Deploy the Panic Button (Clemson 70, NC State 54)

Press it, pound it, or beat the ever-loving piss out of it (my choice). But it’s time, my friends. It’s time.

UPDATE: Oh, and Ben gets hurt in garbage time. Like I’ve said before – the motto of every NC State fan should be “It can always get worse – and it usually does.”

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe

176 Responses to Deploy the Panic Button (Clemson 70, NC State 54)

  1. wolfpack74ms 01/15/2008 at 9:43 PM #

    In every situation I’ve been close to similar to this one has been resolved by leadership. But, its too soon to give up on Syd at this point. The coaches can start by demanding all out effort from everyone every second you are on the floor or you sit.

  2. BJD95 01/15/2008 at 9:44 PM #

    Duke could easily beat us by 70, if they wanted. Our perimeter defense sucked last year, and sucks again this year. We just have a trainwreck offense to go with it. Degand’s injury hurts us in that area, too – he at least gave a consistent defensive effort.

  3. newt 01/15/2008 at 9:46 PM #

    Name the good freshmen starting PGs in the ACC this year.

    In fact, name 10 decent freshmen starting PGs in the history of the ACC.

  4. beowolf 01/15/2008 at 9:48 PM #

    The SI cover jinx has nothing on the Pack Pride cover jinx.

  5. wufpup76 01/15/2008 at 9:50 PM #

    this is just a bad team … there’s no malice in me saying that

    i don’t hate them and don’t want to be overly negative … it actually feels somewhat better to me to admit it … i’m not giving up on them by any strecth – never … but it’s not a very good team

    i’m going to switch back to my attitude from last season … enjoy any and every good moment this team gets and not fret too much about the bad moments … we may honestly struggle to get more than 2-3 more victories if this type of play continues OR if we keep seeing injuries … until we can solve some recruiting deficiencies it could be tough but i’ll keep on cheering all the way

    i just hope to see team improvement from this point on

    (side note – miami, our opponent on saturday scored 4 pts. in the first 10 min. of their game against bc … hard to believe a team came out looking almost as bad as we did tonight … how much do you wanna bet they’ll be firing on all cylinders on sat. night?)

    go pack

  6. dmwest 01/15/2008 at 9:51 PM #

    Jinx is our middle name.

  7. Wulfpack 01/15/2008 at 9:52 PM #

    Newt, off the top of my head Chris Paul, Marbury, Jarrett Jack, Will Avery, Greg Paulus…the list will go on and on.

    Not trying to make any sort of statement, but this is the ACC and we have had some great wins. I’m a youngin’ and these just seem to be a few of the most recent.

  8. Sweet jumper 01/15/2008 at 9:53 PM #

    Grant’s postgame interview: GG said Coach Lowe is telling them the right things to do in the timeouts and at halftime but the team either doesn’t listen or doesn’t do what he says. He also said that he knows that Coach Lowe is mad at them and they now need to get mad at themselves and do what the coach says.

  9. Ed89 01/15/2008 at 9:57 PM #

    From above: “In fact, name 10 decent freshmen starting PGs in the history of the ACC.”

    Are you kidding?

    Chris Paul
    Ty Lawson
    Tyrese Rice
    Demontez Stitt
    Chris Corchiani
    Raymond Felton
    Engin Atsur (yes, even as a Frosh)
    Sean Singletary
    Mark Price – ROY
    Kenny Anderson – ROY
    Ed Cota – ROY
    Stephon Marbury – ROY

    Man, I could go on an on….

  10. Trip 01/15/2008 at 9:58 PM #

    This team has one last chance to redeem themselves, Miami. I’m pressing the panic button now, but depending on how we do in a home environment against a overranked team on saturday, I’ll be jamming the hell out of it.

  11. Ed89 01/15/2008 at 10:06 PM #

    Westwolf — two of the best posts I’ve seen…I concur completely that those are our biggest problems.

    “Whoever evealuated the talent level of Javi Gonzales and Johnson and made the decision that they could ever, EVER play at this level should be fired immediately.

    And think of this…someone evaluated Degand and decided that he was SOOOO good that it was worth waiting an entire year for him to play. Do you realize that if a different decision was made, let’s say to bring in a different player than Degand, then he could have helped LAST year when Atsur was hurt, and this would be his second year of experience?”

    “Johnson simply can’t dribble with his left hand.

    Degand would not start on ANY acc team.

    We don’t have the talent level at guard to compete in the Acc.”

    Sid has brought in 3 PG’s in 1 1/2 years, and they all are bad….not fair…or sufficient…they are not ACC caliber. I do include Degand in this list.

  12. Dogbreath 01/15/2008 at 10:06 PM #

    Bobby Hurley was a solid freshman

  13. wallacepark 01/15/2008 at 10:08 PM #

    Here’s Costner’s stats after 20 minutes:

    0-6 shooting (zero points)
    2 assists
    1 rebound
    4 turnovers

    What happened to this poor kid?

  14. BJD95 01/15/2008 at 10:10 PM #

    I predict a very small and/or quiet crowd this weekend – unless they start booing. Not endorsing that, but that’s what I expect.

  15. PackScout 01/15/2008 at 10:15 PM #

    I don’t just blame the debacle of not having a point guard. The guys are not moving to the ball. Everyone is standing around watching the point guard or guard dribble. No help when someone is in trouble with the ball. What the…Our spacing and ball movement is terrible. Our dribble penetration is non existant. Frankly, our decision making and passing is awful. We are not aggressive with our offense or defense. This team lacks confidence and is not playing as a team. It looks like a street pick up game. Our defense is way too soft. Our hands aren’t active and we aren’t pressuring the dribbler. We had no deflections or tipped balls. The other team does not even feel our defensive pressure. They appear relaxed and cofident anyone of them could drive to the basket without someone contesting them. If this type of play continues this season will be a disaster!!

  16. turnoffthetv 01/15/2008 at 10:15 PM #

    All the talk about offense and the need of point guards, guards, and I have spoken my peace on the matter in earlier threads, but what about the need for defense on uncontested 3 attempts and wide open lay ups and such. How bouts some D.

    How bouts a foul brigade on the worst free throw shooting team in the ACC(CLEMSON). And I dont have the numbers on how many fouls we committed total tonight but it wasnt enough. Hack away you SOFTIES. Hack I,say HACK. What can it hurt?

    “And Costner fouls out in the first minute of the game”, So What.
    “And Gonzales commits his fifth foul with 15 minutes to play in the 1st half”, SO What.
    “And Ferguson fouls out midway through the first Half”, So What.

    Should have been a HACKFEST PERIOD.

    The Problem is we cant even get close enough to foul cause we dont DEFEND.

    And forget BURNING some clock on OFFENSE cause the ball is a FRICKIN HOT POTATO. Isn’t it Ironic?

  17. Ed89 01/15/2008 at 10:15 PM #

    Gavin Grant has never been accused of having a “high basketball IQ” has he? Man, he learned some bad habits from Hodge. He’s either great or awful. That lob pass to Hickson is NOT a hard pass….throw the ball close to the rim, and let him slam it. You DON’T throw it 10 feet out of bounds….WE’RE VERY BAD, and the two guys many thought would be our leaders….Grant and Costner…are not leading this team. Besides the PG, we have NO leadership from the players…none…nada…zilch. Ben is definitely the closest. If he doesn’t start, something is wrong….and will stay wrong.

  18. catchme16 01/15/2008 at 10:16 PM #

    it would not surprise me at all with a small crowd this weekend since it is a long weekend but i plan to be in the student section and hopefully things get better cuz right now things are really really bad

  19. beowolf 01/15/2008 at 10:16 PM #

    I’ve seen far too many February turnarounds — and crashes — to say that the season rests on the third game of conference play.

    Things look bleak right now, no doubt, but let’s not overdo it.

  20. TNCSU 01/15/2008 at 10:20 PM #

    Not sure why, but we don’t pressure the ball until they get to the 3 point line. Watch UNX, Duke, Clemson and they pressure all over the court. We definitely played bad defense, and are hurting for some player leadership, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel. We have just played 2 of our 3 toughest road games, so I have faith the coaching staff and players will turn it around. The game Saturday is big, IMO.

  21. JeremyH 01/15/2008 at 10:29 PM #

    Now that my hopelessness has subsided, I feel really bad for our coach. Imagine what kind of nightmare he is living right now (check the ‘quicksand’ speech by Keanu Reeves in ‘The Replacements’). Nothing he does works and it is getting worse by the game. And on top of that the pressure that comes with this job in such a high-profile basketball conference. Towe says premadonnas? They can be the “second wave” that spells the starting line-up of Fells, Harris, Horner, Smith, Johnson.

  22. MattN 01/15/2008 at 10:34 PM #

    Boewolf, I’ve lurked here for a while and I generally agree with you. But I saw so many things wrong in the 2 minutes of the 2nd half that I forced myself to watch I cannot imagine how they can be fixed. Fells getting absolutely blown by on D. One ill advised 3 pt brick after another. Costner playing lazy D, no help on defense, and playing volleyball with the rebound that Clemson eventually got.

    Saw all that in 2 minutes. Didn’t bother watching the other 38.

  23. Elrod 01/15/2008 at 10:38 PM #

    There was one thing about this game that I did enjoy. As the mental errors mounted, I believe Coach Lowe came to a point in the first half where he said “Enough is enough!” and started the fire sale on playing time. When players continued to make obvious mental errors, he replaced them, and not just for a little while. While his actions did not necessarily result in immediate success (points or defensive stops), to me the general level of playing intensity slowly picked up. IMHO, Courtney Fells was the obvious beneficiary, as he seemed to loosen up and play. Even Brandon Costner’s effort level picked up some (but that’s not necessarily a great feat). Hey, I don’t like losing any more than anyone else, but we all have been looking for something to change. We can’t make a quality PG suddenly appear, but we can improve our effort and playing intelligence. What I believe we saw tonight was Coach Lowe publicly saying to his players and to us “I am in charge and this team will do things my way!” We’ll see.

  24. tppack12 01/15/2008 at 10:40 PM #

    I think it goes without saying that guard play is the ultimate premium in college basketball. Look at the contrast at Duke and NCSU this season. Our offense is so f’ing predictable. One man struggles to maintain his dribble and shake off a smothering defender for 25 seconds while 4 other players stand around and scratch their asses. Then he either turns the ball over or finds a post man who hesitates while going up amongst 3 defenders and gets his shit blocked. Hell, if we do score everybody is so damn shocked that the other team is down the court for an uncontested layup.

  25. Dogbreath 01/15/2008 at 10:43 PM #

    We need to do what UNC, Duke, Louisville, et.al do, which is go purchase the best point guard money can buy.

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