Pack Wins Opener 69-53

09-10 Basketball General92

RALEIGH — N.C. State wants to win with its offense running through Tracy Smith. The Wolfpack also has to learn to how win without its big man.

With Smith in foul trouble, N.C. State struggled to survive against a Georgia State team filled with ACC castoffs on Thursday night. Ultimately, Smith got on the court long enough to offset a miserable shooting effort and lead the Wolfpack to a 69-53 win over the Panthers in the season-opener.

Smith’s game-high 18 points and 11 rebounds, in only 25 minutes, were enough for N.C. State’s 16th straight season-opening win. A late 18-5 run, capped by a Scott Wood layup at 3:42, brought the previously lifeless crowd of 9,502 at the RBC Center to its feet and allowed them to exhale.

–Link to Statefansnation message board discussion of the game

–Shooting a concern for the Pack

-Box Score

–Link to Gopack story, coaches quotes, and player interviews.

09-10 Basketball General

92 Responses to Pack Wins Opener 69-53

  1. BJD95 11/13/2009 at 8:27 AM #

    9500 people in attendance for the season opener. That’s also a key stat.

  2. nycfan 11/13/2009 at 8:36 AM #

    I listened to the game, so obviously my “observations” are subject to significant limitations, but it was obvious that everything flows through Smith and without him the team was dysfunctional on offense. But I think you should at least take some heart in the way State ran away from Ga St. in the end — the Pack couldn’t do that in other recent seasons when games like this got tight.

    Key stat: your guys won the game at the line, 26-6. Rebounding numbers not so great (39-37 State).

    Both teams shot horribly from the perimeter; with Smith out, State shot Ga St. back into the game with what sounded like a series of ill-advised threes (plus some Mays turnovers — box score only lists him with one though so maybe Gary’s call was misleading).

  3. wolfbuff 11/13/2009 at 8:58 AM #

    “9500 people in attendance for the season opener. That’s also a key stat.”

    Hey, Survivor and Flashforward were on last night.

  4. BJD95 11/13/2009 at 9:07 AM #

    And I was watching Survivor with my kids. But I did at least follow the game thread in the forums!

  5. packthis2 11/13/2009 at 9:09 AM #

    Interesting difference in game ,we took 35 free throws ,they took 12,the difference right

  6. TOB4PREZ 11/13/2009 at 9:10 AM #

    Seriously, I laugh at the sheer magnitude of “glasses half empty” out there…. We’re 1-0, and sure it wasn’t a team as great as NCCU (chuckles heartily), but at least we won HANDILY. This team is young and is going to make SEVERAL mistakes throughout the season, but I seriously doubt we’ll see any MOPING around and WALKING BACK up court (Courtney, Brandon, Ben)… this bunch is COMMITTED to their coach, and will go down swinging for him. That and some progress throughout will be plenty for me. If you don’t have anything nice to say, ehhhh… who cares, FIRE AWAY!!!

    Ya see….. I much prefer to keep the beacon of optimism burning brightly!!! It’s far easier to go through life with a smile than a frown.
    GO PACK!!!

    SFN: Nobody will ban you for being positive, even delusional. But you won’t get to waste our bandwidth bitching about the site or “negativity.” Thanks.

  7. TOB4PREZ 11/13/2009 at 9:12 AM #

    “Interesting difference in game ,we took 35 free trows ,they took 12,the difference right”
    ————————————————————-
    when this http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/ncstate/story/189296.html
    is your modus operandi on defense…. you’re going to be whistled for a foul, or 20.

  8. coach13 11/13/2009 at 9:53 AM #

    My take…yes it’s not great to play GaSt so close, but I have known past pack teams that would have lost it completely. PLUS I bet you will not find many other ACC teams giving so many minutes to freshmen. I would like to see Lowe continue to give many many minutes to the freshmen, particularly now vs the weaker part of the schedule, so they will be better prepared for the meat of the schedule.

    Forget how big or small we win. We need these guys to improve…and quickly. We may have a surprising year or it may be down right ugly…maybe a little of both, but at least it will be fun seeing who steps up among so many new guys. Anybody expecting us to roll over even the smaller schools at this point is ignorant of the college game.

  9. Hot Sauce 11/13/2009 at 9:55 AM #

    Observations from last night:

    1. There was not anywhere near 9k at that game. 6k tops. The administration did a poor job of marketing “Can Day” for free tickets.
    2. We did seem to play hard and hustle
    3. We have no one that can create a shot for themselves and no one who can get to the rim off the dribble
    4. I didn’t see any of that up tempo offense, with the exception of a late run out from Javi to scott wood.
    5. Tracy Smith will be a very good player for us.
    6. Horner played nice as well.

  10. coach13 11/13/2009 at 9:59 AM #

    6. Horner played nice as well.

    That’s about as exciting as I can get about Horner as well. I don’t know why but I have just never liked his game. Too streaky. If he’s on like last night keep him in. If he shows he is not, bench him the entire second half. Don’t know why…just don’t like him on the court. A mediocre player at best. Slow…so so defense.

  11. BJD95 11/13/2009 at 10:01 AM #

    I wouldn’t overanalyze a season opener like this, in either direction.

  12. coach13 11/13/2009 at 10:03 AM #

    Tracy Smith is going to be a nice bridge this and next year as we have prospectively some very good talent coming in. If he can lead for the next 2 years while the youngens develop, we may actually start to look like something…provided Sid knows what to do with the talent once it gets here.

  13. Pack Mentality 11/13/2009 at 10:04 AM #

    From the N&O link:

    “The Wolfpack couldn’t have asked for a better start, with Smith scoring eight of the team’s first 12 points. N.C. State jumped out to a comfortable 12-point first-half lead before Smith went to the bench with two fouls with 7:40 left in the half.

    “I was feeling good,” Smith said. “It was tough to watch [at the end of the first half], but I was able to get back out there and help the team win.”

    Combine Smith’s absence with a 2-of-10 effort from 3-point range in the first half, and Georgia State whittled the Pack’s margin to three points by halftime.”

    This sounds eerily familiar to the first game of the season with Hickson’s debut 2 years ago against William & Mary (I think was the opponent). We would have the lead by 10 or so and the substitution changes occurred. A lot of boring and forgetful bball took place for a few minutes and before you know it W&M was within 2 points before we put Hickson back in to build our lead up again. Relying on 1 man will not win you many games, hopefully that’s not the case, I just seem to think I’ve seen this act before.

  14. coach13 11/13/2009 at 10:10 AM #

    BJD95 is very right. The big difference PM is that we are dealing with alot of freshmen. That is a legitimate excuse for the big dropoff during substitution. The difference will be that the time you are talking about didn’t improve as the season went on whereas the jury will (should) be out for a while with this group.

  15. Alpha Wolf 11/13/2009 at 10:11 AM #

    Attendance: I attribute a lot of that to extremely low expectations and pre-season predictions for this team, coupled with the generally crappy weather the last two days.

    And TOB4PREZ, it is not just this site with low expectations, it’s pretty much the whole media, blog or traditional.

    What gripes my goat are the endless national columns that Lowe will probably be fired after this year. Fowler has made it clear it will not happen, but hey, the national guys seems to know everything….just ask them.

  16. coach13 11/13/2009 at 10:16 AM #

    Does anyone know anything about Luke Cothron and why he didn’t sign? I just look at his pic on the recruiting sites, he already looks like he has his ass on his shoulders. I thought we got rid of Costner? Just kidding but he does look pissed in the photos. Very BC.

  17. BJD95 11/13/2009 at 10:19 AM #

    He SHOULD be fired after this year, but won’t ever be fired as long as Fowler is protected.

  18. WPcec75 11/13/2009 at 10:24 AM #

    Can anyone attending the game comment on our 3 point shot selection? Were we getting open looks or was it poor shot selection, timing or just bad shooting?

  19. johnboyNCSU 11/13/2009 at 10:24 AM #

    Who in the hell was responsible for the intro? It was awful. 2 weeks of training at the The Art Institutes could generate better CGI. And why would the wolves run from the campus to downtown and then to the RBC Center, isn’t that just making things difficult?

    It’s our 100th year of basketball, throw a montage of old highlights together and call it day.

  20. Alpha Wolf 11/13/2009 at 10:27 AM #

    And why would the wolves run from the campus to downtown and then to the RBC Center, isn’t that just making things difficult?

    Isn’t that what we do in NC State athletics, make things unnecessarily difficult?

    I LOVE the new scoreboard, however. The old one was like watching an old 19″ super low def.

  21. coach13 11/13/2009 at 10:29 AM #

    Waste of Breath. Lowe is good for 2 more years based on recruits. I am no BIG Lowe fan, but I do remember that nobody else worth a crap wanted the job. Hiring Lowe reminds me of the know it all in the classsroom the teacher hates to call on…frantically bopping up and down waving their hand high…”pick me”…Pick me”…as everyone else cowers and shrugs away…not wanting any part of it.

    We are all torn about Lowe. We don’t think he’s a great coach (me included) and we want the Pack to win at the same time. WELL, if they win then Lowe is guaranteed to stay around…the ultimate catch 22. Do we hope the pack fells so Lowe might get fired? or hope the recruits and his coaching improve and we start competing seriously with the rest of the ACC?

  22. primacyone 11/13/2009 at 10:30 AM #

    I was at the game and will throw out these observations.

    1) The opening video is lacking. It was really a big depressor. Everyone was all pumped and then this video came on, and everyone in the building was like “when is this going to end”. Just a slow, mellow song.

    2) The new scoreboard is pretty cool except for the actual score part. The video screen is good and the player stats area is awesome compared to what we had before, but the actual score part took a lot of getting used to.

    3) Believe it or not you are going to really like Jordan and Josh. Those two guys played with a great amount of energy and hustle, and quite honestly are not bad players. They will both have to work on their offensive game and build some confidence there (mainly get some experience) but they were great on the defensive side of the ball. Josh seemed to chase down every loose ball when he was in the game and had a couple of rebounds that were due to just plain effort and doing what he was supposed to do. Jordan, well Jordan could be a beast before it’s said and done. He run’s the floor well, he plays as hard as he can play, and man he has a really strong ability to block shots – from any direction. He two blocks on this one guy from behind and another from a side angle that was on the money so to speak without getting a foul. You are really going to like those guys. They played hard. Heck most everyone played hard.

    4) I wouldn’t read to much into the score and view that from a we played bad perspective. GASTATE played a real aggressive man to man and fouled a lot away from the basket and that really slowed down the game. It appeared they came in to the game to take double down on Tracy while at the same time covering up Scott Wood. They appeared to have their top defensive guard on Scott and he kept Scott covered up much of the night. You could tell that State does not practice in the RBC as Scott just seemed to not be used to how the rim looks in the building – for lack of better words – and his shot was off. Having their focus on Tracy and Scott left Horner with some opportunities and he took advantage of them.

    5) Mayes made some great plays and also some mistakes. It’s hard to classify his play as excellent or ball hoggish. He seemed to try and take the leadership role and lead the team to victory, but at the same time he did seem to hog the ball on a few possessions. However, he was taking the ball inside on dribble penetration, but a couple of times he could have passed it back out.

    6) Painter gave a lot of effort, but just couldn’t seem to find his game. He played hard on the defensive end and even hit the floor a couple of times, but for some reason he found himself out of position more times than you would want on both ends of the floor. Looked like he was thinking too much, but it wasn’t from not playing hard, it was almost like he was playing too hard and that’s why he ended up out of position

    7) Javi was steady and consistent and also played hard. I think his stat line speaks for itself. He wanted to run some and got frustrated a couple of times that he thought they had opportunities to run but the out pass to him didn’t come quick enough.

    8) CJ: Not sure what to say. He seemed to be out of it a little but at the same time he got some rebounds just having his head in the game. Mays was in at the 2 for most of the second half, so that should tell you how CJ was playing last night.

    9) Tracy was great. Enough Said. He looks to be in EXCELLENT physical condition and the flat out knocked down some free throws. Obviously he has been working real hard. I think he and coach Lowe must be working out together as Coach Lowe looks great as well – he’s probably lost 30 pounds.

    10) Not a bad game for an opener with a BUNCH of freshman seeing significant playing time. We did not make any major mistakes, did not turn the ball over a lot, were very patient on offense to find a good shot, moved the ball around well and moved their feet well. Lowe did not whistle anywhere near as much as he usually does, and when he did it seemed to always be for the same reason – to “PACK it down, PACK it down” – or in other words to play the inside out game, pass it down low and take it to the hole.

    11) I thought the Crowd was into it, but just not that many people there and a lot like me had small children. Probably 35% of the crowd was children so they were not that loud, but the students and a good percentage of the adults were into it, especially the second half.

    Really is a different feel to the team versus the big dumb lazy from the last two years. These guys really do seem to care and they played hard. I walked out of the building not pissed off, and I saw progress, so I’m good right now. They won’t beat any of the top teams, but they were making playing hard, did not make massive and multiple mistakes and these freshman have more potential than I thought. Sure hope Richard Howell can get healthy, because I really think he could be Tracy II and we will need him to be. They do need to have practice at the RBC though – you could tell the freshman were in a different environment.

  23. VaWolf82 11/13/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    The term “playing hard” is normally used to describe a player that isn’t very talented…but is giving all that he has. It’s a sad day when it becomes necessary to use that phrase in describing the starters and key reserves.

  24. TOB4PREZ 11/13/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    And TOB4PREZ, it is not just this site with low expectations, it’s pretty much the whole media, blog or traditional
    ——————————————————————–
    this is even more reason NOT to propagate it further….
    BUCK the trend with me ALPHA…. don’t let anyone drag you down. Take steps forward, and don’t let people make you look back.
    Just my .02

  25. LRM 11/13/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    I have no fundamental issue with struggling early in the season, because that’s not uncommon across the board. Syracuse and Carolina both lost openers in their championship seasons a few years back. In fact, you don’t learn much about what kind of team you have until you’ve struggled.

    I’m not usually optimistic about our basketball program, but I’ll take the opening win, regardless of how ugly it might have been.

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