Lowe Era Begins with Tough Win Over Wofford

06-07 Basketball General85

NC State 92
Wofford 88

Boxscore | N&O Recap | Season Beginning Entry

Quite a few things happened to night to further signal the transition from the Herb Sendek era to the Sidney Lowe era:

(1) State scored 92 points for the game and is averaging 86 points per game in our three outings thusfar this season (2 exhibition)

(2) State scored 52 points in the paint for the game! (Compare that to Arizona State’s 56 total points for an entire game in a 5 point win over University of Victoria the other other night)

(3) State shot less than 20 three pointers in a game.

(4) State is not a good defensive team.

(5) State had no offensive droughts where the Pack failed to score for a prolonged time period.

(6) State actually came from behind to win…

(7) …to win a close game!

GoPack said:

Engin Atsur‘s go-ahead layup with 43.2 seconds remaining gave NC State the lead and his free throws with 2.9 seconds left sealed the victory as the Wolfpack made new coach Sidney Lowe’s debut a success in a 92-88 win over Wofford Friday night at the RBC Center.

* Engin Atsur scored 24 points and provided the Wolfpack its only source of scoring in the first few minutes of the game.

* Ben McCauley is becoming a beast. He scored 26 points, pulled in 5 rebounds and handed out 4 assists while shooting 10 of 13 from the floor.

* Bryan Nieman and Dennis Horner combined for the only 27 minutes of play provided by the bench as the starters carried the load. Of the starters, only Brandon Costner played less than 34 minutes (with 26 minutes).

* State shot 55% from the field for the game and held Wofford to 35% shooting in the second half after surrendering a blistering 65% in the first half to the visitors.

I thought that these comments were some of the best I have seen on the web:

We gave up 34 points in the second half . . . that isn’t exactly giving it away. 68 points a game from our oppenents is something I would welcome.

For a team that has no depth, a new coach, a new system, and a frontcourt that has basically no experience before this year, I’ll take it.

A game where they had to fight to come back, make some in-game adjustments, and learn to listen to and trust their new coach will ultimately be MUCH better for the team than a 30 point blowout.

Nice job hanging in there and getting Sidney his first win, guys. And for those people who are already posting “I can’t wait for Sidney to get his recruits in here”, consider supporting and enjoying the guys we have this year. Ben, Brandon, Courtney, Engin, Gavin, Dennis, and Trevor aren’t exactly scrubs.

By the way, we shot 62% from 2-point range and only took 18 3 pointers for the game. We scored consistently across the whole game and got to the foul line regularly. Nice.

Just win, baby

Additionally, the following comments were provided by some of our readers in a less relevant entry and we have moved them here:

1-0. Defense needs a lot of work. Great game by McCauley, but he can’t do that consistantly against the teams we have to play. Atsur had a great offensive game. We are going to need that every night

Looking for a bright spot, we won the second half 47-34. The theme for the year needs to be, “Any Win is a Good Win.�

For at least a week, Sid is the only undefeated N C State coach in recent history. Tracy Smith, Tracy Smith, Tracy Smith

We dodged a bullet. What a relief. We have a week to work on defense so we won’t get such a scare from Delaware State.

Our offense certainly did well. McCauley had a stud game. (Good thing we never got to see him play last year.) Atsur must be feeling okay, because he was awesome tonight. Everyone chipped in offensively. But we have A LOT of work to do to get to .500.

I think that you guys are missing the point about tonight. It has been a long time since a Wolfpack Squad has come from behind in that fashion.They did not quit.I am not crowning them, by any means, but I am viewing this as a positive attitude change..500 is reasonable I think, although it is still too early to tell what the competition will look like.

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06-07 Basketball General

85 Responses to Lowe Era Begins with Tough Win Over Wofford

  1. RickJ 11/13/2006 at 12:42 PM #

    ^ShootingGuard – Herb did do great things in his first year. I don’t see how pointing this out is any kind of slam on Lowe. The only time I did was when someone suggested it was his lousy coaching in that first year that kept us from going 8 – 8 in the league and sweeping UNC. This seemed awfully unfair to me. From my view, the second and third years are way more important in evaluating where a new coach is taking a program.

    I appreciate what Herb did for our program and wish him the very best at ASU. I am also ecstatic to have Lowe as our new coach and actually got misty eyed seeing him & Towe on the bench the other night.

  2. PackGirl 11/13/2006 at 12:54 PM #

    Countdown: 2 hours to the Tracy Smith decision

    “After signing J.J. Hickson and Johnny Thomas this fall, NC State is looking to add another big-time prospect as Tracy Smith will announce his college choice at his high school this afternoon… (2 pm)

    Smith received offers from NC State, Oklahoma State, Alabama, Charlotte, LSU, Virginia Tech, and USC among others, but he has narrowed his list to the Wolfpack and Cowboys.

    Which will it be? Will he play for Sidney Lowe and NC State and try to team up with Hickson and Thomas to help lead the Wolfpack back to the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference?”

    Keep your fingers (and toes) crossed!

  3. ShootingGuard 11/13/2006 at 12:58 PM #

    RickJ,

    I don’t disagree with you on any of those points you just posted…My overzealous drivel is directed at some of the comedy provided by Gene and xphoenix (who must live in Tempe now)…No blood, no foul.

  4. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 1:36 PM #

    Well, thanks for keeping it civil and not making illogical attacks on me as a person for your arguement…oh wait, you did that didn’t you?

    “I guess we should all relish the fact that we lost the only game we were favored in as well as all of the games we weren’t favored in…”

    We beat a MSU team that everyone picked to beat us. We beat a favored Charlotte team, then went on to upset a highly favored and #2 seeded UConn. Last year we beat higher-seeded Cal. Don’t give me that BS. We games than anyone would’ve expected of us, and were a Caron Butler miracle away from more.

    “Jimmy V gave Sid and the guys pep talks about finishing “closeâ€? to UNC, UVA, UNLV, UVA again, and Houston…”

    It’s not 83, get over it. If you hold everyone up to the standard of the most miraculous run in basketball history, you’re never going to be happy.

    “That must be why ESPN Classic plays those games continuously during March Madness…(SARCASM)…If you consider LOSING as “bestâ€?, then I am sure you play your tapes of those games over and over for your enjoyment…”

    Thank you for again misreading my statement. I didn’t say that they were some of our best games, I said they were great basketball games with exciting finishes. I also know for a fact that they did show the Cal game on ESPN Classic and that it was considered by most as the best finish of any game in that tournament. Doesn’t really matter though, the point is that the games were both as close as they could possibly be against teams that were favored to win.

    “You were obviously too busy watching all of our “greatâ€? losses to teams favored to beat us and all of our “greatâ€? kept it “closeâ€? games to notice how Chris Wilcox came alive down the stretch that season and into the tournament. Maryland doesn’t win that title without Wilcox. I guess you write Michael Jordan and Jimmy Black off as “roleâ€? players in 1982??”

    And Tech doesn’t make the Final Four without Schenscher, but that doesn’t mean that Elder, Jack and Bynum weren’t the stars of that team. Wilcox helped for sure, but how about we remember that he was at best the 4th most important player on his team that year.

    “Herb, is that you?? Seriously, that sounds like a sappy Lifetime Movie about Herb. I have always given Herb credit for the good he has done at State and defended him plenty of times, but you should expect your obvious hero in a twisted fan lovefest to take some barbs if you—and others—are going to persist on belittling what Sid is trying to do by comparing it in a negative slant with what Herb “the greatâ€? had to deal with and/or accomplished.”

    I haven’t belittled Sid once. He’s got a tough road ahead of him, and it’s a different situation than what Herb had. Herb had to rebuild a program that was in complete disarray following the *cringe* Les Robinson era. Sid has a program that, though depleted this year, has been to 5 straight NCAA tourneys. The perception of this program is markedly better now than it was when Herb stepped in. Like I said earlier, no way does Sid land those stud recruits without the success this program has had over the last few years. However, the expectations for Sid are much different. We ran a guy out of town who was consistently getting us 20 win seasons and NCAA berths. People expect to see the program move towards something greater than that while Sid is here. Herb was in a different position, and he did his job for this program and moved on. Herb is not “my hero”, nor am I going to say that I wish he was still here. He is a good basketball coach with some marked flaws, and he didn’t fit well with a high profile program. He’s gone, move on and stop making snide comments about his coaching ability whenever you get a chance.

    “xphoenix, I am not going to argue with you anymore”

    Good, I don’t have to deal with your illogical personal attacks anymore.

    “(1) Don’t be afraid to just let things go…”

    I’m not the one who keeps “flinging barbs” at our old coach. I recognise what Herb did for the program and I respect him for it. I don’t feel a need to deride his coaching abilities at every opportunity.

    “(2) You are never going to be offered a job that would pay you $500,000 a year more than your present position if you only aspire to meet expectations (i.e. lose when you are supposed to) or finish “closeâ€? to but not ahead of the competition. Setting goals like that is for losers, and losers don’t get $500,000 pay raises…”

    Whoops, guess I was wrong. One more illogical personal attack.

    “(3) Hate to break it to you, but Herb isn’t making $500,000 more at ASU…”

    The point is that it’s a lot more money than he was making. I used the figure Gene said cause I didn’t feel like looking it up. Turn your Ad hominem attacks towards him if you want.

  5. Gene 11/13/2006 at 1:52 PM #

    “You are a Herb hater�

    Nope. Not at all.

    LOL! Than why’d you tear into me, when I said the ’96-’97 team played good defense? Who’ll thing started over that post basically.

    Heck you now say you agree with me, because RickJ basically summarized what I’ve been posting.

    the difference between (1) giving effort but not playing smart or using effort wisely on defense, and (2) giving effort and playing smart to capitalize on energy and intensity on defense.

    You can call our defense a lack of smarts, or lack of focus, but we aren’t playing as well as we are capable of on defense, in my opinion. Or do you think the defensive performance we’ve seen so far this year is good as we should expect? Maybe lack of effort was the wrong word, but I think our defense has played poorly and can do better.

    Herb ran off several players the day he set foot on campus including Ivan Wagner who had a nice career at Texas, Marco Harrison who was a big man, and Andre McCollum who had a nice career at ODU.

    Clear out some guys, Les gave scholarships to, who just filled out space on the bench and might not have been that good to recruit potentially better players later on might not have been a bad decision.

    Even without those guys, Herb had more than 8 players on his bench to “suit up� in year 1 and especially in year 2 with his 6 man freshman class (do you actually research what you say??).

    Wasn’t Year 2 the year, when half the team was out with foot injuries, or something like that? I remember we came close to not having more than 8 healthy players a few times in years one and two.

    I just hate seeing HerbExtremists continually slice at Lowe,

    Who’s slicing at Lowe? We can play better defense, in my opinion. You may disagree and believe this is the best we can do on defense; you are entitled to your opinion. Pointing out poor play on defense is not a “slice at Lowe”.

    Ok, one more for Gene, and I am done with whizzing matches with guys who have never been a part of organized basketball at any level (Gene’s own words)…

    Thank you for letting me get in the last word. Also, you must hate reading opinion columns, in sports papers or on the internet, because I bet a lot of those guys never played organized basketball at any level either.

  6. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/13/2006 at 1:55 PM #

    “He (HS) did what he could do for the team and it was time to move on to a new coach.”

    Yes, like turn his back on NC State’s history, insult fans with every opportunity presented to him, make snide comments (along with his partner in crime Don Shae) about callers to his radio program after they had been disconnected.

    “Yeah, making the NCAA tournament 5 straight times and getting to the Sweet 16 sucks.”

    Just about every year (one exception) we where a bubble team with a terrible out of conference schedule that allowed us to have just enough win to squeek in. BTW of the teams that had gone to at least 5 tournaments in a row Sendek had the worst winning percentage of any of them. Also, a point of fact Hodge took us to the Sweet 16 (which should be the expectation not the exception) not the Sendekian way of thinking.

  7. Gene 11/13/2006 at 2:06 PM #

    PackGirl, from what I’ve read, Smith should be comitting to NCSU, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed. The announcement at 2 pm should only be a verbal, I think he’ll sign his LOI in the spring.

  8. PackGirl 11/13/2006 at 2:24 PM #

    I’m hoping so, but considering the Chris Wright disaster, I’m not counting any chickens just yet. Maybe in 26 mins. I will be.

  9. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 2:25 PM #

    When did he turn his back on NC State’s history? Give me an example. I didn’t listen to the radio show, so I’ll make no comment on that.

    We had bubble teams, but we advanced every year but 1. That’s pretty solid validation that we had tourney caliber teams.

    Saying that Hodge took us to the Sweet 16 and not Sendek is stupid. It’s like saying that Jim Boeheim didn’t win a championship, Carmelo Anthony did, or Billy Donovan didn’t win a championship, Joakhim Noah did. He was the coach and he got us to the Sweet 16, give the man credit where it’s due.

  10. redfred2 11/13/2006 at 2:34 PM #

    “You refuse to accept Herb left this program in much better shape, than when he got here.”

    HOW DOES ANYONE WITH ENOUGH SENSE TO TYPE A COHERENT SENTENCE ON A KEYBOARD, EVEN ARRIVE AT A CONCLUSION LIKE THAT???

    Herb Sendek was an improvement over only ONE, NC State Head Basketball Coach, that I have ever known in my lifetime. I guess that’s an accomplishment anyway.

    We are talking (((***RIGHT NOW***))) AT THIS PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME, and not at any other time. This mix and match group of players which were all that were left behind are all that matters for NCSU now. That rag tag group is the cummination of a decade of coaching at NC State University. After ten years of running the program, and at the point where Herb Sendek decided to walk away from it, this is all that he had to show and all that he accomplished for the future of NC State University.

    The difference is almost indistinguishable from when he started, and we’re now ten years further removed from everything that once made this an undeniably GREAT basketball program.

    I’m glad some of the fans still think it’s an accomplishment. And I know the AD and the administration appreciates that and loves you for seeing NC State basketball the same way they do.

  11. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 2:46 PM #

    You’re a coach. I offer you two teams of equally talented players. One team has had absolutely no success over the past few years. The other team has been to 5 straight NCAA tournaments. Which team do you choose?

    The success we’ve had in getting to the tournament over the last few years has had a positive impact on the program, whether or not you want to be narrow minded and ignore it.

  12. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/13/2006 at 2:46 PM #

    For the most part he banned former players from the locker room or contact with current players. When Lowe was hired several former players made comments about the fomer regime about how they were not welcome. Was there any other former player other than (insert your prefered adjective here) Archie Miller included on his staff?

    The difference is so clear with Lowe and you can go no farther than looking at the guide and the rosters sheet for the Wofford game. These things embraced NC State’s historic basketball program. Photo’s of all the past coaches and many of the great players and listing of many milestones including championships and number of NBA players.

    Could you ever imagine Roy Williams telling MJ not to come to a practice or to speak to the players before a game?

  13. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/13/2006 at 2:58 PM #

    ^^^ Well there was no picture of Herbert that I could find.

  14. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 2:58 PM #

    I can’t comment on that because I don’t know any of the facts behind it. Maybe you’re right that he didn’t embrace the history of the program. He certainly had his failings as a coach and I’m not about to defend everything he did. One thing to consider is that the years preceding Sendek were some of the most embarassing in the program’s history, with the Valvano scandal and Les’s incompetence. It wouldn’t be surprising to want to cut that off. Again, I don’t know any of the specifics around that, and there’s a good chance you’re right, but I can see another side of it.

  15. Rochester 11/13/2006 at 3:07 PM #

    Wow, this has turned so ugly it might possibly cure my habit of frequently checking SFN from work. Can’t we all just get along?

    Love him, like him, rejoice in his departure, whatever. He’s gone. For my money the worst thing Herb ever did was bench Tim Wells on Senior Day. I hope that never happens to another senior for as long as our program exists.

    As for the rest of the debate … well, it’s really over, and like most others I’m just crossing my fingers on Tracy Smith and wondering what ever happened to the mystery recruit(s) we were teased with a couple weeks ago. Are they still out there?

  16. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 3:12 PM #

    I’m also wondering about the whole mystery recruits thing. They threw that out there and then it just faded away, what the heck?

    I read on TWW that they moved the press conference back to 2:30, so 10 more minutes…

  17. redfred2 11/13/2006 at 3:15 PM #

    “You’re a coach. I offer you two teams of equally talented players. One team has had absolutely no success over the past few years. The other team has been to 5 straight NCAA tournaments. Which team do you choose?”

    Pure fantasy, AGAIN. With the reality of a decade of coaching being what is left at NCSU right now.

    The forever pointed to, NEXT SEASON, and the one at the end of ten season’s of coaching, has been abandoned, and is now sitting squarely in someone’s lap. It ain’t a pretty picture.

  18. primacyone 11/13/2006 at 3:16 PM #

    We got Smith. Just confirmed.

  19. packbackr04 11/13/2006 at 3:16 PM #

    i posted this on the other thread but everyone has left.

    can we take big lews scholly after this year. it certainly seems like sid can do better with it. with the way he is recruiting maybe we should call oj mayo and see what his deal is

  20. packbackr04 11/13/2006 at 3:17 PM #

    alright, welcome to NC State Tracy!

  21. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 3:19 PM #

    I’m done with this. You’ve obvioulsy got a very different opinion than mine and no amount of debate is going to change that. Lets just enjoy waiting for the Tracy Smith announcement now.

  22. PackGirl 11/13/2006 at 3:20 PM #

    Yeah!!! I can exhale now.

  23. xphoenix87 11/13/2006 at 3:22 PM #

    woo hoo, congrats Sid. Huge recruiting class that adresses those frontcourt needs. Great start, I’m already excited to see Smith and Hickson play next year.

  24. pakfanistan 11/13/2006 at 3:25 PM #

    I feel dizzy.

  25. redfred2 11/13/2006 at 3:27 PM #

    “We got Smith. Just confirmed.”

    GREAT NEWS!!!

    Someone was asking for proof as to where a love for NCSU and it’s great heritage were denied?

    I’ll say once again, RIGHT THERE, on the recruiting trail MOST OF ALL!!!

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