(12) NC STATE vs (5) SAINT LOUIS Preview

It was certainly a horrible way to end the season (and to spend an evening), but I still really like this team and appreciate the attitude and growth we’ve seen during the season. To put things in perspective, they exceeded preseason expectations, and really, barring a miracle, we were going to suffer a loss at some point in the coming days or weeks. It just came one game earlier than most of us expected and in a more painful fashion. I do wonder if some of the guys were under the weather; after all, Cat had the flu just two days earlier and they’ve all been cooped up on airplanes together this week.

Now, on to the women’s game tonight against BYU.

Wufpacker wrote:

I haven’t read (nor will I) most of the post game meltdown. Having said that, and also stating that IMHO this was not SOLELY a coaching failure…I do have to say that this post game remark from Gott has me at least somewhat concerned….

“It’s hard to explain, we’re a good free-throw shooting team,” Gottfried said. “It kind of steamrolled on us there from the foul line.”

Now, I’m willing to allow for the fact that in the heat of the moment and emotion of the loss he might have slightly misspoken. Perhaps what he meant to say is that we’re not usually THAT bad of a free-throw shooting team.

But in all seriousness, if he thinks we’re even approaching good from the FT line as a team, then there is some serious discrepancy in his and my definitions of the word ‘good’.

I suppose I’m no longer puzzled as to why we didn’t seem to improve from the line, and maybe elsewhere, as the year progressed.

This loss is all on the coach. There are so many things he did wrong in this game but there are even more he does during the season. His lack of defense is glaring but that quote says alot to me about his state of mind, it appears he is incapable of seeing what is keeping his teams from going to the next level. One constant with Gott teams has been a lack of discipline. Our program is not “on the rise”. It is firmly entrenched and will stay there. Next year all we will hear is “this is a young team who lost its leading scorer”. It will be another year similar to this one. Losing a lot of games they should win (because they, also, will lack the ability to win the close games), bubble talk and then an over all dissapointing season.

Let me ask this, do you think a K coached team would do what we did last night? Nope
Would a Bennet team? No
Would a Bzzzz team? well yeah

Great teams don’t get tired – sick of hearing about fatigue. It’s called fundamental basketball – stop recruiting athletes and recruit basketball players.

YOW, Don’t fire anybody. Scour D1 for a young, seasoned assistant coach(s) that has a reputation for all things defense. Give them the authority and half the practice time to install the press, man to man, zone, rebounding and any crazy — junk defenses they can dream up. This team will have ELEVEN decent players next season. Defense and offense should be balls to the walls. Anya should spend the summer with Todd Fuller and whoever summer coached Todd in Charlotte. Christinsen?? Can’t recall the name. Fix the defensive side of the house and have 7 – 12 of DD’s fastest fb players come in so our team learns how to handle a press. 7 on 5. And I’m not joking, if there is such a thing as a free throw coach, hire his — too.

I am undecided on MG, and yes, I am definitely concerned about losing Arch to a similar job before the time is right to “come home.” He’s the right kind of alum to hire, one who is much more likely to consider our job because of alumnus status, as opposed to the kind we wouldn’t think to hire except for alumnus status (eg, Lowe, Amato).

Anger and sadness only stronger today. I am REALLY f-ing tired of living through all this NC State sh-t.

Arch will be getting a bunch of looks this year. The only question is if there is a good fit. Heck, I bet he’s on Wellman’s list for Wake.

Gott did a very good job with this team, following a poor job with last year’s team. Who knows what next year brings.

Three tourneys in three years isn’t half bad. The question is can he take us to the next level? I really do not know.

Now my next point for all the wanna-be coaches – why didn’t we play so and so, or why did we try this?

Many have commented on the FT shooters we had in the game when SL started fouling. Who would you pull out and put in?
* Pull out Freeman and put in Washington? No gain there on FT%
* Pull out JV and put in Anya? JV is probably the better FT shooter
*TJ missed more than anyone – would you have pulled him out?

Many have commented on the sub patterns – what would you have done differently?
* Tyler was in and struggled – Gott put in Barber and both were in. Neither were effective
* Would you pull JV out and put in Anya? JV was at least able to stand tall and be a relief pass in trouble
* Pull out Freeman and put in Washington? I like KW, but Freeman is probably the better ball handler
* At one time, we had TJ at the 5 with Tyler, Cat, Turner, and Lee
* Gott made offensive/defensive changes. Why not Anya? Had he been in the game for D, he would surely have been
the designated foulee on offense if we got a stop.
* Why wasn’t KW in the game? We needed D, and D is not KW’s strength
* Gott tried many different combinations to make it work, trying to find the right solutions.

It is easy to sit in your chair and criticize the coach. But you dont know what he knows. Cat was sick, was he 100%? Was anyone else feeling ill? I am confident they work on the press every day in practice, and we the public dont see who handles the pressure well and who does not. Gott made his choices based on what he sees in practice every day. By the way, we also practice FT’s every day as well.

I too am worried about losing Archie. We missed on his older brother and I think we’ll miss on him too. No way we let GOTT go before Archie takes a better job. GOTT recruits well and has gotten us to 3 straight NCAA tourneys. I think we’re at his ceiling and have thought that for a while. Undisciplined teams that don’t do fundamentals well can only go so far. He is not a great in-game coach and it has showed many many times this year. And no, I don’t think our lack of defense or fundamentals falls to an assistant. You get assistants to assist you in preparing how you see fit and how you want to focus your team. They may have more experience and be better at teaching certain principles, but the direction and focus of the team is still on the head coach.

I haven’t been this speakless after a game since the last time we blew a huge lead in a meaningful game.

Most questionable play last night was when Warren fouled with about 30 seconds left in OT. I’m not putting that on the player. It must be communicated from the staff. Have someone else foul, not your All World player. We needed him.

Last comment for now – for all the wanna be coaches. Try on these shoes:
* You have 1 senior, a little used for 4 years not dependable foul machine
* The back-up is a freshman, comes into camp 80 lbs overweight and has little stamina
* You have one returning player who could score, who often sulked and had a me-first attitude
* Your PG is small, but sees the floor well but not a lot of quickness and is a defensive liability
* Your other PG who you hope takes over is a freshman, out of control and overwhelmed by the size of D-1
* Your starting PF is a freshman
* Your backup PF is a freshman, and 17 years old to boot
* Your shooting guard is a transfer, and while practicing for a year, is still an unknown
* Your other shooting guard is a JUCO transfer with good numbers, but how does that translate to D-1?
* You lost more scoring than probably any other team in NCAA with Howell, Wood, Brown, and CJ leaving
* You are picked preseason to finish at the bottom of the league

What would all of you do with this team?

What did Gott do with this team?
* Went 9-9 in conference, and realistically could/should have been 12-6
* Took this team to the tournament when none of us preseason really thought we had a shot
* Put this team in a position to advance in the tourney
* Made this group into a team that was fun to watch and NEVER GAVE UP (until OT last night)
* Developed KW and LF into players that will be good next year
* Worked with Cat to help develop some control, vast improvement from Day 1 to now.
* Continued recruiting and working his tail off to bring in the talent to take us to the next level

Have I misstated anything? You cannot rely on freshman. Kansas and the great Wiggins went 24-9. Duke and the great Parker were 26-8. Kentucky and Randle (and the others) were 24-10. Conversely, we lost to a team with 5 seniors, who are currently 27-6. Even the great Archie Miller (I am thrilled Miller won yesterday) lost to St Louis, in Dayton no less.

I am sorry for stating facts but I think if God Himself were our coach many of you would complain. Is Gott perfect? No, absolutely not. Find me the coach that is. Even V had coaching flaws. Even K has coaching flaws.

Coach Gott, thanks for what you have done so far, and we look forward to more in the future. Debbie Yow, thanks for hiring Gott and giving him the chance to lead our team.

I normally don’t agree with Rick, but I think there are definitely concerns about the trajectory of the program. Warren hid a lot of deficiencies this year. Some of said we’ll be more balanced next year. Well, we were balanced two years ago, and how well did that go?

Bottom line, when you’re not fundamentally sound, those weaknesses show. When you’re fatigued and young, they show even more. We were clearly the more talented team last night. Best player in the building, maybe that entire bracket. The number of free throw misses, inexcusable as they are, didn’t surprise me. The other elements did. Gottfried managed that game really well up to the last 3 and OT. Huge defensive lapses late. Letting them repeatedly roll the ball up the court, which probably saved them 30 seconds at least. As BJD95 points out, he got away from rotating the bigs. Mistake. He also didn’t have the best ball handling, press breaking squad in there. Some kids bat .300 with nobody on base, but can’t hit a lick with runners in scoring position. In the clutch, you want the thoroughbreds out there. I said after the stoppage, he shouldn’t have Warren out there hoping for a steal with four fouls but he’ll keep hmi in. Before the game, Bill and I commented that he tends to ride the wrong ponies a little too long. Things have to go really bad before he makes a decision.