Welcome To The Party, Pal: Jeremy M. Joins YANCSSB Staff

Jeremy M.
YANCSSB Contributor

So for my first blog posting I'll tackle the oft-discussed frustrations of this year's edition of Wolfpack Basketball.

I try to understand what I don't understand; that's how I tick. And I honestly thought this team was better from watching the early games. Looking back over the season thus far, I tried to review in my head what happened when I'd stood clapping and what had happened when I folded the brim of my hat in my hands. What's the one key stat for a win or a loss for this team?

• Three-point shooting? Things really seem to go well when Wood/Javi/Degand are hot. But wait--we shot 50% from three-point range and lost at Arizona.
• Turnovers? This was our percieved weakness coming into the year, but hasn't been. In none of State's losses has the ball been turned over more than 14 times and we gave it away only nine times in the Virginia game (that sent me in basketball-avoidance mode until Tuesday).
• Freshman Scoring? Nope. The five-headed monster only scored 14 points in our biggest win of the year at Marquette and had their highest output of the year in the Arizona loss (25).
• Rebounding? Marquette outrebounded the Pack by six in the Warrior loss, and NCSU outrebounded Zona by 12 in the still-confounding loss.
• Free Throw Shooting? 68.4% against Northwestern wasn't too shabby and the team in red lost and they also won while shooting only 50% from the line against Marquette.

So I guess the only conclusion is what we all suspected. NC State Basketball finds a way. Ways to win and ways to lose. Not just a way, a new way almost every game. If you can think of something I didn't come up with here, chime in on the comments and I'll do the legwork to check.

Until then, I keep folding my hat in my hands.

But along these lines, here's a first shot at trying to lay out what I think are the defining stats for upcoming games. In this case, let's look at the Florida State Seminoles.

NC State will win if...

• They have 13 or more assists (FSU is #2 in eFG% defense, so smart passing is key)
• They make 14 or more free throws (This one is obvious and needed to fight through demons)
• And force 15 or more turnovers (The Noles are turnover prone, State will need to play to that)

Maybe we'll check back to see how I did before the weekend. And follow up on any new keys we've stumbled onto...

- Jeremy M.

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Help Wanted

So here's the deal. I no longer have access to YANCSSB at work. That makes it awfully tough creating content for the site during the day (as you might imagine), and being a father to three kids takes up just about every waking moment at home.

Here's my pitch to you, loyal reader of YANCSSB: Help me keep this site going and thriving. You can do this by providing content -- opinions, stat analysis of recent games, previews of upcoming opponents...if you're reading this it probably means you read YANCSSB on a regular basis, so you've got a pretty good idea of what typically appears on this site.

Don't worry about whether you're a natural writer or not. I can and will edit the content for spelling, grammar, etc., before it hits the site, but the essence of the content will be all yours. If you've ever thought it'd be cool to dabble in sportswriting, hey, here's your chance.

If you're interested in contributing, drop me a line at james_1077 at yahoo dot com or reach me on Twitter here.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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LiveBlog: Thomas Jefferson Slept With His Slaves Virginia Edition

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Previewing UNC-G

Tonight at 6:00 p.m., broadcast on Fox Sports South

		PPG	FG%	FT%	3P%	RPG	ORPG	DRPG	APG	TPG	SPG	BPG	FPG
	NCST	67.9	45.7	63.6	34.2	36.8	11.6	25.2	15.1	14.0	6.6	5.5	16.2
	UNCG	61.9	38.5	69.9	31.1	35.9	15.1	20.8	9.4	16.5	6.2	2.5	17.0

Rank and Records	NCST		UNCG
RPI	#67		#196
Strength of Schedule	#162		#46
Overall	9-3		2-9
Conference	0-1		1-1
Home	5-1		0-4
Away	1-2		2-4
Top 25	0-0		0-2
RPI Top 50	2-0		0-3

For an in-depth look at UNC-Greensboro's roster and who to watch for, swing by Backing The Pack for one of Steven's excellent pregame breakdowns.

This is a potentially dangerous game for the Pack...on the road, on a holiday eve, following a win and preceding a huge game against Florida. A lot of factors that could add up to bad news for State IF they don't come out prepared and focused. And given that they didn't exactly put away Winthrop after jumping all over them early, I have to wonder about this team's focus for 40 minutes.

Still, I expect State to win tonight. This is a team that's mediocre-to-bad at both ends of the court and should be vulnerable to State's size up front. If State executes and shows full-game focus, the Pack should be ringing in the new year with a "W."

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Back From The Dead: Winthrop Recap

Hola!

No, I'm not dead. I did not perish in a horrible Christmas-lights stringing accident, nor did I choke on a chunk of 130-year-old re-gifted fruit cake. Work has been, well, work. Need I say more?

In any event, to my loyal readers I apologize, to both of you. I can't promise I'll be here any more than I have been of late, but I will try to not leave you wandering through the vast N.C. State sports blog wilderness--cold, naked and hungry--again.

Moving on...

I attended the Winthrop game last night. Following the box scores I'll share some thoughts:

Stat	Game
Points	52	68
FG Att	63	53
FG Made	20	26
FG Pct	31.7	49.1
FT Att	17	15
FT Made	9	6
FT Pct	52.9	40.0
3pt FG Att	18	21
3pt FG Made	3	10
3pt FG Pct	16.7	47.6
Rebounds	40	42
Off Rebs	14	8
Def Rebs	26	34
Team Rebs	4	3
Assists	9	21
Steals	8	3
Blocks	3	5
Turnovers	7	14
Fouls	17	16

NCAA Basketball

• I thought the team looked great to start the game, but as we have seen lately, they tend to either lose focus or take their foot off the gas once they build a big lead. That can lead to playing down to a team's level, which then leads to having a team like a Winthrop sneak up and beat you. Thankfully that wasn't the case last night, but there were times where I felt the Eagles might make a push.
• State shot the ball really well at times, especially in the first half. It was great to see Scott Wood knock down three 3s in a row. Boy, if his confidence gets back to where it needs to be, look the hell out. My only beef regarding Scott Wood last night was not seeing him enough in the second half. If he starts a game that hot, he should stay in and keep shooting. He plays well enough on defense to justify his presence on the court even if he cools off a bit. It doesn't surprise me that Scott sat the bench most of the second half--Sidney's substitution pattern seems to be that he has no pattern--but I wasn't thrilled by it. Tough to complain about it after a double-digit win, though.
• Tracy Smith had a merely average game, which is remarkable given the opponent. It was good to see Richard Howell step up, however, and provide some more scoring and rebounding from the froncourt.
• Javier Gonzalez continues to grow as a point guard. Julius Mays continues to disappoint. The offensive flow with Javy in the game versus Mays is like night and day. I say let Mays get locked in at the two and spell Javy with Degand at the point, but only sparingly. In my mind, Javy should be playing 30+ minutes a night at the point and spelled only when needed.
• Just three more tune-ups remain before the ACC season starts in earnest. The Pack faces UNC-G tomorrow night in a New Year's Eve affair, then Florida and Holy Cross come to town once the new year arrives. I can't say we know enough about the team now to reasonably predict how they will fare against the league competition, but I have a strong feeling State won't finish last. An NIT bid should be considered a good finish for a team picked 12th preseason, and is well within reach.
  

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Wake Forest LiveBlog Tonight

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Georgia Southern Recap

NCAA Basketball Stats

Stat	Game
Points	57	75
FG Att	55	51
FG Made	22	33
FG Pct	40.0	64.7
FT Att	16	9
FT Made	11	4
FT Pct	68.8	44.4
3pt FG Att	12	17
3pt FG Made	2	5
3pt FG Pct	16.7	29.4
Rebounds	26	31
Off Rebs	11	6
Def Rebs	15	25
Team Rebs	2	4
Assists	8	20
Steals	11	6
Blocks	3	4
Turnovers	8	15
Fouls	10	12

Obviously this game's a few days in the rear-view mirror but I did want to touch on it briefly before moving on.

• State lost three of the four factors (off. rebounding %, turnover % and free-throw rate) and still won by nearly 20. That tells you just how much better the Pack was at generating buckets. They shot an effective field goal % of nearly 70%, and that number was hindered by their 3-point-shooting.
• Dennis Horner continues to play well in his senior season. Sixteen points, nine rebounds (both career highs), three assists and a steal was his line against the Eagles. The question now becomes, as we start to wrap up the gimmies, can he step up at this level the rest of the way? He'll need to insist on remaining a factor in the games against Wake, Arizona and Florida instead of being content to let Tracy and/or others carry the load.
• Twenty assists on 33 field goals...that's some damn good sharing of the basketball. And this on a night when Javy Gonzalez sat out the game nursing a sore hamstring. C.J. Williams led the way with five.
  
• The only negative I can think to mention is that State gave up 11 offensive rebounds to a much smaller team. That simply can't happen. Granted, GSU was missing a lot of threes (2-12), which can lead to some long rebounds. Their off. rebounding % of 30.6 is a respectable number relative to the average of Div. 1 (33.1%). Still, given that State had a decided size advantage and still gave up that many offensive boards is concerning.
  

All in all, a nice win in the old barn, setting the table for Elon on Thursday night.

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