Friday Farrago

General13

December 23, 2011

NC STATE BASKETBALL
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GoPack.com
Wolfpack Rolls with 88-59 Win Over Northeastern

Playing for the third time in just five days, NC State capped off a busy holiday stretch with an 88-59 home victory over Northeastern on Thursday night at the RBC Center.

Led by the scoring of sophomores C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown, the well-balanced Wolfpack broke away early against the Huskies by scoring nine straight points in the game’s opening minutes and never looked back to hand Northeastern (3-7) its sixth consecutive loss.

Brown and Leslie both had 16 points for the Wolfpack, with Leslie also contributing eight rebounds and Brown adding nine assists. The Wolfpack seemed fresh throughout the game, never trailing, despite the quick turnaround from Tuesday night’s dramatic last-second victory over St. Bonaventure in Rochester, N.Y.

The Wolfpack (8-4) shot 61.3 percent in the second half and 51.6 percent for the game. It built as much as a 30-point lead in the second half, allowing head coach Mark Gottfried to empty his bench in the game’s final minutes.

“Here’s what I like about what we did tonight: defensively in the second half, we were really good,” Gottfried said. “Offensively, we really executed what we wanted to do.

“This is an unselfish bunch and they did a great job tonight.”

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Pack gets a breather in win over Huskies

JP GIGLIO (N&O)
Observations from NCSU-Northeastern

Mike Carter (TheWolfpacker.com)
Quick hits from NCSU’s win over Northeastern

Seven-man rotation going forward?

For the first time this season, Mark Gottfried only played seven players against St. Bonaventure. He went that way again for most of the night Thursday, going with just fifth-year senior guard Alex Johnson and junior center DeShawn Painter off the bench until about eight minutes left when freshman forward Thomas De Thaey got some playing time.

De Thaey though responded with one of his best games of the year and was singled out by Gottfried in his postgame press conference. De Thaey, who has shot just 2 of 11 from the field in his previous five games, was 2 of 3, including 1 of 2 from beyond the arc for his first career three-pointer. He finished with five points, doubling his season total on the year, and had two assists, also doubling his previous total.

Johnson continues to break out of his shooting slump. He made 3 of 4 three-pointers Thursday night for nine points. In his last four games, Johnson has made 7 of 8 threes. Before that, Johnson was 3-of-25 shooting on the long range shots.

Had Johnson scored one more point, he would have given State five players in double figures scoring for the first time since the Duke game at the RBC Center last January.

De Thaey was not the only Wolfpacker to make his first career three-pointer. Freshman guard Jaqawn Raymond, who played the final two minutes, made 1 of 3 long range shots.

Bret Strelow (Fayetteville Observer)
Gottfried satisfied with short rotation

A short bench didn’t bother Mark Gottfried in 1995, and it doesn’t faze him now.

The situations are quite different, obviously. Sixteen years ago, in Gottfried’s final season as a UCLA assistant, the O’Bannon-led Bruins won the national championship with a seven-man rotation.

Gottfried is now the head coach at N.C. State, and it won’t contend for the title this season. Just making the NCAA tournament might be a stretch, but the philosophy remains the same.

In dire need of a victory Tuesday, Gottfried used seven players against St. Bonaventure, and the Wolfpack prevailed 67-65 thanks to C.J. Leslie’s improbable buzzer-beater.

Brett Friedlander (starnewsonline.com)
Graham’s indecision should raise a red flag for Wolfpack

I’ve spent most of the day trying to make heads or tails out of prep basketball star Torian Graham’s on-again, off-again commitment to N.C. State, and I’ve narrowed the possible scenarios to three options:

No. 1 is that Graham is an incredibly indecisive kid who loves attention but is too immature to make an important decision and stick with it.

No. 2 is that he’s being influenced by family member or some other outside handlers who are pressuring him not to go to State, no matter how badly he wants to go there.

No. 3 is that he’s dealing with academic issues that could potentially affect his freshman eligibility, and he’s considering a reclassification to the Class of 2013.

In any of those cases, Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried would be wise to steer clear of the talented, though clearly confused youngster.

NC STATE FOOTBALL

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Mandy Mitchell (WRALSportsfan.com)
Glennon settles into role of Pack starting quarterback

Mike Glennon faced a big question at the beginning of his first season as North Carolina State University’s starting quarterback: Could he ever step out of the shadow of Russell Wilson?

He proved he could.

In his last two games, Glennon passed for 8 touchdowns and just one pick in wins over Clemson and Maryland. For a player with veteran stats, Glennon said his first year as a starter was a growing process.

“I think we battled as a group. I personally did. I had some high moments and some low moments. I played through it and now we want to finish off the season strong,” Glennon said Tuesday.

Even during the Wolfpack’s down times, Glennon was never really the issue. He threw for 28 touchdowns this season and only 11 interceptions.

GoPack.com
Getting Ready to Bowl: Road Offices

UNC FALLOUT

unc fallout

LUKE DECOCK (N&O)
Does UNC understand concept of compliance?

MULTIMEDIA/PODCASTS

microphone

WRALSportsfan.com
Wolfpack players visit WakeMed Children’s Hospital

WRALSportsfan.com
Gottfried impressed by Wolfpack passing

WRALSportsfan.com
Howell talks defense, Christmas presents

WRALSportsfan.com
Brown: “We’re hungry”

WRALSportsfan.com
Williams calls N.C. State team unselfish

GoPack.com
Inside Wolfpack Sports

In today’s episode, Don Shea visits with Defensive Tackle J.R. Sweezy before State heads to the Belk Bowl.

About 1.21 Jigawatts

Class of '98, Mechanical Engineer, State fan since arriving on campus and it's been a painful ride ever since. I live by the Law of NC State Fandom, "For every Elation there is an equal and opposite Frustration."

General

13 Responses to Friday Farrago

  1. StateFans 12/23/2011 at 9:49 AM #

    As always…thanks for sharing the links. Is great to come here and get all the news in one spot!

  2. Wufpacker 12/23/2011 at 10:07 AM #

    From the linked DeCock article:

    “Here we are, 18 months and two full seasons after the NCAA first arrived on campus, and North Carolina football players still have to be told that it’s an NCAA violation to lend their names to nightclub parties, even one held after their final football games.If that message isn’t getting through at this point, after everything the football program has endured, the players clearly aren’t the only ones to blame.”

    That might be the most damning statement I’ve seen from the media types regarding the circus in Chapel Hill.

  3. MatSci94 12/23/2011 at 10:11 AM #

    from the Decock article

    “Here we are, 18 months and two full seasons after the NCAA first arrived on campus, and North Carolina football players still have to be told that it’s an NCAA violation to lend their names to nightclub parties, even one held after their final football games.”

    I certainly don’t think of UNC as particularly smart or classy, but I’m astounded that they are still having these kind of issues.

  4. Packfan28 12/23/2011 at 10:11 AM #

    Agree with StateFans, I love having everything pulled together in one place.

    Regarding Frielander’s Torian Graham comment: “In any of those cases, Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried would be wise to steer clear of the talented, though clearly confused youngster.”, I couldn’t disagreee more. The talented part is correct, clearly confused in an uninformed opinion, and hopefully Gottfried chooses to not steer clear.
    The media too often jumps to conclusions without getting the facts.

  5. Wufpacker 12/23/2011 at 10:24 AM #

    Agreed that it’s premature to label TG as being the next in a recently long line of headcases to NCSU without the facts to back it up, though I also do think it is a possibility. The difference now, however, is that I have confidence in the guy(s) evaluating him to make that distinction and decide for themselves if they should steer clear of him.

    I think if TG is a good fit for us, he’ll be here. If he isn’t (for whatever reason), I trust the coaches to make that call.

  6. ppack3 12/23/2011 at 11:56 AM #

    Regarding the UNC Party Poster Indecent… Wasn’t there a party last year (2010), the same weekend as the Blue/White game and the heavy recruiting weekend, that had several UNC players on a poster? I’ve searched for references to that party. Obviously nothing came of that party. It seemed to me, at the time to be an obvious violation.

    As far as the TG situation, it totally seems to have been a matter of transcripts and compliance issues. Kudos to the staff for catching the issues. The question that I have is, how was he committed to us earlier in the year without this coming up? Also, I’m sure the media are lashing out because he put the YouTube video of himself saying that he was committing, on Tuesday night, then every major outlet picked up on the story, including ESPN. Follow that by the news that he had not committed and angry Tweets from Graham himself, directed at the media, and you have a bunch of ‘professionals’ that have hurt feelings for having to retract stories that they wrote prematurely.

  7. choppack1 12/23/2011 at 1:45 PM #

    You know why the stuff at UNC keeps happening? If Dwight Jones had gotten away with this, he would have made some money and gotten to play in the game.

    Instead, he got caught, he’ll make a little less money, but still get to play in the game.

    The UNC position from the time that this whole fiasco began has been to get the players back on the field as soon as possible. The NCAA doles out a punishment and the second that’s served – they are back on the field. They haven’t been pro-active in their suspensions.

    Simply – there was no reason why Dwight Jones shouldn’t have done what he did. He caught and paid no price whatsoever when it came to the football game. I’d go as far as to say he’d be stupid NOT to do it!

    UNC is like a bad parent – they tell the kid to stop – but don’t punish the kid for doing anything wrong. They catch the kid with his hand in the cookie jar and they say, “Get your hand out of that cookie jar.” The kid’s punishment for getting caught is not getting the cookie – and that’s it. His reward is to get a cookie. What’s a kid going to do when offered such a win/win session.

  8. TruthBKnown Returns 12/23/2011 at 2:42 PM #

    ^What choppack1 said.

    Dang, you smashed the proverbial nail right square on the head.

  9. Pack78 12/23/2011 at 3:38 PM #

    ^^Wasn’t it DTM (Donte Thug-Moss, IIRC, can’t use DTM as an identifier, that belongs to the Cowdog) who opined that if 10 guys rob a bank and one that gets caught, he is the only bad one (or some similarly convoluted logic)? Jones is only noted by this line of thinking because it hit the internet; surely these idiots are following the BMFD (and Withers) instruction that whatever they do, don’t get caught. The unx compliance office is non-functional…

  10. pack76 12/23/2011 at 5:47 PM #

    I agree Pack78, the only thing they did wrong was to get caught. Thats been the UNX philosphy all along! I’m still surprised that they didn’t refuse the invtiation to play in a bowl this year. That would have showed a little sense of wanting to correct things but no, they will continue to do anything they want, and just try not to get caught. The Idiots!!!

  11. Sweet jumper 12/23/2011 at 6:52 PM #

    Amen Choppack1. You are spot on. We have been on the west coast this week for pre-Christmas vacation. Lots of Carowhina gear everywhere. People assume if you are from North Carolina you must be an UNX fan. I have straightened several Californians out on that fallacy.

  12. logarithm 12/23/2011 at 8:29 PM #

    I look forward to seeing the facts regarding the Torian Graham situation and not just journalistic speculation. I can speculate well enough on my own. I think PackInsider is supposed to have an article on that tomorrow morning. I think it may have been that State can’t ACCEPT his commitment until he is sure to qualify, or at least wouldn’t want to as we’re still recruiting others, and him announcing to the world required State to make him backtrack, no doubt embarrassing himself greatly in the process. Now he looks bad all because we didn’t make it clear to him that he could tell the coaches he had committed but couldn’t make it official until he was cleared academically.

    I felt bad for the kid before and now I feel even worse for him with this cloud over him. I wouldn’t turn away a kid with so much hardship in his life who actually seems dying to bring his considerable talent to State.

  13. choppack1 12/23/2011 at 11:57 PM #

    I feel bad for Graham. I don’t know why some kids can commit but others can’t…unless his outlook is such we’re not truly offering at this time.

    Sweet Jumper and TBKR – I keep waiting for the powers-that-be to call UNC on this. Part of me thinks this ain’t an accidental strategy on their part. Pretty much let the kids do what they want – and if Yahoo Sports breaks the story, notify the NCAA you’re looking into it (remember, this is how these things work. We know now that the NCAA largely depends on the compliance department of their partner institutions to find wrongdoing)…and yes, I’ll be shocked to see a bowl ban coming at UNC.

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