Pack Plays Well For an ENTIRE HALF! (Duke 92, NC State 72)

And naturally, we end the game down twenty and in complete surrender mode on defense. Have some pride to wear the uniform, and at least hit somebody if you don’t want to get into defensive or rebounding position. But don’t stand there holding your junk while a guy drives for an uncontested layup.

Not that I’m surprised, mind you. But that doesn’t stop me from being pissed.

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

146 Responses to Pack Plays Well For an ENTIRE HALF! (Duke 92, NC State 72)

  1. decwolfpack 02/01/2008 at 8:38 AM #

    Blaming the team and the coaches will also get you no where. Have any of you ever played basketball at any level? Even the most talented person has a breaking point. Paulus was a high school QB, he is tougher than Gonzalez but basketball wasn’t supposed to be a contact sport. Handchecking has ruined this game. The refs were terrible, they should have been calling moving screens on Costner as Javi brought the ball up the court. Billy Packer needs to get his head out of his ass, Costner was pissed at being mauled, Costner and the team have to do a better job at staying focused but I can’t say that if I were playing against that ferocious defense that I would be having fun. I love playing basketball but when it becomes that physical it takes the fun out of the game. If you have ever played in a game and had the ball stolen from you but it was a blatant foul that wasn’t called or some bullshit like Paulus kicking the ball and stealing it from Javi, it wears on you. If it happens a few times, no big deal but in the second half, they got more aggressive as the no calls continued and defense fuels the offense. So, if any of you can not see the correlation between bad refs and the outcome of the game I feel for you. It isn’t about any one call, it is the cumulative effect that ends up taking it’s toll in the end. 18 turnovers isn’t that bad when you consider that at least 5 of the turnovers were related to the refs. 1. Paulus kicking the ball. 2. We pushed the ball into Hickson and they hacked him as they stole the ball. and several ball handling miscues from being knocked off balance. I know the game would last 4 hours if they called every call but there has to be some way to make things more fair. If they allowed State to play the same way without calling fouls, I would be fine with that but they don’t. It is always one sided and will continue to be that way.

  2. RegularExpression 02/01/2008 at 8:42 AM #

    There were a handful of “only against Duke” calls in the game but certainly nothing that couldn’t have been overcome.
    The good and the bad of Javi’s game last night has been discussed here, but I think it is a good thing for this team that he is separating himself from Johnson. It looks as though he will get the majority of minutes from here on in which can only help him improve. He did have 2 fantastic crossover dribbles that left Paulus absolutely flatfooted in the first half. He seemed to get away from that aggressiveness in the 2nd half though.
    I think Duke is a good team and will likely win 2 or 3 games on the NCAA tournament, but when they play a complete team with expreienced guards and solid inside play they are going to have to shoot about 15 for 20 from 3 point land to win. They just have too many defensive weaknesses to consistently beat complete teams.

  3. brickman 02/01/2008 at 8:44 AM #

    some people just sound stupid !!!!!!!!!!!! the refs did have a little to do with the game ! jj had 11 shots at baskett . we did not make any 3 point shots in 2nd half .point guard def was a joke in 2nd half. costner made 10 of 11 fts in first half and know more in 2nd. he stoped going to basket . fells and horner were know shows.

  4. decwolfpack 02/01/2008 at 8:52 AM #

    I hate blaming the refs but I knew going in that turnovers were going to be the difference. All of Johnson’s turnovers were unforced but several of Hickson’s involved contact. The phantom fouls called on us changed the game. We had to sit Javi, Fells and Grant with foul trouble when we had a chance to widen our margin. Even though Fells was off his game when he was out Scheyer lit up Horner. Someone brought up taunting, I thought that Henderson was taunting Grant at some point in the game as they were coming back down the floor after one of Henderson’s dunks. We may never beat Duke but we proved we could play with them. This game was closer than the 20 point defeat. Hell, the second half was closer than 30 points, we just deflated as we stunk it up on offense and they hit 3 after 3 after 3. We were in this game for 30 minutes and those 10 minutes that the team fell apart were accumulation of mounted frustrations of no calls and lack of success on offense and Duke just getting by with everything. Their penetrators might as well have had fullbacks blocking for them. I have never seen so much elbowing and pushing. When we lose to other teams I don’t see the refs being as bad. I do think against Tech that missed traveling hurt us but we also got by with Hickson not getting called for a charge in one of those games.

  5. BJD95 02/01/2008 at 8:56 AM #

    A couple of response points and other thoughts:

    1) If Dennis Horner is going to remain passive on offense, there is no reason why Simon Harris shouldn’t get ALL of his minutes.

    2) IIRC, Tracy Smith didn’t play even in the last minute when the regulars were pulled after Lowe’s timeout. I hope something isn’t going on here.

    3) Last year, when Duke pissed Costner off (ACCT), he went on a tear and carried the team on his back to victory. This year, he just went back into his shell. That’s a huge difference. Historically, a pissed Costner is a very good thing for NC State. But he’s stuck in a funk where he acts like he just hates being on the floor. It’s certainly not an isolated incident.

    4) We didn’t give Simon Harris any PT in the second half, when we clearly needed some toughness. Hell, put him on Paulus (Paulus is certainly not FAST, Harris could stay with him) after the first few threes, and get some nice hard fouls on him. Get him out of rhythm. THAT was indeed poor coaching.

  6. boonami 02/01/2008 at 8:59 AM #

    I had the fortune/misfortune of attending the game last night. The first half was the best I’ve seen us play in a while, but refs aside, in the second half, we just didn’t play D; especially for the 3 point shot. Sid said in post game when Duke screened for Paulus we didn’t go over the top of the screen like we are supposed to, but went underneath allowing Paulus wide open shots. Another thing I noticed, we do WAY to much complaining to the refs. If you don’t like the call/get the call, get back and play D. Javi is the WORST at doing this and even after the game he was still arguing with refs after we had lost by 20. Javi, time to stop being part of the Rasheed Wallace School of Whining and play the damn game. Let Sid fight your battles, which he will as to those Herb lovers, Herb never did. There were bad calls on both sides and I never once saw a Duke player argue a call. Time to shut-up and play the game and remember folks, give Sid some time. Duke gave K 5 years and look how that turned out for them.

  7. packbackr04 02/01/2008 at 9:02 AM #

    the refs in the acc are putrid in general.. period. it surely didnt help us last night, but if a game comes down to where a ref can influence the outcome, you havent done your job. and we didnt do our job last night for the full 40 minutes. this team cannot put together 40 minutes of good basketball and it is maddening.

    i do hope that at the end of the year sid puts together a tape of all the blatantly bad calls (for and against us) and sends it into the NCAA/ACC offices. Because i have seen better officiating in 10-12 yr old rec league games. acc refs are just bad, to UNC, to DUke, To clemson, to everyone. ACC refs are simply not good at their jobs.

    and for those who found it necessary to bring it up….. “”‘s team played really well last night against UCLA. I think they scored 50 pts. i wonder what theyll do, they dont have as much wood to chop out there in the desert

  8. ChuckAllYall 02/01/2008 at 9:02 AM #

    It’s easy to despise Paulus (and I do), but that doesn’t change the fact I’d take him as our point guard any day of the week.

  9. decwolfpack 02/01/2008 at 9:04 AM #

    It is easy to say that we need to be mentally tough. I want to know how Sidney gets these guys to be mentally tough. You know they bang each other in practice. We will probably lose to Duke and UNC at home but all of the other games are in reach. We have played our 2 toughest games already with pretty bad results. The Clemson game was tough and is always tough but we are much better now than we were then. Javi did abuse Paulus a few times last night with the crossover. This team will be interesting down the stretch. One last thing about the refs. It is a matter of being consitant. The ball game last night looked like two totally different officiated games. I would have been fine with the outcome if it was called bad all the way through or called fair all the way through. But it was typical, get your hopes up and then get crushed. It is painful watching the demise.

  10. partialqualifier 02/01/2008 at 9:07 AM #

    Pack played well in the first half. I was very proud of the team for the way they played as a team in the first half.

    Unfortunately for us there are 2 halves…and we absolutely sucked in the second one. I know Duke is good….but seriously how does a team with 2 McDonalds AA and a couple of other fairly high-ranked players (Fells, Grant) get beat by 30 points in 20 minutes? That was pitiful. Once again we have shown that any good team will beat us by at least 20!

  11. wolfonthehill 02/01/2008 at 9:09 AM #

    Tracy Smith was in at the end – he was one of the two guys who waved at the backup white kid who drove the lane & got the hoop pl;us harm.

    The refs did not determine the outcome, but they determined the margin. They were directly responsible for 10-18 Duke points, with no compensating calls on the other end. We’re simply not good enough to beat Duke when the refs spot them 10.

    While “good teams overcome bad officiating” and all that may be true, that doesn’t mean that a mediocre team should HAVE to overcome bad officiating. If that one’s called fairly, it’s a 5-point game or less, one way or the other.

    To pick one call out, in particular… the non-kick call on Paulus gave Duke a 2-point lead on a fast break, and it gave them momentum that immediately built a 7-point lead. Without that one call, the 7-point lead might never be built.

    One atrocious call can break a fragile team… and while the fragile team is responsible for not being able to rebound, that doesn’t absolve the refs for the atrocious call… or in this case, a plethora of inexcusable, one-sided calls.

    In a fairly-called game, the Pack is in this game till the end.

  12. decwolfpack 02/01/2008 at 9:11 AM #

    I think the execution on offense and lack of defense was attributed to the players losing focus and letting the frustration get to them instead of beating Duke at their own game. Sidney was right, we needed to continue playing from the inside out. They only stopped that entry pass to Hickson a few times. Once they hit the ball out from behind and once they double or triple teamed him and stripped the ball from him while fouling with no call. We may have lost this game but there were some positives to move forward with if they match their intensity they had in the first half with other teams in the conference.

  13. packgrad93 02/01/2008 at 9:17 AM #

    “For those saying that the officiating is not a factor. They have never played the game.”

    exactly. when you feel like one team gets away with hand checking/grabbing/flopping/kicking it’s very discouraging. Combine that with piss poor FT shooting & 3pt def in the 2nd half, there’s your ball game.

  14. PackWolf82 02/01/2008 at 9:18 AM #

    I know you shouldn’t listen in too much to commentators, but they did get me thinking about this: What was up with our rotation in the second half? Why didn’t Sidney start the 5 that got us up by 9 in the first half? (I may have missed their foul trouble situations b/c raycom is lame and doesn’t show that) but how can he go such long stretches without some of these guys? It’s no secret that Duke has no inside game…why not go at them more with Hickson? I have seen the obvious questions with the team this season: effort, heart, quitting, etc.? but the rotation down the stretch is starting to bother me more.

  15. packplantpath 02/01/2008 at 9:21 AM #

    “If he doesnt lead us to a win in at least one of those games, I’m ganna have to be more hard on him.”

    And you will look like an idiot like many other people. Preseason, I went to my dentist, and knowing I’m a pack fan he was talking basketball and how he though state would be #2 after UNC. I told him then that I had doubts, but we would see. I went back to the dentist Monday, and unfortunately I was right. The expectations some people had were not just unrealistic, in some cases they were plain dumb. I didn’t see that much to be hopeful about last year, only flashes of brilliance. This year is last year redux.

    For those wanting Sendek back, go pull for Arizona, because if these kind of games are not familiar to you, you didn’t watch Sendek ball for 10 years. Maybe we haven’t got a better coach, I don’t know, but why go back to what you know doesn’t work? We regularly lost 15 point leads in the second half for pretty much the same reasons.

  16. Noah 02/01/2008 at 9:21 AM #

    The #3 team in the nation played a team that looks like it’s headed to the NIT last night. The #3 team has looked great all year (including the time they beat Wisconsin by about 60 points) The other team lost to ECU and New Orleans.

    Total fouls? Dook 24, NCSU 25.

    Final score? Dook 92, NCSU 72

    Reason for the victory? It had nothing to do with the fact that Dook made 21 field goals in the second to NCSU’s…..nine. It was the refs. Yep, officiating is the reason that the #3 team in the country beat a team that lost to ECU and New Orleans and won’t be in the NCAA tournament this year.

    Good lord, people.

  17. PackGirl 02/01/2008 at 9:23 AM #

    I am glad Javi complained to the refs. He was brutalized by Paulus the entire game. I think that was Duke’s game plan: attack the freshman point guard, in the dirtiest, sneakiest way possible, so that he will be traumatized both physically and psychologically. I was proud that Javi dealt with the abuse as well as he did. He’s a tough kid for sure.

  18. lush 02/01/2008 at 9:24 AM #

    it is perfectly reasonable to blast the refs when:

    in the first half state goes on a 15-2 run to go up by 9 and then magically 7 straight touch fouls send duke the line to get back in the game.

    paulus blatantly blocks a pass with his foot and then passes it ahead for a dunk.

    paulus karate chops costner in the head, throws him to the ground, while never attempting to go for the ball, and no flagrant or intentional or technical foul is called.

    the writing was on the wall in the first half. the refs were not going to let duke lose.

  19. decwolfpack 02/01/2008 at 9:27 AM #

    Wolfonthehill, I agree with you 100%, that is exactly the way I feel and it happens in just about every Duke game regardless of opponent. Carolina can match them mainly because of talent and Carolina gets make up calls. We usually get some make up calls. Not many last night. What frustrates me is that Duke gets calls like that when they are on the road as well. About the only time you see Duke play equal is in the NCAA’s. They have a good record in the NCAA’s but you could argue that as talented as they have been over the last 20 years that they should have more championships. I want the Wolfpack to win but I can handle when they lose because of effort and the other team completely outplaying them. I thought we had good effort for most of the game but the raining 3’s did them in and they folded. I hated seeing them give up and I hope they learn from this experience and grow as a team.

  20. boonami 02/01/2008 at 9:31 AM #

    lush.. even if the refs are not going our way,good teams find a way to overcome that and play through that. watch next thursday when Duke plays at the holes…UNC will get the homer calls and watch how Duke responds. By us getting frustrated shows we don’t have enough leadership on the floor to work harder. Fact is we left to many Duke guys wide open last night in the second half. That’s not the refs fault, it’s the guys on the floor not doing their job playing D. Duke shot over 50% for the game. Can’t win when they score 55 pts in the second half.

  21. packplantpath 02/01/2008 at 9:33 AM #

    “I thought we had good effort for most of the game but the raining 3’s did them in and they folded.”

    Agreed here, it seemed like every time the Pack did something good in the second half somebody was still celebrating and leaving people wide open for a 3. That was pissing me off, and it had nothing to do with the refs.

  22. beowolf 02/01/2008 at 9:37 AM #

    Sid said that they had a good game plan for the first 5 minutes of the second half and the players did not execute it. They completely abandoned the game plan and freelanced

    Did anyone else hear this? Because this is similar to what Grant said after either the UNC loss or Clemson loss or both: Coach told us what we needed to do, but we just didn’t do it.

    Also, this game reminded me of the game at Georgia Tech last year.

  23. Noah 02/01/2008 at 9:39 AM #

    “the refs were not going to let duke lose.”

    “The will of the addiction is a blind biological process that is endlessly questing for gratification and satiation, regardless of the consequences to the individual himself. Though such satiation and gratification may be transiently obtained they are inherently ephemeral, indeed, self-undermining states that are quickly followed by a return of the original distress. The addict purchases an all too brief remission of his dysphoria (bad feeling) at the cost of added misery on the other side.”

    — Dr. Floyd Garrett, from a piece called, “Excuses Alcoholics Make.”

  24. decwolfpack 02/01/2008 at 9:41 AM #

    Noah, You can point out 21 field goals to 9, you ever thought about the fact that we weren’t wide open for our shots because we had someone checking us for hernia’s the whole night. Good lord, I watch a game with an open mind, are people so close minded in the fact that we suck so bad that we can’t play with the #3 team on their court. Yes we lost to ECU and New Orleans. I guarantee that if we played each of them 100 times, they wouldn’t beat the team that played Duke last night. I guess some fans just watch the basket and see who scores and who doesn’t. I watch every facet of the game. Rebounding position, big men getting position for entry passes, perimeter defense and motion offenses. Whether a team is playing man or zone. I watch the ref counting for 5 seconds and when we are playing UNC I am doing my own 3 second count on Hansbrough and every big man they have had dating back to Warren Martin and Brad Daugherty. The refs don’t determine the game entirely but they can greatly determine momentum and momentum plays a big part in runs. It can begin a run or end a run and we got our asses handed to us as they came out and quickly erased our 9 point lead and then slowly built a margin to a 12 point deficit. When it got to this point, every questionable call fueled there blowout instead of giving us a chance to cut their lead. It was a closer game than some of you want to think.

  25. Clarksa 02/01/2008 at 9:43 AM #

    Total fouls? Dook 24, NCSU 25.

    I’ve been waiting for someone to bring this up…its not the number of fouls called…its when the fouls are called which affects the momentum…and if you didn’t see that during the course of the game last night, then you are truely clueless.

Leave a Reply