Despite the season pretty much being over for State, they had a perfect opportunity to play spoiler on Senior Day at the RBC. Coach K was going for win #800 and a State win would surely knock #6 Duke out of the top 10.

The Wolfpack got off to a great start lead by a rather un-likely trio: Javi Gonzalez, Ben McCauley, and Tracy Smith.

Sidney Lowe (sporting the red blazer) sent Tracy Smith out to start the game for State (in the spot that has been filled this season by both Costner & McCauley) and he brought some much needed rebounding, inside play, and energy early on. Smith finished the day with 14 points in 22 minutes. He shot 4-5 from the field and was a perfect 6-6 from the line.

Gonzalez helped set the tone early for the Wolfpack when he caught Paulus with an elbow that opened up a gash under his eye.

After nearly knocking Paulus’ lights out, Gonzalez began shooting lights out:
4/4 from the 3pt line
6/7 from the field
Career high 18 points.

Ben McCauley played tough all day inside. He lead the way for State with 19 points. At one point the big man showed his range when he landed a surprise shot from one step inside the three point line.

Trevor Ferguson was the usual spark off the bench (many are wondering why he’s still not starting?), scoring 9 on 3-6 shooting and doing a great job bringing the ball up the court on a few possessions for State.

The guys you typically would think might lead the way in scoring, J.J. Hickson or last year’s Brandon Costner were barely involved in the game. Hickson played only 18 minutes, scoring 8 points and notching 5 rebounds (…and he tossed in an impressive block on Singler).

Costner was on the floor for 22 minutes and was held scoreless on 0-3 shooting.

Courtney Fells shot a dismal 1-4, but was 6-6 from the free throw line and ended up with 9 points.

Gavin Grant, the only Wolfpack senior on Senior Day turned in a sub-par performance, shooting 2 out of 5 for 6 points and fouled out with 2.5 minutes to go with the Wolfpack up by four.

It would seem that State was going to ruin the day for Coach K. Up by as much as 13 in the 2nd half, the Wolfpack actually out-shot Duke 38% to 54% from the field; 46% to 53% from 3-point-land; and 81 to 86% from the free throw line.

But the turnovers kept Duke in the game. Duke had 8. State had 17. This kept the door open for Duke, despite the Wolfpack outplaying them in pretty much every aspect throughout the game…

Except for the last two minutes.

Duke went on a 14-5 run. An awful call sent Demarcus Nelson to the line and he sank his two free throws with a minute to go gave Duke the lead. McCauley then turned it over with 40 seconds left on the clock. Duke pretty much ran out the clock as State tried to use defense to force a turnover Scheyer threw up a 3 with 4 seconds to go that missed. Fells with the rebound, passes it up to McCauley who threw one up in desperation from the 3 point line as time expired. A brick off the backboard later and Duke steals one, 87-86.

Despite the loss, this one was at least a different, and better effort put forth by State.

Final game next week vs. Wake Forest.

Popularity: 91% [?]

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.

Popularity: 78% [?]

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.

Popularity: 39% [?]