Wolfpack deliver something of pride!! Scraps back to win Glenn Wilkes

09-10 Basketball General60

Any time NC State can beat Jeff Lebo it can’t help but feel just a little better than any other win!!

You REALLY have to give Coach Lowe and the Wolfpack a lot of credit for coming from behind to beat Auburn, 60-58, when Tracy Smith rebounded and put back a Julius Mays miss from the corner. (Link to ACCNow)

Glenn Wilkes

We followed it live on our Twitter feed and the community really jumped into the thread on the message boards.

Coach Lowe really loves November in Florida. First it was the Old Spice Classic two years ago & now the Wolfpack sweeps the field to go 4-0 over the last week in the Glenn Wilkes.

Dennis Horner – 17 pts
Tracy Smith – 11 pts
Scott Wood – 10 pts

Other than poor shooting by both teams, Auburn’s FT shooting (5-15) has to be the key stat of the game.

Look, I recognize that this is basically nothing in the entire scheme of things; but you can only play what is on your schedule and at the moment we are 4-0.

Class of 2009: I mean, all things considered, I’ll take it. Those last few minutes I was still expecting a Pack-Meltdown simply due to the deep scars Herb left on my basketball soul. It is really, really refreshing to see a team do something that resembles trying on the final stretch of a game.

I honestly was HOPING that State would be 3-1 right now, and had mentally prepared myself to be 2-2. To get out of this with a 4-0 record actually has me doing math to try to calculate a winning season and try to find a way to get into the NIT or CBI or something.

I tended to agree with the following comment from one of our posters and thought I would share:

Ok, I’m starting to figure this team out a little more. Smith, Horner and Wood are the only guys that act like they know how to score. Javy and Mays can shoot when open, but struggle getting good looks. Painter and JV are big bodies that can play defense and maybe get a few garbage buckets/FTs. The real mystery is CJW. We need 10 points per game from him in order to be successful. Assuming we need 75 points to win games, we need the following.

Smith – 15
Horner – 10
Wood – 10
CJW – 10
Everyone else – 30

Degand and Howell could really help this team. Degand is aggressive and helps a little on D. Not sure what Howell can bring, but he’s our highest rated freshman.

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09-10 Basketball General

60 Responses to Wolfpack deliver something of pride!! Scraps back to win Glenn Wilkes

  1. rdjennin 11/22/2009 at 11:03 PM #

    oh ya

  2. CStanley 11/22/2009 at 11:04 PM #

    Damn sure better than losing.

  3. Afterglow 11/22/2009 at 11:05 PM #

    I saw we were ahead. Then I saw that we were behind with about seven minutes to play and thought for sure that we would lose. It’s nice to see us pull one off from behind like that. A little win like this I think-although nothing monumental-we’ll be good for this young team. Just don’t get cocky!

  4. theghost 11/22/2009 at 11:07 PM #

    who doesn’t hate Jeff Lebo? Nice weekend from the Pack. Sounds like we could really use Degand and Howell. Here’s hoping we never play in the Glenn Wilkes classic again – what a worthless tournament.

  5. jay95 11/22/2009 at 11:08 PM #

    In years past they would have folded and lost, proud of the team for not giving up, I know I’m setting myself up for disappointment but this year may not be as bad as we feared! I’m not expecting miracles, but we may have some good wins and respectable loses. Now if the football team would pick themselves up and beat the heels all will be right with the world!

  6. mwcric 11/22/2009 at 11:12 PM #

    I think perhaps the most heartening thing about tonight’s victory was this (from Luke DeCock’s New & Observer blog):

    “Down six, Gonzalez and Mays hit back-to-back 3-pointers to tie the score at 49 with four minutes to go, the entire State bench standing and chanting ‘defense’ in a spontaneous show of team spirit.”

    Spontaneous shows of team spirit have been glaringly missing for a few seasons now. This encourages me.

  7. fullmoon1 11/22/2009 at 11:13 PM #

    a big hell yeah. That was scrappy and a effort we can all be proud of. I wasnt expecting a win, i was worried the tourney would result in injuries but I think it was well worth it. Where did that horner guy come from, way to step up.

  8. Afterglow 11/22/2009 at 11:17 PM #

    Granted, the Glenn Wilkes classic is nothing huge but this is nice to see. I think you lose a thing like this and it’s demoralizing but winning is only a good thing especially in the absence of some players that probably could’ve helped the cause. I have good feelings about this team; I think come ACC Tournament, we will be a tricky opponent.

  9. pack fan 11/22/2009 at 11:19 PM #

    Congrats to the guys. Great team effort this weekend. GO STATE!!!

  10. BassPacker 11/22/2009 at 11:30 PM #

    Finally some good news on the Athletic front at NCSU. Good win. Go Pack !

  11. ncsufan13 11/22/2009 at 11:30 PM #

    Always happy to see the pack come out on top. Tracy Smith really attacked the basket and would not be denied the win on the last possession. Great team effort this weekend, they deserved the wins with such a young scrappy squad.

  12. Afterglow 11/22/2009 at 11:33 PM #

    C.J. Williams has an ankle injury. Anyone know how bad it is?

  13. theghost 11/22/2009 at 11:37 PM #

    also – any idea why Mays jacked a 3 on that last play? Was it a good open look, or just Mays acting like a freshman?

  14. StateFans 11/22/2009 at 11:42 PM #

    ^ It was a perfect look. Wide open in the corner. Couldn’t have asked for a better look. He had to take it. And, he didn’t hesitate.

  15. MA Wolfpack 11/22/2009 at 11:58 PM #

    The only reason Mays would not take that shot is if he wanted to drive to the basket because he was so open that he could have dribbled a few times and then shot. Obviously, I’m kidding…he did the right thing by pulling the trigger and I’m glad he did not hesitate. The shot was way off though. Good things happen when you play the right way.

  16. ncsufan13 11/23/2009 at 12:00 AM #

    “C.J. Williams has an ankle injury. Anyone know how bad it is?”

    The guys at PackInsider.com posted this, so I’m guessing its nothing serious.

    “Coach Lowe said that he thought C.J. was ok. He was apparently jumping around with the team celebrating after the game.”

  17. bradleyb123 11/23/2009 at 12:22 AM #

    That team seemed to hit every three pointer they threw up for a while there. And I don’t think we played particularly well. When we fell behind by six, all things considered, I expected us to fold. In recent years, we certainly would have folded in a similar situation. I’m glad to see this young team finding ways to win in difficult situations. Winning this tight game probably did a LOT more for us than if we had won it by 12.

    Way to go, Pack. Like someone said, we haven’t proven anything yet by beating these particular teams. But we’ve played the games on our schedule and we’re 4-0. It is what it is and I’ll take it. Gladly. I thought we might lose to Akron, and quite possibly Auburn. We’re not ready to dance in the streets, but this is nice. For now, anyway. Keep it up, Pack!

  18. PapaJohn 11/23/2009 at 12:47 AM #

    Three games in three days was a really good experience for the team, clearly they supported each other and at times played well. I think they were tired against Auburn, but gutted it out anyway – admirable. That plane ride home should be memorable. I hope they took Howell so he starts getting the fever. Looking forward to seeing him contribute.
    Very excited about Wood. He shoots well, but it sounds like he plays well too.
    But lets not get ahead of ourselves. We still don’t have ACC caliber guards, so unless Sid unleashes some ‘strategery’ we’ll struggle with turnovers and stopping the other team’s guards when we start playing the grown ups.
    But you have to love 4-0, I didn’t expect it.

  19. theghost 11/23/2009 at 1:12 AM #

    just found the box score – other than shooting pct and 3 pct, a lot of positives – 19 to 10 offensive boards, 42/35 overall, and also better in assists, steals, turnovers, and fouls. 35 minutes out of Wood! I listened to about half the game on the Auburn radio network, and they were talking about Auburn looking fatigued and giving up boards – I’m liking how Lowe kept a deep rotation to get through the weekend and got the freshmen some experience.

    Rough night shooting for Smith, but still good game (15 boards) – maybe running out of steam a little on day 3. Need somebody to step up to help down low, whether that’s Painter, Vandenburg, or Howell. We may be relying on Horner more than I thought this year, but he’s playing surprisingly well so far, it seems (is Horner really taller than Smith?). I suppose Mays and Painter will lose minutes when Degand and Howell return, and Josh Davis won’t see much more time at all.

    4-0 and dealt jeff lebo a loss – I’m happy.

  20. ncsufan13 11/23/2009 at 1:16 AM #

    ^ We should have done better in the paint, but those refs weren’t calling any contact fouls down there. Auburn was roughing up Smith the entire game and wasn’t be punished for it. You won’t see that kind of officiating at home.

  21. Dogbreath 11/23/2009 at 7:34 AM #

    “…Auburn was roughing up Smith the entire game and wasn’t be punished for it. You won’t see that kind of officiating at home.”

    Umm, yes you will.

  22. fullmoon1 11/23/2009 at 8:07 AM #

    ” We still don’t have ACC caliber guards”
    I would argue that maybe that was true once upon a time but I think Gonz is more than capable now. HE began showing signs late last season. I think our guards can hold thier own this year. I would also argue that Auburn is dang close to ACC caliber play.

  23. Alpha Wolf 11/23/2009 at 8:27 AM #

    PapaJohn, your warning about not getting ahead of ourselves is well-served, but right now, let’s just enjoy this bit of modest success that the Pack has achieved.

  24. Dr. BadgerPack 11/23/2009 at 8:32 AM #

    I think the poor shooting is a strong indicator that maybe they aren’t as conditioned as they need to be. Hard to shoot without legs, and this probably had a big effect on the freshmen (haven’t had the benefit of summer weights, etc.). They know where they need to be if they want to make any push at the ACC tournament in March, as this is the only other instance where games in consecutive days comes into play.

    Horner for the most part was good; not coincidentally he’s been around a while.

    I just really hope the team LEARNS something from the weekend, other than “hey, we’re 4-0 right now”. There are plenty of things to work on. That said, this team exhibited a lot of the key elements I identified in a post a long time ago, and hopefully this trend continues (defense, hustle, no bad losses, etc.).

    They now have a week-ish to prep for UNO, and conditioning better be focused on for a while. With Northwestern around the corner, they better work on execution in the halfcourt offense as well. All that said, I enjoyed the weekend other than last night’s near heart attack, and am happy for the team so far. Keep working hard, and keep improving!

  25. Gene 11/23/2009 at 8:47 AM #

    Every team we played in the Glenn Wilkes Classic went to some sort of post season tournament last year: Akron went to the NCAA’s, Austin-Peay went to the CIT, and Auburn went to the NIT’s (which is better than we did last year).

    I’m not sure how these teams will do this year, but Auburn is returned a lot of players from last years team, Akron is predicted to win the MAC again this year, though I’m not sure what Austin-Peay is projected to do this year.

    We beat three decent teams this year in a row. I’m not sure what that’ll mean going forward, but any of those teams – on paper at least – woulda, shoulda, could’ve beaten us.

    Now I’m going to be cheering those three schools on, because the better they do, the better our SoS and RPI become.

    So all together now: “Let’s go PEAY!” My new favorite chant. 🙂

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