ECU Will Not Be A Cupcake Game

08-09 Basketball44

Last year, one of the first real signs of the bad season to come for the Wolfpack hoops squad came when State visited Greenville for a rare road game against the East Carolina Pirates.  After that game, we said that State had

Rock Bottom. ECU Gets First Victory Against ACC Team; Lowe’s Honeymoon Over

Poor preparation. No defense. No rebounding. Poor coaching in a game that should have never been played. After compiling a 17-0 historical record over the Pirates, NC State loses the program’s first game in history against East Carolina. Prior to tonight, ECU was 0-57 against ACC opponents.

Unfortunately, the poor play was the first example of a pattern that repeated itself many times throughout the season, and State sat out the post-season.  Wednesday night, however, a chance for revenge and redemption will present itself in the RBC Center when the Pirates make a return trip to the Wolfpack’s home floor, and State will have a chance to erase bad memories from last year and also to measure itself against a program that’s clearly improving.  A quick look at the Pirates stats so far in their 8-1 start will tell you a lot:

  • Brock  Young is number two in the nation in assists with 8.1 APG
  • James Legan is tied for 9th in 3-point shooting percentage at 47.1%
  • Scoring Offense is ranked 29th with 80.8 PPG
  • Field Goal Percentage is ranked 34th at 47.3% PG
  • Three Point Percentage is ranked 15th at 35.5% PG
  • Free Throw Percentage is ranked 64th at 70.7% (#1 in this stat is Marquette, hitting 71.4%)
  • Rebounding is ranked at 72nd,  averaging 38 RPG
    (stats all from ESPN.com)

In short, despite the fact that it is still December and that ECU has yet to play a quality opponent even of NC State’s level, they will come to Raleigh confident and with a good squad that will not only present a challenge to the Pack but also beat them for the second year in a row if State comes out and lollygags its way through the contest like they did last year in Greenville.

A loss would be a devastating blow to NC State in the early part of the year.  With all due respect to the Pirates, State should not lose to ECU in any year.  The two programs exist on different planes of the basketball world, and the history of the glory that is Pirate basketball would be a short read indeed.  They are not one of the powerhouses of their own conference, nor are they a regular invitee to the NCAA tournament.  State, on the other hand, is a Big Four team with a rich and glorious past and a team that hopes to compete for an automatic bid to the Big Dance based upon its upcoming conference play.  A loss to ECU would be as indicative of the year to come this year as it was last, and if the Wolfpack cannot handle the Pirates at home then it will be difficult to muster up any confidence at all for the games to come after New Year’s.

08-09 Basketball

44 Responses to ECU Will Not Be A Cupcake Game

  1. VaWolf82 12/15/2008 at 3:46 PM #

    Going by the records at kenpom.com, ECU has never won more than 5 conference games in C-USA play. Their high-water mark of 5 wins came in ’02, ’04, and ’08.

  2. Noah 12/15/2008 at 3:54 PM #

    I can only remember ECU going to one NCAA tournament. Seems like that was in 1993, when they played UNC. They had a losing record and won their crappy league tournament.

    Was that their only appearance?

  3. wufpup76 12/15/2008 at 4:05 PM #

    ^Yes. I believe that’s correct, Noah … They were in the CAA at that time and I think won their only conference title ever in basketball, IIRC

    As I stated in an eariler thread, ECU is playing really well to start the season. Alpha is certainly correct in pointing out that their schedule hasn’t been great, but their only loss was to George Mason that is tough every season … They beat VCU, which is a good win, and have beaten previous Wolfpack opponents Greensboro (by over 40 pts. I think) and on the road against Winthrop

    The Pirates should be able to get their most wins in CUSA this season, and have really improved under their new coach

    ^With all that said, as Alpha and others have pointed out State should be able to beat ECU in basketball virtually every time they play … Having Fells available for at least defense would be huge on Wednesday to help out against the Pirates fairly good backcourt

    Good defense (which we didn’t see against them last season), solid rebounding, and NO SLOPPY TURNOVERS and we could be able to be in good position to win on Wednesday night

  4. WolfQuacker 12/15/2008 at 4:11 PM #

    Losing to ECU in basketball is not an option. Seriously, it should not even be a concern. It’s sad that Lowe’s third year even entertains this as a possibility. Anyone else see systemic issues with the program here????

  5. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 12/15/2008 at 4:19 PM #

    In other words ECU has won a conference championship in basketball more recently than NC State.

  6. wufpup76 12/15/2008 at 4:21 PM #

    ^Sadly, yes.

  7. bradleyb123 12/15/2008 at 4:38 PM #

    I hope State comes out with vengeance in mind. I mean, if we get up to a 30 point lead, keep playing as if we’re down 9 with 5 minutes left. Put our collective foot on their throats and never let up.

    If our guys don’t come out with the kind of pride they should have in avenging a loss that never should have happened, they don’t belong in a Wolfpack uniform.

    I’m not saying it will or should be an easy win for us. I’m just talking about effort. If we play with that kind of effort, I expect we will win the game.

  8. Noah 12/15/2008 at 4:59 PM #

    In other words ECU has won a conference championship in basketball more recently than NC State.

    As has Campbell. And UNC-Wilmington has been to as many Sweet 16s in the last 15 years as we have.

  9. john of sparta 12/15/2008 at 5:02 PM #

    usually, the team playing to win plays better.
    the team playing not to lose plays worse.
    nothing new. same stuff/different season.

  10. choppack1 12/15/2008 at 5:37 PM #

    Looking at the schedule – we’ve got 2 common opponents thus far:
    Winthrop and UNC-G:

    ECU beat Winthrop 63-60, we beat them 74-48.
    ECU beat UNCG 97-53, we beat them 79-52.

    What worries me is that ECU -like so many other teams – has a better backcourt than we do. It shouldn’t be too hard to find guards who can both shoot, handle and defend, but this staff has struggled in that aspect – and to be fair, they didn’t inherit anyone other than Atsur who could do these things either.

  11. benniebolton 12/15/2008 at 6:43 PM #

    a little off topic and might have been mentioned on another post, but did anyone hear Scott VanPelt today talking about the “NC State effect” in reference to Auburn football and comparing our former basketball coach leaving to Turberville resigning. Basically said the same old about how we see what Duke and UNC are doing down the road and think we can be them and cannot. It was disappointing b/c usually SVP is an ACC apologist, one of the few in major sports talk radio. Surprised he doesn’t appreciate our history. Anyway, just one more media member to add to that list

  12. Alpha Wolf 12/15/2008 at 7:14 PM #

    ^ That’s the thing that has always griped my butt about journalists. That’s a cheap and easy analysis and as wrong as 2+2=3.

    Just in case a journo is reading here it is, again:

    State’s fans were not wanting a coaching change in basketball because of Duke and Carolina. They wanted one because our former coach seemingly always had teams that regressed through the year, because of multiple seasons with late swoons that led from sure NCAA bids to being bubble-team nailbiters, because of questionable strategy and tactics that led to multiple losses in final games of the ACC tournament, because of poor NCAA tournament performance, failure to recognize rivalry games as important and indifference to fans. Among other reasons.

    If you cannot understand that, please visit http://www.rif.org.

  13. Bubba 12/15/2008 at 7:59 PM #

    I will be very surprised if we win this game. We have no one that can stay in front of Brock Young and both their wing guards can shoot lights out.

    We will chase them for 40 minutes in a man to man defense(just like last year in Greenville without a hint of trying something different) that will showcase just how slow we really are again this year.

  14. buttPACKer 12/15/2008 at 8:36 PM #

    honestly,

    I have really lost my passion about our bball program. . . I was thrilled with Sid after season 1, but now in year 3, I just don’t see any real progress. . . I know he needs time, but something is just amiss!

  15. wufpup76 12/15/2008 at 8:58 PM #

    “We will chase them for 40 minutes in a man to man defense(just like last year in Greenville without a hint of trying something different) that will showcase just how slow we really are again this year.”

    We did use the second half of the WSSU game to work on a lot of zone looks … not saying we’ll use them, necessarily, but it was a good time to take a look … Hopefully if our man is lagging behind at any point in a game this season we can at least show another look

    There’s always hope …

  16. PackMagic83 12/15/2008 at 9:24 PM #

    bP,

    Were you happy with the Wolfpack halfway through Lowe’s first season when Atsur was injured and we were losing in the ACC and had lost several ugly OOC games (if my memory is correct – I’ve tried to block some of that from my memory 🙂 )? Most of the fond memories from the first year was from the win against UNX and the ACC tournament run when Atsur was playing. We won’t know how this season goes until we play it out.

  17. smile102 12/15/2008 at 9:42 PM #

    “a little off topic and might have been mentioned on another post, but did anyone hear Scott VanPelt today talking about the “NC State effect””

    With HS winning at ASU it’s now a proven point, from the journalist’s perspective.

  18. redfred2 12/15/2008 at 10:37 PM #

    Bad sign when a BB game with the Pirates of ECU starts to take on many of the characteristics of a rivalry.

    I’ll bet Lee Fowler loves it though.

  19. wolfonthehill 12/16/2008 at 5:21 AM #

    I truly wish this game weren’t being played… I have very little confidence in our ability to pull this one out, and a loss would/will be quite damning.

  20. PackMagic83 12/16/2008 at 7:42 AM #

    I’m just going to go to the game and see what happens. Since there seems to be agreement that our talent level this year is either down or undeveloped compared to some other ACC teams, this year should be a good test of Coach Lowe’s abilities to plan game strategies, matchups and work on player development.

    I’ve got season tickets, so I can’t afford to throw in the towel at this point.
    Anyway, other than a close road loss to a top 25 team, we have 5 wins with an average win margin of 20 points. We are using a lot of inexperienced players, so we should get better as the season progresses, as those players get comfortable with more playing time.

  21. Oldwolf 12/16/2008 at 7:52 AM #

    hopefully we can win, but sometimes teams lose to lower teams as did #11 Syracuse did last night to Cleveland State at home.

  22. BassPacker 12/16/2008 at 8:23 AM #

    Looking forward to the ECU matchup, it will be a test of our team motovation and character. ECU is gonna come into RBC with an attitude and a bus load of confidence. We need to show them “WE ARE NC State”, this is our house on tobacco road. It kind of reminds me of the football matchup, they are coming to town with an attitude to paint the RBC purple and gold. If we lose this game, I may have to skip my family Holiday gatherings, as most of them are diehard Purple fanatics,…a “L” to EZU would surely be a “blue…blue….. blue blue Christmas”.

  23. SuperStuff 12/16/2008 at 8:29 AM #

    This is a game that I would love to see CJ Williams & Johnny Thomas excel in. They are from North Carolina and has probably played against some of these guys in AAU ball locally.

  24. SEAT.5.F.2 12/16/2008 at 8:32 AM #

    Folwer will bravely come out and state that we don’t plan on lowering the baskets at the the sound of the final buzzer.

    Too much muscle for us inside for the Rat’s to hang around in this one and we won’t see a repeat of last year’s perimeter onslaught- we now have Williams to compliment Fells as a outside defender.

    I’ll root for ECU after this one, outside Houston and Memphis I have know idea what teams are legitimate programs in this conference. It would be great to see Calipari fall and make their road to the final four slightly difficult this year.

  25. NCMike 12/16/2008 at 8:56 AM #

    This is sad…worrying about beating ECU in basketball.

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