The Wolfpack in Puerto Rico

[mattncsu02]

I was very pleased with the play in the first two games. Boys, the Pack has some stellar freshmen! I'm excited to see what those young men can do.

Tonight however, was not impressive. They looked flat and OSU just played better and harder.

I am not going to let tonight's poor performance change my optimism for the season though. It's early and I'm confident Gottfried will use tonight as a learning experience. It's a long season, and I still think the Pack will be very strong this year.

I do think it was an injustice to rank them #6 before the season started. That's just setting them up for disappointment. They sure didn't look like a #6 tonight, but they can be with some work.

[Tizu]

That was a beat down! But they will be fine and they'll still be a top contender, no question about it. I was disappointed to see them get thumped like that, though.

They're going to be fine.

[Marty Da Hungry Wolf]

My worst-case scenario: the Oklahoma State game was the tip of the iceberg and the How-To manual on playing NC State this season.

My best-case scenario: this was an anomaly, the players will have an object lesson forced upon them by the coaches so that nothing like this happens again this season.

My opinion of reality: NC State is a very capable, very talented basketball team when they feel the urgency to be. When they play like they think they ARE a top-5 to top-10 team, that's when weaknesses get exposed, and they don't look like right now they have the collective mentality to bear down and "refuse to lose". Time will tell, but it's on the players to work rather than relying on the hype.

Lorenzo Brown absolutely MUST improve his ball handling; he's the leader of the team, the supposed best PG in the ACC, the announcer was correctly saying that he needs to play like it. He got THOROUGHLY abused by a freshman.

C.J. Leslie needs to go back to being Calvin. Fast.

Howell needs to not. foul. so. damn. much.

Wood needs to unleash some of these "new" moves I've been hearing so much about.

Purvis and Warren were revelations in Puerto Rico, I was generally pleased with both of their performances, even last night against Oklahoma State.

Lewis was good, needs to remember to "play his game" and make others better first.

DeThaey and Vandenberg need to get more minutes in first halves, saving fouls (plus wear and tear) on Leslie and Howell.

Grades:
Penn State game: C+
UMass game: B
Oklahoma State game: F

They've got work to do.

[mattncsu02]

Very good analysis Marty. That announcer sort of pissed me off with some of his comments. It was like his sole purpose was to pick apart every player, every game. However, he was right about several things.

I still say Gott will get them headed in the right direction. To come as far as he did with this group last year and not improve on it this year would be a tragedy. I think we'll be fine.

[Marty Da Hungry Wolf]

I think so. I'm excited about the possibilities; the reality is the work and focus put in by the players. Simple as that, the way I see it. If the players don't necessarily "forget" the OK State game but rather learn from their mistakes, they'll be O.K. If not, more Oklahoma State games await. As it's always been, it's up to them.

Similarly, UNC looked awful for about the first 25-28 minutes of their Maui game against Butler; when they exerted maximum effort and focus, they nearly came back. This year's UNC team is not nearly good enough to be able to just "throw the switch" but, no disrespect to Butler, there's no way in hell Butler's 29 points better than UNC at any point in a game, they just played harder, smarter, and better than UNC did over the course of the full game - same as Oklahoma State did against the Pack. The difference is, UNC started playing hard and smart, State didn't.

Oh well, onward.