NC State vs Duke: Weird facial expressions for the win

09-10 Basketball Big Four Rivals45

For those who don’t get that joke, see Jon Scheyer tonight around 9 o’clock and 30 seconds. It will be really clear. Might not be any funnier, but it will most certainly be clear.

The more I’ve perused message boards and other blogs the last couple of days regarding the Duke game, the more optimism I seem to find. I don’t quite understand how to comprehend optimism coming from NC State fans, so it’s been quite weird. Not saying I disagree with those who are optimistic, it’s just out of the ordinary for optimism to drown out those hanging over the cliff by one broken, bleeding finger nail.

NC State’s game with Duke tonight is big for both teams, but for the Wolfpack it could potentially serve as a turning point in the season. A win over the No. 6 Blue Devils — aside from producing a party at center court — would help State’s confidence way more than it would help the Pack’s place in the ACC standings. And when a team’s six losses are by an average of 5.5 points, it needs all the confidence it can get.

Looking at Duke, it’s not hard to see how the Blue Devils have started 15-2 and 3-1 in conference play. As usual, Duke wants to play great defense and so far this season is only allowing 61 points per game while scoring more than 84. If NC State doesn’t take good care of the basketball and get good shots tonight, it could get ugly because Duke is not usually a team (like Clemson) who has long offensive droughts.

The most interesting storyline on the NC State side of things, at least IMO, is the potential to see major changes in the starting lineup. With the solid play of Julius Mays and Richard Howell recently, I would not be surprised if Dennis Horner and Javi Gonzalez find themselves coming off the bench. That doesn’t mean those two won’t see a lot of minutes, as Sidney Lowe pledges to get minutes to the players who play well on any given night. Some may argue that hurts rhythm, but doesn’t it make more sense to have “hot” players on the court as opposed to having some sort of consistent substitution pattern?

Here’s NC State’s three keys for tonight:

  1. Limit Jon Scheyer’s play-making ability
  2. Get Tracy Smith involved early
  3. Crash the defensive glass

Get ready for some links for tonight’s game. This is all pretty good stuff.

  • Here’s ESPN.com’s preview of tonight’s game. It’s pretty Duke-centric, but has good info in it.
  • Sidney Lowe made an appearance on 99.9 The Fan with Mike Maniscalco. Listen here.
  • The N&O just launched a new site devoted to covering the Big Four Rivals. It’s pretty exclusive to Duke and UNC, but here’s a small preview of tonight’s game from Ken Tysiac.
  • Backing the Pack (as usual) has a great preview focusing on stats.
  • Here’s some love fest stuff on Scott Wood from Technician.

And last but not least, watch Sidney’s thoughts on whether or not Carolina players “brag.”

Found this picture, couldn’t resist.

Scheyer

09-10 Basketball Big Four Rivals

45 Responses to NC State vs Duke: Weird facial expressions for the win

  1. PackMan97 01/20/2010 at 9:52 AM #

    I’m not particularly optimistic. I think State has about as much chance of beating Duke as the Republicans have of winning Ted Kennedey’s Senate seat.

  2. D_Medlin 01/20/2010 at 9:53 AM #

    Well a Republican did win his seat. So….

  3. Clarksa 01/20/2010 at 9:55 AM #

    That N&O link is a Duke/UNC rivalry page…or at least seems to have nothing to do with Wake or State.

  4. D_Medlin 01/20/2010 at 10:01 AM #

    It is focused on Duke/UNC for the most part, but there are a couple of small things that do talk about State and Wake.

  5. Thinkpack17 01/20/2010 at 10:13 AM #

    Maryland had spinning Scheyer faces behind the backboard last year. Some of them were funny as hell.

  6. packof81 01/20/2010 at 10:27 AM #

    He seems to be saying, “Ahhhhhhh!”

  7. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 10:30 AM #

    the key for me is high level team defense throughout the game tonight. something i haven’t seen all year. i’ve been satisfied with most of our defensive efforts, but it lapses just like some other parts of our game. i think it will take alot of thought and execution to contain duke’s versatility on offense. of course, they are going to shoot atleast twenty three’s im sure, so we’ll need them to have a low %. i think sid will lead us to 70 or more points, hopefully the bulk of these points don’t come in garbage time. can’t wait for tip off!!!!

    GO WOLFPACK!

  8. bradleyb123 01/20/2010 at 10:37 AM #

    Well a Republican did win his seat. So…

    I think PackMan97 was kidding, since the entire country pretty much knows that republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s seat last night. And what a nice win that was!

    But getting back on topic, I’m cautiously optimistic about tonight. What I mean by that is, I know and accept that our team is young and inconsistent. We have our bad times. But we also have some darn FINE times. We have the capability of winning this game, but we could also lose by 30. It depends on how our young guys handle the pressure of playing a top team like Duke.

    I don’t expect us to win. But I think we can pull it off. If we’re rebounding well, Wood is nailing threes, and we’re able to protect the ball and cut down on turnovers, we very much have a chance.

  9. primacyone 01/20/2010 at 10:46 AM #

    I love this team and I give them my 100% support but it’s going to be ugly tonight. I don’t think we have a chance.

  10. Rick 01/20/2010 at 10:59 AM #

    If we come out flat like we have been all year we will get blown out. CU pulled their foot off the pedal, Duke will not. They love to crush you. Also, we cannot count on an injury to their PG.

    IMO that is the key to the game. How we come out playing as we cannot dig a hole with Duke. If we stay close in the first half we have a chance.

  11. PackMan97 01/20/2010 at 11:04 AM #

    I’m kidding and I’m not.

    I think we have a “pigs flying” chance…but then again there are some pigs in the air this morning.

    I agree with Wolfy__79 in that team defense is key and I’m not sure we can keep Duke contained for 40 minutes. We also need MUCH better offense than we’ve shown since ACC play started.

  12. Thinkpack17 01/20/2010 at 11:26 AM #

    If we make our 3’s we got a great shot. If we don’t…send in the clowns.

  13. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 11:39 AM #

    well, i like duke’s team this year. of course coming from a die hard NCSU fan you may be scratching your heads? duke is our conference’s best team. they may not win the ACC but they’ll end up with 3-4 losses. the reason i like this year’s duke team is they play and have a true inside presence. i’ve never really seen this out of them before.

    our inside toughness is critical to this game, and is the foundation to what i said earlier about defense. we’ll have to work together in all aspects of defense but none more important than in the paint. we cannot give them those easy points. offensively, i’m sure we’ll have some success and some problems. hopefully there is balance and no scoring droughts. we can’t gaurantee that with our uncertainty in the backcourt.. but perhaps juls is growing up/into the man.

    i have to give credit to K/Duke/sheyer… i never would have guessed that he would be such a solid pg. he’s withstood some decent pressure this year and really caused problems for most if not all of their opponents? i am truly shocked by this, he should have been running the point for them last year if not sooner, IMO. all around, duke is a very high powered offense. pretty good interior, solid backcourt play, and of course kyle singler is the x factor. containing him the entire game will be tough…

  14. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 11:47 AM #

    so who do you think should have the singler job defensively?? can cj hold him… that would be nice but can cj contribute offensively?

    will wood have nolan smith??

    can javi/degand/mays work on sheyer for forty minutes?

    will tracy/howell/vandenburg/horner/painter be strong inside?

    for me, looking at it from this point of view gives me alot of confidence. note, i don’t know if these would be the best matchups.. just what i feel may work. none more important than our inside play being critical from start to finish. that will take some veteran leadership from none other than mr. smith.

  15. Wolfy__79 01/20/2010 at 11:50 AM #

    see i differ from thinkpack17, just a little. i know we need to make our three’s, but to me that would be a logical product of having success down low. making/missing three pointers would not be my plan of attack.. that would be a loser’s approach to beating the ACC best. don’t take that the wrong way, but we jacked three’s for what close to ten years with HWSNBN and never accomplished jacksneet. inside play and pg presence is what i want to see. if we win in that fashion, then NC STATE is BACK BABY!

  16. Thinkpack17 01/20/2010 at 12:13 PM #

    Scott Wood is a better defender than CJ. Leave him on Singler to start. Javi loves the challenge of stopping a big name guard. We actually had to put him on Vasquez last year because Courtney was getting his ass handed to him. Leave him on Nolan.

    Wolfy…like you I would love for Tracy Smith to get as many shots as possible in the paint. That would be our best chance to win, and that is exactly why Coach K will not let that happen. No way he let’s Tracy Smith beat him. Smart money is to double Tracy off of anyone not named Scott Wood and make everyone else beat you with jumpers. He may let Tracy go early, but by the end of the game if we aren’t 40% from 3 to keep them somewhat honest we are in trouble. They have a lot of fouls to give too. Expect TS to get mugged.

  17. pack44fan 01/20/2010 at 12:15 PM #

    Because of Duke’s size, I think that Tracey Smith may be limited inside. I believe that the key is agressiveness on offense which I believe will lead to agressiveness on defense. In the games I have seen, when State tries to control tempo on offense, the players are much less agressive offensively and defensively.

  18. dsgill87 01/20/2010 at 12:40 PM #

    Agree with Wolfy, surprised at what Scheyer has been able to accomplish for a pretty thin Jewish kid (no disrespect, b/c I fit that description as well). His basketball IQ is above the charts, he has a tendency to hit big shots and make you pay for mistakes. I wrote this on another board, but I do hope Duke does well in the tourny this year for a myraid of reasons.

    We have the ability to beat Duke tonight. We win this game 2-3 times out of 10. I think the biggest keys to a victory are Scott Wood (like many of you have said) and Smiths ability to mantain some order down low defensively. Why I think we probably lose? There are few lulls in Dukes game, they will come in with superior intensity and energy. They play high-octane and K has good pulse on this team. You can tell he is extremely proud of these guys and their potential. But they have no Battier, Jay Williams, Duhon, Redick, etc.

    But I’m excited, we have a chance. Just no prolonged scoring droughts and keep the turnovers down.. if we can have an equal number of possessions and hit some big shots, we’ll see. At least it will be fun! We don’t always get a chance to welcome Duke to the RBC Center.. its cool its just the big 4 playing each other tonight. Too bad Hillsborough has become dead – A Carolina loss coupled with a State win would be cause for celebration

  19. choppack1 01/20/2010 at 12:48 PM #

    Rick makes a good point on coming out flat.

    Anyone else wonder why this team seems to struggle in the first half?

  20. Class of 2009 01/20/2010 at 12:53 PM #

    @choppack1; I always thought it was because our team has a hard time adjusting real-time to an opponent (which is a part of experience and talent). I guess if someone is convinced Sid is a terrible coach they would never buy this, but it just seems like the kids can’t adjust for whatever reason (talent, experience, or direction) and Sid corrects the gameplay during halftime.

    …unfortunately that doesn’t work with a team like Duke. If we can just hang with them first half, we’ll have a shot.

  21. Thompson44 01/20/2010 at 12:58 PM #

    I do not see Sid making any changes in the starting line up although I am all for Mays and Howell starting. I hope the Pack makes this a competitive game and in the end has a chance to pull off the upset.

  22. gcpack 01/20/2010 at 12:59 PM #

    At the risk of having my post removed because I am going off subject & in regards to football recruiting does anyone know why the runningback Marcus Lattimore from S.C. doesn’t have State on his final list?

    He’s got S.C., N.C. among others but we aren’t in the mix.

    I would love to know any background on Lattimore’s recruitment, if any, by State. A 5 star running back and we certainly need more RBs.

    Thanks

  23. D_Medlin 01/20/2010 at 1:04 PM #

    gcpack,

    I think State was out of Lattimore’s recruitment pretty early on in the process. Not really sure why, but I think Lattimore maybe felt he was “too good” to come to NC State.

    Also, Lattimore narrowed his list recently to South Carolina and Auburn.

    He also never made an official visit to UNC so it’s questionable if the Heels ever had a shot either.

  24. PoppaJohn 01/20/2010 at 1:04 PM #

    I love our team and really see improvement this year, but this is a pretty darn good Duke team. And great guards are our weakness.

    I think you guys (above) are right, we’ll start slow and get behind. I’m expecting a double digit deficit at the half. Then we’ll make a run in the second half, but it won’t hold and we’ll lose by double digits. (and I will be unpleasant to live with tomorrow)

  25. wolfonthehill 01/20/2010 at 1:11 PM #

    SCHEYER-FACE!!!!!!

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