Thoughts from the Badger State

10-11 Basketball114

Whenever we have a game, I try and seek out the views and opinions of those from the opponents area.

Today, we will look at Swingtown Badger Basketball Blog and The Badger Herald.

From Swingtown:

I don’t think a home game could have come at a better time. The Badgers couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn in Orlando, especially from deep…  NC State used to be a lot like Wisconsin with Herb Sendek at the helm. But he was chased away to ASU because their fanbase seemingly values high tempo over success… But they are signing 4- and 5-star recruits now, so I guess they can lose in style.

The Herald:

Despite their youthfulness, UW head coach Bo Ryan acknowledged the team’s athleticism and natural talent, saying they “can beat anyone in the country.”

But when it comes to anticipating NC State’s game plan, Ryan, whose teams have always been able to slow down the pace of their opponent, expects nothing less from the Wolfpack than another attempt at running the Badgers up and down the court.

“They’ll do that. Anybody that sees our team salivates. You know, if Pavlov rang a bell…” Ryan said. “People have been trying to run it down our throats for 10 years, it’s our job to stop them.”

Slowing down the opposing offense is somewhat of a trademark for UW, which has finished in the NCAA’s top 10 in points allowed in each of the last four years. So far this year, the Badger ‘D” has remained as dependable as ever, allowing an average of 54 points per game, right on cue with years past.

Only one team thus far has scored more than 60 points on UW, and Badger opponents have been held to shooting an average of just .387 and .351 this season.

On the other side of the court, the Badgers have struggled to consistently shoot the ball well over their last three games in the Old Spice Classic. In all first halves, UW connected on just .318 of all shots while coming back in the second to hit .509 of all attempts.

Other than poor shooting, UW’s two losses so far this season don’t have much else in common. Against UNLV, Wisconsin won the rebound fight and took full advantage of second chance points, but it was costly turnovers late in the game that made the difference.

Against Notre Dame, Wisconsin committed just four turnovers but lost the rebound fight and failed to get to the free throw line.

Tonight will be a battle of wills, the will to impose one style over another. The thing is, I don’t see it being that much of a factor unless we REALLY run the floor. Fortunately, we do have the ability to run an effective half-court offense, and we all know Wisconsin can run. This is a really tough game to quantify, which means we could easily get blown out or pull the upset. One thing is certain, this is an exceptional opportunity for NCSU to take the next step. But if we lose tonight, we still have some marquee games remaining in December to nullify a loss to the Badgers.

In absolutely unrelated news, came across this (not sure if anyone is talking about it on the forums): In short, despite what we heard from Gruden’s camp earlier this week, athletic director Kirby Hocutt will travel to Tampa Wednesday and meet with Gruden to gauge his interest in the position.

About BAM

I grew up on Jones Franklin Rd with a Wolfpack banner hanging over my bed. UNCW class of 2001.

10-11 Basketball

114 Responses to Thoughts from the Badger State

  1. packof81 12/02/2010 at 10:22 AM #

    “There is a reason, a REASON, we keep hearing this.”

    Wufpacker answered most of it. Also, the Wisconsin yahoo that wrote about our crazy fanbase running off Herb is a troll just stirring the pot.

    Obviously, embarrassing losses like this don’t help matters. It will be interesting to see how DY handles this down the road.

  2. EdMar 12/02/2010 at 10:23 AM #

    I like Lowe, but remember he was hired as a last second thought after many other coaches publicly turned us down. Sidney had never coached in college and had one of the worse records ever in the NBA. There was nothing in his record to indicate that he would be a great coach except his love for NCSU.

    Watching the game last night was terrible but watching the Fairleigh-Dickinson game was about as bad. Our team is young and having Tracy back would really help, but I’m afraid we lack the ability to teach the important fundamentals and team play. We have over a month before our first ACC game so maybe these talented freshmen will get it together (1st half of the GTown game) otherwise we will again finish towards the bottom and the whole nightmare cycle of getting a new coach will start again. Is tough being a State fan!

  3. bradleyb123 12/02/2010 at 10:23 AM #

    I was in the group that thought Sid deserved a chance to coach this year, and see what he could do with this “great” recruiting class.

    I now believe the Sid experiment needs to come to an end. This team, even without Tracy Smith, should lose to NOBODY by 40 points. Not even Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium. I can understand growing pains, and the need for learning. But a 40 point blowout is inexcusable.

    I do think it was the right thing to keep Sid until this year. He was worth the gamble, but sometimes gambles do not pay off. But we have some players with raw talent. The right coach could do something with them. And I think we have a job that would appeal to a good coach. He’ll have some talent to work with from the day he arrives.

    And to anyone still defending Herb… a failed Sidney Lowe is not proof that we should have kept Herb. It’s just proof that we should have replaced him with someone else.

    State doesn’t have a history of hiring great coaches and paying their price. We always seem to go with an “experiment” and hope for the best. I’m afraid we’ll just do that again, and end up with another loser of a coach. Until we learn that sometimes you DO get what you pay for, we will be destined for mediocrity. Or whatever it is we have now. I would LOVE to be mediocre right now. That would be an improvement.

  4. JeremyH 12/02/2010 at 10:24 AM #

    this job is much more attractive with the three freshman (Lo is good, but still not NBA-ready, and the lockout is looming). It is a good time for change.

  5. Wulfpack 12/02/2010 at 10:33 AM #

    The REASON Herb is brought up as a black eye on current NCSU hoops is that Sid has not done anything with the opportunity. He as not won – period. He is the worst coac in the history of NCSU basketball.

    Games like last night eat Sid alive? Who says? Could have fooled me. We looked like a disinterested team last night. Same goes for the coaching staff.

    Sid is out of chances.

  6. bradleyb123 12/02/2010 at 10:42 AM #

    Here’s the way I see the Herb situation. The fanbase was forced to tolerate that dude MUCH longer than we were supposed to. So we became more and more rabid. Then Herb started squeaking his way into the dance, while not really improving things much (hence all the early exits from the dance). So outsiders look at us as a much of nutcases that were not thankful for being in the big dance. But our bad administration should not have put us in the position to BECOME so rabid in the first place. If they had done their job, and fired Herb after year 4 or 5, we wouldn’t have created this image problem for ourselves.

    And now that we replaced Herb with someone that has done even worse, it makes us look like a bunch of spoiled brats that got what we deserved.

    I just hope we keep good people (like Debbie Yow) that will do the right thing going forward, so we’re not put in a position of looking like a bunch of moonbats again.

    Letting Herb walk was the right thing to do, regardless of how Sidney panned out. Hiring Sidney was not the right thing to do, but we were in a bad spot (thanks to Fowler), and had to take what we could get. Then we had to stick with it a while, or we make the NC State coaching job a really unappealing job to prospective coaches. So we had to stick with Sid for a while. But enough is enough. If he rights the ship THIS season, then maybe we stick with him. But when he doesn’t, we need to waste no more time. No more “one more year” stuff for Sidney.

  7. 87stategrad 12/02/2010 at 10:44 AM #

    For some reason, I keep checking here and at PP to see if anyone has posted anything that would give me any reason not to completely give up on the season. The sad thing is, I not only bought season tickets, but followed up with a couple more ACC Mini-packs to bring the kids. What a waste. At this rate, I won’t be able to give them away. And I’m certainly not goin to the RBC to watch crap like this.

  8. ShavlikLeague 12/02/2010 at 11:03 AM #

    “We’re getting passed around for cigarettes like we’re in prison.” –fmack

    Watching the game last night and reflecting on it since then, I couldn’t quite put my finger on how I felt about the loss. Yet somehow, I knew that one on my fellow Wolfpack brothers would come to my aid in my time of need.

    Thank you, fmack, for possibly the best description of getting an 4ss-whippin’ that I have ever seen.

  9. 61Packer 12/02/2010 at 11:30 AM #

    The Fairleigh-Dickinson game, which was so similar to most of our home games the past four seasons, got little press due to the upcoming games against quality opposition. It was a home game against a small, outmanned team that we couldn’t execute against and had trouble putting away. FD had marginal if any talent but we struggled anyway, like we have for four years. So last night shouldn’t have surprised anyone. The Wisconsin media certainly called it right.

    Uninspired, sloppy, undisciplined basketball has become the trademark of NC State basketball for the past 4 seasons, and the 5th under Sidney Lowe looks no different except that there’s less motivation. Despite new “talent” we still don’t know how to play team defense, block out to rebound, pass, know when to shoot (and when NOT to), and we can’t shoot very well either. The worst thing about last night, though, was how passive our bench appeared during the crushing 23-0 run ending one half and starting another. Everett Case, Press Maravitch, Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano would’ve had a stroke over this kind of play, and even Herb Himself would’ve shown more passion than I’ve seen the past four seasons.

    But I’m passed being embarrassed. This is the way Sidney Lowe teams are SUPPOSED to play, isn’t it? State’s once-proud basketball reputation suffered under Les Robinson, stagnated under Sendek, and under Lowe has simply been erased. This coaching staff (give ALL of these guys credit, not just Sid) is without doubt the most inept we’ve ever had here. They’ve proven that they can’t teach fundamentals, can’t teach defense, and don’t motivate their players. They’re about one thing only, and that’s throwing as much talent as they can on the floor and hoping that’ll get ‘er done.

    The NCSU AD needs to do what should’ve been done three years ago, and that’s dismiss this coaching staff now. Not in March, but right here, right now. Why wait until the end of the season? All that’ll do is give this staff enough wins over lousy competition to get to .500 overall and beg for more time to rescue our program. I can assure you that Lowe will NOT quit because he’s an alum an he won’t desert his program.

    Last night, ESPN announcers were comparing us to Prairie View. Enough is enough.

  10. rtpack24 12/02/2010 at 11:44 AM #

    It is early in the season. T Smith is out. However, last night was the worst basketball game I have ever seen any State team play. Sid needs to take responsibility and do something about it. What should be a good to great year looks like it might turn into a disaster. I am sure Sid is aware that his current AD will do what is necessary unlike our previous AD.

  11. eas 12/02/2010 at 11:44 AM #

    Firing SID mid-season is not a smart move to obtain a quality coach afterwards (only exception would be repeating this display many times….then something has to be done & Larry Brown wouldn’t do to bad stepping in temporarily). I agree that I have NEVER scene an egg like last night and it was obvious that coaching was a huge factor. No fundamentals or organization is produced from this staff.

    That being said, I hope Yow is putting together some options just in case the next few weeks looks the same as last night. I would LOVE to see SID succeed in this job but what I have seen so far this year is little improvement with significantly more talent. Not a good combo.

    Even if the decision is already made to let SID go, we have to be smart in order to land a top coach. Play are cards right and not end up with another Fowler circus coaching search.

    Maybe a miracle will occur prior to the Syracuse game…..

  12. heavy 12/02/2010 at 11:54 AM #

    Swingtown: ‘But they are signing 4- and 5-star recruits now, so I guess they can lose in style.’ I guess we proved that troll wrong. We did lose, but without style…

  13. ShootingGuard 12/02/2010 at 12:24 PM #

    Sid needs to be respected for what he did—jumping into an absolute mess and trying to save something he genuinely cared about after Foulup destroyed the program with that coaching “search” following Herbie sneaking away on his own accord to the utter surprise of Foulup no less.

    Hopefully, Debbie has her list of folks like competent ADs do with a couple dream candidates mixed in with a couple guys who would jump at taking the job if you just called them. And, more importantly, Debbie has a better relationship with the folks on her list, or people connected to them, than the relationship she had with Gary Williams—and I sure hope the Gary Williams fiasco doesn’t come back to haunt her if/when a coaching change is made. Coaching circles and their chatter among one another is a funny thing.

    Last time, at the end, NCSU was about down to Sid or Archie Miller.

    Let’s hope it works out better than last time AND the time before that when NCSU got down to Herb…

  14. WolftownVA81 12/02/2010 at 1:36 PM #

    The time for change is now. I’ve seen nothing to convince me that this staff can teach fundamentals. What we’re seeing is the same thing that we’ve seen the last four years – only with more talented players. Sid is out of excuses and out of time IMO. I’d like to see an interim coach take the reines. Thanks for the trying to save the program Sid. Sorry it didn’t work out.

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