NC State Preview
Posted by kj on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
7:00 tonight at the Breslin Center. ESPN. Dave O’Brien and Steve Lavin (my favorite color guy) are the announcers.
A few tempo-free quick hits from the NC State stat sheet:
- Good news: NC State hasn’t forced a lot of turnovers. Their opponents have given the ball up on only 14.7% of their possessions. Hopefully, MSU can hold on to the ball and increase their scoring opportunities.
- More good news: NC State doesn’t rebound very well on the offensive end. They’ve run down only 30.0% of available offensive rebounds. This would point to MSU improving its defensive rebounding from the dismal performances vs. UCLA and Oakland.
- Bad news: MSU may need to limit turnovers, because NC State has done a great job holding down their opponents’ shooting percentage. Their opponents’ effective FG% is 39.5%.
The Wolfpack’s main threat on offense is 6′9″, 242-pound freshman JJ Hickson. He’s shooting a phenomenal 75.0% from the floor (no three-point attempts, so that’s his effective FG%, too) while averaging 18.0 points per game. MSU may need to trot out all five big men to absorb some fouls against him as they did vs. Mr. Love.
NC State is 4-1. They were upset by New Orleans but most recently beat Villanova to win the Old Spice Classic and move into the AP top 25 at #24. You’ll recall this is the team first-year coach (and boldly jacketed) Sidney Lowe almost led to an NCAA tournament bid last season by winning three straight games in the ACC tournament, despite being the #10 seed, before falling to UNC in the tournament final.
More conventional preview: Joe Rexrode notes that the NC State lineup is really tall.
Only IU won last night in the five Big Ten-ACC games, so we’re down 5-1 and would need a miraculous sweep of the five games tonight for the Big Ten to not lose the challenge for the 9th straight year. Steve Grinzcel has some skinny on the history of the challenge (if it can be called a “challenge” from the ACC’s perspective at this point).
But MSU is 4-3 in the challenge (no result from the year the basketball court became an ice rink), so Go Green!
Filed in basketball, game preview, msu
ACC is KING. The Big “10″ is our court jester « The Struttin’ Wolfon 28 Nov 2007 at 10:44 am 1[...] spartansweblog.wordpress.com These guys are actually pretty fair and good spirited about the game. [...]
MSU fans realize the Pack is a legit threat. ACC is KING. « The Struttin’ Wolfon 28 Nov 2007 at 10:46 am 2[...] spartansweblog.wordpress.com These guys are actually pretty fair and good spirited about the game. [...]
StruttinWolfon 28 Nov 2007 at 10:49 am 3Hey guys. Good luck tonight. If you think about it, we are probably the most similar schools in our respective conferences. Let’s just say, I’d rather lose to you than Michigan! That said, we don’t plan to lose. Good luck tonight.
p.s. You’re main concern should be Courtney Fells. Should be a good match-up btwn he and Neitzel. (sp?)
spartanbloggeron 28 Nov 2007 at 11:02 am 4And we’d rather lose to you than to Duke/UNC–but also don’t plan to lose.
Fondly recall watching your run through the ACC tournament last season. Should be a good game tonight.
Wufpaxno1on 28 Nov 2007 at 1:06 pm 5I am looking forward to tonight’s match up. As if my handle doesn’t make it obvious, I do bleed Wolfpack red, but having said that I do like MSU. I can’t wish you good luck tonight, but will be pulling for you throughout the remainder of the season.
I did watch MSU in the preseason loss to GVSU (The Big Ten Network is a wonderful thing) and thought at the time that the Spartans might have been over rated; I have since changed my opinion and must admit that Izzo gets it. Rather than running up the score in a useless win in a meaningless preseason match up with an over matched opponent, he took the opportunity to evaluate what he had in an effort to develop what he had. That is impressive coaching and at least you gave up your upset in a preseason game, we chose to drop ours in the second regular season game of the year. Both learning experiences but yours did not count against you.
I think that there are striking similarities in both programs this year, both teams have yet to discover their potential as they look for the balance between solid new talent and experience. I also think that historically we have run on parallel paths athletically. We both have hated, over rated, and obnoxious cross State Rivals, and each of us has yet to reach our potential lately on the grid iron and hard wood. The best is yet to come for both schools!
As far as tonight’s game goes, the Pack has been horrible on the offensive boards and at the foul line, a fact that has allowed most of our previous opponents to remain in the game. However, we have much more depth than many of the media have given us credit for, we have just yet to show it. It should be close and it should be a great game.
I am going to go out on a limb here and predict a win for State, and I will guarantee that as a “cannot lose” pick.
StruttinWolfon 28 Nov 2007 at 7:02 pm 6Jimmy V is the man.
Ron Loganon 28 Nov 2007 at 10:28 pm 7@ Struttin wolf
Sorry that Michigan does not top your list of opponents that you prefer your team to be defeated by.
No need to worry about losing to Michigan. Amaker assured that few teams would have to experience that for a few years thanks to such superb recruiting as J. Smith (yes he has a scholarship). Here is hoping Beilein can right the ship.
Good game Spartans. Drew rules. Go Blue!
spartanbloggeron 28 Nov 2007 at 11:18 pm 8That Jimmy V speech is fantastic. I love the part about “your family, your religion, and the Green Bay Packers.”
Tough loss to take for your Wolfpack, but (as indicated in my game recap) I think some of it can be chalked up to heavy legs from playing so much basketball over the weekend.