How can we be friends if we never hang out?

One good thing one can say about the State women's basketball team is that when playing the bottom four teams in the current standings, they take care of business. State beat VaTech, Clemson and Wake on the road and B.C. at home.

However, their problem is they haven't been able to break through against teams one through five in the standings, plus FSU, currently tied with State for sixth. State has lost to GaTech, UNC and FSU at home, and to Miami and Duke on the road.

Note this: State lost to FSU Friday night even though FSU turned the ball over 32 times to State's 13 times. The reason is FSU shot 57 per cent and got 46 rebounds to States 29 per cent and 28 rebounds. Size matters, and State is sometimes slower, but always smaller than the teams above them in the standings.

Burke scored 20 today against VaTech shooting 7 of 12 after shooting 1 of 8 against FSU and 4 of 15 against UNC. The reason is FSU and UNC are much bigger inside making it difficult for the six-two Burke.

State plays GaTech Thursday. GaTech goes five-six, five-eight, five-nine, six-four and six-five in their starters.
On Sunday, State will play UVA, currently tied with State for sixth. UVA goes five-seven, five-eleven, five-eleven, six-two and six-three in their starters. State goes five-four, five-eight, five-nine, five-eleven and six-two in their starters. Unless a team is really, really fast, being at such a height disadvantage is not good-not good at all.

of course i want Wilson for the Redskins!

at least Shanahan talked to Wilson: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/post/wisconsins-russell-wilson-says-he-plays-big-enough-for-the-nfl/2012/01/25/gIQAL0IMQQ_blog.html

If one would have told me that Holston would score only 4 points on 2 of 8 shooting, and score those four points in the first 10 minutes or so of the game, I would have said that State would lose. Holston scored only four and State lost.

I have used the words slow and short to describe the State women's team, and in this loss this again proves to be true. UNC with six-five Shegog and a host of other players over six feet proved to be to strong, too fast, and too tall for State. UNC wore State down in the second half. In the post game, Harper said it was a lack of confidence, but i disagree.

I have watched Kellie Harper's teams play quite a bit, and very seldeom have I seen her teams constantly run up against the shot clock like State did in the second half of this game. State's starting guards are just too small and too slow to break down a good defense. Kastanek at the three position is the only State player capable of doing so, and she scored 20.

My brother in law who has not seen a women's game lately, if at all (a UNC fan, but a good one as he as said he does not know why he is a UNC fan as opposed to a State fan), noted two things: the refs stunk and Kastanek was the best player on the court. Having watched many a women's game, I can safely say that the refs for those games always stink.

With regard to the refs, their incompetence is not why State lost; however, two non-calls seen by most everyone are of interest. I watch Kastanek play away from the ball and she sets many screens inside the lane against bigger and stronger players. After she set one during this game, the UNC player forearmed her in the throat and knocked her to the ground with no call. In the second no call, Daniels of State had blocked Shegog out, but Shegog grabbed her jersey and pulled her to the ground, as such getting the rebound and scoring. Harper went balistic as us fans sat in disbelief with the no call.

With Fowler still the athletic director Harper would be here a while, but with Debbie Yow, one never knows. As of now, if I had to make the call, I would say that Harper's contract will not be extended. Harper just has not recruited well enough to get State, which is mired in the bottom six of the conference, out of that. State's three wins are against three bottom feeders, and State has failed to break through against any of the top six teams in the conference which includes losing at home to GaTech and UNC, two of the 3-6 teams.

During her three years at State, absent Kody Burke, all of State's significant players have been Yow recruits: first year Gartrell, Kastanek, Holston; second year White, Kastanek, Strachan, Holston; and this year Kastanek, Holston and Tasler.

Harper's next recruiting class better be full of four and five star players.

After starting conference play 0-3, the State women have a chance to even their record at 3-3 conference wise. State beat Wake Monday evening to go 2-3 in conference. After an ugly first half, State shot 55% for the second half. I was surprised to see Emili Tasler play after watching her re-injure her knee against B.C. She did not play without issues as her lateral movement, which is needed in defense, was hindered, and she had to leave the game once due to a problem with her injured knee.

Clemson is 1-3 in conference and has an RPI/SOS via Nolan's of 232/141. However, Clemson did recently beat UNC, so they are not a complete pushover.

Writing of UNC, their RPI/SOS is 140/202 and yet they are 24th in the AP poll. State plays them Sunday at Raleigh. I plan to be there. Beating both Clemson and UNC puts State at 4-3 in the conference. Not bad for now.

With regard to Clemson, because Little John is such a hard place to play for any State basketball team, i will favor them. Plus, its been working in the favor of both men's and women's basketball when us posters are negative in our view.

Well this probably isn't helpful...

In State’s last game the women crushed B.C. 80-57. B.C. is a team as small and slow as State, maybe more so. The truth is that his game could have been worse for B.C. if Harper, after State got a 16 point lead early in the first half, did not indifferently let her subs play until B.C. closed to within 6. At that point Harper started playing her starters again eventually leading to the big win.

Bonae Holston must have been happy not to have to go against six-six first team All-ACC Swords and equally as tall third team All-ACC Murphy both of which have graduated from B.C. as she scored 19 points and got 15 rebounds.

Kastanek scored 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting for the game while also giving out 5 assists. In one instance Kastanek stole the ball from a B.C. player, raced in for a lay up, stole the in bounds pass and laid it in again while being fouled. She hit the free throw for 5 points in 6 seconds.

What happened that was important for the women’s team’s future was Emili Tasler re-injuring her left knee just before the end of the first half. Tasler, a red-shirt senior, starts at the two guard and plays the point when Goodman Coleman is out. While during the post game Harper said she was told Tasler’s injury was a strained MCL, it looked worse to me. I kept and eye on her and noted that after returning from the locker room and having ice put on her knee, she limped of the court for halftime and limped back to the bench for the second half. Tasler has missed quite a bit of time due to her knee injuries.

I have noted that Kastanek has again been playing some point guard, a position she played during State’s run to the NCAA’s in her freshman year. After Tasler got hurt, Kastanek took over her point guard playing duties.

Truthfully, Kastanek is State’s best point guard as she is the vocal team leader, better understands the offense, makes an entry pass into the post better than any other team member, and can score from the point better than she can from the three position. With five-four Coleman at the point, five-nine Tasler at the two and five-nine Kastanek at the three, State is not as athletic, tall and fast as when Kastanek plays the point, five-nine Barrett plays the two/three and five-eleven Williams plays the two/three. Scoring wise and defensively, State loses nothing with Williams and Barrett playing in place of Coleman and Tasler. However, Coleman is better than Kastanek in guarding the ball when being pressed, Barrett tends to force drives to the basket and Williams forces passes into the post making her turnover prone.

Since Wake is playing well, I would pick Wake over State in this one especially since the game is in Winston-Salem.

Despite being tied for last with Clemson in the conference standings at 0-3, State's women's team's RPI/SOS remains pretty solid at 48/31 (via Nolan's).
Against RPI 1-50 the team is 2-5; against 51-100 the team is 1-1; and has no losses against teams 101 plus.
I still don't see things ending well in view of what i saw against GaTech and Miami. However, State should get their first win tomorrow night at home against BC.
Maybe 6 games in 12 days including flying home from Hawaii before the GaTech game had something to do with it; hope so.

Tenuta on his family: "I may have made a decision without fully thinking through the situation with them."

Florida Gulf Coast, a good mid-major team that already knocked off teams like Michigan State, Richmond and Virginia Tech this season, answered with a 29-9 run to take a 58-55 lead with 4:04 to play.

FGCU came into the game averaging 12.8 three-point makes a game, tops in the nation. The Pack held them to just six from beyond the arc, forcing the Eagles to make layups and mid-range jumpers.