McCauley Closes Out in Style

08-09 Basketball84
BC (20-10) 34 35 69
NCSU (16-12) 43 31 74

Playing his last regular season home game (don’t expect a home game in the NIT, either), Big Ben walks off the court a winner – with his rebound and free throws sealing the deal. His final numbers? 20 points and 6 rebounds, with each rebound being crucial.

The other stat we can feel great about is 6:1 – that was Javi’s assist-to-turnover ratio (Edit: Fixed the TO number.). Got to tighten up on those free throws, though.

Fells played well before his injury, and quasi-senior Brandon Costner at least played hard (but in no way did he play smart). Kudos to the veterans for not laying down. Next up is Miami, in a faceoff for the 9 seed.

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

84 Responses to McCauley Closes Out in Style

  1. wufpup76 03/04/2009 at 10:14 PM #

    ^I was going for humor more than solid analysis, Alpha … but I failed at both.

  2. Alpha Wolf 03/04/2009 at 10:25 PM #

    ^ Nahhh, no failure at all. I enjoyed the parody…but leave it to me to ruin all the fun!

  3. BJD95 03/04/2009 at 10:28 PM #

    ^ I still have no idea why our students don’t orchestrate a “SHAM!” “WOW!” chant for every ESPN-U game. That would be awesome.

  4. wufpup76 03/04/2009 at 10:44 PM #

    And we need a Billy Mays avatar in here to balance Vince from ShamWow! … STAT!

    Very happy for Ben, Simon, and Courtney going out with a win at home on Senior night. Terrible news about Courtney, I hope he’s able to go for the tournament if not Saturday at Miami. He played a really good first half.

    Ben was awesome, and Javi was superb. The radio guys kept talking about how Rice’s last field goal came around the 15 minute mark … I find that remarkable. Our little Javi was the primary defender on him all night long. Huge plays from Javi all night and he has come a long way defensively when most of us (myself certainly included) never thought he would be even an ‘ok’ defender. Great job.

    Also, special hat tip for Sidney Lowe. Good job mixing up the defesive looks all night and helping get the ball out of Rice’s hands. The halfcourt zone pick up was particularly effective. First victory over BC – a team that has flat out owned us. Well done, especially considering that they had a lot more to play for.

    Very good win, and a new high in conference victories under Coach Lowe. 5-3 in conference at home, which is respectable. And after last season *and* the way the early conference season went for us, getting to 6 wins was no small task. Sure, we beat GT twice, Virginia, and Miami to get there – but we’ve got to give credit where it’s due and wins over Wake and BC are good wins this season.

    Now, Sidney just needs to take out Maryland and Clemson …

  5. GAWolf 03/04/2009 at 10:46 PM #

    Pack beats Akron in 18 innings 5-4. That’s 27 innings of baseball in one day. That sort of sucks going into a three game weekend in Coral Gables against Miami. Keep it going, Pack.

  6. dtwncsu 03/04/2009 at 10:48 PM #

    Our BB program is looking good when it plays with a high level of energy. Brandon needs to get back to being more involved on the offensive end of the court.

  7. Pack Leader 03/04/2009 at 11:22 PM #

    I have been saying all year we will miss Big Ben more than ANYBODY on this team. Tonight proved it. we showed tonight we can beat a good team without much offensive output from fells or BC. thanks for the memories guys, but its time for a new page to turn on their incresingly unsuccesful, under-acheiving careers. (Sorry to be a negative nancy). Good win and im glad our boys didnt lay down. Was it just me or was there NOBODY at the game tonight??? sad. thats what our school gets for scheduling their Senior night in the middle of student spring break. CJ continues to impress me and Tracey proved tonight multiple times he will be our go to player next year. Horner really is getting comfortable with the pick and pop 3 pointer and seemed to box out very well tonight. Degand had bone head plays but overall played good and Javi is really starting to understand what is expected of him out there.
    Side note during the game the annoncers brought up a great idea or rumor im not sure which…. Putting a David Thompson statue outside the RBC center similar to Mich St with Magic Johnson and several other schools. GREAT IDEA.

  8. ncsukyle430 03/04/2009 at 11:32 PM #

    So I think it was brought up earlier, but the announcers were terrible. There were several times during the game when they just stopped calling it for minutes at a time and of course they spent a good ten minutes on the ACC’s favorite muppet. Those guys made Tim Brando and The G-Man look like Howard Cosell and … Howard Cosell?

  9. turfpack 03/04/2009 at 11:53 PM #

    I was at the game and thought Sid did a great job coaching-TO’S at good times-3/4 court pressure on Rice-
    Alittle 2-1-2,box and 1.
    The guys played with some heart-Ben,Javi,Fells,Horner,CJ ,even BC had some nice rebounds and hustle plays.
    The defense on Rice was exceptional and rebounding was great.
    Get well soon Fells and come out smoking next week!
    OH-YEH LEE WAS ALL SMILES AT THE HALF A 17 million dollar check was presented for the athletic department-MO-MONEY-MO-MONEY=better than a drink or fishing at the lake.

  10. wufpup76 03/04/2009 at 11:58 PM #

    Off topic – but I just now saw where Kentucky lost at home … to Georgia

    If the Wildcats make it in now as an at large then the shit is rigged.

  11. gcpack 03/05/2009 at 12:43 AM #

    GAWolf the baseball team needed those games to shake the rust off. Both games on mon & tue were cancelled.

    I think the coach was smart in scheduling these games in Miami before the conference series starts.

    Let the team get used to playing down there for a couple of days.

    These guys are 18 and 20 yrs old.

    Not like they are running a marathon.

  12. Greywolf 03/05/2009 at 2:03 AM #

    Anybody here think they would have liked it better if Sid had benched his seniors? Me either.

    Ben MacCauley had some serious props for Sid and the defense he designed for BC. Yes it takes execution to make these things work and without a game plan, there is not much to execute.

  13. blackdom 03/05/2009 at 8:05 AM #

    A great win.We will miss Ben,Fells and Costner a heck of a lot more than you can imagine.
    What most don’t realize one of the main reasons Tracy is doing so well is that Ben plays up top on the stack and the D has to respect him leaving Tracey to dunk inside. I will take his dunks,but he has to work on making a layup as well as his foul shooting. (Which without the “Three” I wonder how bad out FT % is?)
    Fells is and was a frustrating player but our best defender. Costner for all his ups and downs he was a player who could take over a game and score in bunches.
    I have been laying low here for a bit but, I find it odd that most of you post how much better we will be without these “Three”.

  14. ktoh 03/05/2009 at 8:21 AM #

    Congrats and Great Job BM,CF and yes even BC nice way to finish up at home.
    On a side note the RBC center was empty pathetic I do hope this wakes people up!

  15. BoKnowsNCS71 03/05/2009 at 8:42 AM #

    Glad the team won. Just wish I didn’t have to listen to the radio talk show wonks talk for an hour this morning about our continuous lack of attendance. The never put LF on the hot seat about it and accept his good ole boy homespun spin charm. If it’s the corporate folks not showing up — they need to put students in those seats to raise some noise. If it people with lifetime rights to those seats not showing up — same thing. In this day in age — there has to be some way to let the folks in the nose bleed seat in the upper level come down to the lower level after 10 minutes or so into the game. If the seat owner shows up the students can move to another empty one. Someone needs to handle this. Of course, the real solution is having a product in demand that people want to attend — not just pay for seats.

  16. newt 03/05/2009 at 8:49 AM #

    ESPNU heads sucked. I turned off the sound early in the second half and listened to the radio instead. Who watching the NC State/BC game on ESPNU wants to listen to the announcers go on and on and on about Carolina all night? I’m okay if they want to mention them and Duke and the ACC, etc., but it got ridiculous, and annoying.

  17. ktoh 03/05/2009 at 8:51 AM #

    True but how can you move people down from the upper tiers when there was no one up there? I was at the past 2 games and frankly it has been a disgrace the crowds or lack of crowd!

  18. Wolfpack_1995 03/05/2009 at 8:58 AM #

    Glad to see Ben go out like that. He deserved it. He definetly proved to me that he does have more heart and desire than Fells or BC.

    I am hearing that BC may come back. We can use his firepower but we cannot rely on him to rally the team.

    Really not going to miss Fells that much at all. He shows up like once every 10 games IMO and people can call him a “defensive stopper” but IMO he takes way to many plays off and just stands at the perimeter on offense.

    It was Spring Break for the students that why the crowd was sparce!

  19. packbackr04 03/05/2009 at 8:58 AM #

    if we would win more games… people would come and we wouldnt have to worry about crappy attendance

  20. Daily Update 03/05/2009 at 8:59 AM #

    It was Spring Break and we are a crappy team. What do people expect?

  21. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 03/05/2009 at 9:16 AM #

    Fowler should be happy there is a ‘lunatic fringe’, if not there wouldn’t be anyone at the games.

    Great win.

  22. LKNpackfan 03/05/2009 at 9:24 AM #

    It was nice to see Atsur behind the bench cheering our guys on. I don’t know if Turkish league is in the offseason or not, but it was great of him to make the trip.

  23. TheCOWDOG 03/05/2009 at 9:31 AM #

    Ya, it was a shame attendance wise.

    It was so bad early on that I sneezed and folks across court and 2 rows up whispered
    ” Gesundheit ” and I thanked them.

    Place could have rocked last night.

  24. wufpup76 03/05/2009 at 9:31 AM #

    Lee donned his red blazer last night while picking up that check for $17 million and change.

    The fans even got thanked for their support of Wolfpack basketball last night … that is, the words “Thank you for your support of Wolfpack basketball” appeared on the electronic ad banner ring.

    I felt gratified.

  25. wolfpackbball 03/05/2009 at 9:32 AM #

    Great game, pretty fun to watch.

    First time I can remember us using our first TO on the last possession of the first half so as not to lose it.

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