for our program. All won’t be lost if we split these two games or somehow manage to go 0-2, however we have a chance to make a run at a #2 seed. The opportunity is right in front of us.

    Personally, I am very excited about the game and I will actually be in Raleigh to watch it. Unfortunately I have no ticket. I am really looking forward to checking out campus, CF construction, maybe hit Amedeo’s for lunch, etc…just to enjoy the build up to tomorrow nights game.

  3. JeremyHyatt 02/22/2006 at 4:50 AM #

    BJD95 Says:
    “Anyone else notice that Hansbrough has the head of an 8-year old? Both in size and youthfulness. Freaky stuff.”

    Finally, someone understands!!

    The part that makes him look like a child is his eyes. The way they are wide open and full of wonder like a baby-doll’s whose eyelids open wide up when you lean it forward. If you don’t know what I mean then nevermind!

    I agree they have to double Hansborough, at least at times, GT never double-teamed him and he dropped 40 on their head.

  4. BJD95 02/22/2006 at 10:47 AM #

    O, that goes WAY too far and you know it. Yes, Evtimov may be roughly equivalent to Noel. But equating Hansbrough (UNC’s ONLY good player) to Costner is nonsense. Because of their roster situation, UNC had to rely on their “best freshman” as a go-to guy. Even if Costner had been healthy, he was always slated to be the 8th man in the rotation, and a 5-10 minute guy at best. We certainly weren’t going to have him carry us on his back as Hansbrough does for UNC.

  5. Zahadum 02/22/2006 at 11:27 AM #

    My take on tonight’s game is somewhat different. I don’t see Hansborough being the deciding factor. Good as he is, he’s due for a down game.

    Unless Williams has a totally different game plan than before, the key tonight will be: ‘can Atsur actually guard somebody when Bethel is on the bench’? In the first matchup, they were attacking Engin at every chance, and he did not respond very well. Frasor had him for lunch in the second half.

    Would really love to see Engin come out tonight with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, have the defensive game he’s capable of, and show the rookies a thing or two.

  6. choppack 02/22/2006 at 11:56 AM #

    I think we’ll see a better game from Atsur tonight. I also think Bethel is in better shape than he was 46 days ago.

    I agree though w/ your premise. In Chapel Hill, their guards killed us. It’s time for us to return the favor.

  7. Mr O 02/22/2006 at 2:09 PM #

    BJD95: Take any teams best freshman and most experienced player and all teams in the ACC are likely going to struggle. When you lose your most experienced player that is exactly when you need your best freshman to step up and play a bigger role.

    You brought up UNC’s roster situation and our roster situation.

    I haven’t seen any of the “non-rosy red glass people” give Herb any credit for having the program positioned to overcome the loss of NC State’s 2nd most highly acclaimed recruit in the last 15 years. Seriously, the injury to Costner has been completely forgotten when if fact it was quite a significant loss since it has been tough to go more than 7 deep. And that is with some of the top 7 going through periods of struggle specifically Grant and Brackman. Even with this loss, this is the best start to a season in 30 years. Where is the credit from Herb’s critics for having his roster in this position? Instead I see people preparing to pile on Herb if we can’t overcome Etimov’s loss and at best less than 100% condition tonight, but I don’t see anyone acknowleding that it would be two significant injuries to overcome. Not just one.

  8. choppack 02/22/2006 at 2:23 PM #

    O – I think you should probably say Top 10 recruits in the last 15 years…Damien Wilkins and Scooter were McD AAs as well. I would put him behind Wilkins and probably equal w/ Scooter.

  9. Mr O 02/22/2006 at 2:34 PM #

    Wilkins had a name which boosted his accolades. But you are right, Costner is probably behind Hodge and Wilkins. IMO, he was more highly thought of than Scooter and more likely to contribute because of his size.

    The point is that it seems everyone has forgotten about a tough loss we have already experienced this year. It would have been magnified a lot more had Herb not had our program prepared to lose a player like Costner.

    Herb should get credit for that IMO. But we still lost a very talented player from our roster.

  10. Mick 02/22/2006 at 2:35 PM #

    ^ You want to give credit for something that is not measurable. We never really saw what Costner could or would do over the course of a season. He did not get a lot of playing time when he was healthy. It’s as if Herb never really had him. You don’t get a special compliment or credit for overcoming that type of loss. As far as the Evtimov loss is concerned, Herb has a few games left in this season to suck it up and win some games with some adversity. Great coaches can overcome injuries. He’s already won at Va. Tech. We have the players available to beat the three teams left on our schedule.

    Here is something you can measure: If Herb loses to Roy (Boy) tonight, he will officially be Roy’s beotch. 0-6, with 4 of the losses coming against lower rated UNC teams. We gotta win this game.

  11. VaWolf82 02/22/2006 at 2:37 PM #

    Where is the credit from Herb’s critics for having his roster in this position?

    I’m sorry, but a coach gets little credit for being in a position to do something….he gets credit for actually accomplishing something.

  12. Mr O 02/22/2006 at 3:59 PM #

    I honestly believe that Herb will never be good enough for some people unless he wins a national title.

  13. class of '74 02/22/2006 at 4:11 PM #

    ^that’s a bunch of bunk! Let him win several ACCT’s and he’ll have more friends than he ever imagined. Just look at E. Case for an example.

  14. VaWolf82 02/22/2006 at 4:13 PM #

    There are many levels of success in college BB…ACCT, Reg Season Titles, and then the NCAAT levels…S-16, E-8, FF, NC.

    Herb has only achieved the lowest rung of success..yet you despair that he will never be accepted short of the ultimate prize? Let’s fill in a few more of the intermediate accomplishments on par with Sloan or V. If the Great Herb Debate is still raging…then you will have been proven right.

  15. Mr O 02/22/2006 at 5:39 PM #

    Well, with a 2-1 record the rest of the way, Herb will have the best regular season of either Sloan or V with an NC State team that doesn’t include David Thompson.

    I agree that there are definitely more things for Herb to achieve. I guess I just don’t understand the overall unhappiness of some folks

  16. Fish 02/22/2006 at 9:41 PM #

    Does anyone want to argue with me about the outcome. Getting whooped, whooped, whooped. This group of players and coach just do not get it!

  17. WTNY 02/22/2006 at 9:50 PM #

    That was an ugly half. State has the talent to beat the Heels. Really. *Sigh*

  18. Fish 02/22/2006 at 10:24 PM #

    We will not see a win against UNC or Duke anytime soon—in just about any sport. I wish one year all of the fans would eat their tickets and not go when State is playing their rival. Maybe then the coaches and players in both football and basketball would finally realize what it is like tobe let down game after game year after year Chuck the Clown and Herb the Dork.

  19. redmarch 03/01/2006 at 3:16 PM #

    Copied this comment from another page. It answers the topic pretty well I think.

    Syd Says:

    February 28th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
    LAVIN/ ETIMOV. Everyone is perplexed about the disapearance of Illian Etimov. I wonder why? Maybe it is because no one has observed the fact that the offensive set that had been used so successfully up until this year, has been totalled abandoned by Coach Herb. The one that has Etimov posted somewhere around the top of the key, single handedly triggering 90% the offense. You’ll find Cedric Simmons in that position more often than not now, with his back to basket, in no position to make a play, and struggling just to rid of the ball.

    Wouldn’t Simmon’s size be better used setting solid picks down low around the basket for Bennerman and the others? Wouldn’t that also give the 6′9″ Simmons with his 7′+ wingspan a better to opportunity dominate down low in his natural position and take a few of the non-existent offensive rebounds and stick them back in the hole?

    Shouldn’t Etimov be given an opportunity to use his great passing skills with pinpoint passes to breaking players and lobs like he has done so well in the past? His skills and court savvy have been allowed to diminish because they are not being used at all this year.

    Hodge could drive and score or awkwardly draw a foul on almost anyone when he arrived, not part of Herb’s plans though. Marcus Melvin was a 6′8″ man with interior skills when he arrived, and he was instructed to stay 20′ feet from the basket and shoot three point shots. I could go on and on and beat a dead horse until I’m blue in the face, but the athletic director doesn’t believe that success in sports has anything to do with the success of the university. Look around at your close neighbors Mr. Fowler.

    This are just a few cases in a line of too many of Herb’s ability to disregard a players natural strengths due to the lack of his own imagination and rigid agenda. That kind of flexible thinking is what all worthy coaches have the ability to do.

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