Salt in the Wound

07-08 Basketball NCS Basketball24

Coach K will get his 800th win tomorrow. I had totally missed that. Always nice when someone achieves a milestone at NC State’s expense.

This might shake me out of Acceptance and back into Depression, at least for a few hours.

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

24 Responses to Salt in the Wound

  1. Fenrir 02/29/2008 at 7:36 PM #

    did something tonight i never thought i’d do… turned down ticket to tomorrows game!!

  2. Anthony Grundy 02/29/2008 at 8:03 PM #

    You never know. Fergie + Smith + Hickson + McCauley + Grant + Fells could pull an upset. Like Coach said, never give up….I reckon he would give the same speech today to both the team and to the fans.

  3. wufpup76 02/29/2008 at 8:43 PM #

    Off topic – but hopefully Mrs. Lowe will be doing better soon … she certainly wants her son to do well:

    http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/index.php?p=16207&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more16207

    Thoughts and prayers

  4. JT 02/29/2008 at 8:51 PM #

    $#@! Duke.
    This is an opportunity for greatness, or at least a chance to finish off the whuppin’ they should have put on them at Cameron. Maybe if the refs called 1/10 of the fouls on Duke they should.

    VaWolf82: Next time I will simply delete the entire post with profanity instead of wasting my time editing it.

  5. LRM 02/29/2008 at 9:57 PM #

    If State plays, and no one watches, does the loss still count?

  6. werncstate 02/29/2008 at 10:00 PM #

    I wonder what Lowe’s game plan will be to keep coach K from reaching this milestone. Against UNC I posted that my game plan to win was to have Simon Harris start with instructions to continually step on Hopsboro’s toes until he caught a fist in the chops from the traveling man. I had hoped Lowe would have a better plan. Obviously he didn’t and the sad thing is my plan would have worked.

    Wake Forest layed the blueprint for how to beat Duke and it was really nothing new. It’s been the same blueprint for as long as K has been coaching. You must have dribble penetration against their overplaying man to man defense. The passes just won’t be there so you need to beat your man one on one. There lies the problem for the pack. Who on State’s team can dribble? All can bobble.

    Lowe did make one adjustment in the first half of the game at Cameron. He had Big ben bring the ball across the time line several times ( this may be the best strategy Lowe has shown all year. I really don’t remember any other strokes of brilliance from him this year). Even though K will be prepared for Ben playing the point this time, that’s exactly what I would do if I were Lowe.

    I just wrote a long paragraph on what we we should do on defense and then I remembered we don’t play defense so I back spaced all of that out. Actually for my idea to work we would have to play defense similar to Duke so never mind.

    Anyone know what the spread is since we are the most consistant team in living up to the Vegas odds makers. I was shocked it was only 8 vs UNC. I would imagine it will be in the 12 to 14 point range vs Duke which is still too generous I’m afraid.

  7. beowolf 02/29/2008 at 10:53 PM #

    I have noticed that a lot of coaches whiff on the first crack at a new century mark.

    But as for game plan, we’ve got Duke at home. Duke. DUKE.

    I would direct that the floor of the RBC Court be swabbed and slathered with fairly strong topical anesthetic, whose effects would compound over time with repeated applications. Why? To counteract the free throw attempts Duke would win by repeated flops. The more a player gets cheap free throws by throwing himself on the floor and giving officials “all” the excuse they need to blow the whistle for K’s boys, the less likely his numbed arms and shoulders will be able to hoist the ball toward the goal accurately. It could very well spell the difference.

  8. BJD95 02/29/2008 at 10:57 PM #

    I was hoping Duke might throw the game in order to break the mark in Cameron – but their next game is at UVA. So, no hope on that front.

  9. werncstate 02/29/2008 at 11:26 PM #

    Beowolf, now that’s the kind of game adjustment that I’ve been looking for! Even better than stomping on Traveler’s toes.

  10. Primewolf 02/29/2008 at 11:56 PM #

    I am ashamed to admit I gave my front row tickets away tomorrow. I am going to play golf. First time ever I have not supported the team in a ACC home game since I got LTR.

    The pain is too great, the coaching and confusion on the floor too unbearable to watch.

    I keep hoping I will wake up from this bad dream. But, alas, I have moved to acceptance to deep depression.

  11. werncstate 03/01/2008 at 12:44 AM #

    Primewolf, how were you able to give away your tickets? The best offer I had for my tickets was someone asked me to pay them 50 dollars and they would take them off of my hands. Unacceptable offer, therefor I shall be there to see the improbable.

  12. 44fan 03/01/2008 at 5:31 AM #

    I got lucky, I found a good dad. His daughter wanted to see Duke play. I actually sold mine for face value. The basketball God’s felt sorry for me.

  13. PackerInRussia 03/01/2008 at 7:17 AM #

    What do you mean there haven’t been many adjustments by coach Lowe. There’s been a huge difference from one half to the next this season. When they are winning a game the team is told to come out and not play as well and that if there was any hint of defense then they should stop playing it altogether. Or sometimes they are told to play really bad in the first half, spot the team 20 points and then try to win the second half. Maybe they’ve been under the impression that you can take your best halves and combine them together for wins at the end of the season (kind of like you do or used to do with the verbal and math parts of the SAT). Anyway, I know one number we’ll definitely see tonight: 800.

  14. Astral Rain 03/01/2008 at 8:15 AM #

    I’m wondering, are we at the point yet where we should be hoping for losses to get change quicker? (As in 0-16 next year? That would cause a change.)

    Part of me is wondering if short-term pain in that way is worth long-term gain.

  15. Rochester 03/01/2008 at 8:23 AM #

    Some quotes from Sid:

    On his team’s defense:
    A couple of times we just allowed too much penetration. And tomorrow we’re playing a team that has three guys, sometimes four with Singler, that can put it on the floor and get to the basket. We can’t allow a lot of dribble penetration. That’s an area that we need to be good at tomorrow.

    A couple of times?

    On if his starting lineup will change:
    No. You know I said that was awful, and it was an awful start because of offense and defense. We couldn’t make a shot and we weren’t getting stops. Certain guys came off the bench and got us back into it and then guys who were starting came off the bench and got us back into it.

    If at first you don’t succeed, don’t change anything.

    On Coack K trying to get win No. 800 on Saturday:
    It’s incredible. You look at what he’s done over there, he’s done a lot, not just for Duke but for basketball in general. And I hate to say this about Coach K, but to think that this is a guy who after his first or second year they were ready to run out of there. They were ready to get rid of him now and here he is, Hall of Fame and everything else, 800 wins and it just goes to show.

    Even Sid is trotting out the “Coach K sucked too” comparison. Maybe 25 years from now Sid will be about to win his 800th over in Cameron against Steve Wojo’s beleaguered Duke squad.

    The line in our paper this morning was Duke by 11. We either pull a miracle out of our a$$ and beat them, or we don’t come close to covering the spread.

  16. RAWFS 03/01/2008 at 8:53 AM #

    “The line in our paper this morning was Duke by 11. We either pull a miracle out of our a$$ and beat them, or we don’t come close to covering the spread.”

    Unfortunately, “I’ll take ‘don’t come close to covering the spread’ for 15-14, Alex.”

  17. BAC79 03/01/2008 at 10:14 AM #

    Somewhat off topic but related since we have no leadership at the top.

    Since 1987, have we won an ACC championship in anything other than cross country?

  18. wolfonthehill 03/01/2008 at 10:49 AM #

    Two words: bass fishing.

  19. BAC79 03/01/2008 at 10:52 AM #

    Yes, I forgot about the inaugural U.S. Boat Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship.

    I could only find records back to 2002 at this point and here are the results.

    N.C. State won the following ACC championships:

    2007 Men and Women cross country

    Wrestling

    2006 Women’s softball

    2004 Men and Women cross country

    Wrestling

    2003 Men cross country

    2002 Men and Women cross country

  20. BAC79 03/01/2008 at 10:53 AM #

    Maybe I should add, Lee Fowler has racked up a lot of ACC titles since he has been here. We are really getting our monies worth aren’t we.

  21. Texpack 03/01/2008 at 10:55 AM #

    I was somewhat encouraged when the roofers removed my satellite dish this morning. Then I realized the game was on CBS.

  22. wufpup76 03/01/2008 at 11:00 AM #

    Off to the game … I’m wearing a different shirt today, so I’m hoping there’s some sort of luck factor involved (it will probably mean good luck for doook, but you never know)

    Can’t wait to see all the terrible / missed calls for Kerkooskie’s squad live and in person! If only they ran the radio feed of good ol’ Biased Bob Harris over the PA system then my day would be set!

    Example: On an obvious Paulus flop, the crowd could hear Bob Harris scream “Chharrrrrgge!!!!” when Paulus gets the call anyway … That would be soooo much fun

    Seriously, if you want some quality entertainment, just have a Doook game on Tv in the background but listen to the Doook radio feed with our friend Biased Bob … You’ll see one game on the Tv, but hear Bob call an entirely different one … According to Bob, EVERY SINGLE CALL SHOULD GO TO DUKE – and if it doesn’t, something’s wrong and loud screeching whining ensues … It truly is hilarious – I kid you not

    I have no problem with a school’s radio crew being biased, even a little much sometimes … but with Biased Bob, it’s over the top comedy gold … The color guy they have now is not anywhere near as bad as Bob; in fact he seems to call it pretty much straight up … guess they had to have somebody like that to offset Bob a little

    Sorry to get off topic so much, but I need to think of something funny before what I’m about to witness and my good friend Biased Bob Harris never lets me down

    Anyway, have fun posting throughout the game today everyone! Can’t wait to read all the good stuff later tonight

    Have fun and Gooooo Pack!

  23. FullMoonRising 03/01/2008 at 11:09 AM #

    One good way to cope with the pain is to bet money on Duke. The line is only 12 points.

    This way, if NCSU wins I am happy and if NCSU loses, then I have monetary consolation. The only way that I lose is if NCSU loses but beats the spread. I’ll take those odds and hedge my emotions.

    Either way you win.

  24. WolfInVolCountry 03/01/2008 at 11:25 AM #

    ^^^^ I have become so apathetic that I did not even realize they were playing today, let alone Duke.

    Oh well… hey Primewolf, you need another to fill out your foursome?

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