Wolfpack can’t overcome atrocious early effort (Updated at 5pm)

NC State’s basketball team decided to show up for the second half of today’s game at Boston College but by then the damage was already done. The embarrassing first half performance that lacked effort, focus and intensity dug the Wolfpack too deep a hole.

Perhaps the rest of the team simply followed the example of one of the Wolfpack’s seniors, Courtney Fells. If anyone wants a clinic in how to loaf through a game while exerting almost no effort then use your DVR to watch Courtney Fells today. Wow.

I don’t know who Fells thinks he is fooling – and maybe he is fooling this coaching staff – but he sure as hell is not fooling many of us who contribute to the Wolfpack Club for his scholarship. He entered the season with a physique that has obviously deteriorated over the last couple of years, and his effort has been consistent with what appears to be a lack of dedication off the floor. For the year, Fells is quickly approaching the record Brandon Costner set last season for number of easy passes dropped coupled with the number of lazy passes committed.

Today, I think Fells managed to play the entire game without boxing out a single Bost College Eagle while his perimeter defensive effort was as lackluster as his 2nd half effort at Duke earlier in the week. His shot selection was equally suspect, once appropriately drawing criticism from color commentator Jason Capel. He had one nice defensive play on a blocked shot; the problem is that he had to make that play to save face for playing bad defense that allowed his man to cut through the lane and easily catch an entry pass a couple of feet from the basket.

If you have limited time, just watch the first six and a half minutes of the game where Fells committed THREE unforced turnovers – one by having a simple pass slide through his hands and two boneheaded passes to Boston College defenders. Simultanwously, the player Fells was supposedly guarding managed to score almost half BC’s points in that time period. (Not that any other NC State player seemed to play defense in the first half). The official boxscore only shows Fells with two turnovers for the entire game. LOL! Riiiiiigh.

We’ve been increasingly frustrated with Fells’ anemic effort and resulting poor performances this year and just don’t think it is fair to ignore it any more. Many of the ‘little things’ like not coming to help the ball during pressure, failing to find the proper spacing without the ball on offense and not communicating with teammates on defense are things that don’t show up in the boxscore; although the boxscore showing 4 of 10 shooting; 0 of 4 from the three point line; and 0 of 2 from the free throw line certainly isn’t kind to Fells, either.

I expect someone will reference Fells’ lingering injury from the Davidson game. Maybe that has some merit. On the other hand, his inury has nothing to do with his lack of effort to find people to block out and play with just a tiny bit of consistent effort. Additionally seems just fine whenever there is a fast break for free points or an opportunity to get off a shot.

If there was any good news to come out of today’s game it would be the following:
(1) “The young guys” of Tracy Smith and Johnny Thomas again played very well and made things happen out there.
(2) Farnold Degand seems to be regaining some form and is gradually playing better. He is obviously the best option to start at point guard right now.
(3) Javi Gonzalez did not play.
(4) The official box score attributed State with only ten turnovers for the entire game.
(5) Johnny Thomas, Tracy Smith and Julius Mays combined for 8 of 11 shooting.

There was a lot of conversation in the open game entry. I am going to elevate one of the comments:

Well…All I can say is I’m proud of the effort in the 2nd half. We ran out of gas around the 6 minute mark, and everyone knew that when Trapani hit the three it was game.

If we put that same effort or even half of that effort in the first half, we win this game by 10. There was no effort whatsoever in the first half. I watched the game, but for those of you who didn’t it is apparent by the number of offensive rebounds that Boston College had. I can guarantee that 70% of the offensive boards came in the first half. Don’t get me wrong there were two, sometimes even three guys going for the board, but it’s a damn shame that they were all Boston College players.

Sid finally played the rotation we’ve been begging for. Costner, McCauley, Smith and the two guards. We made a 16-0 run with this lineup. Maybe Lowe will notice how good Smith and McCauley are together in the game, and keep Brandon at SF and put a rotation of Fells, Williams, Mays, and Degand in as guards. Maybe play Fergs for 5 mins a game, and see if he can provide. Also I wouldn’t mind seeing Thomas play some SF/SG some. He impressed me. In his few minutes he had some boards, hit a shot, and hustles like no one else on the court.

For all of you insulting Costner…drop it. Seriously. He’s changed his game completely. He got the ball completely stolen from him at the top of the key and instead of jogging down, he hustled down the court and made a good block, but unfortunately fouled the guy, but he HUSTLED . Another instance, A BC player got a rebound over Costner and ran it out, and Costner didn’t give up, chased him down and stole the ball from him. He’s hustling. That’s all you can ask for. His shot isn’t dropping right now, and he’s trying not to force it. Good for him. So seriously get off his back. All of you talk about other fans jumping on and off bandwagons, some of you are just as bad about jumping onto and off our players.

Degand played well, and had some good steals. The game is coming back to him. He can see things develop, he’s beginning to read people. Made some really nice passes, but also made a few bad ones. I honestly think he’ll turn out to be a good PG and I believe he’d be more than capable if not for the injury. I think Mays will be a better guard by the time his career is over, and is a better scorer, but he still makes a couple of freshman mistakes. He picks up his dribble a little too easily, and doesn’t look for his shot enough, but he’s getting there.

Ben also played well, but had a couple of cheap fouls called on him. You expect that playing on the road in the ACC, but not this bad. I may be the only one complaining about the refs, but I thought a lot of the loose balls that went out of bounds BC got. Which is funny considering how many people they had crashing the boards?? Anyways, Ben looked like a new man today, and wanted this win bad. It’s a shame he had to sit in the 2nd half.

So rotation rest of the year:

PG – Degand/Mays
SG – Fells/Williams/Thomas/Fergs (more when he’s back)
SF – Costner/Williams/Thomas
PF – Smith/Horner/Costner
C – McCauley/Smith/Costner

I would love to not see Dennis Horner in another minute of a red and white N.C. State jersey, but I think it’s inevitable. I also believe Gonzalez transfers. His minutes are done, which is unfortunate for him, but fortunate for N.C. State.

Good 2nd half effort Pack. Let’s go steal one from Miami and focus for 40 minutes. Let’s GO PACK

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08-09 Basketball General

94 Responses to Wolfpack can’t overcome atrocious early effort (Updated at 5pm)

  1. Wolfpack_1995 01/25/2009 at 5:40 PM #

    Good discussion on here…Just curious how many of the posters on here are on the premium sites.., i.e. the Wolfpacker and Packpride?

    The majority of blogs on here are very good IMO..way longer than posts on the premium message boards..

    As I posted on a another site…look how crappy the football team was without leader in RW…same situation can be said for the basketball team..we have no PG leader therefore the team suffers…Degand is improving..

    What is the stuff about Javi transferring?…sounds like internet rumor..have not read this anywhere else.

  2. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 6:04 PM #

    BJD, I don’t think so. Every kind of team needs leadership from a certain numbers of it’s players.

    I don’t see how that can be ignored, especially when looking at the very recent example of our own FB team.

    Maybe some coaches are better at bringing those attributes out of their kids, but either way, there is no doubt that for some reason those qualities are very much lacking in the BB personnel right now.

  3. turnoffthetv 01/25/2009 at 6:43 PM #

    The first time i laid eyes on this team this year(I think it was Davidson) I told a friend “we dont have any guards”. I stick with those early impressions now and I am back to Square 1. People, we just dont have those leaders in the backcourt that you need to pull out a victory and create the very foundation of any team. It starts in the backcourt.

    How can you take a picture at night without a Flash?
    How can you win ball games without some good guards?

    This is not Lowe’s fault.
    I dont even know if it is Fowler’s fault.

    If I took over this university today as a consultant to get down to the bottom of this, the first ones I would question about the status of our BBall program would be Fowler’s bosses. Again it is not Fowler. I’m guessing he does have someone directly over him. The top of the food chain would be grilled up and down for days about this.

    A friend once told me that sh*t rolls down hill. SO you need to start questioning the very tip effing top of the food chain. I’m sure this comment has been repeated time and time again.

    What I am getting at is that it is hard to fault sh*t on the court when sh*t looks down from the skyboxes each and every game and accepts it as OK. It oozes from the luxury boxes onto the court. Sh*t rolls downhill and dont ever forget that.

    Note to self: Maybe a Prayer to self:

    In your drunken state of mind this tuesday night as a Hurricane rolls into raleigh, please do not blame the players or the coaching staff for their shortcomings. It is really over their head. I am a true believer now that sh*t really does roll downhill and anything less than sh*t on the bball court would be a big surprise. Until the stuff is taken care of at the top, please vow not to drop f-bombs as much on statefansnation and lay off the liquor(your self medication) during these upcoming games. That extra shot of liquor will not help this team you hard-head. It is truly out of your hands. Wake up! AMEN!

  4. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 6:43 PM #

    Also, I cannot believe that anyone believes that twenty years of milktoast BB, and a program that was on headed BACK to, and approaching something similar to it’s lowest point of those same twenty years (admittedly, because of many reasons and the timing of certain events that left many of those circumstances out of both the past coach’s, as well as the present coach’s, control), can just change it’s entire premise, while retaining the bulk of the personnel that were recruited to fullfil a totally different role? And, that fans cannot understand that recruiting in the world of college BB is not something that just anyone can step right into, instantly picking up the players he or she needs, and not expect to see that program floundering UNTIL that new and entirely different approach to playing BB can be implemented with different personnel?

    Again, just like TOB, who definitely already had his feet wet and a toe in door of some HS football players before arriving in Raleigh, and who at least inherited a program that at the very least had a little colorful excitement surrounding it’s losing ways, you give Sidney Lowe time to get and/or develop a good point guard and time to develop some leadership, and I believe you will be happy with the results.

    “you give Sidney Lowe time to get a good point guard”

    Did I really say that???!!! Good lord wait, I’m sounding more and more like a HSSS all of the time.

  5. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 7:41 PM #

    I’m so wordy that I can’t even bear to proof read my own stuff. Sorry folks, I’m outta here.

  6. Alpha Wolf 01/25/2009 at 8:08 PM #

    This is Sidney Lowe’s third team. The best players that he brought into the program (on our roster now) are Tracy Smith and Farnold Degand. They will be the only returning players on next year’s team that show any hint of being acceptable ACC starters.

    C. J. Williams and Julius Mays have shown signs of being very capable players. I personally think that they need more minutes to gain game experience and improve against ACC competition, but I am hopeful that they will become key players.

  7. BassPacker 01/25/2009 at 8:17 PM #

    SFN, why was my post mentioning the story in todays Fayetteville Observer about John Wall recruitment deleted? It was of interest in relationship to State basketball and Wall.

    Sigh. It was not deleted, it was put into the moderation queue because it contained a link and the anti-spam software puts ALL comments from non-administrative accounts that have embedded links into review. Once it was seen it was released.

    It’s either that, or we leave the site at risk to have hundreds of spam comments a week for pills, porn and Nigerian princesses. –Alpha

  8. 61Packer 01/25/2009 at 8:34 PM #

    Who cares if we’re 10-27 in the ACC regular season for the past three years? We need to set our sights on realistic goals, like defending the fort on February 3rd and 21st.

    Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

  9. BJD95 01/25/2009 at 8:48 PM #

    It takes longer to rebuild a football program. Even so, Tom O’Brien inherited a program in worse shape, and produced a 7-9 ACC record in his first two seasons. Plus, his track record earned him the benefit of the doubt (which he turned out not to need).

    There’s no objective evidence in Lowe’s favor other than blind faith. One should see signs of progress by the third season, not a bottoming out.

    Mays and CJ are never going to be starters on a first division ACC team. Mays doesn’t have enough athleticism, and CJ is a shooting guard who doesn’t shoot that well. They are role players who could be very valuable reserves as upperclassmen.

    And that’s not to say Smith’s game is that great, and Farnold is really only an adequate starter at best. So, unless we want to ask Lo Brown to carry the team on his back next year, more help had better be on the way.

    With enough surrounding talent, I’m hopeful Scott Wood can be a solid starter (perimeter shooting threat). And that’s probably wishful thinking.

  10. choppack1 01/25/2009 at 9:05 PM #

    We are where we are. It’s no longer the fault of the guy who was here the last time we went to the big dance. I put much of this fault on the current staff – in it, I include Lee Fowler and Sidney. Like it or not, inexperience IS NOT AN EXCUSE.

    I’m willing to wait – because I believe that Sidney Lowe is a good recruiter. However, from what I’ve seen, he’ll need to be one of the best around to ever field a tournament team here.

    Tracy Smith was mentioned as a player who has improved. While his #s have improved some, he looks very similar to the player I saw last year. Against Towson State, he looked awesome – against BC he looked awesome – where was he the games in between those? Can you build around that?

    Someone brought up Cameron Bennerman. There’s an example of a guy who was told, you most play D, you must work on your body, you must run the offense – then you’ll play.

    It’s really not rocket science guys. If you think Courtney is underachieving – the blame doesn’t lie w/ Courtney – it lies w/ Sidney. We have 3 players w/ similar height, we have 2 players w/ similar athletic ability, we have one who can shoot from the outside even better than he can.

    Where I came from, a man stopped blaming his predecessor once he had the chance to make his mark. The current coaching staff has had responsibility for the 3 starters every year they have been starting in a Wolfpack uniform. At one time or another, there has been a body to replace each of them.

    I could see blaming the predecessor if the first year things were hopeless – turned out they weren’t. In the second year, there was consensus that we’d be a better team – it was worse. Even though THE CURRENT STAFF brought in no less than 3 guys they’d play at PG – folks said, “well, it’s not the current coaches fault.”

    I guess the implicit argument is that, until our coach can sign Top 5 talent at every position – we should expect, not just to win tournaments, or even make the big dance – we can’t even be expected to make the f’ing NIT.

    I just don’t understand how you can defend the current staff for what we see NOW – unless you think everyone who is gettint the most minutes is in fact the player who practices the best and works harder than the others. If that’s the case, by all means – defend this staff – you’ve got a leg to stand on. If it’s not – then well, you are admiting, whether you know it or not, that our coach, right now at this moment, should not be a coach in the ACC.

  11. Wolfpack_1995 01/25/2009 at 9:47 PM #

    In terms of recruits coming in we do have a solid class for 2009(Wood, Brown, and Howell) and 2010(Leslie and Harrow)…

    Wall is probably going to Baylor and Cousins to Memphis and we already missed on Favors…

    We’ll see slow steady improvement but to hinge you opinion on who Sid will bring in then you may find your opinion going down. Again Wall to Waco and Cousins to Memphis.

  12. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 9:47 PM #

    chop, fair enough.

    While I am defending the coach at the moment, I am not sold on his ability at this point either. I am defending more about where he is right now, and that place is NC State University. He’s at a place that has stood by and idly watched as their BB program, as well as most of the rest of their athletic programs, were hollowed out and left as mere shells of what they once were. It’s THAT, and those FACTS surrounding the BB program in particular, that is why I am defending this coaching staff. It’s the many years of watching in agony along with the rest of the general public, the HS players and future collegiate BB stars, the timeframe and how long it’s been, the perception of Wolfpack basketball and what it had become long before Sidney Lowe ever even set foot back on the NCSU campus. That’s why I’m sticking up for him and his staff, not because of anything that Sidney Lowe has done, or hasn’t done in particular, since he came back to Raleigh. It’s because of all that NC State Wolfpack BB HAS NOT EVEN PRETENDED, OR TRIED TO BE since he was here the first time around.

    This is something that we are going have to suffer through and grow out of, nobody can fix all that is wrong with NC State BB in the timeframe of just a few short years. Somehow Sidney Lowe has convinced some players into coming to play at NC State, and these are players that almost everyone seems to be fairly excited about. I’ve read my share of scouting reports and I’m not even convinced about that. But there is one thing for certain, there is either a new beginning just around the corner, or a definite end in sight. All we can do is bite our lips, and wait it out to the tune of about two more seasons of NC State Wolfpack BB, or whatever you want to call it.

  13. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 10:00 PM #

    “Someone brought up Cameron Bennerman. There’s an example of a guy who was told, you most play D, you must work on your body, you must run the offense – then you’ll play.”

    Then you’ll get to play very late in your collegiate career in a scheme that doesn’t in any way adapt to accommodate your, and benefit from, your particular skillset. You, Cameron Bennerman, have to work your ass off in order to fit into a system that will not use your particular skills no matter how hard you work at it.

    Yep, that’s sure enough all of the encouragement any kid could ever want or need to work his ass off, and to become another nameless, interchangeable part of a something that he never intended to be in the first place.

  14. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 10:10 PM #

    I’m not saying who is right, Lowe definitely hasn’t handled the Fells situation properly, as far as I’m concerned both coaches are/were wrong in the earlier dealings with Bennermen, and now with Courtney Fells at this late stage.

    But either way, I don’t think I’d be pointing out the way Cameron Bennerman was handled and “coached” during his days at NC State, as any sort of *SHINING EXAMPLE* of how it’s supposed to be done.

  15. tvp1 01/25/2009 at 11:04 PM #

    Look, we had our shot 3 years ago, and we blew it. I don’t regret letting Sendek walk. Giving him a huge raise to keep him here would have caused an open revolt, with good reason. But we had our shot to move up in the basketball world with the right coaching hire, and our somehow still-employed AD flubbed it spectacularly.

    So, just accept that we are in no man’s land now, and will be for the rest of this year…and next year…and the year after that. Lowe isn’t going anywhere until the end of the 2010-11 season at the earliest.

    This is how bad the calculus is: Our options are

    (1) hope Lowe figures out how to coach and/or his incoming recruiting classes are so great that the team will be at least competent despite bad coaching in the near future; or

    (2) fire Lowe, and try to have FOWLER hire someone to coach a completely depleted roster, with the recruits likely gone, a program miles behind three in state rivals, with fans not all that patient to wait several years for the complete rebuild (which is what we’d have) to complete.

    Option 1 has about a 10% chance of success. Option 2 has a zero percent chance of success.

    So we trudge on, blindly hoping.

    Oh, and for those of you who think even great recruiting would solve our problems, two words: Paul Hewitt.

  16. redfred2 01/25/2009 at 11:12 PM #

    ^

    Again, a FINALLY healthy Engin Atsur, and a run at the end of the season.

    Again, a FINALLY healthy Russell Wilson, and a run at the end of the season.

    It takes leadership. And the TEAM confidence that comes with having that leadership.

    Oh yeah, and we’re already in the third year of that “complete rebuild” that you mentioned up there.

    Nuff said, good nite.

  17. ktoh 01/26/2009 at 7:53 AM #

    A good coach not even a great coach gets the most out of what he has.
    No excuses ,no pointing fingers and crying about the previous regime, if that is the case lets compare us to ASU?

  18. Classof89 01/26/2009 at 9:55 AM #

    Didn’t catch a single minute of the game this weekend, and, judging from the above comments, I didn’t miss a thing. My process of weaning myself from decades of following NC State basketball is progressing nicely. I suggest that you, like me, treat this as a 12-step program.

    Here are the steps I took, which are recommended as a program of recovery:
    (1) I admitted I was powerless over the performance of our basketball team, and that wishing we would be better despite any evidence to the contrary was making my life and peace of mind unmanageable.
    (2) Haven’t bought hoops season tickets in about five years (my designatable WPC money goes to football).
    (3) Haven’t watched or listened to a single coach’s TV or radio show all season.
    (4) Can actually enjoy a quality ACC matchup (dlike VaTech/Miami last night; “quality” matchup by definition excludes any game involving us) without thinking “Good lord, both these teams are going to beat the crap out of us.”
    (5) Got the mailing from the Wolfpack Club offering me a chance at ACC Tourney tickets (stated reason is tourney is in Georgia Dome, more seats are available; suspected actual reason is no one give a hoot about this program) and immediately tossed it in the garbage–why would I want to pay $368 to see us lose by double digits on the first day of a four day tournament? Four years of attending the “Les Robinson Invitational” at the ACC tournaments of the mid-90s were enough.
    (6) Have adopted a Chicago Cubs analogy as a means of explaining in casual conversations why I’m an NC State fan, emphasizing “character building” aspects.
    (7) Have actually managed to entirely miss two Pack ACC games this season in their entirety, substituting wholesome activities like walks, bike rides and yard work for cursing at the radio or TV.
    (8) Have only slipped up and watched one Pack ACC game in person this season (someone gave me the tickets). Given that it was the execrable FSU debacle, that about cured me for the rest of the season. Just for today, I will not pay good money for NC State basketball tickets.
    (9)Having experienced a Wolfpack hoops disengagement as a result of these steps, I have tried to carry this message to other disgruntled Pack hoops fans, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

    Darn it, that’s only nine steps…Can anyone come up with three more?

  19. 66pack 01/26/2009 at 11:30 AM #

    classof89 agree with your 9 step.i started the 9 step during the Les years so i did not bite when the WPC began selling life time rights.hell one year watching the pack seems like a life time.

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