Weekend Update 31 JAN 2016

Finally - a WIN!



Even with the losing streak - the first half of the Georgia Tech game was the worst we've seen State play in a long time. Then, in the second half we came back storming back to a 1 point game. And I'm sure we would have won - IF - Abu hadn't committed a player foul and then a technical foul to go with it.

What Happened?

Instead of GT getting the 2 points and the shooting foul - they got that, plus 2 shots for the technical. A total of 5 points. We didn't get any closer after that. Didn't give up - but all the momentum and excitement just evaporated.

It seemed that finally the losses had taken a toll and moral was spent.

I was worried playing #15 Miami could be a blowout. Instead, the team came out and played as hard, if not harder, than they have been - and dominated Miami from the start.

What Happened?

Maybe this will be the turn around. Don't get me wrong - State's season is already over. At best, we might, just might, get into the NIT. But it sure would be nice to see the guys be able to get some more ACC wins to have some results for all their heart and hard work.

Work

Speaking of hard work - it's going well. Nothing really new to talk about. Just very busy and steady. Which is good. After the Great W Recession - I don't take anything for granted.

Home

Despite the warmer weather - still had a good bit of snow last Monday. In fact, after a week of warm weather, there was still snow in the shady parts in front of my house (north facing) as of Thursday evening. I'm pretty sure we had more snow and ice here than in Raleigh.

Welcome Sight on the way Home from Work on Monday

Monday After Coming Home from Work

Home is pretty much the same as well. Boring. Which is good.

Last week's ice and snow aside - it's been a pretty warm winter. Haven't had many opportunities for fires in the fireplace. It's forecast to be in the upper 60s all week.

I'm sure the cold will return, it's the start of February after all. The warm sunshine is nice though.

I Noticed Later

In my last post there are 2 photos of the snow and ice PNC parking lot at the Dook-State game. Later, I noticed that in both photos - all the vehicles are pickup trucks or SUVs - except for 1 car!

Yep - we're NC State - Engineering and Ag School graduates. Basically, rednecks with college degrees. Got to have a truck or something with 4WD.

LOL

I don't think you'd see that over at the Hippie Commune in Orange County or the University of New Jersey.

To see the photos close up - open a photo in a new tab - you should then be able to zoom in / out.

Dook 23 JAN 2016

Deep River Road

Fools that we are, Nuke and I never even thought of missing the Dook game. We figured that US 1 Freeway would be clear - IF we could get to the highway.

That's not snow - it's solid packed ice. The automatic 4WD kept engaging on and off. It's about 2 miles from the house to US 1 - Took a while to get there. But once on the freeway one lane was mostly clear except for the bridges and overpasses. And when we got past Apex, both lanes were mostly clear.

Parking Lot - Usually Full

The Dook and UNC games always sell out as soon as individual tickets go on sale. But, there's a lot of spaces available today.

Parking Lot - Rather Empty

And the parking lot is pretty much empty further away from the Arena.

Before The Game

Sparse crowd. However, the students have all showed up and filled their sections. The radio reported that most of the students walked from Campus to the PNC. That's a long walk - really long. There's a reason the kids get the court side seats - they bring all the energy to the games.

1st Half - More People Have Arrived

Exciting game.

More people arrived after the game started. It probably took them a while to get here. Usually we plan on about 45 minutes with slow traffic getting into the Arena lots. Today, we left 2 hours before tip off. Got into the Arena about 10 minutes before the game started.

2nd Half - Pretty Good Crowd

2nd Half - Upper Level Gets Mostly Full

By half time, everybody who was coming to the game had arrived. Not a bad crowd considering the weather.*

The Band didn't make it.

State played really well. This year we always seem to have a second half spell where we forget to play like a team. Happened again today and Dook went on a 10 - 0 run. We were never able to overcome that. Got close, but Dook really played a lot better in the 2nd half and we never got closer than about 4 points.

Also, Dook's defense kept State out of the paint all day. So that was a big difference right there. Dook's defense is always excellent. That's a trademark of The Great Satan Coach Krzyzewski.

Still, for a team with no bench, we had a balanced effort today. Shot well, rebounded well, 3 pointers went in. But Dook did the same, just better - and they get the win.

Back Home

Made it to the game and back without too much trouble. Although we did get a little slip and slide on Deep River Road on the way back. We were going real slow, but on ice, it doesn't really matter if you've got 4 wheel drive or not.

Back home and settled in to watch some basketball on TV.

Wish we had won. All in all, a pretty good day.

Note - About the game photos - iPhones do not take good photos - not like a real camera. The fireplace photo was taken with a Sony camera - you can see the difference.

* Update - from the WRAL website -

 RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 12,000 fans trekked out to PNC Arena to watch NC State and Duke play Saturday despite winter weather and icy road conditions.

The attendance number was roughly 7,000 fans shy of the sold-out 19,500 tickets purchased to the match up.

Just Wait Till Basketball Season . . . ah . . . Nevermind

Sunday Morning

Snowed this morning. Quite a heavy snow. Far too warm for it to stick. Pretty to watch though.

Basketball

Coach Gott expected to have a top 25 team this year.

Jr. Cat Barber and Sr. Trevor Lacey and transfer Jr. Terry Henderson available as starting guards - Caleb Martin, Abu, Washington, Anya all start able forwards. Star recruits Rowan and Kirk could red shirt. Great starting lineup - deep bench as good as the starters. Freeman and Cody Martin as the 8th and 9th reserve.

It was a potential dream team.

Then - totally unexpected - Lacey went pro and Washington transferred. To make it worse, Henderson sustained a severe injury in the first half of the very first game. He played a total of 10 minutes this season. He's still recovering from the significant surgery.

Rowan is now a starter, having on the job training under fire. Cody and Freeman are the first off the bench - and Kirk has to come in for spells as well.

We have, basically, 4 starters plus Rowan and 1 bench with experience and 1 bench without.

Even still - we could have (should have) won against VT, Wake Forest and FSU. But, we didn't.

We are now 0  - 5. Next up - at ranked Pittsburgh. Then back home against Dook. You never want to be pessimistic - but it honestly looks like we'll be 0 - 7 by next Saturday evening.

Our starting lineup can play with any team in the ACC. But they have to play essentially the entire game. By the middle of the second half - they're worn out.

Yesterday's game at UNC was the perfect example. Essentially a tie game for the first half and into the second half - then the tiredness starts to set in - and UNC pulled away.

Our guys never quit. But how long can they keep doing that until moral starts to fade away?

Surely we'll win a few ACC games. Maybe.

We could, not likely, but could, not win an ACC game. This could be, State's worst season ever. Really, our worst win / loss record - ever.

What a sudden and complete change of fortune since the NCAA Tournament and Sweet Sixteen in March.

Wonder if some rabid Dook fan wants to pay a ton of money for 2 lower level corner tickets Saturday? I'll throw in the parking pass.

Just musing / joking. To those reading this post - I am going to the game. So don't ask for the tickets "if I'm not going" - unless you've got serious money. Like four digits serious. But hey - if you've got a grand or more discretionary income to spend - you can score yourself some really good seats - shoot me an email.

Panthers

Watching the Seattle at Panthers game while I write this post. The Panther just scored their 3rd touchdown. And just now, as I write, have just intercepted Seattle (again). It's only 12:44 in the second quarter. This game might be over already.

Chip, of course, is still maintaining it's all a fluke. That's his story - and he's sticking to it.

LOL

MLK

Holiday tomorrow. Nothing planned. Will likely sit around the house reading by a fire in the fireplace.

Thanks for the Music

New Year's 2016 +Addendum

Christmas

Had a nice visit with my sister and brother-in-law in Orlando. Productive following week at work. Very quiet with few interruptions - got quite a bit done.

The above was taped on the wall at work. Being the State Construction Office, most of us are engeeners engineres engeneres good with math.

Wolfpack in Review

Let's take a look at NC State Basketball and Football in 2015.

Basketball

In the 2015 NCAA Tournament (March Madness), State was the underdog team nobody wanted to play. We made it to the Sweet 16 including an upset of Number 1 Seed Villinova.



With only 1 senior starter graduating - for the first time since the 1980's and Jim Valvano - NC State was about to return to the basketball elite for the next season. Top 15 team for sure - maybe even better.

Then, in one week, it pretty much all went away. Star Trevor Lacy decided to turn pro and first off the bench forward Kyle Washington decided to transfer to another school for more playing time.

Just like that - we were back to our usual middle of the ACC potential. But, with guard Tracy Henderson ready to help take up the void and paired up with 'superstar potential' Cat Barber - we'd be OK.

Until the very first effin game of 2015.

Tracy injured his ankle - seriously torn ligaments. In fact, he's still on crutches - and is said to be barely able to walk without them. He will recover - it could have been a basketball career ending injury. Thankfully he wasn't permanently hurt. At this point, there is a real possibility of a medical red shirt and wait till next year.

So, Cat Barber has had to shoulder the load pretty much by himself. He's got a lot of great help - Bee Jay; Caleb and Cody; and Abdul Malik Abu al Boston. But without Tracy, we will be lucky to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

ACC season starts tomorrow - State at Virginia Tech. If we start off with a loss to VT - the season could get real ugly real quick.

Football

Don't drink the Kool-Aid

The players and coaches all went beyond hinting and pretty much said we should expect a break out year. An 8 - 4 regular season would be the minimum expectation with 10 -  2 or even better a real possibility.

I bought in to it.

Actually, if it weren't for abysmal play in 3 quarters - 10 and 2 really was within reach. The first quarter in the Louisville game, the second quarter in the Virginia Tech game, and the incredibly bad first quarter of the UNC game - put us in holes we were not able to dig our way out of. These 3 quarters we were pretty much awful. Outside of that - we outplayed the other teams.

We should have won the Louisville and VT games - period. We played Clemson close all game. UNC scored more points in the first quarter than we should have allowed the whole game. Only in the Florida State game were we out matched the whole game. A 9 - 3 regular season was there for the taking. We did the 'talking' instead of doing the 'taking'.

We were only outmatched by FSU - until the Bowl game against Mississippi State. The MSU game was, without a doubt, the worst performance of the entire year. Kind of summed up the let down of the entire season.

Instead of a breakout year - we regressed and ended up with a one game worse record than 2014.

And that, folks, is what it's like being a North Carolina State Wolfpack fan.

Don't drink the Kool Aid.

Addendum

State squandered a 14 point second half lead and lost to VT in overtime.