SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
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- We spent a week hearing how the players on the team knew this would be a big challenge and that if you are going to carry that 31 ranking you’ve got to go out and prove you deserve it each game. They knew NC State was just waiting in the weeds to ambush us and take our scalp. So we come out flat as a pancake and let them push us around for the first ten minutes of the game.
- Then we go on an amazing run and grab a big lead. All we need to do is come out strong in the second half, extend the lead a bit and we’ll have an easy time of it. Instead we get off to a horrendous 1-13 start to put their team and their crowd right back into it and force us to sweat out the second half. Can’t we ever make things easy? How would this have played out against Pittsburgh or Connecticut or Louisville? Come on, guys!
- It’s a good thing they couldn’t stop us because this is the first game in which our defense, which has carried us all year, was really bad. We were all over Wood, and that’s good, but we let C.J. Williams do as he pleased. He averages 12 points and 27% from the three point line. Tonight he got 25 and was 3 for 5. (I hate it when the other team has a player with the same first or last name as ours and their guy- their C.J. in this case- plays better.)
- We also let another C.J. - Leslie do as he pleased until he got hurt, (which had a big impact on the game in our favor). This C.J. scored 13 points, mostly on put-backs, and had 6 boards in 25 minutes of play.
- The early NC State run was fueled by three pointers, (so was our 23-0 run). Anybody can get hot from outside. The second half NC State run wasn’t about them getting hot. It was about them feeding the top of the key for short jumpers and drives to the basket, which we let them do for the longest time.
- We made all those threes during the big run that we fell in love with the arc and stopped running our offense. When they stopped falling,. NC State quickly got back into the game. Run your offense!
- Rakeem Christmas and Michael Carter-Williams are freshmen. Their day is coming but in a big game, they’ve got to show JB that they will be an asset tonight or they will have a seat.
- Brandon Triche hurt his thumb in practice and just didn’t have it tonight. There will be other nights. And fortunately we’ve got plenty of guys who can be heroes.
- Then we go on an amazing run and grab a big lead. All we need to do is come out strong in the second half, extend the lead a bit and we’ll have an easy time of it. Instead we get off to a horrendous 1-13 start to put their team and their crowd right back into it and force us to sweat out the second half. Can’t we ever make things easy? How would this have played out against Pittsburgh or Connecticut or Louisville? Come on, guys!
- It’s a good thing they couldn’t stop us because this is the first game in which our defense, which has carried us all year, was really bad. We were all over Wood, and that’s good, but we let C.J. Williams do as he pleased. He averages 12 points and 27% from the three point line. Tonight he got 25 and was 3 for 5. (I hate it when the other team has a player with the same first or last name as ours and their guy- their C.J. in this case- plays better.)
- We also let another C.J. - Leslie do as he pleased until he got hurt, (which had a big impact on the game in our favor). This C.J. scored 13 points, mostly on put-backs, and had 6 boards in 25 minutes of play.
- The early NC State run was fueled by three pointers, (so was our 23-0 run). Anybody can get hot from outside. The second half NC State run wasn’t about them getting hot. It was about them feeding the top of the key for short jumpers and drives to the basket, which we let them do for the longest time.
- We made all those threes during the big run that we fell in love with the arc and stopped running our offense. When they stopped falling,. NC State quickly got back into the game. Run your offense!
- Rakeem Christmas and Michael Carter-Williams are freshmen. Their day is coming but in a big game, they’ve got to show JB that they will be an asset tonight or they will have a seat.
- Brandon Triche hurt his thumb in practice and just didn’t have it tonight. There will be other nights. And fortunately we’ve got plenty of guys who can be heroes.
