Quote :

"The only way for N.C. State's battered basketball team to get well is to win a game Saturday. Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek isn't going to care for that advice one bit, and I can't blame him. If there's ever been a person who dearly loves to play 'em one at a time, it's Sendek. He'd sooner get photographed half-naked in a body-piercing parlor than to get caught looking past an opponent. With his team battling a three-game losing streak and banged up worse than one of Tony Stewart's short-track cars, you can bet that Sendek is fiercely focused on Friday's game in the ACC Tournament. The fourth-seeded Pack's opponent for that day isn't known yet. It'll be either fifth-seeded Florida State or 12th-seeded Wake Forest, which meet in Thursday's tournament first round at Greensboro Coliseum. But having just dropped one by 13 points to the Deacons, Sendek would undergo double jaw-wiring surgery before he would say a word about the possibility of facing top-seeded Duke on Saturday. That's fine, I understand. Herb's job is to find wood and chop it. My job is to thumb through this fat stack of Pack medical charts, stare at all those blurred X-ray negatives, clear my throat a lot, say "uh-huh, uh-huh" and prescribe some medicine strong enough to get State back on its feet in time to protect Sendek from the poison of several thousand venomous tongues. In other words, I'm going to earn my co-payment on this case, and I'm certainly not going to deceive my patient at this crucial stage of the prognosis. It's going to take a big pill to straighten this mess out. Duke's what I call a big pill. And Duke's going to be right there, bitter and bright blue, on the counter Saturday in Greensboro -- maybe not for easy taking, but the Blue Devils will be there. Regardless of whether Miami or Clemson survives Thursday to face Duke on Friday, the poor fellow assigned to keep an eye on J.J. Redick might as well volunteer to go bird hunting with Dick Cheney. Redick's going to score about 40, and a few of those will come after the other side starts waving a white flag. But that's just what State is going to have to force down and get around at this point. A serious infection -- North Carolina's 95-71 win Feb. 22 in the RBC Center -- started State's pain. It will take something just as serious to halt it. The lone alternative is a quick demise in the NCAA Tournament. That State, again, has confronted late-season buzzard's luck is obvious. First, there was Ilian Evtimov's foot, then Cameron Bennerman's hamstring and now, Gavin Grant's broken nose. The way things have been going of late, Sendek must be wary about blowing his whistle for fear of popping a player's ear drum at this point. But along with the many physical mishaps, the Pack also has taken a hard psychological hit. The team's self-confidence has slipped into an urgent state. Whether Herb and his players want to admit it or not, they haven't made a mental recovery from the exposure against UNC. That performance two days ago against Wake Forest had "surrender" written all over it. But that was Saturday. Conditions can -- and often do -- change fast in college basketball. In a perfect world, the Pack needs to meet and defeat Duke on Saturday, then do the same Sunday against the Tar Heels. But the Heels may not be there. They haven't reached an ACC championship game since 2001. Other than taking home another banner for the rafters of the Smith Center, there's not a lot of incentive for them to bust a gut in Greensboro this year. They've already done most of their pre-NCAA Tournament heavy lifting. State hasn't. Going to Greensboro, the Pack is looking at a No.7 or No. 8 NCAA seed, which means a fairly tough opening game, then a likely assignment against a No. 2 or No. 1 seed in the second round. That's what could really hurt. Bad fortune or not, this is no time for the Pack to lick its wounds. It's time to bite."

7 or 8 seed? Hell Yeah!

I would love to play a high rated seed on the weekend day of the tourney. Thats exactly how we got UCONN last year.

Winning the ACC tourney, or at least beating Duke, would be nice though.

thoughts?

3/6/2006 9:32:28 AM

I was thinking we would lose to FSU on Friday...then get a 7 seed and lose to Southern Ill. or whoever the 10 seed is.

If we do win Friday then I think we have a good shot at beating Dook...but I'm not confident we will get out of this slump before the season is over.

3/6/2006 9:43:04 AM

No we wont.

Herb couldn't motivate a homeless man with a rack of lamb.

3/6/2006 9:55:10 AM

aha, nice one

3/6/2006 9:56:13 AM

^^ unfortunately i think you might be right

3/6/2006 10:01:32 AM

how can you say we have a good shot at beating duke? i dont see that at all right now.

3/6/2006 10:05:16 AM

right now, we cant even make a game against the worst team in the ACC competitive...how the hell are we going to play duke close, let alone beat them?

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 10:09 AM. Reason : df]

3/6/2006 10:09:12 AM

no shit

we don't have a snowball's chance in hell to beat Duke, let alone beat ANYBODY in the ACC tourney

i am truly ready for a change

3/6/2006 10:11:14 AM

blah blah blah

rehash rehash rehash

3/6/2006 10:13:51 AM

ooooh he pisses me off

i shore hope he takes that job at Kentucky or Missouri

plenty of room for daytight compartments and lots of wood to chop

3/6/2006 10:16:48 AM

Quote :

"how can you say we have a good shot at beating duke? i dont see that at all right now."

I think he means in comparison to UNC.


Our chances of beating Duke are about 30%


Our chances of beating UNC...probably.... 0.00024% (Yeah, I calculated it out )

3/6/2006 10:28:28 AM

Quote :

"how can you say we have a good shot at beating duke? i dont see that at all right now. "

I said IF WE WIN FRIDAY we have a chance at beating dook...Duke and NC State suck right now...Both teams are older and there game goes to crap when tired b/c neither can hit a 3...The teams that are strong inside and run are the teams that will win in a 3 games in 3 days situation.

I'm just saying I don't like NCSU or Duke's chances this weekend but NCSU "could" beat duke.

3/6/2006 10:40:47 AM

that piece was well written

link please

3/6/2006 11:09:16 AM

^^ I agree.

3/6/2006 11:11:07 AM

Quote :

"that piece was well-written. link please"

here ya go.

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/415074.html

you may have to be a member on the N&O website to see it....

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 11:14 AM. Reason : asdf]

3/6/2006 11:14:24 AM

^^^ and here I was hoping someone would do a summary. I got tired about half-way in reading about body piercings, medical charts, x-rays, co-payments, Dick Cheney's hunting accident, etc. etc. I thought it was a sports article. The over abundance of cute references junked it up to the point where I didn't want to read it.

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 11:15 AM. Reason : ^^^]

3/6/2006 11:15:41 AM

cause we all know for a fact that you cant have a successful basketball season unless we beat Duke or UNC.

3/6/2006 11:22:29 AM

we dont wanna be a higher seed, we will just choke in the first round against a 9 or 10 seed. look what we've done to ourselves. we've made it extremely hard for ourselves...

3/6/2006 11:31:52 AM

Quote :

"and here I was hoping someone would do a summary. I got tired about half-way in reading about body piercings, medical charts, x-rays, co-payments, Dick Cheney's hunting accident, etc. etc. I thought it was a sports article. The over abundance of cute references junked it up to the point where I didn't want to read it."

you arent familiar with Caulton Tudor, are you?

3/6/2006 11:34:47 AM

Quote :

"you may have to be a member on the N&O website to see it...."

i didn't have to sign up for anything....just click the link

3/6/2006 12:14:29 PM

this thread topic is confusing


how is making the acc final a bitter pill?

that implies it has some downside

3/6/2006 12:18:54 PM

it means that it is a hard one to swallow (hard thing for us to do), but it is something that the author feels that we must do in order to have any kind of showing in the NCAA tourny

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 12:23 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2006 12:22:57 PM

Its a retarded statement.

It implies that had we finished better...making the final wouldnt be something we want to do

3/6/2006 12:24:36 PM

lol.

Get hope up again yea right.

Fuck this team.

3/6/2006 12:29:00 PM

to me is means that even though its a tall order

making the ACC Final = Taking a bitter pill

we must do it in order to be successful (have a decent seeding) in the tourney

it makes sense to me, but i just copied the Title, so WTF ever.

3/6/2006 12:29:14 PM

"A tough row to hoe" would make more sense.

3/6/2006 12:34:11 PM

^ probably

but Caulton Tudor is a fucking weirdo.

He has no rhyme or reason.

3/6/2006 12:35:32 PM

well at least he is in the top 2 at some point during the season

when was the last time amato did that?

3/6/2006 1:04:22 PM

Quote :

"Other than taking home another banner for the rafters of the Smith Center, there's not a lot of incentive for them to bust a gut in Greensboro this year. They've already done most of their pre-NCAA Tournament heavy lifting."

This guy's a fucking idiot. I'm really sure that Roy Williams, or any other coach in his situation, would tell the guys "go out there and work hard... but it's ok if you don't work too hard, because we've done our 'heavy lifting' already".

Caulton Tudor = moran.

3/6/2006 1:18:05 PM

moran?

3/6/2006 1:18:46 PM

if the team with the best record always won you wouldnt even play the games

3/6/2006 1:21:31 PM

If you hooked a fish every time you threw the bait out.....

you wouldn't call it fishing, you'd call it catching.

3/6/2006 1:24:07 PM

all these weak fans would be screaming FIRE JIMMY V before the ACC tourney in 83

3/6/2006 1:25:07 PM

^Yeah for real. Actually that year they almost had to win the ACC tourney to make it. This year however has been a good year and we don't have to.

3/6/2006 1:26:32 PM

in 1983 you had to win the acc tourney to make the NCAA field. Only 32 teams?

3/6/2006 1:29:23 PM

No. In fact Im pretty sure we beat UVA and Ralph Sampson in the Tourney.

Yep. We did. Just looked it up. No shot clock yet, but at-larges made it. Field of 64.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney03/story?id=1525209

There is a good read on the '83 team.

[Edited on March 6, 2006 at 1:43 PM. Reason : link]

3/6/2006 1:30:41 PM

Quote :

"This guy's a fucking idiot. I'm really sure that Roy Williams, or any other coach in his situation, would tell the guys "go out there and work hard... but it's ok if you don't work too hard, because we've done our 'heavy lifting' already". "

you aren't too familiar with unc in the acc tourney, are you?

3/6/2006 1:50:02 PM

^^ in '83 the field wasn't at 64 (IIRC it was at 48), didn't expand to 64 that until 85

quick fact: Ralph Sampson never won an ACC championship

3/6/2006 1:53:30 PM

http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/mayhem/history/yearbyyear/1983
link to back up statement

the 1-4 teams got a first round bye that year
and each bracket only had 12 teams

3/6/2006 1:56:18 PM