Thought we would open this entry for folks to interact if you weren’t interesting in some of the topics being discussed on our message boards.
Yesterday was a tough for one for WolfpackNation. If you were looking to cut through the clutter of the 300+ comments in our game entry, then I think you will like and appreciate the quality and insight in this discussion. Additionally, resident ACC expert, BJD, just linked some great comments and thoughts regarding this years ACC Tournament that you must check out by clicking here.
(1) State’s half-court defense against Clemson and Florida State was as good as I’ve seen us play in many, many years. Even against Georgia Tech, it was pretty good (although the Bees shot themselves in the foot on offense frequently, as did the Pack). This is both good and bad. It’s good because solid defensive work is the foundation for sustainable success. Good defensive teams don’t go, say, 2-10 during any stretch of conference play anywhere. And I firmly believe that pretty much any D-1 player can be at least an adequate defender with effort, coaching, and proper positioning (which is in reality a combo of effort and coaching). So, that does give me some semblance of hope. But here’s the flip side – why the hell did it take so long to start playing this kind of defense? And can we reasonably expect a strong, consistent defensive effort next year, or will 2010-11 be similarly frustrating?
Ultimately, Georgia Tech will battle Duke today for the 57th annual ACC Championship. Amazingly, in the 57 years of the ACC Tournament, there has only been a single occurrence where one of the “Big Four” teams from North Carolina were not represented in the Championship game. Another one from BJD:
(4) It’s counter-intuitive to say this about a team playing for the ACC title today, but I really don’t feel good about my program if I’m a GT fan. They have raw talent galore. But this is, frankly, as stupid a team as I’ve watched play in a long, long time. And the semifinal game against NC State has to be among the most poorly played tournament semifinals of all time (it reminded me of the Wake/State NIT semifinal during the Sendek era). But fortunately for the Jackets, somebody had to win Saturday’s game. But I sure as hell don’t expect much out of them come NCAAT time. And I don’t expect anything to change as long as Paul Hewitt remains at the helm.
If you typically watch ACC Basketball then you know the unfortunate reality of the significance that the officiating team carries in any game. Here is a neat look at some officiating information relative to the ACC Championship game:
2009: Jamie Luckie, Bryan Kersey, Sean Hull
2008: Jamie Luckie, Les Jones, Mike Eades
2007: Karl Hess, Bryan Kersey, Gary Maxwell
2006: Karl Hess, Bryan Kersey, Jamie Luckie
2005: Duke Edsall, Larry Rose, Les Jones
2004: Karl Hess, Reggie Cofer, Jamie Luckie
2003: Mike Wood, Larry Rose, Karl Hess
2002: Mike Wood, Duke Edsall, Larry Rose
2001: Mike Wood, Larry Rose, Karl Hess
2000: Mike Wood, Larry Rose, Karl Hess(In cumulative list form for the last 10 years, it’s Hess 6, Rose 5, Luckie 4, Wood 4, Kersey 3, Edsall 2, Jones 2, with four others at one apiece).
Even though NC State fans don’t get to watch today’s college basketball developments through the lense of a potential NCAA Tournament berth, we are anxious about how all of the chips will fall as it will relate to our potential NIT hopes. Luke DeCock and the N&O echo our sentiments that NC State deserves an NIT bid.
Nevertheless, it was easy to see, despite the bad decisions and worse discipline that led to a 57-54 loss for Georgia Tech on Saturday, that the Wolfpack deserves to play on despite the loss. It’s an open question whether N.C. State has done enough to earn an NIT bid at 19-15, but the answer should be yes.
Basketball junkies of rooting interests will like the “Bubble-centric” articles that we’ve linked and resulting conversation in this thread.
Lastly, I have to link this conversation in the event that anyone has some information to add.
