Seton Hall put 137 on them this year. a hundred fucking 37

1/14/2010 10:15:35 PM

a little razzle dazzle

1/14/2010 10:21:16 PM

bump for today's game

1/16/2010 12:42:00 PM

Regarding the 3 point discussion on last page. Just wanted to point out that we aren't winning ACC games this year unless we GO OFF from 3 like Wood did @ FSU. We just aren't good at running any offense except getting hot from 3 against ACC competition...

1/16/2010 12:46:24 PM

Not really sure why people feel the need to bump this thread when we're playing as well as anyone could expect against a team. I guess we're supposed to beat every team and anything less means we should fire the coach.

1/16/2010 1:19:00 PM

still credible

1/16/2010 2:15:41 PM

still credible

1/16/2010 2:16:19 PM

was never credible

1/16/2010 2:16:32 PM

First time since Lowe's first year that I've really, really enjoyed watching a State game.

Second half was very well played and coached. Could have gone either way.

1/16/2010 2:16:52 PM

excellent second half adjustments.

still credible.

1/16/2010 2:17:18 PM

the last play shows how well they are coached.

good look coming without a timeout

1/16/2010 2:18:08 PM

Eh, that wasn't a high percentage look. Play was obviously designed for Wood. Mays was just a third choice outlet.

1/16/2010 2:18:39 PM

questionable credibility because it took him 25 fucking minutes to find the right lineup. we've played 4 acc games. hopefully he finally figures out horner is useless in ACC play



stitt going out was huge, but the good lineup competed with superior talent. superior

1/16/2010 2:18:44 PM

im surprised we even got a shot off with 1.7 since we had 2 "back ups" in. it looked like javi was trying to tell three guys what to do

1/16/2010 2:20:22 PM

Howell's really developed over the last few games. I couldn't be surprised to see him starting soon.

1/16/2010 2:23:12 PM

yeah I think horners decline and howell's rise/recovery hit the intersection today where you go with howell starting from now on

1/16/2010 2:25:03 PM

i would be surprised if howell didnt start for the rest of the season.

we need his rebounding to get easy points and take pressure off of tracy. this has been clear as day for weeks, and it's taken this long to figure that out. the coaches need to be slapped in the face with the obvious before making the right decision

1/16/2010 2:25:42 PM

I will eat crow and give Lowe some credibility points for his halftime adjustments and for not allowing the team to mentally derail.

[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 2:29 PM. Reason : Please note that even with above mentioned points, he is still in the negative.]

1/16/2010 2:26:38 PM

we play well: still credible
we suck: nevar credible

1/16/2010 2:26:44 PM

guys. when are we supposed to get out of this 25 year rut of shitty basketball again?

1/16/2010 2:29:24 PM

Sid's probably been trying to motivate horner to prove his worth, and let howell ease-in. horner has disapointed, and howell is ready. howell should take a lot of horner's mins, but some mental errors should be expected.

1/16/2010 2:31:39 PM

Lowe coached a good game today imo. The team couldn't find the bottom of the basket in the 1st and clemson couldn't miss. Lowe found a good rotation and stuck with it as well. Oh, and that press was completely useless against our team today; we were very well prepared for that.

^after today I'd be surprised if Howell didn't start over Horner. Or at least get more total minutes a la today.


[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 2:34 PM. Reason : ]

1/16/2010 2:32:20 PM

^^^ Next year, when we get all of these young guys some experience and get some backcourt superstars on the roster.

I'd be afraid to start Howell. It might go to his head like the way it has to other freshmen. Wood seems mature beyond his years so it didn't affect him. I think you either increase his minutes or try Howell out in the starting lineup and see how he does, but don't be afraid to put Horner back in there if Howell begins to suck it up. Some younger players play better when they have to come off the bench.

[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 2:35 PM. Reason : ]

1/16/2010 2:34:39 PM

Quote :

"Oh, that press was completely useless against our team today; we were very well prepared for that."

i dunno if i'd say that. didn't clemson put back more than one steal off the inbounds?

1/16/2010 2:35:02 PM

^good point about the Clemson defense. I thought we handled the press fairly well. The same Clemson defense that focked up UNC.

Although...If we had handled it REALLY well, we would have scored mad transition points and made them go back to a half court set.

1/16/2010 2:35:46 PM

^^Yeah, maybe, but it was forgettable. I'd be willing to guess that for every turnover they caused with the press we scored a basket off of it but maybe i'm wrong.

1/16/2010 2:37:55 PM

Quote :

"I'd be afraid to start Howell. It might go to his head like the way it has to other freshmen. Wood seems mature beyond his years so it didn't affect him. I think you either increase his minutes or try Howell out in the starting lineup and see how he does, but don't be afraid to put Horner back in there if Howell begins to suck it up. Some younger players play better when they have to come off the bench. "

No. we should not allow this kind of thinking to paralyze our team. make the decision first THEN see what the problems are. Don't be a pussy and start imagining problems before the happen

when howell starts, you tell him mistakes are ok. even when he makes mistakes, he makes up for it more than horner. Most of all, mistakes teach lessons. we gain way more from howell developing than sticking with fucking horner.

Imagine if we had been playing howell more before this game. he could have developed earlier. you make decisions based on expected future payoff, not past performance (and mediocre performance, in horner's case).

[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 2:47 PM. Reason : .]

1/16/2010 2:46:31 PM

Well we kinda couldn't really play him more considering he was hurt

1/16/2010 2:48:18 PM

Howell vs. Horner is going to be decided by matchups. Sidney is really big on exploiting matchups and going with who is hot in the game.

1/16/2010 2:51:01 PM

yeah, if the matchup is horner against a white player from a non-major conference school who is 5 inches shorter, then it's safe to play horner.


good thing that situation won't come up for the rest of the season

1/16/2010 2:54:23 PM

I think mistakes are fine, especially since he's a freshman, but if he just goes into a shell and begins to suck you take him out and put Horner in. This team still has a shot at the post-season, and if you don't make changes when needed in an attempt to win games then you would be cheating the players especially the seniors. Howell is still a freshman. Just b/c he shows up in one game doesn't mean that he is going to play like that every game. Freshmen often will have spectacular games and follow them up with a string of games where they don't play well, unless you're a freshman phenom like John Wall, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, etc. All I'm saying is lets be cautious before we make Howell our savior at the 4 position for the season.

1/16/2010 2:55:00 PM

It's not NC Central's fault they don't have any white kids

1/16/2010 2:55:13 PM

^^ words of wisdom

1/16/2010 2:56:01 PM

i suppose this is the proper thread for it....

so, when is Sid finally going to wear the red blazer? Duke game? UNC game?

1/16/2010 3:16:08 PM

hopefully just UNC and ACC tourney, right?

1/16/2010 3:17:13 PM

gotta hand it to this school. at least we've been consistent lately:

1/16/2010 3:18:08 PM

FUCKING unacceptable to get down by 20+ at home in a single half, but at the same time it was VERY encouraging to see us dig ourselves out of that hole. I don't think we can expect to see our team own these types of homecourt situations until year #6 and that's an educated guess at best.

I'm starting to lean towards giving Lowe a little more time. He just needs to get the right mindset and project that onto the players. We're very close I think.

1/16/2010 3:25:59 PM

Howell is plenty consistent. Every game he comes in and gets a ton of boards. He's also way overconfident in his offensive skills but I guess that's better than having no confidence. There's no need to sit him for extended periods of time when he does stupid things. You just gotta pull him for a minute or two when he gets too excited and makes a couple bad plays in a row. Hell, today Sid left him the whole 2nd half despite him making some mistakes here and there and he played through it pretty well.

[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 4:28 PM. Reason : I just wish he'd stop shooting 3s...]

1/16/2010 4:23:38 PM

he earned some props from me for not putting horner in for most of the second half.

i think you give horner about 6 minutes in the first half to see if he's going to be a asset or a liability, and then bench him if he doesn't produce

1/16/2010 4:34:47 PM

^ I say two minutes

1/16/2010 6:12:27 PM

Quote :

"I'm starting to lean towards giving Lowe a little more time. He just needs to get the right mindset and project that onto the players. We're very close I think."

I am too but it took him 16/17 games to realize Dennis Horner doesn't need to play 30+ minutes. Kinda like last year when it took him over halfway through the season to start Tracy. These are things 90% of TWW wanted to happen.

And what the fuck is going on with the guards? Now Javi sucks and Mays is playing well? What gives with these guys? CJ Williams has yet to do shit all year.

1/16/2010 10:11:11 PM

i was under the impression javi's injury was nagging him, but i could be completely wrong.

i'm not trying to justify his shitty game today, because i agree he didn't play well at all, but i didn't think he was 100%.

[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 10:13 PM. Reason : and i'm glad to see mays step up again. i like watching him play.]

1/16/2010 10:13:12 PM

If it's bothering him so bad he throws it away like its his job, he doesn't need to play.

He has been a completely different player the last few games.

1/16/2010 10:14:21 PM

i completely agree. i've been disappointed with his play as well.

like i said, i'm not trying to make excuses for him, but maybe he's been forcing things or something.

[Edited on January 16, 2010 at 10:18 PM. Reason : spe]

1/16/2010 10:18:36 PM

Quote :

"I am too but it took him 16/17 games to realize Dennis Horner doesn't need to play 30+ minutes. Kinda like last year when it took him over halfway through the season to start Tracy. "

This is puzzling, certainly -- but explained by the next part of your post

Quote :

"And what the fuck is going on with the guards? Now Javi sucks and Mays is playing well? What gives with these guys? CJ Williams has yet to do shit all year."

there are only a couple of players that are consistent, and have any predictable performance. Even horner has stretches of games where he plays lights out.

1/16/2010 11:00:15 PM

Quote :

" there are only a couple of players that are consistent, and have any predictable performance. Even horner has stretches of games where he plays lights out."

Yeah, but even when he was playing well, it was obvious that his game wasn't going to be good in the ACC. Horner's good performance early = housing bubble. Lowe didn't sell high and got burned in the crash. Your coach has to be better than dumbass fans who just base their opinions on stats

1/16/2010 11:15:06 PM

As I said during the cut the rotation debate, it's hard to determine who should play and who shouldn't when you have a bunch of inconsistent, marginal players with different strengths and weaknesses.

However, the Horner/Howell decision was one of the few easy choices he's been given. It's been evident all year (and all of his career) that Horner can't start in the ACC.

1/16/2010 11:22:49 PM

Yes, I know a lot about basketball. But I expect our head coach too as well.

He shouldn't have to come to the wolfweb midway thru the season to see what people are saying to figure out his best lineups.

Horner gives us a three point threat which opens up the inside a little for Tracy. He's an alright rebounder. Those are his positives. His negatives include a complete lack of athleticism on both ends of the court, an inability to play effective on the ball or helpside defense, anti-clutch, and a huge liability defensively. Okay, I cheated I mentioned that one twice. But I can't stress it enough.

Howell on the other hand isn't very saavy on offense, takes a few bad shots, makes a few bad passes, and can make some mental mistakes on defense. His positives include giving us a big body on offense who can be in position for easy buckets, creating scoring opportunities with the ball, superb rebounding on both ends, a presence defensively, athleticism on both ends of the court.

This is simple stuff. They are pretty much a wash on the offensive end, and Howell makes us infinitely better defensively. We were 20 points better in the 2nd half. If we don't dig ourselves such a terrific hole in the first half we win that game.

We are going to be leaps and bounds better next year without a doubt.

1/16/2010 11:34:34 PM

Quote :

"without a doubt"

eh, there is plenty of doubt

this is not duke, unc

1/16/2010 11:56:52 PM

I know we didn't lose because of the refs today, we lost due to a bad first half, but I really wish Sid could get a technical sometime, or at least call them out in the post game. There were several very laughable calls on blocks and especially the Tracy Smith 'travel' where he got decked by a Clemson player after pulling down a rebound.

Sid made necessary adjustments in the 2nd half and I thought he did a great job today. The press gave us a problem in the first half for a few possessions, we took a TO and got collected and were able to keep it under 20 in the first. Javi/CJ/Horner all played like shit, and they sat. I'm hoping Sid takes this approach from here on out.

1/17/2010 12:22:43 AM