Moving on[ward and upward]

Well, I guess it’s time to spill the proverbial beans on what’s been going on with Cardiac Pack.

I know I’ve been slack lately and for that I apologize, but it’s been with good reason. I’ve learned and trying to prepare for the next step in my blogging life, which, for technicalities sake, begins today.

As of today I will be the Managing Editor over at StateFans Nation. That sounds a lot more important than it truly is, but in reality it’s just another step in my journalistic adventure, which is what I’ve decided to call the period since my graduation in May of ‘09 until the time I am employed full-time. Part of the goal when I started blogging was to have people see the stuff I was writing and StateFans most certainly can help more than Cardiac Pack. It’s a numbers game, simple as that.

I’m glad I decided to start Cardiac Pack and I appreciate the feedback I’ve gotten from those of you who read my posts. I’m considering keeping this space on WordPress and shifting it to more of a general sports blog where I can rant and rave about random topics across all sports. What do you guys think of that? Would it be worth my time? Would you still visit the site?

Let me know what you think.

But for N.C. State news and discussion and to read my thoughts on N.C. State athletics, head on over to StateFans Nation or to the forums.

Thanks again for the support of Cardiac Pack. For those who want to keep up with me, as always, check Twitter.

Merry Christmas, etc. etc.

Hello all. I apologize for my absence the last four days. I hope everyone had a safe and restful Christmas.

I worked with Pack Pride in Charlotte on Tuesday and Wednesday and got to watch a lot of good high school basketball players, including Ryan Harrow and CJ Leslie. Thursday and Friday consisted of way too much food, and, in some cases, too much family. I am kidding of course, sort of. But I’m back in Raleigh and back in action as of this afternoon.

I didn’t post anything after the loss to Arizona the other night for a couple different reasons. First and foremost, I was upset that N.C. State lost. To be that close to a victory on the road, even without our best player, and not get it was tough to swallow. Secondly, I didn’t feel like I would have added much to the conversation based on what I read elsewhere. And I didn’t actually watch the game, so that didn’t help.

There are going to be some changes going on with the blog coming very soon. I’m not quite ready to talk about the specifics yet, but be prepared for some noticeable changes.

Keep checking back.

It’s Tracy Smith’s world, we’re all just livin’ in it

Seriously Tracy? Who exactly do you think you are?

I know last night’s game was frustrating, I know you were upset with your performance and the outcome of N.C. State’s first conference game. But, at the end of the day, you have to be smarter than that. Be thankful you didn’t have to actually watch the game. I had to watch one to three replays of all the great plays Wake Forest made all night.

A lot of what I’ve read today has centered on the ‘bad officiating’ side of the argument with regard to what Smith said. That’s bull. When is officiating not bad? When do players who foul out of games ever think that the crew did a great job?

This story isn’t about Carl Hess or any other collection of officials with huge egos (which is definitely a problem). It’s about the inability of Tracy Smith to keep his mouth shut, period.

And yes, Sidney Lowe did the right thing in suspending him. It’s a proactive approach and the ACC would have done it anyway so it makes N.C. State ‘the program’ look better if they do it first. That, too, is a whole separate issue.

Like I said before, this is about Tracy Smith and nobody else. He decided he needed/wanted to be selfish enough to speak out in a 30-second clip about officiating and has therefore transformed Wednesday’s game against Arizona from one State had a good chance to win into one State will likely lose. Way to go.

My only other question about this situation is did anyone on the staff talk to Tracy before he talked to the media? Based on the fact that he decided to go the route he did, I would say no. That may be worse than the comments.

Wake Forest 67, N.C. State 59

"Javi, don't pass it to Julius. Just run the pick and roll and make Chas McFarland look slow."

In a game that never felt as close as the final score, the Wolfpack dropped its first ACC game of the season. Based on how State played last night, it most certainly won’t be the last L.

And it wasn’t like the Wolfpack didn’t have opportunities to get a victory. Wake Forest didn’t put on a beautiful performance by any means. Without Al-Farouq Aminu, who is impressive in almost every facet of the game, the Deacons would be below average.

Here’s the game story and box from Pack Pride and some analysis from Backing the Pack and StateFans Nation.

Here’s some general thoughts based on what I saw.

• Javi Gonzalez is the answer at point guard. When Farnold and Julius have been running things the offense has looked slow, plodding and even disinterested at times. Javi may not be one of the better PG’s in the ACC, but he’s N.C. State’s best option right now. At least he can create mismatches with teams who want to switch the pick and roll. Maybe Julius and Farnold need to start splitting more time at the two and leave the point guard duties to Gonzalez. The only thing that could hold that up is Javi’s hamstring. Hopefully it won’t become a season-long issue.

• CJ Williams needs to step up his play in a hurry. For someone Sidney Lowe promoted as a ‘team leader’ who would have a breakout season, CJ has completely disappointed so far this year. He’s averaging 5.5 points per game and a little more than 3 rebounds. That certainly can’t be what Lowe ‘expected’ from him.

• Josh Davis shouldn’t dribble or have the ball long enough to get fouled, ever. I am as big a fan of Davis’ effort and hustle as anyone, but when he’s forced to make offensive plays on his own of free throws, he’s bad. He needs to stick to the defensive effort and rebounding gig and get some offensive production by getting offensive boards, not by trying dribble drives of jump shots.

There are two main issues I see with this team right now. The most important one at this point is some inexperience off the bench. Scott Wood, Josh Davis, Jordan Vandenberg, Deshawn Painter and Richard Howell have all played quite a bit and have looked quite lost at times. Wood finally showed a couple flashes last night against the Deacons. He’ll have to continue that during the next few games to try to build some confidence before getting into the hear of the ACC schedule.

The second issue is the complete lack of an offensive player who can create his own shot. Tracy Smith can create looks in the post, but he only has the ball in his hand so much. There is nobody who, with the game on the line, I want with the ball.

The experience issue will become less and less of a factor as the year goes on simply because the freshmen will get more minutes and take those ‘lumps’ in the ACC. The second issue, unfortunately, I don’t see changing. What that means is that there will probably a ton of times this season when Wolfpack fans want to pull their hair out when watching State on offense.

Gotta love early season measuring stick games

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m excited about tonight’s matchup with the Deacons.

Both teams come in looking for a big early season victory and the first of hopefully many ACC wins. Wake Forest is sort of a mystery at this point in the year. The Deacons are 7-2 with losses to William & Mary and Purdue, but they also have a road victory over Gonzaga, which is big in my eyes. Gonzaga is a tough place to play regardless of when the game is played so to travel there and come out with a win is noteworthy.

As much as Wake Forest may be a mystery, N.C. State is still more of one. The 8-1 Pack have not beaten anyone other than a Marquette team which could be in the middle to bottom half of the Big East. The only “quality” opponent State has played, Northwestern, made the Wolfpack look pretty average.

I was reading PackInsider’s by the numbers preview and one of the interesting stats they noted was the production of current N.C. State players against WF. Only Farnold Degand and Tracy Smith have averaged double digits against the Deacons in their career meetings, so some guys who haven’t necessarily gotten it done against Wake in the past are going to need to step up tonight. The most important one will be Dennis Horner. He’s only averaged a little more than 5 points against Wake in five career games.

The other key tonight will be how the Wolfpack handles Al-Farouq Aminu on the defensive end. Aminu has averaged a double double thus far so it will be interesting to see how the Wolfpack approaches that matchup. To me Tracy Smith is too slow to cover Aminu off the block and Dennis Horner is not physical enough to cover him down low. That could spell trouble. We’ll see what Sidney and Co. come up with.

Check back later on for more and check out Yet Another’s live blog during the game.

The one where N.C. State almost lost to Elon

At least it was almost. Could’ve been a lot worse.

Thursday’s performance against Elon was obviously not what Sidney Lowe or the few thousand in attendance at the RBC Center wanted to see, but it is surely what they were forced to watch. A back and forth affair that saw the Wolfpack down six at halftime.

But the Wolfpack rallied, hitting some key shots late and making its free throws down the stretch to keep Elon just far enough from striking distance. Tracy Smith and Dennis Horner led the Pack once again, with 21 and 23 points respectively. The Horner/Smith show is fast becoming a trend, and I’m fine with that. I’d rather the N.C. State work from the inside-out anyway so getting both of those guys multiple touches is huge. Another difference in Thursday night’s game was rebounding as the Wolfpack used its size advantage to take home a seven rebound advantage.

It’s obvious that N.C. State played like complete crap Thursday night, but the facts remain. A win is a win. I would rather see the Wolfpack play like crap and win against a mediocre team like Elon than play like crap against Wake Forest or Arizona and get beat by 20. It’s a completely different feeling to play like crap and still win the game. Hopefully Coach Lowe can use what happened last night in preparation for this weekend’s matchup with Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.

Here’s the box.