Thursday, January 10, 2008

A Lot To Catch Up On

It's been a while since I last discussed recent wolfpack events so I have a lot to catch up on. Lets get started.

- The wolfpack basketball team is now 11-3 coming off wins against Presbyterian and most recently NCCU. State has looked solid against these teams but in all seriousness it hasn't been pretty. The wolfpack was able to hold Presbyterian to 43 points and NCCU to 29 but there has been a lack of offensive fire power. We continue to struggle with our outside shooting and injuries have continued to plague the team. Wednesday night Courtney Fells went down with an apparent ankle injury and is questionable for Saturdays game against UNC. I also noted that Dennis Horner was in his Sunday best for the NCCU game. Bottom line- Defense is looking pretty good. We haven't played the best competition but anytime you can hold a team to under 30 points in a game something is going right. On the other hand we need to find a rhythm and get more points on the board if we wanna compete for an ACC title.

-Dajuan Morgan, in my mind our most outstanding defensive back, is foregoing his senior year to enter the NFL draft. He is currently in the southwest training for the combine. He has been told by some that he could go as high as the second round if he has a good work out. How does this effect the pack- not good. Whenever I am in the student section I always look for Dajuan Morgan on the field. He is an excellent defensive back and appears to be one of the emotional leaders of the team. It's gonna be tough to replace him but I hope he stays healthy and has a good result at the combine.

-The NC State men's basketball team has recently been raked as the 13th most valuable program in the nation by Forbes magazine. The triangle region did well in this poll with UNC being ranked #1 and Duke being ranked #13. This is surely a testament to the fact that NC State is consistently ranked in the top 20 in average attendance every year.

-I don't know how many of you have noticed, but Saturday is a pretty big day. Not only is it the wolfpack's opening ACC basketball game but it comes against UNC at the Dean Dome. UNC comes into this game ranked number one in the country after squeaking out a game against Clemson. If only Clemson could shoot free throws they might have won. Here are my keys to having a chance at winning this game.

+Please let Courtney Fells and Dennis Horner be healthy. It's not enough we lost our starting point guard for the year, but to lose these two would put NC State in a real bind. We beat them last year with only 6 men but the more the merrier.

+Put some bodies in Hansborough. Clemson did a nice job of limiting Hansborough to only 7 shots by denying him the ball and playing him very physical under the basket. Costner and McCauley did a nice job on him in the win last year and we need to continue this trend by adding in Hickson to the mix to give ourselves a chance.

+LET IT RAIN!!! If we ever needed a time for our outside shooting to make an appearance this would be it. UNC averages 92 points a game and if we can't get them to slowdown and play half court basketball were gonna need some amazing performances from our shooters.

+Use our big men. I would really like to see McCauley and Hickson down low together. Whenever they are in the game together Coach Lowe usually puts Hickson down low and pushes McCauley up high to the key. I know McCauley is great at the back door passes and finding open shooters but if I would like to see how effective we are with both our big boys down low under the basket.

Saturday's game is setting up to be a pretty good match up. Our performance hasn't been quite up to the expectations we had in the preseason but maybe State is on a 7 game winning streak and is playing pretty decent defense. This is the game I've been waiting for all year. A chance to beat Carolina at their own place and give them their first loss. This game means so much to so many, and I'm sure Coach Lowe won't let them forget that. Hopefully Saturday night will be a celebration. GO WOLFPACK!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How did this game work out for you? you seemed really excited about it.....