or so we were labeled by Pat Forde

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3219660&sportCat=ncb&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1

Quote :

"Tobacco Road's dead end Duke (19) is back to being Duke (17-1, 5-0 ACC, ranked third nationally) after a one-year hiatus as a fairly ordinary program. North Carolina (20) continues to be North Carolina (19-1, 4-1 ACC, ranked fourth), gunning for a second national title in four seasons. Meanwhile, dysfunctional neighbor North Carolina State (21) has maddeningly remained North Carolina State (13-6, 2-3 ACC, unranked). That was not the preseason forecast. The Wolfpack returned four starters from a team that caught the nation's fancy with a surprising advance to the final of the ACC tournament, and added McDonald's All-American J.J. Hickson to the mix. NC State started the season ranked in the Top 25 for the first time since 2004. Losses to New Orleans and East Carolina quickly dispatched the Pack back to the pack. Losing by 23 to Michigan State, 31 to North Carolina and 16 to Clemson didn't help matters. If you're drawing up a list of the nation's most disappointing teams, NC State has to be on it. The Wolfpack hasn't found a solid replacement for graduated point guard Engin Atsur, and returning postmen Brandon Costner and Ben McCauley have shriveled playing alongside Hickson. Costner's scoring is down from 16.8 points per game to 9.6, his rebounds are down from 7.3 to 5.3, and his shooting percentage dropped from 47.4 to 37.9. McCauley has gone from 14.4 points per game to 5.7, his assists from 3.2 to 1.5, and his shooting percentage plummeted from 58.4 to 41.4. Since the Pack won their last national title and made their last Final Four in 1983, Duke has been there 10 times and won three titles, while Carolina has made seven Final Fours and won two titles. At this point, it looks like another year of State fans watching their rivals earn all the glory. "

1/29/2008 2:46:45 PM

Really not too much you can argue about in there... truth.

1/29/2008 2:48:18 PM

I'm so sick of this shit.

1/29/2008 2:48:38 PM

im so glad they mentioned wake in there

1/29/2008 2:49:48 PM

ouch. the truth hurts

1/29/2008 2:51:37 PM

Pat Forde has always been good to us. Can't argue with the truth though.

1/29/2008 2:53:21 PM

Quote :

"im so glad they mentioned wake in there "

Quote :

"I'm so sick of this shit. "

Quote :

"the truth hurts "

1/29/2008 2:55:00 PM

Most anywhere else in the country, we're simply an average team and everyone's OK with that...making the field of 64 is still a big deal.

Only playing in the shadow of UNC and Duke makes everything we do look like shit.

It's like we're George Costanza and we live next to Lloyd Braun.

1/29/2008 2:58:37 PM

serenity now

1/29/2008 3:00:47 PM

Tobaccodabus

1/29/2008 3:02:08 PM

Quote :

"Pat Forde has always been good to us. Can't argue with the truth though."

1/29/2008 3:12:44 PM

this is nothing new. they just don't have anything to write about, so they continue to say what a disappointment we are.

so sick of sportswriters/"journalists"

a fucking monkey could do their job. and they get PAID.

1/29/2008 3:14:08 PM

whatever.

1/29/2008 3:14:43 PM

It's not like Forde is being a douche. This would be a non-story if it were Clemson or Vanderbilt or Oregon or a shit-ton of other schools. We're NC State, we fucking suck, we deserve better than this.

1/29/2008 3:22:52 PM

it's all true, except that i don't entirely agree with him about Hickson unless i misunderstand the article. personally i'm not all that impressed with Hickson so far. granted, he's doing well, just not performing like the superstar he's seems to be made out to be. i'm looking forward to seeing how he'll do when he gets a year or two under him if he stays.

i have to agree with slave... it doesn't help that we're stuck in the middle of two (typically) very strong bball schools... kinna like a ford festiva sitting between a couple ferrari's

all we can do is look up at this point

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 3:37 PM. Reason : ]

1/29/2008 3:36:29 PM

Quote :

"The Wolfpack returned four starters"

thats kind of misleading...since they don't all start this year

1/29/2008 3:50:47 PM

werd on the skreet is that fells and hickson are looking at agents

1/29/2008 3:59:19 PM

yet another article talking about how fucking disappointing we are with no mention of the fact we lost our starting PG for the season to injury. so not only are we struggling to replace engin, we're struggling to replace his replacement with one less guy to do it.

fuck pat forde

1/29/2008 4:02:25 PM

^^bullshit.

1/29/2008 4:03:58 PM

Nothing there to argue with--in fact, that kind of takes what a lot of State fans hold dear and turns it back on us. State fans like to cling to past glory--the Everett Case era, the National Championships, being competetive in the ACC year in, year out. Well, here's the deal: if you want to continue to hold up what this program used to be, accept it when people expose how far we've fallen and how we're now an afterthought in the ACC. You can't have it both ways.

1/29/2008 4:04:47 PM

Quote :

"werd on the skreet is that fells and hickson are looking at agents"

Hickson has a very legitimate shot at being a lottery pick IMO. Fells, on the other hand, would be foolish not to stick around.

1/29/2008 4:05:44 PM

whatever. this talk will be a thing of the past in a few years.

1/29/2008 4:06:24 PM

I get really upset when I hear this "Fells is going pro" rumor.

The guy has phenomenal talent, but he needs to step up his overall game, his intensity and show that he can be dominant before he even thinks about sniffing the first round of the NBA draft.

but, that article is pretty spot-on.

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 4:18 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2008 4:06:40 PM

i get tired of people spewing rumors.

1/29/2008 4:07:53 PM

God this is horrible.

This season will be a huge setback to our program if we don't turn it around and make the tourney.

1/29/2008 4:09:31 PM

we suck.
we have sucked since 1983.
i was not alive in 1983.

i am sick of celebrating a championship that i wasnt even a fetus for.

1/29/2008 4:13:09 PM

i was alive in 1983 but you know what else? we sucked in 1983 too

we had to win the ACC tourney to even get to the NCAAs

back then if TWW had been around you would've had dozens of FIRE VALVANO threads after every loss

1/29/2008 4:15:03 PM

^^I lol'ed

and actually we were better in '89, ACC champs, #5 seed
[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 4:17 PM. Reason : blah]

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 4:19 PM. Reason : tr]

1/29/2008 4:17:14 PM

finally

.you people keep thinking NCSU is gonna go somewhere.

1/29/2008 4:26:43 PM

Quote :

"im so glad they mentioned wake in there"

What the fuck do you want him to say?
"LOL, Wake must be really needing that dead coach right now!"

1/29/2008 4:28:55 PM

Quote :

"i was alive in 1983 but you know what else? we sucked in 1983 too"

Not exactly. We were actually pretty good and were predicted to do well that year before an injury to one of our major players. Lucky for us, other players on the team got better when he was gone, then when he came back we kind of came into our own.

We had a couple NBA players on that team and other role players that played their role pretty well. We definitely weren't a national championship favorite...but I'd say that we were a top-15 talent type of team.

1/29/2008 4:33:21 PM

The article isn't anything new....althought I think the overblown hype before the season makes our current situation seem worse than it may be....If we would have won the GT game, we'd be 3rd in the ACC right now.

1/29/2008 4:40:28 PM

what a fucking loser. The media obviously has nothing better to do than pick on NC State for living in the shadows of Dook and unc. It wouldnt be so bad if we weren't constantly reminded of it like we dont see for ourselves that they're good and we suck.

1/29/2008 4:43:13 PM

Quote :

"If we would have won the GT game, we'd be 3rd in the ACC right now."

yeah seriously.

1/29/2008 4:50:14 PM

if we had won the gt, unc and clemson games we would be tied for first!

1/29/2008 4:50:58 PM

This article is fucking stupid because all it does it point out the obvious. Wow, our basketball program isn't as good as Duke or UNC's. Name me two other programs that are.

I'm not usually one to bash an article proclaiming how terrible we are, because lets face it, we're pretty terrible. However, this is just mindless and redundant drivel.

1/29/2008 4:55:43 PM

^^say what you want, but 4 more points in the tech game and this article isn't even written...just pointing out the whimsical nature of both fans and the media...

go back and read an article from around the same time last year, and it'll look amazingly similar to that one, and now:

Quote :

"The Wolfpack returned four starters from a team that caught the nation's fancy with a surprising advance to the final of the ACC tournament"

They're using our success last year to illustrate our bad play this year? It's comical.

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 5:00 PM. Reason : .]

1/29/2008 5:00:08 PM

paging jaybee

1/29/2008 5:04:04 PM

if we were unc every publcation would be about degand's injury and how when he comes back everyone else will be playing for 2nd. Kind of like how in the unc game the first thing they talked about was how unc would miss frasor but didn't even mention anything about degand until well into the game.

1/29/2008 5:45:31 PM

When we have some mild to moderate success, everyone whines about how we aren't getting enough attention from the media. Then when we talk a lot of trash and build hype for ourselves and subsequently fall flat on our faces, suddenly the media is just supposed to look the other way.

1/29/2008 5:52:05 PM

Quote :

"It's like we're George Costanza and we live next to Lloyd Braun."

Ha ha

Anyway we are a disappointment and we will never reach Duke and UNC's levels as long as they have their great coaches in K and Williams. We can only hope to pull a Maryland and maybe for a season or two compete, but we'll never year in and year out compete with them. Especially with all of the ESPN bullshit that celebrate Duke and UNC as if they were the first two schools to ever play hoops.

1/29/2008 5:53:32 PM

GO JAYHAWKS

1/29/2008 5:55:29 PM

Quote :

"werd on the skreet is that fells and hickson are looking at agents"

i've been telling you.

1/29/2008 6:18:08 PM

wonder why duke and unc always have good teams and we kinda suck

1/29/2008 6:19:18 PM

ehh, I can't link it right DNL, but just hit your Windows button and then "L" and a chart will come up answering your question

1/29/2008 6:25:23 PM

i got a feeling we kind of suck because we have fans like ^...just a feeling though

1/29/2008 6:27:20 PM

shit we're letting fans play and coach now??

1/29/2008 6:34:15 PM

lol good point...seriously though how can duke and unc always have good teams and ncsu just kinda like doesnt compete

1/29/2008 6:40:21 PM

1/29/2008 6:54:32 PM

if i was a big time recruit i'd have a tough time picking ncsu over duke and unc.

I feel like if we go after the same recruits as unc and duke, we'll always lose out in the long run. Need to find those players that UNC and Duke passed on, and fit our system instead of just trying to get big names. The one thing Herb seemed to do right was recruit some decent foreign players as well.

And no one will mention the PG going down, every team has injuries the media isn't going to cut us slack on that, especially when it isn't a star PG that people would know. It is the life of an NCSU fan, don't fight it, embrace it... you'll be better off in the long run.

1/29/2008 6:54:45 PM