The Wood-shed: NCSU vs FSU and where State goes from here

[davekay1971]

I was very impressed watching Wood's performance against FSU. He was clearly in a zone, but this has been coming on for awhile. The kid started out very cold this year, but has steadily picked up his game over the last couple weeks. He was recruited as a proficient outside shooter, but against FSU he showed a broader ability as a scorer. Add to that some very good defense (anyone see the come from behind block on the FSU breakaway?) and a willingness to work for the rebounds, and you've got a very, very good basketball player.

Where does that leave State? We all know what Tracy Smith brings inside - a tough low post player with scoring and rebounding ability. State has solidified their PG play, with Gonzalez and Mays both improving their play over last year. The PG position for Lowe is still not a strength...it's just not the weakness it was the last couple of years. Horner has also elevated his game this season, becoming a pretty tough matchup problem as a 4. State still needs to find another reliable scorer, but having Wood find his range from deep will help Smith tremendously.

As the DBR front page has pointed out a few times, State is closer than they appear, with a couple tough losses and a bad collapse against UVa separating them from being 15-2 and 2-1 in the ACC. Those kinds of collapses, of course, tend to separate the top half of the ACC from the bottom. Could Wood's coming out party be the difference that elevates State from being close to being there?

[pamtar]

I think State will continue working to develop what will be a top 25 team...next year. They have the talent to finish in the top half of the league, but then again, so do eight other teams.

Funny how when State is down this board takes on a big brother persona. We don't really do this with any other team. Even more so since Sidney took the job. I just hope they keep him there for the long haul. He's had some tough breaks but he's a damn fine coach.

[Acymetric]

I think State will continue working to develop what will be a top 25 team...next year. They have the talent to finish in the top half of the league, but then again, so do eight other teams.

Funny how when State is down this board takes on a big brother persona. We don't really do this with any other team. Even more so since Sidney took the job. I just hope they keep him there for the long haul. He's had some tough breaks but he's a damn fine coach.

Personally, I've always had liked State (hey, the enemy of my enemy and all that, right?), especially since it was sort of my 1-B option for college and I have a lot of friends there. So as long as it doesn't conflict with anything Duke (or Elon), I generally pull for State.

That said, I'm still not sold on Sydney Lowe, but they need to give him time to prove himself.

[dukeENG2003]

They now have their winning formula. Just shoot 50% from 3, and get 30 points from a freshman, and they can beat anybody!

[pamtar]

Personally, I've always had liked State (hey, the enemy of my enemy and all that, right?), especially since it was sort of my 1-B option for college and I have a lot of friends there. So as long as it doesn't conflict with anything Duke (or Elon), I generally pull for State.

That said, I'm still not sold on Sydney Lowe, but they need to give him time to prove himself.

In-game coaching is what scares me about Lowe. He can definitely recruit, and he seems to have his guys ready, but I've seen him do some bonehead things in the heat of the moment. I guess that's what happens when your basically learning on the job.

[sagegrouse]

In-game coaching is what scares me about Lowe. He can definitely recruit, and he seems to have his guys ready, but I've seen him do some bonehead things in the heat of the moment. I guess that's what happens when your basically learning on the job.

Since State is his third head coaching gig (after the Timberwolves and GRizzlies in the NBA), I guess he isn't learning any too quickly.:rolleyes:

sagegrouse
'BTW Has any head coach ever had three teams with such ferocious nicknames: Wolfpack, Grizzlies, Timberwolves?'

[J.Blink]

Agree re: sympathizing with State.

Think a lot of Duke fans (and to some lesser degree State fans) feel some camaraderie because heck, we both hate Chapel Hill the most. Everybody else plays second fiddle to UNC-CH in North Carolina and we might as well make the best out of it!

Plus a family we've sat next to in Cameron for years are absolute diehard State fans (but Duke fans too)

Of course some of my friends who went to ncsu just claim that Duke fans only like State because of Herb, Sidney, etc -- coaches who could never (or at least haven't yet) really challenge Duke.

[bird]

As K observed in his TV show, the ACC this year has a number of teams that are likely to get significantly better as the season progresses. My list would include, in order of amount of likely improvement (not absolute quality):

UNC
Duke
GA Tech

[CDu]

In-game coaching is what scares me about Lowe. He can definitely recruit, and he seems to have his guys ready, but I've seen him do some bonehead things in the heat of the moment. I guess that's what happens when your basically learning on the job.

I disagree a bit here. The one thing that Lowe was good at in his first year with the Pack was in-game coaching. The guy was very good at setting up plays to exploit mismatches. When he's had a smart, capable PG who can run his offense and the horses to go with him, his teams have won games.

Where Lowe has struggled to this point (in my opinion) has been in recruiting and in structuring his teams and handling egos. His current roster has a couple of solid shooters, one good post player, and three backup PG. His big recruiting coups have been a one-and-done PF who didn't mesh with the veterans, a SG who didn't qualify, and an undersized combo guard who we've yet to see.

I think his problems the last few years can be summarized by poor PG play and chemistry problems. His PG the last few years have not been able to set up the offense, and his horses (namely Costner) mailed it in rather than stepping up to meet the challenge. This year, his team has a veteran PG, but lacks the horses at the other spots.