Well, it’s been almost a full 24 hours since the State loss to FSU. Even though I know that if you are going to try and run a blog like this, it’s probably pretty important to put something together pretty soon after the game. But what could I say?

Pretty much the same thing that’s been put up over the last what, six games now?

Turnovers
Lack of Energy
State going long periods of time without scoring (like the first 5 minutes of the game where FSU was up 10-0)
Undisciplined play
No defense

So I guess I really didn’t have anything new to say.

I was at the game last night, and pretty much had the same reaction BJD95 (and a lot of other fans) over at StateFansNation:

..Even so, I managed to watch last night’s game with a relaxed and calm demeanor. I don’t remember so much as a “damn it” coming from my mouth, or a scowl on my face. –StateFansNation.com

So I guess I’m pretty much at acceptance too.

The only thing I guess I can put forth that it would be nice for Coach Lowe to do something to get these guy’s attention. Benching them would be a start. But I’d be fine if he threw a chair too. Hell.. maybe even draw a technical foul every once in a while? There were some opportunities last night with the officiating. But I guess there was no use. Towards the last 5-6 minutes ago it got a little better. Like when FSU guard Ralph Mims took the in-bounds pass and walked not once, not twice, but a third time …the refs finally caught on.

Pretty much the only bright spot last night was Trevor Ferguson. He’s the only guy who showed up to play and the State crowd recognized every time he got up to check in and at one point chants of “Fergie” broke out after a trifecta of threes. But it didn’t take long for FSU to key in on our only guy on the court and Ferguson was slowed down quite a bit in the 2nd half being pressed pretty hard by the FSU defense. Even so, he pulled off two impressive passes that lead to State baskets to again try and spark an otherwise lifeless Wolfpack crew.

Once the game was over, Ferguson got it right again:

“We need to come out ready to play, there’s no excuses now. The season is almost over. We should be ready to play.” –RedAndWhiteFromState.com

State takes on Duke Saturday at noon on CBS. The season (mercifully) ends a week later @ Wake Forest.

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Zero from NC State.

UNC has 3.

Wake Forest, Duke, Virginia, Florida State each had one.

ESPN will carry the event on March 26th at 9:30pm.

More on the players here.

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NC State football will start spring practices on March 18th, 3 weeks from today.

The Wilmington paper talks about what to watch for:

Competition is expected at quarterback between Daniel Evans and Russell Wilson, plus the Wolfpack will have tight end Anthony Hill and tailback Toney Baker back at practice after each suffered season-ending knee injuries. Hill missed the entire season. –StarNewsOnline.com

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Great article today at RedandWhitefromState.com about where Hickson would be taken in the NBA draft if he declared:

Hickson was widely thought to be a one year player, and after this season, he was thought to be headed to the pro ranks. That was before he came to Raleigh. –RedandWhiteFromState.com

ESPN.com calls him a potential sleeper for the draft.

Hickson got off to a phenomenal start, but I definitely think there’s some things he could learn with another season or two at State. (..and I’m hoping he sticks around to rub off on the other guys on the team as well.) Most of Hickson’s game is very close to the basket, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, he’s not going to be as effective in the NBA as he is in college ball with rebounding and put backs. While I don’t think he’s ever going to be any sort of consistent mid-range shooter, it wouldn’t hurt to expand that a bit and work on free throws (67%).

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As debuted on Sunday:

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Virginia 78 - Wolfpack 60.

Pretty much all you need to know:

Once again, State tanks the first half in a must-win game and falls behind twenty points… I think we’ve all seen this movie before. –redandwhitefromstate.com

It’s amazing that it actually ended up being this close provided that State only scored 18 in the first half (Yes, that’s right. Eighteen points) and was down 38-18 going into the break.

Costner led the way with 14, Ferguson had 11, and McCauley scored 9 with 12 rebounds. Hickson responded to the benching last game with a whopping 7 points and 5 rebounds. Other “highlights” include Javi scoring 0 in 25 minutes, the other point guard Marques Johnson scoring 3 in 15 minutes (while turning it over twice), and Grant shooting 2-6 from the field.

Barring an ACC miracle tournament run, the Wolfpack will hopefully make the NIT. Even that looks pretty questionable right now with the way they’re playing. The loss to Virginia is their fifth in a row. They are now 15-12 on the season and 4-9 in ACC play.

They have Florida State (Wednesday night) and Duke (Saturday) at home before their regular season finale at Wake Forest on March 8.

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So, in case you missed Sign-gate, the Chapel Hill News has a new piece on it today talking about how the NC State Baseball player should be suspended and also State’s Baseball Coach Elliott Avent should be as well for “allowing it”:

It was simply wrong.

Shame on Avent for allowing one of his players to celebrate it, and shame on the N.C. State administration, and I mean the chancellor, for not publicly apologizing on Thursday.

For goodness sake, if the director of athletics is not going to recognize the indecency of what happened, the people who operate the university should.

Think about that one for a moment. –The Chapel Hill News

The CHN writer is quite taken by poor Tyler Hansbrough:

Henderson may not have intended to break Hansbrough’s nose last year, but he had every intention of delivering the blow. That is clear from watching the film.

It’s bad enough that some people focused on “poor Gerald Henderson and his reputation,” rather than the athlete who was injured. –The Chapel Hill News

Seriously, make sure you haven’t eaten in a while before reading, I almost lost my breakfast as the writer went on and on about what a travesty this “incident” was…

On the other hand, StateFansNation.com has a great article on “Signgate” and Tarheel hypocrisy. They bring up some great points, here’s are a couple of my favorite

(5) Multiple athletes and representatives of the Athletics Department of one school can participate in mocking skits that perpetuate hurtful, racist and socio-economic stereotypes in a capacity-filled arena without any mention or criticism of the behavior by the media and local sports radio. The skits last as long as 5 to 10 minutes and draw raucous laughter from the ‘open-minded’ and enlightened elite that watch them.

(6) A single athlete from a different school cannot show a picture of an actual, real-world event for 15 seconds in a capacity-filled arena without being ridiculed and criticized by the same media that ignore the behaviors in point #5. –StateFansNation.com

You should definitely check out SFN’s full article on this one.

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Another nice start, followed by a defensive outage, and Hansbrough domination.

Watch highlights here.

“In the second half, they came out and turned it up again and we didn’t respond,” Lowe said. “Our defense wasn’t there like it was in the first half. Against a team like that, you have to stay solid and stay focused and we didn’t do that.” –Gaston Gazette

“We stopped playing defense and we didn’t execute on offense and they took advantage of that,” NC State junior Ben McCauley said. “They got some easy buckets and got themselves on a roll. It carried over to the second half.” –TheWolfpacker.com

“They came out stronger, more physical and more aggressive on defense,” Grant said. “I think they won the game with that trap. We were throwing the ball away.” –TheWolfpacker.com

“They were just getting easy baskets after easy baskets,” said NC State freshman point guard Javier Gonzalez, who had six points and career-high nine assists. “It’s pretty tough to get the lead back against this team. In the second half, we just didn’t play defense.”–TheWolfpacker.com

Hansbrough scored 32:

“He was the best player on the floor,” N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. “He’s been playing that way for a while. He’s picked it up.” –Gaston Gazette

“We let Hansbrough go wherever he wanted, do whatever he wanted,” Grant said. “He was shooting layups and we should have just fouled him. Make him go to the free-throw line, make him earn it. You can’t win like that.”–TheWolfpacker.com

Even Hickson was off his game tonight:

“We were looking for energy and quickness [from Smith],” Lowe said. “We were able to cut into their lead a little bit. J.J. wasn’t doing good on defense and we needed someone to make stops. Tracy did a good job of that.”–TheWolfpacker.com

Lowe on 2nd half fades, turnovers:

“Our biggest thing is having trouble dealing with adversity,” Lowe said. “We haven’t been able to make a run back at them and stop theirs. We’re plagued in the second half. We start relaxing and teams take advantage of that. We make careless passes under pressure. It was a mental breakdown and we didn’t stay focused.” –TheWolfpacker.com

McCauley still thinks there’s hope for making the NCAAT:

“We still have two home games left and we feel like we can go on the road against the teams we have as well,” McCauley said. “Hopefully, we can finish .500. We have to finish 8-8. Hopefully, we can have a good showing in the ACC Tournament.” –TheWolfpacker.com

“We need to come out and play the right way,” Grant said. “We’re playing good in certain spurts, but we’ve got to put it all together for 40 minutes.” –AP

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UNC-Chapel Hill police want to find out who splashed a cup of red paint onto the iconic Old Well early this morning.

The paint was splashed on one of the white columns supporting the Old Well roof. It was repainted white about 8 a.m.

…”There was a cup [with red paint residue] that was left on the scene.” –News & Observer

Someone made sure the Tar Heels didn’t forget about the Wolfpack.

Full Story Link

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Coach Lowe Tuesday said it’s going to take a team effort to beat Carolina; called out some guys;

…and said the time is now:

But Lowe is more interested in beating the third-ranked Tar Heels this year. State plays Carolina tomorrow night at the RBC Center and Lowe said today it would take a team effort to do it, with everyone playing hard, playing well, doing their part.

“It’s time. It’s been time now where guys have to step up,” he said. “They have to step up and play. We need everybody. We can’t have J.J. Hickson the only guy rebounding for us. We need Gavin, Courtney and Javi and Brandon and Ben and Dennis and whoever’s playing, we need guys to step up.” –ACCNow

Read the full story here.

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