Everyone that's shitting on Javi need to think about a few things. He had an injury that has more than likely affected his shot and ball handling, and it also cost him valuable practice time in the preseason. I'm encouraged by his ability to get into the passing lanes to deny the pass and also create steals. One of the more heads up plays that I saw in this game was when he caused a steal grabbed the ball and quickly laid it in for an easy 2 points. Also we can't forget that he is still just a freshman. Not every player can come in an be a major contributor in their first year. Look at Tracy Smith. He's hardly played any, but we know he can ball and will be good for us down the line. Smith needs to just work on his FTs. He kind of reminds me of a more talented Trevor Booker (obviously Booker is the better player now b/c of experience, but I'm saying that Smith will definitely pass him in ability in the upcoming years) of Clemson. A strong, big bodied PF that isn't afraid to hit the boards and usually finishes strong. Smith though has a face up jump shot.

12/27/2007 11:17:21 PM

Ha, you started up talking about javi and ended talking about tracy smith. That paragraph would get you a D+ if it were in an essay.

12/27/2007 11:22:16 PM

Yeah I know. I kind of went off on a tangent.

12/27/2007 11:26:08 PM

Fells jam was on ESPNEWS a few minutes ago.

12/27/2007 11:29:38 PM

That shit was awesome. I jumped up in my seat and was like, "DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMNNNNNN!" I just wish Fells could have kept up the production he had in the first half. He really can take over any game he chooses.

12/27/2007 11:32:11 PM

yea it was nice. The espn guys doing the highlights were like "WOW" I think that's all they said about it lol

12/27/2007 11:33:13 PM

Fells always waits for the game come to him. He never demands the ball. If he did, we could see highlights like that every game.

12/27/2007 11:37:16 PM

Can somebody get the Fells dunk on youtube for those of us without ESPNU

12/28/2007 12:06:42 AM

the last part of the montage at the beginning of sportscenter. it'll likely be in the top 10 if the highlight of the game isn't shown

12/28/2007 12:21:51 AM

Another win and more bitching from some of you....Javi/Marques are seeing their first college action basically. Marques played his first game in over a year and Javi is 10 games into his career. Calm down. This was a good road win at a power conference's place. This is a good resume win.

12/28/2007 12:26:54 AM

didnt see but the last 30 sec

forgot it was on - but herb would have lost this game 76-62

AT LEAST THEY FUCKING WON ON THE FUCKING ROAD

12/28/2007 12:28:57 AM

and they shot 50-some percent in the 2nd half. how many of these types of games under Herb's offense did we hit that patented 10 minute dry spell

12/28/2007 12:59:44 AM

top 10 coming up

[Edited on December 28, 2007 at 1:24 AM. Reason : can't believe they didn't give that the "call of the day" from their commentators]

[Edited on December 28, 2007 at 1:24 AM. Reason : much better dunk with sound]



[Edited on December 28, 2007 at 1:25 AM. Reason : haha wow pickler swift and underwood all in a row. that's nice.]

12/28/2007 1:15:26 AM

^^im very happy that we didn't hit any dry spells in the 2nd half. The first half was streaky....but the 2nd half was quite consistent

12/28/2007 1:19:49 AM

yeah fells dunk made number nine

12/28/2007 1:26:58 AM

WE WON A FUCKING ROAD GAME

that is good

baby steps my brothaz

12/28/2007 1:36:44 AM

What you guys think about Marques? Seems to handle the ball quite well for his size and not playing for so long.

12/28/2007 2:02:25 AM

I didn't see anything great or terrible. I think he did well for being his first college game and all... and his backdoor cut/layup near the end of the game was beautiful. We need some more of that right there.

I'm positive about what he'll be able to accomplish with us.

12/28/2007 2:06:08 AM

I was hoping to see the give and go that degand ran successfully a couple of times this year. He may not have the speed required to get that, though. Degand was indeed fast as shit.

12/28/2007 2:21:14 AM

could they have picked a harder first 3 acc games for us? jeez

12/28/2007 2:34:55 AM

They could have put @cameron in there.

12/28/2007 2:35:35 AM

for as little as marques was in there tonight, i thought he looked pretty good. carried the point well

i can't believe any one has talked about the situation he was put in. that it speaks volumes for sidney to put marques in with the game on the line.

he must have some confidence in him (or there's always that lack of options argument...) here's to (hopefully) a damn good year at the point guard position

12/28/2007 2:38:51 AM

^You still have time to edit that post to make it coherent

12/28/2007 2:47:19 AM

im drunk, i understood it.

definitely a tough situation for marques to be in and he nailed it.


We got a damn good team.

12/28/2007 2:56:20 AM

never thought I would say this but I am glad we only play Miami once this year.

12/28/2007 3:34:17 AM

Their guard destroyed us last year, and they embarrassed us on the boards.

12/28/2007 3:52:29 AM

Miami and Clemson will flop come ACC time just as Miami did last year

neither has played anyone worth mentioning

12/28/2007 7:53:44 AM

just as Clemson did last year

12/28/2007 8:12:50 AM

anyone have a link to the fells jam ... I would love to see it.

12/28/2007 8:23:44 AM

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/ncb/index

small video on the right has state over seton hall highlights, including a clip of the fells dunk.

12/28/2007 8:31:50 AM

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/index.php?title=halftime_n_c_state_35_seton_hall_32&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Quote :

"NEWARK, N.J. — N.C. State has yet to play an ACC game but could be the unofficial Big East leader after a hard-fought 79-73 victory tonight over Seton Hall. It was the Pack's third win this season against a Big East opponent. State topped Villanova in the finals of the Old Spice Classic in November and defeated Cincinnati on Sunday at the RBC Center. State (8-3) won its fourth straight game and its first true road game. The Pirates are 8-3 and lost their first home game at the new Prudential Center. The Pack trailed 58-55 with 7 minutes left before a run of six straight points by center J.J. Hickson that began with a dunk follow shot. After a pair of free throws by the freshman, another Hickson putback gave State 61-58 lead with 4:43 to play. The Pack led 66-60 when Pirates guard Eugene Harvey lost the ball on a drive. But referee Jamie Luckie called Courtney Fells for a pushing foul with 2:40 to play and Harvey hit both free throws. After a State turnover, Brian Laing drilled a 3-pointer with 2:15 left to cut the lead to 66-65. But sophomore point guard Marques Johnson, playing for the first time this season, hit a free throw. The former Tennessee transfer later scored on a backdoor cut and then hit another foul shot. The Pirates were able to break down the Pack's defense at times in the second half with penetrating drives. Harvey, a 6-foot sophomore, used his quickness to get to the basket and was a blur in transition. Fells hit seven of eight shots in the first half, scoring 17 points, and the Wolfpack spurted late for a 35-32 lead at the break. But 3-pointers by Brian Laing and Paul Gause early in the second half helped the Pirates pull ahead 52-46. But a 3-pointer by Gavin Grant with 9:50 left turned into a five-point possession for the Pack. Grant was fouled on the shot and missed the free throw, but Ben McCauley scored on a follow. The game had a number of interesting subplots. State's Brandon Costner is from nearby Montclair, starred at Seton Hall Prep and turned down the Pirates to play for the Pack. Seton Hall guard Larry Davis signed with the Pack but then gained a release when former coach Herb Sendek left for Arizona State in 2006. Grant and Laing both played at St. Raymond's High in the Bronx. And, of course, it was State's first game without starting point guard Farnold Degand, who suffered a knee injury Sunday and will miss the rest of the season. Freshman Javi Gonzalez started at point guard and Johnson got his first playing time for the Pack. State trailed 28-25 with 3 minutes to play in the first half when Fells scored an easy inside basket off a feed from Costner. After a baseline drive by Grant, Fells scored on a short jumper and then a fast-break dunk to end a 10-2 run. State shot 51.7 percent but had some problems against the Seton Hall fullcourt press and zone defense, finishing the half with 11 turnovers (four by Hickson). State out-rebounded the Pirates 22-14 in the first half as both teams had six offensive boards. Costner, a former star at nearby Seton Hall Prep, scored five early points but then struggled offensively. He was 0-for-3 on 3s in going 2-for-7 from the field. Cincinnati was called for 35 personal fouls and State shot 50 free throws in its 85-77 win. The Pirates, in contrast, were physical on defense but picked up just four personals in the first half. "

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/850285.html

Quote :

"NEWARK, N.J. - Another Big East team. Another N.C. State victory. But beating Seton Hall on Thursday night was tougher for the Pack than victories this season over Villanova and Cincinnati. This was at the Prudential Center, where the Pirates had not lost a game this year, against a team that can exert relentlessly grinding defensive pressure. But the Pack weathered it all -- the pressing Pirates, Seton Hall's runs, some potentially deflating calls -- for a 79-73 victory that pushed State's winning streak to four. "It was a hard-fought game I thought for both teams," NCSU coach Sidney Lowe said. "Our guys did a nice job, especially late in the game handling their pressure [defense] and traps. "They just kept coming at us and coming at us. We had to make plays. It's a great win for our ballclub against a tough, tough team and tough situation." The Pack (8-3) topped Villanova in the final of the Old Spice Classic in late November in Orlando, Fla., and defeated Cincinnati on Sunday at the RBC Center. But starting point guard Farnold Degand was lost for the season with a knee injury late in the win over the Bearcats, leaving his teammates deflated. "I was devastated," State's Gavin Grant said. "We all felt so bad for Farnold." Grant responded with a 23-point game that may have been his best of the season. No last-second free throws to win it, but the senior from the Bronx, N.Y., did score the Pack's last seven points to seal its first real road victory of the season after losses at Michigan State and East Carolina. Junior Courtney Fells, after scoring 17 first-half points, did not have a point in the second half. But Grant scored 17 over the final 20 minutes while closing with six rebounds and three steals, and Fells was big on defense in the final minutes. "Courtney Fells carried them in the first half and in the second half Gavin Grant carried them," Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez said. "I thought Gavin was the MVP. He does a little bit of everything. He's not a great player, but he helps you win." But State may not have won without solid contributions from its two young point guards -- Javi Gonzalez and Marques Johnson. Johnson, a transfer from Tennessee, became eligible last Friday and had not played. But Degand's injury changed everything. Gonzalez became the starter and Johnson suddenly was the backup. "I was very concerned when Farnold got hurt," Lowe said. "He had played well for us. When he went down ... I was concerned because we had a true freshman playing in Javi and Marques, who hadn't played at all. "Marques did a great job [for] his first time playing for us. I thought he did a tremendous job at controlling the ball and running the show and getting us into our sets and [making] some big free throws down the stretch." The Pirates' fullcourt pressure led to some adventurous passes by the Pack. But things were a little smoother for State in the second half offensively, and the Pack made good use of its big men -- both against the press and then in its halfcourt offense. "Their big guys wore us down," Seton Hall's Gonzalez said. The Pack had a 41-31 rebounding edge as freshman J.J. Hickson had 10 boards to go with his 13 points. Brandon Costner had nine points and nine rebounds, and Fells collected eight boards. The Pirates led 52-46 midway the second half, but a 3-pointer by Grant with 9:50 left turned into a five-point possession for the Pack. Grant was fouled on the shot and missed the free throw, but Ben McCauley (10 points) scored on a follow. "That was huge," Lowe said. "Again, we made plays." State took a 66-60 lead, only to have the Pirates pull within 66-65 on a 3-pointer by senior Brian Laing (17 points) with 2:15 left. But Johnson hit a free throw. Moments later, he scored on a backdoor cut and then hit another foul shot to push the Pack ahead 72-65. "I haven't done anything like that since high school," said Johnson, who played 23 minutes. "There were definitely some butterflies when I first got out there and I was a little shaky. "But as the game went along I calmed down. It was definitely a good icebreaker for me." The game had interesting subplots. Costner starred at Seton Hall Prep and turned down the Pirates to play for the Pack. Seton Hall guard Larry Davis signed with the Pack but then gained a release when former coach Herb Sendek left for Arizona State in 2006. And Grant and Laing both played at St. Raymond's High in the Bronx. "That was real special for me to play against my old teammate," Grant said. So was winning. "It's good to get three Big East teams early in the season," Grant said. "That will look good on our resume "

12/28/2007 9:08:35 AM

I hope the NCAA Selection Committee takes a serious look at our wins over Villanova (neutral), Cinci, and Seton Hall (road) when they are weighing ACC and Big East bubble teams. Of course, I hope we aren't a bubble team, but it should help out any ACC team in that position. Thumping the Big Ten once again should help as well, but the committee has overlooked that and taken more Big Ten teams in the past...

12/28/2007 9:32:35 AM

at least we are the Old Spice Champions

12/28/2007 9:41:49 AM

At least this guy likes us:

12/28/2007 9:49:14 AM

Time to put the "this was a great game" theme to bed, good win yes, but did we play well excluding Fells and Grant, and does this game make you confident about conference play, or otherwise...? It sure is a different tune around here when we win, the inexplicable 10 or so mistakes we make each game get swept under the rug. The 30-40 foot passes to break the press will result in layups for the opposing team come conference time. How about dribbling and force them to make a play instead of WATCHING the double team approach you and trap you. After they make a basket, how about getting the ball inbounds quickly to break the press, OUR OWN guys handed the ball to the official first, allowing SH more time to set up, head scratcher there. Telegraphing passes, jeez...Fouling a three point shooter with under two minutes to play, are you serious? You jump through the shooter, not to the shooter. We have to lead the nation in fouling three point shooters. Bottom line, does anyone think our basketball IQ as a team is one of an elite caliber, if so, please explain. January 12th is going to get ugly unless we have a "Harrison" fluke 97 like performance behind the arc. Thinking about lawson eating our guards up defensively gives me chills.

12/28/2007 11:32:39 AM

How was Fells' dunk only 9th on the top 10 list? Seriously how was it not at least like 5th? I really don't think Lebron's dunk, which was also a 1 handed cockback, was that much better...the dunk itself was better, but there were no defenders around like C-Fells' dunk

12/28/2007 11:35:13 AM

Quote :

"The 30-40 foot passes to break the press will result in layups for the opposing team come conference time."

Come on... it's not like we were playing some crappy A-Sun team. I think you're either underestimating Seton Hall or overestimating the ACC. The ACC, beyond 3 or 4 teams is really pretty mediocre this year. Remember this Seton Hall team thrashed UVa already and plays a defensive style that few in the ACC do...

A Top 25 RPI road win in December is nothing but good...

12/28/2007 11:37:36 AM

Attendance was 9,800 per the box score, making it the largest crowd for Seton Hall this year.

12/28/2007 11:39:59 AM

on the seton hall radio broadcast, the announcer was like "and seton hall takes the lead in front of this capacity crowd."

uh, yeah, as long as you don't take that curtain down that's covering another 10,000 seats.

12/28/2007 11:41:28 AM

on the ESPNU broadcast they compared their arena to RBC, since they/we both have NCAABB teams and NHL teams that play in our respective arenas

they also said that RBC would be a lot more full since we have a bigger following of our program, so I personally thought the ESPNU announcers were ok

12/28/2007 11:45:26 AM

I understand what you're saying, this was a good win as I mentioned, but did this game make you more confident about ACC play? Playing UNC and Duke twice puts us behind the eight ball tremendoulsy in my opinion. It's dumb to make predictions now, but I see 8-8 as great right now in ACC play

12/28/2007 11:50:16 AM

I watched the ESPNU broadcast, but read the SH boards. That was one of the comments one of posters made. "Man if sure feels good to hear them say capacity crowd."

I LOL'd.

Although the ESPNU announcers said that the Prudential Center was nicer.

12/28/2007 11:50:44 AM

Quote :

"Playing UNC and Duke twice puts us behind the eight ball tremendoulsy in my opinion"

while i agree, if ANY team had to play UNC and Duke twice (maybe Maryland or Wake or somebody does, i dunno) they're going to be behind the ball as well

if we had beaten Seton Hall by 40 points, we'd still have our hands full with 2 matchups with Duke, 2 with UNC, and maybe a 3rd with one of them in the ACC tourney

for now though, a win is a win and we won, with our worst point guard situation since fuck I don't even know...a LONG time ago

12/28/2007 11:59:34 AM

Quote :

"Time to put the "this was a great game" theme to bed, good win yes, but did we play well excluding Fells and Grant, and does this game make you confident about conference play, or otherwise...? It sure is a different tune around here when we win, the inexplicable 10 or so mistakes we make each game get swept under the rug. The 30-40 foot passes to break the press will result in layups for the opposing team come conference time. How about dribbling and force them to make a play instead of WATCHING the double team approach you and trap you. After they make a basket, how about getting the ball inbounds quickly to break the press, OUR OWN guys handed the ball to the official first, allowing SH more time to set up, head scratcher there. Telegraphing passes, jeez...Fouling a three point shooter with under two minutes to play, are you serious? You jump through the shooter, not to the shooter. We have to lead the nation in fouling three point shooters. Bottom line, does anyone think our basketball IQ as a team is one of an elite caliber, if so, please explain. January 12th is going to get ugly unless we have a "Harrison" fluke 97 like performance behind the arc. Thinking about lawson eating our guards up defensively gives me chills."

even though i think it was still a good win, i have to agree with most of this. there were a few comments in this thread about how we did well against the press, i def disagree. we are still committing way too many turnovers, i can't even remember how many inbounds passes got stolen. we are doing better against the press, but we are far from turning it into an advantage

12/28/2007 12:00:53 PM

Quote :

"for now though, a win is a win and we won, with our worst point guard situation since fuck I don't even know...a LONG time ago"

I'd say the situation last year without Atsur was worse

12/28/2007 12:55:00 PM

well this year we have backup point guards, not just fells and grant like we did last year

but atsur wasnt out for the season like degand is...so the fact that we got atsur back before the tourney is why i think this season is an even worse PG situation

12/28/2007 12:56:27 PM

I def agree that it was worse when Engin was out. At least we have Johnson and Gonzalez now, instead of Fells, Grant, and Ferguson last year. Although Engin made it back to the ACC tourney, it was too late to make a run for the NCAA tourney.

12/28/2007 1:11:37 PM

I don't think anyone is saying we have All-American PGs out there, just that we are clearly improving at how we handle the press (which is best done with smart passing anyway). We have struggled with inbounds passes, especially at the baseline. Our PGs need to be schooled on how to receive an inbounds pass.

12/28/2007 1:18:56 PM

Our PG situation will improve to where it is better than when grant and fells were running point. Our front court improvement can make up most of the remaining difference. Fells has got to be willing to step up and hit threes if we are really going to make up for atsur.

Atsur wasn't a world beater, but the simple fact that he could read when to make the pass on the pick and roll and that he threatened the three pointer on picks made him very effective.

The ideal PG threatens the shot, pass, and drive. Would be nice to see a PG like that emerge on NCSU's roster at some point.

It's amazing to think that Atsur is top 10 all time in minutes played for NCSU.

[Edited on December 28, 2007 at 1:38 PM. Reason : .]

12/28/2007 1:31:55 PM

^who else is in the top 10? i imagine Hodge is one of them.

12/28/2007 2:42:41 PM