we won – and without shooting lights out. We were running plays and 1/2 of our shots were off those plays. One thing Lowe needs to help our players figure out is how to run a fast break and when not to run one. We lost 3 baskets on that alone – not to mention the free throws.

I’ll guarantee you that after other coaches see how effective Miami’s zone was, we’ll be seeing more of that this year. I hope Lowe teaches some offense against the zone before the next game.

Tracy Smith is good, make that great . They were trying to triple him several times, but he still got the shot off. Basically, he’s our entire offense, and offense from anyone else is ‘frosting on the cake’.

The speed advantage that their highly rated freshman had over Javi was evident, but Javi won on basketball smarts and good defense (when their freshman didn’t have momentum to fly by him, that is).

It’s good to see CJ Williams get more playing time – if we are going to move to the next level next year, he’ll have to be a major contributor.

After seeing how few people were at the basketball game, I actually felt sorry for Miami. I checked out highly ranked Miami’s players are, and they’ve got a pretty talented team. Not sure why they aren’t better this year.

at that point i was verbally abusing Lowe through the television. hope my wife didn’t hear me. i write again, while i love Tracy Smith and think he should be first team All-ACC (for sure second team), passing the ball into him on every or almost every offensive possesion leads to a stagnant offense becasue the other players don’t move and don’t look to shoot. in the second half of the Wake game, State ran a different offense i think. i am not that knowledgeable with regard to offensive schemes, but what I think State ran was either a motion offense or a viation of a flex with the guards and small forward setting picks and trying to penetrate the foul line from the top of the three point line. when State got behind by 9 at Miami, State appeared to again start running that same offense, but closer or within the foul line. mixing this offense in with passes to Smith and viola-a win.

now a few words about the women’s team. with an NCAA bid on the line, the women lost at Wake. not surprising as they luckily beat Wake at Raleigh. i followed the game on Game Tracker. bad game by Kastanek. State needs her to get 15-20 points a game. i think she got into early foul trouble and only tallied 5 points.
to get to the NCAA’s state has to beat Ga Tech today. no if and or buts. Tech is a poor shooting team from what i saw from their game with UNC, but their defense can create havoc.

from doing some internet reserach is that State always runs some type of motion offense, but in the instances i wrote about chose to emphasize the guards more. am i wrong?

a good article on Lo Brown: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/02/28/362242/brown-matures-on-off-the-court.html

wake and b.c. lost leaving state tied for fifth place with wake at 7 and 7. on senior day freshman Kastanek led according to ESPNU which gave her the top performer for State. Senior Gartrel went 0 for 7 and made only one free throw. Senior Beal had a decent game but White did not. Tasler also had a good game. good win. should have given the State women and NCAA bid.

sometimes i think i might babel on too much. as for sports this is my order of importance: men’s basketball; football; women’s basketball; baseball; softball and of course bass fishing! i follow all state atheletics but don’t know much about those i didn’t list. not to say i really know much about the other sports either.

by the way, i have always wanted to ask if wolfonthehill referenced the d.c. area.

as Steven mentioned. Seemed like just one of those games where State should have taken command early and was going to pay for not doing so. Then all of a sudden, State has a lead and takes the game!

I would have expected the background for this page to be all black if Tracy’s knee scare had turned out more serious. He is just a monster, it amazes me every game.

Those two teams will probably make the NCAA tournament, but don’t look for either one to go far. Neither team has a clue of how to run a halfcourt offense. Booker was getting the Tracy Smith treatment (triple teams) and Clemson’s other players just could not make FSU pay. This was a game where FSU should have put the game away by halftime (Clemson had 12 points with about 3 minutes to go) but they were almost as inept on offense.

Alabi (sp?) missed the chance to tie the game with 12 seconds left when he missed a freethrow. I think he shoots over 80%, which is ridiculous for a 7 footer. Booker put Clemson up by 3 with 2 FTs. FSU inbounded and Clemson was in a 3/4 court press. FSU got over halfcourt pretty quickly, and I thought they should have tried to get a shot while Clemson’s defense was overextended. Instead they called a timeout. Dulkys(sp?) subsequent 3 was blocked, game over.

I am really a proponent of letting players make plays at the end of games as opposed to set plays. If you call a timeout to set up a play with less than 10 seconds left, it seems like if the first option isn’t there, it’s over. Plus you have given the defense the chance to set up. All clemson needed to do was set guys guarding the 3. I am really just rambling. I think my point is that the ACC is really lacking in coaching talent. Most of them seem to coach by the book without thinking about what is really going to give their team the best chance.

game is an example of what is wrong with ACC basketball now. i couldn’t bare to watch. the scores are so low. the most entertaining teams, and teams which can actually put some points on the board, are Maryland, Va Tech, and Duke. Wake joined these teams early in the season, but they, at this time, are doing what has become their annual Dino Swan song.

too many ACC games have become low scoring slug-fest.

interestingly Maryland, Duke and Va Tech all have really good point guards. Wake should have, but now dosen’t. hopefully State joins that list next year.

by the way, in talking with fans around me during the Wake -State men’s game, it was agreed that the ACC should drop B.C., FSU and Miami. i admitt that unless State is playing either of these teams i could care less about their games.

besides the drama of the close score. I was cooking and eating dinner through most of it. If I had been on the couch watching, the channel would have probably been switched. I just hope the ACC doesn’t turn into the Big Ten with a bunch of clutching and grabbing teams hoping they can get to 60 points.

I did turn off the Duke-UVA game pretty early. With Landesberg out, UVA never had a chance to even make it competitive.

On a side note, how much longer does Dino have at Wake?

I always feel better playing the southern 25% of the ACC, because I know we won’t get out-coached.

But, we still have the ‘least talented’ guards in the conference. So, they have a couple good shooting games. If they win 2 more in a row, then I’ll believe that we’ve adjusted our playing to match OUR level of guard talent.