Curry 32-Footer Sinks Pack

WRAL Sports: Curry Drops 44 Points, Davidson 72 – NC State 67

Overall, I was really pleased with State’s performance and Sid’s gameplan. Without Curry’s prayer, State would have had the ball at the end shooting for the win (with OT as worst-case scenario). The effort was there, and the defense was much better. Until the last 8 minutes, the rebounding was solid (thus my only critique – would have liked to see more of Tracy Smith in the second half). Other thoughts:

– If Johnny Thomas was healthy, I’d like to see Courtney Fells thrown off the team. Kudos to Sid for benching him for most of the second half, even with 11 seconds left and State down three. What a waste. He should watch Trevor Ferguson out there busting his ass and hang his head in shame. NOTE: Radio guys are claiming Fells hurt his shoulder during the game. If that were true, it still doesn’t explain how he started the game in a fog. I also never saw him getting treatment (on the bench or going to locker room). Sorry, don’t buy it.

– The chip is back on Costner’s shoulder, and I mean that in a good way.

– CJ Williams is much better than I expected. Ladies and gentleman, meet your “glue guy.”

– NC State can be a middle-of-the-pack ACC team. If we had just one healthy PG that didn’t suck out loud, we could contend for an NCAA berth.

– I don’t think Farnold Degand is ever going to be right again. And without his lateral quickness, he can’t contribute at all. Very sad.

– Davidson sure has some douchebag fans, chanting for the asshole who got ejected after almost decapitating Trevor.

– I went a little nuys yelling at the TV at the end. Mike Gminski is such a dumbass, noting “The Davidson people don’t consider this an upset!” Well, no shit, Sherlock. Davidson made the Elite Eight last year, and return the best player in college basketball. NC State finished dead last in the ACC, and lost it’s best player. The game is played in Charlotte. Only a complete fucking moron would have considered it anything other than a huge upset if NC State had won the game!

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.

08-09 Basketball

173 Responses to Curry 32-Footer Sinks Pack

  1. Dogbreath 12/06/2008 at 2:23 PM #

    It doesn’t matter. We are an irrelevant basketball program today. We are on the University of San Francisco master plan.

  2. Wulfpack 12/06/2008 at 2:23 PM #

    I have to TOTALLY disagree. I was not pleased with the gameplan, not pleased with our effort, and it was not Curry’s 32-footer that sunk us. It was a total lack of effort to rebound the basketball and it was a complete lack of help-side defense that sunk us, not a single play.

    This was a very poor performance.

  3. catchme16 12/06/2008 at 2:24 PM #

    I agree with every point. Good effort and god answered curry’s prayer………and I wouldnt mind if courtney fells never stepped foot on the court again with his “I could give a shit” attitude

  4. wolf pack 12/06/2008 at 2:25 PM #

    i agree. defense wasn’t bad. with 8 minutes left they out-hustled us as evidence by the off. rebounds for davidson. fells was not a good leader in that game. we have to execute better on offense, way too many turnovers. mcauley and costner played really well together. i think we have the potential to be fourth or fifth in the acc this year. GO PACK!

  5. wufpup76 12/06/2008 at 2:25 PM #

    Almost a complete meltdown in the 2nd half … Davidson got much more physical on D and on the boards and we didn’t respond enough … very disappointing – they just wanted it more in the 2nd half

    – Courtney Fells wasn’t even assigned Curry and I guess felt he didn’t need to show up today … pretty poor overall effort … Williams was by far the best guy assigned to Curry today

    – We looked our best at times when Mays was on the floor … not an encouraging game from the point guards, particularly in the 2nd half

    – Rebounds, rebounds, rebounds … we won the first half and led the game … we lost the boards battle badly in the 2nd half and it cost us the game

    Even w/ all that above, we were still in the game … Both Costner and McCauley played hard, though I wish Smith could’ve played more

    Disappointing loss in that we had our opportunities to win, but at least we lost to a good team

  6. PoppaJohn 12/06/2008 at 2:26 PM #

    “NC State can be a middle-of-the-pack ACC team.”

    Another year, still hoping to be average.

  7. McLovin 12/06/2008 at 2:26 PM #

    That had to be one of the prettiest, most shocking shots I’ve ever seen… Damn it

    Positive note – this loss looked better than our win over Davidson last year (in my opinion). Overall better effort

  8. wufpup76 12/06/2008 at 2:28 PM #

    “This was a very poor performance.” … In the second half, this was true … And I thought the gameplan was good … Complain about Curry getting 44 all you want – he will do that to everyone

    Also agree on Fells … I don’t want to be too hard on him b/c he’s been our best player this season until today – but a complete no show today

    2nd half rebounding just absolutely killed us … Curry’s “prayer” came after an offensive rebound on an air-balled shot

    Poor Farnold looked just awful …

  9. RBCRowdy 12/06/2008 at 2:29 PM #

    Davidson had 21 offensive rebounds and 16 more FG attempts than the pack. Thats disgusting IMO.

  10. Wulfpack 12/06/2008 at 2:30 PM #

    ^Javi wasn’t much better…

  11. BJD95 12/06/2008 at 2:33 PM #

    Exactly what gameplan would you come up with, given the following circumstances:

    – Opponent has best player in college basketball, on a team that made the Elite Eight last year (and gave eventual champion Kansas its toughest game).

    – Only decent PG on roster tries to play, coaches expect him to be able to go – but he can’t.

    – Only perimeter scorer and above-average athlete decides not to show up and is benched for most of the second half.

    Even with that, we had a chance to win in the final minutes, playing BOTH Trevor Ferguson and CJ Williams together down the stretch, EACH with four fouls!

    With a bad effort or a bad gameplan, we lose this game by about 30.

  12. Wolfpack F-14 12/06/2008 at 2:37 PM #

    I don’t think overall this was a good game for us. Sure there were a few good plays but nothing new here…offensive rebounds and turnovers lost us another game!! I think we need to find a new assistant coach who does nothing but teach rebounding!!

  13. wolfonthehill 12/06/2008 at 2:37 PM #

    I was pleased with the effort for the most part in the first half.

    I was pleased with almost nothing in the second.

    * Tracy Smith getting as few minutes as he did is an abysmal coaching decision. All the guy does is get position, get the ball down low, and put it in the damn basket. As we have zero outside threats, that should be our game plan on every possession.

    * We again can’t out-rebound an opponent… from a small private school… called Davidson. Down the stretch, we played some decent defense, but it seemed that they got at least half of their misses. If you let that happen, you’ll lose.

    * It’s OK to get beat off the dribble consistently, as long as someone swings over to help. We didn’t help. So we lost. I mean, do you REALLY think Curry’s going to miss a running 8-footer? How many does he have to hit to convince you? And if you know he’s gonna hit it, somebody step the *&^% up and help out, for God’s sakes!

    * Offensively, we’re pretty much a train wreck when we don’t get it down low. And we appear to TRY to get it down low about 1/4 of the time. The other 3/4, it’s either one-on-one prayers or 22-footers. Unacceptable.

    This game was there for the taking. Any truly good team wins it. We are simply not a good team… and we’re not well-coached in any way that I can discern.

  14. Rick 12/06/2008 at 2:39 PM #

    “Exactly what gameplan would you come up with, given the following circumstances:”

    How about we friggin box out? We box out we win that game. Their only offense was Curry and rebounds. How can Lowe not see that and adjudt for it?
    I am not sure how anyone can be positive about this team. We have no guards. Fells is a complete waste. We do not do the things needed to win (like boxing out) or hitting FTs. I expect a year like last year. We are an irrelevant basketball program.

  15. Wulfpack 12/06/2008 at 2:39 PM #

    This is NOT the same Davidson team as last year. Davidson’s floor leader left the game in the first half with the mugging of Fergie. Davidson has two post players that wouldn’t sniff the floor for an ACC team. We have FAR superior talent in the front court and on the wings. Davidson has the best player in college basketball, so that means that there must be HELP-SIDE defense from all four off-the ball. I counted four times where either Costner or Mac stood there watching Curry drive the lane and put up an easy floater. That CANNOT happen. Make somebody else score, not Curry.

    I would have expected us to rebound better and I would have expected us to pressure them a whole lot more than we did. We didn’t do anything well today. That is very discouraging to me given this was a great opportunity for us to get a win against a decent team out of conference. There just aren’t a whole lot of chances for these type of wins given our weak schedule.

    Yes, Davidson is a good team that has confidence. But I’m going to tell you that Duke, UNC, Wake would have run them up and down the floor the way a team with superior talent across the board should. I don’t understand the game plan, I don’t understand the lack of hustle and desire to win an important non-conference game.

  16. Garrett 12/06/2008 at 2:40 PM #

    I don’t get this ‘very poor performance’ claim. Basically, second half turnovers and terrible defensive rebounding cost us this one. And Fells completely blowing off this game.

    Curry will continue to put up 40+ on whoever he wants to. BC and Ben played pretty well down low and Javi, Julius and Fergs all played hard outside. If they learn from these games and continue to play hard and cohesively, they can be a competitive middle of the pack acc team that will probably lose to a couple bad teams but sneak up on a couple of good ones.

    Overall, liked what i saw today.

  17. wufpup76 12/06/2008 at 2:40 PM #

    ^Totally agree w/ BJD’s last post … gameplanning DID NOT cost us this game … A very poor rebounding effort in the 2nd half did, combined w/ not responding to Davidson’s much more physical play in the 2nd half (offense was very ugly for most of that half as we didn’t compete)

    Also, 3 cheers for both Williams and Fergie both busting their asses down the strecth even w/ 4 fouls

    There was NO SHAME in this loss, only disappointment that we had our fair share of chances to win

  18. BJD95 12/06/2008 at 2:42 PM #

    The problem is that we could only get offense through Costner and McCauley. But we needed Smith to go in and rebound. None of the 3 is capable of playing the SF position (although maybe we should have tried it anyway).

    There’s no way you can convince that Sid WANTED to play both CJ and Trevor the whole way down the stretch, especially once each had four fouls.

    The team that I saw today could go 6-10 in ACC play, which would be a big step back towards respectability. Next year, we will have better guard play and hopefully get back in the NCAA equation.

  19. wufpup76 12/06/2008 at 2:43 PM #

    “Tracy Smith getting as few minutes as he did is an abysmal coaching decision. All the guy does is get position, get the ball down low, and put it in the damn basket. As we have zero outside threats, that should be our game plan on every possession.”

    Complete agreement here … Smith should’ve played more

  20. McLovin 12/06/2008 at 2:43 PM #

    One thing that I’ve concluded about Sid – he needs to get players in that he recruits b/c he struggles to coach Sendek’s players (Costner, McCauley, Fells). Until he gets a team that he feels comfortable with, State won’t be very good. It’s harsh to say, but I can’t really say otherwise. Play hard this year, get some of those big names Sidney likes, and hope they can deliver…

    Is it football season yet?

  21. StateFans 12/06/2008 at 2:45 PM #

    WRAL.com Breaking News: No. 24 Davidson tops N.C. State, 72-67

    Stephen Curry scored 44 points, but N.C. State couldn’t pull ahead of Davidson, which won by five, 72-67.

    Keep up with breaking news at http://www.wral.com/

  22. vtpackfan 12/06/2008 at 2:45 PM #

    The guys busted their butts today and arguably the best weapon in NCAA had to go lights out to beat us. Not, bad considering we have the least productive backcourt since the 3 point line was put in.

    Three observations relevant to progress of another sort.

    1) Davidson player climbs the back of Horner and gets called for it in the first half, at the same time Lowe mouths off to the official and gets T’ed up. This happens to some decent coaches, especially Seth Greenburg types, who lack in self control.

    2) We give up three offensive boards before Davidson cashes in and at the whistle Lowe goes straight to the ref to bitch about the call on the LAST Davidson possesion. How about get into your guys heads coming off the court to get them thinking positive?

    3) Finally, lets see if Tracy Smith does or doesn’t transfer before the end of the semester. Lowe is crapping all over this individual for reasons they only know between them. He got bitched out for playing the high pick for Curry wrong and never got back into the game. One mistake, imagine if this went for the rest of the team?

  23. McLovin 12/06/2008 at 2:50 PM #

    Oh one observation at halftime that pissed me off – there was discussion about the acc football season during the halftime show with a major focus on ROGER Wilson as acc rookie of the year

  24. MattN 12/06/2008 at 2:56 PM #

    We’re slow. We have no “go-to” floor leader. We play poor fundamentals.

    We are not good. Period.

  25. ShootingGuard 12/06/2008 at 2:58 PM #

    (Edit of my post elsewhere…)

    I think BJD is pretty on the mark.

    I am not sure what people expect. People act like just because they are simply tired of being average or worse that that will change anything. State will not be better than average until it has better than average players, starting with the guards because college is a guards’ game.

    It doesn’t matter what year Fergy is, he is not an ACC talent. That said, I do like his effort and am not going to hate on a guy who tries as hard as he can.

    The only somewhat experienced and athletic defenders State had today, Fells and Degand, were both injured and on the bench. As BJD pointed out, though, whether Fells was injured or not, this was one of those “classic” games of the last couple years where Fells forgot to show up. This seems to happen a lot on the road, and, as is well-documented, this State team (and last year’s) is so devoid of backcourt talent and experience that, if Fells doesn’t show up, you can pretty much go ahead and post the L for loss. There is really no margin for error when you pick up a butter knife and try to battle someone with a machete—more than likely, you are going to bleed.

    After Fergy has used up his fouls and Fells and Degand continue to sit, you are left with two freshmen (Mays & Williams), an insurance pick-up soph (Gonzalez), and a walk-on (Harris) to even attempt to cover the most prolific scorer in the NCAA’s—a guy who ran out of gas and still almost beat national champ Kansas last year.

    Good luck with that match-up. As bad as I cursed at losing this game, I am not sure why anyone is surprised at a loss. Davidson brought a gunslinger in Curry, and State had to counter with homemade knives from their MASH unit.

    Until State has a backcourt led by someone on par with say Chris Paul or Jeff Teague, State will struggle just like Wake did in the years between Paul and Teague.

    It doesn’t matter how highly ranked big Eric Williams, etc. were, you don’t lead from the frontcourt.

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