From BJD:
In its regular season finale, with a full week to prepare, NC State played about as poorly as possible, and continued its 3 game losing streak. The Wolfpack could get no closer than 7 in the last 10 minutes, despite ice cold shooting from Justin Gray (which every Wolfpacker not named Atsur or Grant matched, and then some). Wake still looked sloppy and uneven (especially with its ballhandling), but a State loss was simply not to be denied today.
Side note – Gmisnki and Brando backed up the Billy Packer meme, declaring that Big Ced needed to get more touches down low. As the clock wound down, Ced started to get more touches, but he didn’t finish either. However, he did at least nail a bunch of free throws.
In what hopefully will not engender significant reverse karma from 2005’s infamous “CP3 nut punch” – a frustrated Tony Bethel lost his cool and threw an elbow at Justin Gray, with the outcome decided. Clearly, there was no malice or pre-meditation, but still quite uncalled for. Especially when it’s about an even-money bet that you will face this same Deacons squad in the ACCT quarters (no, I’m not a big believer in either FSU or Miami). Wake has had a putrid year, but has some athletes. The last thing you want to do to a team like that is provide them with a rallying cry (ask last year’s Deacon squad about that). As I noted way back in November, this Wake team isn’t good. But if they give us their very best shot, or if State continues it’s general post-Cameron sleepwalking – you could very well see an ACCT Friday exit and the Wolfpack in the dreaded ejector seat (8/9 seed) come Selection Sunday.
From Jeff:
NC State lost to Wake Forest, the LAST PLACE place team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, today Check that. The Wolfpack didn’t just lose…State NEVER LED in a game against a Demon Deacon team that had won only two ACC games prior to today. Then came NC State.
State has now lost three in a row heading into the ACC Tournament.
Tim Brando
I found Tim Brando’s announcing to be insufferable today. I usually quasi-enjoy Brando’s calls, but today he sounded like one of the biggest rationalizing whiny-pants in the world. It seemed to be a non-stop Sendek-esque brigade that would have made Stormin Normin roll over in his grave. I couldn’t keep up with Brando in between some of his craziness, particularly how it isn’t a bad thing for State to be a 6 or a 7 or 8 seed in the NCAA as opposed to a 2 or 3 or a 4 for some odd reason that I still can’t understand.
Big Four
Another game against a Big Four opponent. Another loss.
Is there really a surprise in this? Jeez. There shouldn’t be.
In TEN YEARS of coaching at NC State, Herb Sendek is now an atrocious 17-52 (24.6%) vs Big Four opponents. In this season, one that many of Sendek’s strongest supporters have touted as his best team of his tenure, Sendek is 1-4 vs the Big Four. Sadly, these folks are probably correct – it is one of Sendek’s best teams; doubly sadly, these folks see nothing wrong with the record despite having three seniors (2 senior guards) and a future NBA post player on the roster.
HSSS Irony
I can’t help but snicker at the irony of this loss when I think of the Herb Sendek Sunshine Squad. All season the Sendek Pride Message Boards have been taking snipes and criticizing Wake Forest Head Coach, Skip Prosser. Oh how I wish I would have saved some of those “insightful” criticisms of Prosser for right now. For the record, Prosser took over a program that had stagnated to the point where the previous coach (Dave Odom) was pushed out of Winston-Salem. For the record, Skip Prosser is 7-3 vs Herb Sendek in the regular season and 7-5 vs Sendek overall.
