“Quest for Last” Almost Complete

07-08 Basketball NCS Basketball114

With Virginia’s 76-74 win over Georgia Tech last night, NC State is just one small step away from claiming the cellar in the ACC, along with the #12 seed in the ACCT. As long as the Wolfpack loses as expected at Wake Forest on Saturday (or Virginia and Boston College each wins 1 of its last 2 games), the quest will be complete. The Pack loses all tiebreakers, having won no games against Virginia, Georgia Tech, or Boston College.

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

114 Responses to “Quest for Last” Almost Complete

  1. Rochester 03/04/2008 at 8:42 AM #

    I’m not quite as sure we’ll lose out as I was before the Duke game. We just might have a little something in store for Wake. They’ve never really faced our secret weapon before. T-Ferg!

  2. Howler 03/04/2008 at 8:46 AM #

    How the mighty have fallen. I think I understand Gavin Grant’s four game loss prediction at the beginning of the season. He was misquoted. He must have actually said “I don’t think we will lose more than all but four conference games this season.”

  3. Plz2BStateFan 03/04/2008 at 8:51 AM #

    Mighty?

  4. Howler 03/04/2008 at 8:58 AM #

    We were mighty before the season began……mighty overly optimistic.

  5. EdMar 03/04/2008 at 9:04 AM #

    Howler,

    I think you are right.. Grant was misquoted he said we would win four games not lose four and be in the final four.

  6. Anthony Grundy 03/04/2008 at 9:08 AM #

    We will win the play-in game.

  7. Ed89 03/04/2008 at 9:11 AM #

    Truthfully, other than Duke and UNC (maybe Clemson), this league is just VERY AVERAGE. I’m so sick of the blues, and how they seem to be at the top of ACC basketball each year – yeah I know ESPN loves it. I’m ready for us to get back into the mix. WTNY? I think we need to get the Wake win to get us ready for the tourney, but whether we’re an 11 seed or 12 seed makes very little difference.

  8. Noah 03/04/2008 at 9:17 AM #

    There isn’t a play-in game anymore. Last place plays the #5 seed on Day One.

    When was the last time we were actually last in the conference? Was it Les Robinson’s last year? Seems like Sendek’s first year we managed to make it to next-to-last and Guh. Tech finished dead last.

  9. packgrad93 03/04/2008 at 9:19 AM #

    We could have been the 3rd best team in the conference this season. Only unc & duke have more talent IMO.

  10. Ed89 03/04/2008 at 9:22 AM #

    ^^^I agree, Packgrad93!! Again, I’m going to chalk it up to a big learning curve, personnel issues, etc., and hope for better days. I’m really looking to see who we sign in ’09 and ’10.

  11. choppack1 03/04/2008 at 9:22 AM #

    If you did a graph, you could show a very damning trend line.

    NC State basketball – “A race to the bottom!”

  12. haze 03/04/2008 at 9:24 AM #

    At this point, I mostly just want to see young guys getting time and, hopefully, getting better. I’d love to win something for Gavin, he’s been a trooper and really is the best interview in the conference.

    However, most of all, I want the staff to enter the off-season with a sense of desperation. I want them to be in pain, to the point of fearing for their jobs (as if Lee would fire them, HA!). I want them to completely revisit their ideas on off-season workouts, motivation, defensive schemes, offensive pace and team-first philosophies. I want Sid to consider staff changes, if necessary. This lousy season will have been a total waste if Sid doesn’t take a lot of the trouble to heart. We’re now entering year 3, it’s no longer about what we were in 2006, it’s about what Sid has made and will make us for 2008-2010.

    BJD: That’s a great paragraph right there. Couldn’t agree more.

  13. LRM 03/04/2008 at 9:24 AM #

    The Spirit of the Les Robinson Classic is among us.

    I reckon the positive is that next season we won’t have to worry about falling short of expectations.

  14. Noah 03/04/2008 at 9:31 AM #

    haze, I’m with you. If we walk into next season with the same people around this program…well, shit, I don’t know what I’m going to do. But it’s going to be a very damning sign for Lowe.

  15. Trout 03/04/2008 at 9:34 AM #

    If we finish last, we get another prize:

    We dont get to participate in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge next season.

  16. Rick 03/04/2008 at 9:42 AM #

    Ouch
    That really hurts.

    Like I said before, I do not like this team very much right now. There is no reason to be where we are.

  17. RickJ 03/04/2008 at 9:43 AM #

    If we were in a battle for first or even fourth and the last team to receive a first round ACC tourney bye, I could make a heck of a rant regarding the unbalanced schedules in the league. It hardly seems worth it for last place.

    BJD: Being winless against the other competitors for last makes the argument less potent as well.

  18. choppack1 03/04/2008 at 9:46 AM #

    Haze – I think you need to remember – the players just aren’t executing, that’s the only problem here. Everything else is fine. If we can get the players to execute next year, we’ll be great.

  19. El Scrotcho 03/04/2008 at 9:50 AM #

    Thank you football – the combined misery of the past few years killed the part of me that would have actually tuned in for games this year. Guess I didn’t miss much.

  20. Noah 03/04/2008 at 9:52 AM #

    “Haze – I think you need to remember – the players just aren’t executing, that’s the only problem here. Everything else is fine. If we can get the players to execute next year, we’ll be great.”

    My coffee must be late getting into the bloodstream…but…that’s snark, right? I hope?

    BJD: I read as snark.

  21. Ed89 03/04/2008 at 9:54 AM #

    Maybe we could schedule a Memphis, Kentucky, Florida, or Texas instead of the ACC/Big 10 challenge. 🙂

    First off, is it really a “challenge” anymore??? How about a Big East/ACC Challenge??? I think that would be more appropriate.

    To add to RickJ’s comments, I agree. If we were 9-6 at this point with 2 losses each to UNC, Duke, and Clemson, we could argue that — but with losses to the 9, 10, and 11th place teams, it ain’t worth it. You gotta beat the teams that you should beat. Note: when harping on the value of guard play and the need for experience (which I agree with to an extent – just no need to continually use it as an excuse), Va Tech is in 4th place when they lost two senior starting guards – Seth Greenberg IMO is the front-runner for COY.

  22. BJD95 03/04/2008 at 10:03 AM #

    SFN will list its winners for POY, COY, and ROY early next week. POY is easy, ROY is between Singler and Johnson (lean Singler), COY is between Purnell, Greenburg, and Haith (lean Greenburg).

  23. travelwolf 03/04/2008 at 10:03 AM #

    no worries – getting to the finals of the ACC Tournament will be even sweeter!

  24. Ismael 03/04/2008 at 10:12 AM #

    honestly, though, i’d rather for them to lose by 20 in the play-in game than to get to the finals, playing their asses off, only to validate that they’ve been lolly-gagging all year, and then in the finals, meet one of the blues and have the game decided by a bunch of incompetent referees.

    lastly, for our collective sanity (and for mine if you don’t care about your’s), we should also be circumspect when it comes to football this year as well.

  25. choppack1 03/04/2008 at 10:15 AM #

    Noah and BJD – definitely a snark.

    The high of our good effort Saturday has worn off – and our futility is there in black and white for everyone to see. Really, this season can’t be defended on any level. We’ve gone from 2nd or 3rd place to last place in 2 years.

    So far, Sidney Lowe’s tenure as a head coach at NC State is off to a very rocky start. (To put it in perspective, he’s done worse than Les Robinson.) This doesn’t mean that he can’t be a good or an effective coach for us in the future, but our men’s basketball team’s performance has been so bad that there is no rational reason for optimism. We are paying the price for a botched hiring process and hiring someone w/ no college coaching experience.

    Lee Fowler – the rest of the ACC called and they want to offer you thanks for doing job slowly AND badly – nice combo!

    E89 -Excellent point on the guards.

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