Greetings, Pack fans, and welcome to the debut of a new Backing the Pack feature! As a new contributor, I will be starting a morning links post containing all the latest in links of interest for Pack fans that will hopefully run every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Backing the Pack. Schedule permitting, this post might be expanded to run every weekday morning, but for now the trial edition will only be a tri-weekly event, as both I and the new post adapt to the ropes of the blogosphere. The purpose of the post is to provide for your reading pleasure links which might not warrant individual news posts but which are of relevance to Wolfpackers in a more passive regard. Any suggestions are welcome, particularly in the naming department - I am in desperate need of your creative minds to give this post an enduring headline for each time it runs. Comment below with your ideas - it is much appreciated.
And now, on to your links of interest.
Wolfpack baseball had an eventful weekend in Blacksburg, suffering a postponement of the conclusion of the Friday night game after a lighting issue in the bottom of the 10th inning (you read that correctly, a lighting issue, not a lightning issue, as the editors of wcti12.com seem to think). The Pack won both the continuation Saturday and the regularly scheduled second game, doing so in record breaking fashion as they achieved a 12 game win streak and Trea Turner stole his 50th base. Unfortunately the win streak would end at 12, as State dropped the third game in the series Sunday.
Amile Jefferson seems ready to finally make his college decision. The announcement will supposedly come Tuesday at 4pm at a press conference at his high school. Bleacher Report has, in typical scumbag fashion (see below), been hyping Duke as Amile's best bet for months, but CBS has seemed fairly confident for some time now that NC State is the frontrunner. Guess we will find out Tuesday. (The tidbit about Jefferson is down the page a bit on the CBS link).
TJ Graham continues to trend in the media, as yet another article has hit the web describing the raw talent possessed by the Wolfpack speedster and his desire to work hard in the NFL. This time the attention comes from the Washington Post, a rather high level source which seems confident that Graham's strength comes from his difficult past and his desire to work hard and overcome. I think they might be right - the next few seasons will tell.
Graduation was Saturday for NC State's seniors, on a day which saw two Wolfpack basketball players receive their diplomas as well as a grand speech by Philip Rivers.
Men's tennis fell to Washington in the first round of the NCAA tournament championship.
Women's golf, however, advanced to its first-ever NCAA championship, after finishing 7th of 24 teams at the Central Regional on Saturday.
The Rivalry will continue for 2012, at least. State will play Chapel Hill twice next season, adding to another challenging Gottfried schedule.
In more Bleacher Report scumbag news the site posted an article last week declaring Tyler Lewis and TJ Warren among the top ten high school recruits guaranteed to be busts. As with most Bleacher Report articles, the piece is nothing more than air-headed conjecture designed to garner hits on search engines and has no real analysis behind it - nonetheless, TJ Warren and Tyler Lewis seem to be enjoying the opportunity to prove the naysayers wrong.
LSU transfer Ralston Turner visited NC State this weekend, and according to TheWolfpacker.com he enjoyed himself. I'm not a subscriber so I couldn't tell you why they claim that, but seeing as we are the only school he seems interested in other than LSU I guess it can't be a bad thing.
If you've made it this far, congratulations on surviving the first Wolfpack morning links post! Offer up on those suggestions, particularly on naming, and check back Wednesday morning for edition number 2!