This Just In: Tracy Smith is Awesome. 31 points in State's 88-68 win

Stats by StatSheet.com

Stats by StatSheet.com

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At some point it starts sounding like a broken record, but in just 23 minutes of action today, Tracy Smith poured in 31 points, including a perfect 11-for-11 mark from the free throw line, to lead State to a 88-68 win over Towson.

(Continues)


Even going back to last season, you could see that Smith was one of the guys on the team whose motor was always churning at a high level. He's continued that play to start this year; he was at or near the top in offensive rating nearly every game so far. Today, it all fell into place.

Brandon Costner continued his unselfish play of late with 10 assists. Towson played zone most of the first half and Costner attacked it like a veteran, driving into the weak spots, waiting for the collapse and then dishing to a wide open Pack player, often Smith, for an easy bucket. He also chipped in 15 points for another double-double.

The scoring was pretty evenly spread out from there: Dennis Horner in a starting role had 10, along with Ben McCauley, and Courtney Fells had 11.

The Pack struggled at times in this game, however, with Towson jumping out to an 11-point lead in the first half behind the shooting of Josh Thornton who nailed four quick threes in a span of a few minutes to put the Tigers out in front big.

But from there Smith went to work, finishing the half with 19 points as the Pack continued to feed him down on the blocks.

Hopefully Smith will continue to get more and more minutes as the conference season approaches. He'll get to see a stout test against the Florida Gators up next; if he produces against a tough SEC team just two years removed from a national title, then it'll be almost impossible to justify keeping him off the court as conference play approaches.

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SFN: Frank Weedon's wife has passed. Our condolences.

Per SFN, Weedon's wife has passed after a long battle with cancer.

If you've ever met Frank, you know just what a class act and sweet guy the man is. No one bleeds Red and White more than he. He's been a part of the State athletics department in one form or fashion for as long as just about anyone can remember.

I'm very sorry for him, and I hope you'll join me in sending prayers his way.

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A look at Towson (2:00 PM at the RBC)

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Way back when, during the college years, I was assigned the gymnastics beat at Technician. Towson was one of those programs the State team seemed to face on a regular basis and they were good.

Up to this week, that was the extent of my knowledge of Towson athletics.

Lo and behold they have a basketball team, too, and our old friend Pat Kennedy, the ex-Florida State coach from long ago when they enjoyed some success with Bobby Sura, Sam Cassell and Charlie Ward, is coaching the Towson Tigers these days.

Interesting factoid: He coached alongside Jim Valvano at Iona and succeeded V. as Iona's head coach when V. left for Raleigh, which may partly explain how Towson ended up on our schedule.

As for the Tigers themselves, here's how they shape up:

Record vs. D-1: 5-7
Luck: +0.011  National Rank=152  (+0.0 wins)

Raw Tempo: 67.5 poss/40 min  National Rank=174
Adj Tempo: 67.8 poss/40 min  National Rank=163

                     Offense               Defense
Raw Efficiency :   99.9 (187)          105.9 (265)
Adj Efficiency :   99.5 (182)          110.4 (313)

Effective FG%  :   47.2 (227)           48.4 (151)
Turnover Pct.  :   19.9 (116)           20.0 (226)
Off. Rebound%  :   34.8 (124)           40.9 (332)
Free Throw Rate:   22.7 (217)           32.2 ( 98)

3-Point FG%    :   33.9 (165)           30.2 ( 53)
2-Point FG%    :   44.6 (262)           50.3 (248)
Free Throw Pct.:   65.4 (246)           64.1 ( 42)
Block Pct.     :   10.3 (242)           11.1 ( 70)
Steal Pct.     :   11.2 (255)           10.7 (116)

3PA/FGA        :   41.0 ( 32)           38.2 (303)
A/FGM          :   62.6 ( 38)           67.7 (342)

As you might imagine, there's not a lot of height on a team at this level...no one player stands taller than 6'-8", and their "height" is all a bit undersized, as well, averaging only 207 and some change. It shows up in their poor offensive rebounding numbers. Their roster reminds me a lot of the early Herb teams--a lot of guys in the 6'-6" to 6'-8" range. Imagine eight skinny Tim Wellses.

Their point man, 5'-11" guard freshman Troy Franklin, is one of the top 20 players in the country in assist rate. Given that State is still struggling at both guard positions, this could be a matchup to watch when Towson has the ball. Can Degand or Mays stay in front of Franklin and keep him from creating looks for his teammates? We shall see.

Pat Kennedy may be in the twilight of his career as a coach but he has been around the block enough to know the game of basketball. I hate to say it, but after the way the team looked against Loyola I expect this to be another game that ends closer than it should.

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...and here come the pretzels: State beats Loyola of MD by two

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Stats by StatSheet.com

Stats by StatSheet.com

If Loyola of Maryland sounds familiar, it's because they're the team coached by that wackjob Jimmy Patsos who thought it'd be cool to put two guys on Stephen Curry and hold him to zero points for the game--resulting in a 30-point blowout loss.

Fast forward to tonight, where the Pack manages a two-point speaker of a win, 62-60, and one has to wonder just where the collective heads of the Wolfpack basketball squad were tonight. Not in the RBC Center at points tonight, particularly down the stretch.

Costner was largely ineffective from the field tonight--two of nine in 32 minutes of floor time. Courtney Fells, Ben McCauley and Coster all finished in double figures (11, 16 and 11, respectively) but only shot a collective 44% from the floor (12 of 27)...not the kind of production you need from your top scorers.

Turnovers still are an issue...21% of the Pack possessions resulted in a TO, compared to only 13% from Loyola. This continues to plague the Pack ballhandlers and, if not corrected, will doom several games in conference play.

Degand and Mays split time at the point, and both finished with 1:1 A/T ratios, but the number of assists were far two few--just three between the two of them. That's the telltale sign of a team completely out of offensive rhythm and devoid of a floor general. Nothing created by either of the points is a bad sign.

A win is a win is a win...but they don't come much uglier than this.

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PapaJohns.com Bowl Live Blog

We'll see how this thing works...head here around 2:45 for some pregame talk and discussion, then stick around for a live blog of the game. My work's ISP allows me access to ESPN360, thankfully, so if you're stranded with no means to keep up with the game, this will be an avenue to keep tabs on the proceedings.

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Merry Christmas, everybody: Have an N64 remix on me

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Word on da street: Ferguson has broken hand; CONFIRMED, out 3-6 weeks

That's what I keep hearing from several folks that know their stuff. There was a point in the game last night where Ferguson was clearly in pain, grasping his hand. I can't recall if it was his shooting hand or not (I didn't think enough of it at the time to pay attention), but he played through it to the final buzzer.

Losing Ferguson would be a big blow to this squad already short on talent at the guard position. He's a dangerous enough shooter to knock down key threes when open, and he hustles enough on defense to be, if not a shutdown defender, disruptive.

UPDATE: ACC Now and GoPack.com are now reporting it; he'll be out 3-6 weeks with a fracture on his non-shooting hand. If that timetable holds, the earliest he would be available would be the home game against FSU on Jan. 13th; the latest (6 week prognosis) would put it around the NC Central game on Feb. 3rd.

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