Pack Needs 10+ ACC Wins To Reach NCAAs, Says Mark Gottfried
by Akula Wolf on Jan 6, 2012 3:51 PM EST
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PrintMark Gottfried thinks NC State needs 10 or 11 conference wins to reach the NCAA tournament:
Eleven wins is the number first-year coach Mark Gottfried has set as the goal for his team to make the NCAA tournament.
"If you take a step back and look at the season, I would say we have to get there," Gottfried said. "In the grand scheme of things, (our goal) is 10 or 11 (wins)."
That seems to be the generally agreed upon baseline at this point, though if we were to somehow take two of three from UNC/Duke and finish at 9-7, that would be a different story. The odds of that are highly unlikely, of course, especially since two of those three are on the road.
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I would agree with Coach Gott
I would feel pretty safe with 11 wins (and avoiding a bad loss in the ACC tourney). I think 10 wins puts State squarely on the bubble.
Wins against UNC and Duke will definitely lower the bar.
9 wins is my number if we win the first tourney game
That would make us at least 21-12 and probably an RPI in the 60’s. We had a solid non-conference schedule with a good neutral-court win and no bad losses. I don’t think you can say that about any other 21-win ACC team that missed the tournament in recent years.
If we have 7 losses in conference
one or two of those will probably be considered bad losses.
I also disagree with his "one game at a time" strategy
I feel bundling could be more efficient
Finally...
I like the strategy of being realistic with his team…some “coach speak” would dictate someone something like “we are focused on winning every game in front of us and if we perform well the NCAA will take notice” or some other bull crap like that…
Gottfried says “look this is where we are…this is where I believe we need to be” that is a very plain speaking, business-like approach…the players are clear what they face and have an attainable goal…that is exactly how it should be…
In a year where basketball seems to be... ehh
I could see us sneaking in with 9 wins because of a lack of options with a win or two in ACC tourney. There really aren’t any dominant teams. Look around the conferences, right now.
Pac-12 is awful. I give them 3 teams (Stanford, Cal, Oregon St).
SEC I’m giving 6 (bama, UK, UF, Vandy, Miss St, Arkansas).
Big-10 I’m giving 6 (Wisc, Mich, OSU, Indiana, Purdue, Mich St)
Big East is getting its 8, at least (Cuse, Georgetown, Louisville, UConn, Marquette, Cincy, WVU – Pitt, DePaul, Seton are all on the bubble and I think two get knocked out during conference play).
Big-12 I’m giving 5 (K St, Baylor, Kansas, Mizzou, Texas).
ACC is awful. I give us 3 (UVA, UNX, Dook).
Add in conference champions from the mid-levels and I think you get to 57 or so total. That’s room for 7 bubble teams which feels larger than normal. College basketball sure feels like it has a lot of parody right now.
Parity?
I’m hoping it was tongue-in-cheek though.
“This is a satire of basketball competition.”
by groggy456 on Jan 6, 2012 9:21 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Love It!!
Well done Gott!
Seems to me that Valvano was the last coach that would put it on the line like that. I think he’s right, 11 wins gives us control of our destiny. Any less and we have to hope for favorable circumstances elsewhere (i.e. UNC hit by a meteor) to help us get there.
My respect continues to grow for him – but it is put up / shut up time now.
BEAT THE TERPS!!
BTW – No more sweaty Gary!!! Yes!
Agree
I LOVE how it puts it out there. This is what we need to do to make it. Its clear, and sets expectations. Its been too long since we’ve had a coach who sets expectations so clearly (usually because they fail to live up to them). Time to change that and get on the road with a win over Maryland!
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