Miami shoot 1-9 from 3 point land.  Their star performer held to about half his season average.

How did the Pack answer?  By not scoring a field goal until 9.5 minutes into the game. (They had 6 turnovers during this stretch.)

The Wolfpack managed to find a way to slide in under the low bar the Hurricanes set to lose to Miami 63-50.  The ACC tournament loss puts an end to a disappointing season.

The loss was pretty much symbolic for how the Wolfpack played the 0′7 - ‘08 season:
Uninspired, ineffective effort with plenty of turnovers and uncanny ability to not be able to score.

Hickson got his game back, scoring more than half of the Pack’s 50 points (27). If that wasn’t enough, he also tossed in 14 rebounds.

Just how bad was it? Fells was the second leading scorer on the team with 6 points.

Departing senior Gavin Grant, in his final game for the Wolfpack, was seemingly pulled from the game for not being “ready to play.”

The Pack as a team shot 34% on the day from the field (vs. Miami’s 37%). They also shot 2-15 from the 3 point line, apparently believing that if you have one of the ACC’s lowest field goal percentages, you should try shooting from farther out.

This was NC State’s first losing season since 2001.

The only bright spot from the season, freshman J.J. Hickson, didn’t say whether he was going to bolt for the NBA. He’s projected as a first round pick. While he could improve his game, this season’s team was left no indication that there’s any reason to stick around.

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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.

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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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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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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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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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N.C. State senior Gavin Grant boldly predicted before the season that the Wolfpack could be a Final Four team this year.And now? Grant is more concerned about the final five — that is, the last five games of the regular season.”It’s not like we have 20 games left or 10 games left,” Grant said. “We have five games left, and we probably need to win all five to get where we want to get to.” –News & Observer

That makes Wednesday night’s game against the Tarheels critical. After recent losses to Clemson and Boston College, State is definitely on the outside looking in with match-ups against both Carolina and Duke still to go.

The Pack will be playing a depleted UNC team, who will be without Lawson. Tyler Hansbrough (infected toe), Quentin Thomas (back spasms, and apparently the flu?), and Deon Thompson coming off a hyper-extended knee, are all battling nagging injuries. All of this adds up to be a great time to play Carolina.

State takes on the Tarheels Wednesday night at 7pm on ESPN.

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13 straight missed shots. 10 minute scoreless streak. 2-20 shooting over the last 15 minutes of the 1st half. 0-9 streak from the three point line during the second half.

Despite dreadful stats like these, NC State was able to battle back in the second half to take a 64-62 lead with only 2:30 to go. But a three pointer from Clemson freshman Terrence Oglesby with 2:00 to go was the key play in the game:

“It was at the top of our scouting report: ‘Don’t release off of him,’” State coach Sidney Lowe said. “And then he gets a wide open 3.” –FayObserver.com

Hickson scored 13 points and 23 rebounds to lead the Wolfpack, however he went the first 14 minutes of the game without a basket, despite having 10 rebounds at the time. Gavin Grant had 18 and Courtney Fells tossed in 17 more from to lead State.

“I told our guys we played hard, and there really wasn’t much I could say because they put forth a great effort. We just made some mistakes down the stretch there,” Coach Lowe said. –Winston-Salem Journal

…and another “must win” goes by without State getting the win. The second half run was impressive, and many thought Clemson was going to fade like they did against Carolina earlier this month. But Clemson didn’t let it happen this time.

Up next for the Wolfpack, the Tarheels on Wednesday night at 7pm.

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