NC State News – 11/12 (updated with football game article)

'08 Football 08-09 Basketball Basketball Recruiting General19

–Wake game story from Winston-Salem Journal

“I would be surprised if our guys see North Carolina State as anything but a really good football team in the ACC — and you’d better go play if you’re going to win,” Grobe said yesterday. “I don’t think it’s going to be the trap game in the sense that we overlook them because we know how talented they are.

“The good thing about being at Wake Forest is guys are pretty smart. I don’t think we’ll go to Raleigh expecting anything but a battle and know we’ll be fortunate to come away from there with a win.”

-The NC State basketball team won another exhibition game last night in Reynolds. I have yet to see reports of attendance for these games as tickets were not included in the season ticket package for the 1st time I can remember. Additionally, the two regular season games in Reynolds weren’t included either despite keeping the cost of the season ticket packages the exact same. The athletic department also increased the price of tickets for the exhibition games from $10 to $15. I live walking distance from Reynolds and chose not to attend either of these games due to the cost.

Click here for the full story.

Although Degand and Costner improved in the second exhibition, there are plenty of reasons for concern heading into the opener against an opponent that defeated N.C. State in Raleigh last season. With defensive stopper Courtney Fells moved to small forward, the Wolfpack couldn’t stop guard Rob Fields of Division II Catawba, the defending South Atlantic Conference champ.

“We didn’t have enough energy,” Costner said. “We needed to pick it up.”

-Men’s soccer coach George Tarantini led his program to a fairly solid regular season considering the program’s ineptitude over the years. A win over Wake Forest (ranked #1 in the nation) today would likely position the Pack right on the NCAA tournament bubble with a win in the semi-finals almost guaranteeing a bid which was Tarantini’s stated goal for this team. The game is at 5:30 at the soccer park in Cary. Tickets can be purchased at the gate.

Click here for the link.

After winning six of its past seven games, State will meet No. 1 seed Wake Forest in today’s quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m.

The Demon Deacons are also ranked No. 1 in the country.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” State coach George Tarantini said. “That’s the greatest thing that can happen to you. Tomorrow, we’re going to play against one of the best teams maybe in a long, long time.”

-Today is signing day for high school basketball seniors and NC State is expected to sign at least 3 players today. Lorenzo Brown, Richard Howell, and Scott Wood have already verbally committed to NC State. Something to watch today will be who Ruslan Pateev chooses between Arizona St, NC State and Florida St.

-Article on the new 3 point line in college basketball (Click here for entire article)

The 3-pointer has long been a lure for players and an explosive part of the college basketball game, one that has helped shape the approach of teams — and made giant-killers out of some.

Fans have watched over the past two decades as the number of 3-point shots in a game has more than doubled.

Now, it’s time for a change: The NCAA is making the 3-pointer harder for men’s teams this season, adding an extra foot and drawing the line at 20 feet, 9 inches from the basket.

'08 Football 08-09 Basketball Basketball Recruiting General

19 Responses to NC State News – 11/12 (updated with football game article)

  1. Cardiac95 11/12/2008 at 8:14 AM #

    For anyone that saw the Exhibition Game…

    Was Courtney Fells as much of a No-Show as the box score seems to indicate?

  2. Afterglow 11/12/2008 at 8:26 AM #

    My understanding is that scoring was pretty evenly spread out. Degand had 15, Costner and Tracy Smith had 14.

  3. wufpup76 11/12/2008 at 9:10 AM #

    Here are some notes on the game I had added in the first Exhibition thread … Fells was not a no-show, just not as dominant as in the first game – I was actually encouraged by his performance b/c he continued to play on both ends of the floor hard despite not getting off to a quick scoring start …

    Here are my notes:

    Notes on Exhibition #2 vs. Catawba:

    – Johnny Thomas dressed but did not play

    – Starting five consisted of Degand, Williams, Fells, Costner, and McCauley

    – Catawba is a much better team than Ft. Valley State; Still Div. II, but a definite step-up in competition … I was impressed w/ their execution … They were still overmatched, but this is a team that could definitely beat a lot of 150+ RPI Div. 1 teams

    – There is an extremely different feel to Sidney Lowe this season, IMO … For the second straight game he was up and animated and was in charge … After a particularly bad defensive posession where we allowed easy penetration and had poor rotation, he quickly called a :30 second timeout and let the entire unit have it; At the same time he was quick to give positive encouragement with some fierce slaps to the behinds of players … The fire is back IMO

    – Team play and Degand were the stories of the night

    – Degand buzzed up and down the floor and looked good running the team … He hit some open jumpers and looked great driving to the basket and breaking down defenses on his way to leading the team in scoring … He’s not all the way back, but I once again came away very encouraged … He once again lost his man on defense on occasion, but I’m hopeful this will get better in time … It looked like he ran out of gas late in the 2nd half where he missed a couple of hustle plays, but overall another huge step in the right direction in coming back

    – If we can stay healthy, we are far ahead at the #1 than we were at this point last season … This is plain to see … Am I saying that we will have all-ACC point guard play this season? No, I am not – but we have two effective offensive point guards – Degand offers quickness, tempo, a nice set-shot, and defense when healthy; Javi offers good penetration, great passing, a good jumper, some steals, and sometimes like tonight – rebounding

    – The starting unit jumped right on them with high energy and good D highlighted by some up-tempo play led by Degand … Rebounding started out much better tonight and was maintained save for a few exceptions; McCauley did very nice work on the offensive glass especially in the 1st half … A lot of improvement from the last game in the rebounding department … Guys shared the ball really well tonight and there was pretty even scoring tonight … Costner’s play was steadily improved tonight as he got off to a hot start and managed to pull down a few boards as well … It was clear in a lot of our sets that we tried to isolate Tracy Smith down low when he was in the game, which is a move I agree wholeheartedly with, and it worked pretty well

    – Now for some of the scary stuff … Still not a lot of defensive pressure on the ball out top; Catawba was able to effectively use screens to set-up open shooters – this is a concern … There was a noticeable slight drop in energy for some reason when the second unit came in tonight (Javi, Fergs, Harris, Horner, Smith) – they played fairly well, but thought that was odd … Sort of a tale of two halves – the first half went quite well with good tempo control, effective sets, and decent D and rebounding … Second half start though was pretty lackidasical and the team play reminded me of last season for a few minutes – during this time Reynolds was as quiet and void of energy as I’ve ever felt it, but we did recover … Also need to mention that when Catawba gave any different look than straight man D we sort of reverted back to stagnant, stand around offense – Really, really scary … This also coincided w/ the start of the second half – but as I said, Sidney and company did recover and it didn’t last the rest of the half as it would have last season

    Overall, I thought this was another positive effort and I can’t stress enough how much harder and together this team is playing as opposed to any point last season … This is a different team – I’m not saying that trying to drive up hopes, but it is clearly a different team that at least appears like it’s willing to put in hard work … I have come away from each of these exhibition games feeling positive as opposed to any other feeling …

    I think it’s actually good that we start out the season on the road to a team we lost to last season … We could get a early litmus test on this team’s character this Saturday evening, but I like what I see so far (as far as character and chemistry) … Here’s to hoping we can get off to a good start … We’ll see what happens Saturday! Go Pack! 🙂

  4. Oldwolf 11/12/2008 at 9:10 AM #

    from the N&O article that you included – attendance was 5582, there was something just under 4000 for the first.

    Although they “could not stop” Fields, they did hold them to 37% shooting and did out-rebound them (as they should).

    This was an exhibition game as I think that the coaches treated it somewhat like a practice, trying different combinations of players, rotations, etc. Had some different emphasis – for eample Fells was 3-5 in shooting and was not looking to shoot.

    We did shoot over 52% for the game despite only 21% (4-19) from the 3-pt line.

    It was an enjoyable game. One thing that I have not seen mentioned is that Johnny Thomas did not play – he sprained his ankle in the first exhibition game, but was dressed out and did some shooting in the pre-game warmups and did not seem to favor the ankle.

  5. Classof89 11/12/2008 at 9:23 AM #

    What’s going to kill this team in conference play is an old bugaboo stretching back to at least the mid-Sendek era: their inability to maintain intensity for the entire game. We still have 4-12 minute stretches of completely lifeless, lackadaisical play. Last night’s such stretch from 4 minutes left in the 1st half and the first 8 minutes of the second half (during which Catawba sliced the lead to 11 at one point, IIRC). They do that against an ACC opponent and they will be outscored by 15 or 20, and how do you recover from that?

  6. Daily Update 11/12/2008 at 9:28 AM #

    Oldwolf: Thanks for catching the attendance number. I was trying to get this posted quickly this morning to give us something to discuss today, so all I did was scan the N&O article for about 10 seconds.

  7. Bubba 11/12/2008 at 9:39 AM #

    So a $5.00 increase for a ticket kept you away?You could have walked and saved $2.00 worth of gas? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmk

    🙂

  8. Classof89 11/12/2008 at 9:52 AM #

    I too will not be paying for any regular season tickets–they’ve gotten too rich for me. $30 for me and my son to watch an exhibition against a Division II team is bad enough. Given our inept operations and PR functions within the Athletics Department, it was no surprise that last night’s game reminded me of my son’s 2nd grade class play in terms of level of professionalism. There were no stat sheets or rosters available for distribution. There was absolutely no program,recognition, etc. of any sort at halftime (in fact, it took them several minutes to even cue some generic 1980s rock music). The poor dance team came out right as the half started, and there was some problem with their music. They stood there, I kid you not, at least 5 minutes waiting for their music. Even worse the public address guy, evidently unaware of their situation (or maybe not caring?) went right on with his slate of announcements about upcoming athletics events, etc. while the team was just standing there. They finally just left the floor, and finally did their bit during a timeout in the 2nd half.

    Overall impression–this is a second rate organization putting on a second rate event. Our fans deserve better. College sports, like it or not, is part of the entertainment business, and we aren’t doing what it takes to make people other than the faithful spend their entertainment dollar with us.

  9. BJD95 11/12/2008 at 9:59 AM #

    Probably a matter of principle – it’s pretty galling to try to charge $15 for an exhibition game, coming off such a lousy season.

  10. Daily Update 11/12/2008 at 10:14 AM #

    Bubba: There were several issues in play for me as to why I didn’t choose to go to these games:

    1. Cost – trying to milk me for $30 extra dollars(2 games) above the cost of what season tickets were last year for the most disappointing team in the last 15+ years of NC State basketball.

    2. Putting two regular season games in Reynolds and “hiding” the increase in season tickets by not including these games in the season ticket package (yes, I understand there are logistical issues with putting games in Reynolds in the package because it doesn’t have enough seats).

    3. Lack of excitement of NC State athletics in general

    Otherwise, I would never have missed an opportunity to grab a few beers and a bite to eat with friends at East Village, Mitch’s or PR’s before the game and then head to Reynolds. Or I could have taken my four month old son to his first basketball game in Reynolds(he has already been to two volleyball games there).

    But $15 just seemed outrageous to me considering the results of last season and our outlook for this season.

    I do plan on making the Wake/NC State soccer game tonight at 5:30 though. Looking forward to it actually though Wake is really, really good.

  11. Trip 11/12/2008 at 11:36 AM #

    I didn’t get to go to this one, but overall the stat sheet looks excellent, we shot efficiently overall and held their “UNSTOPPABLE” player to 0-5 from the 3 point range.

    I’m sure Thomas was held out as precautionary. No need to risk his ankle in a exhibition game.

  12. McPete 11/12/2008 at 12:28 PM #

    I listened to the game on 101.5 and their unstoppable player (i can’t remember the name) was guarded primarily by Fells, who shut him down. The problem that was stated so succinctly by tony haynes is that fells seems to be the only good wing defender. degand, gonzales, williams, and fergeson couldn’t keep up with catawba’s guick guards. this neccesitated Fells playing the 3 only on offense. i imagine this will be a problem all year, unless degand recovers completely, and johnny thomas plays significant minutes (i hear he’s got the potential to be a great defender)

  13. StateFoxer 11/12/2008 at 1:45 PM #

    Anyone know when Pateev’s conference is? Is he one of those European tall guys that has fundamentals and can shoot? I don’t have member access to any of the scouting sites.

  14. Bubba 11/12/2008 at 5:27 PM #

    Foxer

    Pateev chose ASU. Good pick-up for Herb

  15. jmsutto23 11/12/2008 at 5:56 PM #

    I’m a season ticket holder and I went to both exhibition games. I’ll try to make it to the regular season games in Reynolds but I think it’s completely stupid that we’re being charged $15 for these games.

    For one thing it makes me as a loyal fan feel completely unappreciated. It also lowers the overall attendance for the games. If any recruits were to show up they would have a negative impression of our fan base. Plus, don’t we want a big crowd to help create a better atmosphere?

    IMO — If they MUST charge for these games, Tix should be $5 for season ticket holders and they ought to give us the option of purchasing these games when we buy our season tickets on a first-come-first-serve basis. Everyone else should expect to pay $10 at the door.

    I think a good number of season ticket holders would agree to pay the extra $20 and the athletic department would probably wind up breaking even or possibly making more money … AND we’d have more people at these games.

  16. PackerInRussia 11/12/2008 at 6:06 PM #

    “A win over Wake Forest (ranked #1 in the nation) today would likely position the Pack right on the NCAA tournament bubble”

    The NCAA tournament bubble–the pinnacle of NC State athletic success.

  17. highstick 11/12/2008 at 8:18 PM #

    All you folks talking about being screwed on ticket prices, THINK LEE FOWLER!!

  18. choppack1 11/12/2008 at 9:35 PM #

    For basketball – D needs to improve and O must be decent. For much of Sid’s first 2 years, our D has been miserable. We’re definitely getting some more athletic guys, but I’m concerned about our ability to defend quickness.

    Bummer that we missed on Pateev. We won’t be missing him too much if we get Favors. If we don’t get Favors, I hope we have other options…This is Sid’s 3rd complete recruiting class – thus far, aside from a total project who will never play a game for State, he’s signed one guy over 6-8 – and he’s gone. We need height and quickness bad.

    Regarding football – I’m afraid Riley will pick us apart. We’ve made QBs look better than their #s, so look out. OTOH, these next 2 games will be very interesting if we don’t turn the ball over and don’t give up lots of points..we’ll be facing 2 good Ds, but we’ll be facing teams that feed off of TOs.

  19. Mike 11/14/2008 at 11:28 AM #

    Exhibition games are just that – exhibitions. Here is a novel thought – charge $5 to get in and more people would attend. And when those people attend, how much will they spend in the concession stands?

    4000 people at $15 per head is $60K. If each spends $5 at the stand, the total is $80K. Put 8000 people in and each spends $5, the total is also $80K.

    This is also a great way to attract new fans AND generate excitement amongst those of us who would rather put extra cash towards kids college educations.

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