Does anyone have the courage to come up with an argument on how next year is better?

[FrancoPizza]

If we won the ACCT, would we be higher or lower than a 12 seed?

We’d be the first 16 seed from a P4 conference.

 

[RF2044]

Without a doubt Red targeted Lampkin as the primary option in the portal. I'm guessing the staff thought his impact on offense and rebounding would outweigh the negatives. They risked the lion's share of the NIL on that belief.

LaFew and Richmond were targets we were outbid for. My understanding is that we held a spot for Reynolds in case he decided to enter. Had we added 1-2 of those guys maybe the Lampkin risk would have been mitigated, at least somewhat. Davis was a depth/toughness/size/experience add.

Carlos and Taylor were likely plan B adds as affordable options to fill out the roster.

Spot on.

Leffew was a guy we [correctly] thought had the skills and would fly under the radar, who wouldn't come with a huge price tag. So opportunity-cost wise, we chased him -- but he ultimately got a higher bid.

We pivoted briefly to Richmond, when things had stalled [slightly] between St. John's / Seton Hall, but our AC got carried away about the position we were in with Kadary when he made his comments on sports radio about how that situation was unfolding.

Lampkin came relatively cheap initially, but then came back twice with higher demands that we met both times. So he ended up being expensive.

Taylor / Davis weren't expensive, and were decent "gets" relative to the price tag.

Carlos wasn't expensive, but has been too up and down to be considered a good "Get."

 

[Cuse4403]

What are the arguments for Autry being the head coach next season?

You should give a new hire more than 2 years?
He played and coached at Syracuse?
His teams have dealt with injuries?
Syracuse is cheap?

In his tenure as coach we've not been able to get top tier portal talent. He can't seem to keep his players around from year to year. We play awful defense. We run nothing resembling an offense. He's lost 16? games by double digits...but see above.

It's starting to look like we are going to need an outstanding get in the portal at PG, C, and now maybe SF just to compete for an NCAA Tournament spot next season...but see above.

 

[Red2003]

NC State was a pedestrian team last year that sleptwalk through the regular season then decided they would expend maximum effort once the conference tournament started... and low and behold, they were actually a good team when they decided to play hard.

Where was that effort for the regular season??

I saw the interview with Burns post-NCAA where he basically said the players got together and decided they were going to give maximum effort starting with the conference tournament and it carried them on their run.

I dunno, I guess I question trying to copy and bottle that genie of a team that took the regular season off at 80% effort.

It's nice they put together a late season run and all. We've been there when the zone befuddles non-conference teams in the tournament.

But playing hard consistently isn't optional in my book. It has to be rule 1 in any cultural overhaul. Watching Carlos at the end of the BC game had me thinking, "Where has this defensive effort been all year??" He was really moving fast and locking down on defense.

Right on all fronts. They have alot of comparisons with our team this year. Maybe not our injuries. One thing different with NC State last year though is that they never really got blown out the way we did. Just lost a ton of games by single digits.

 

[kingtidge]

Right on all fronts. They have alot of comparisons with our team this year. Maybe not our injuries. One thing different with NC State last year though is that they never really got blown out the way we did. Just lost a ton of games by single digits.

At a baseline, they were better. No question.

I think what it does show is that consistent effort wins you games.