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After beating Wake, Gottfried says State is headed in the right direction

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Here are the post-game remarks from NC State head coach Mark Gottfried after the Wolfpack’s 81-66 victory at home against Wake Forest.

On the start of the game
“We had a slow start and they had a quick start offensively, but once we got our feet and hands moving, we picked up our defensive pressure a little more. For the last 16 minutes of the first half, we really defended well. It’s a good win for us and something we can build on, but we just need to keep improving on some things, whether it’s our defensive pressure, our rebounding or our offense. We just have to keep working.”

On the rebounding numbers
“We rebounded pretty well and Richard Howell only had five [rebounds], which is unusual, but a lot of different guys did a pretty good job. Our perimeter defense and our ball pressure helped us keep the ball out of the post. They couldn’t get the ball inside. Defensively, I think it was a good thing for our team.”

On C.J. Leslie’s performance
“He used his quickness four or five times to get to the rim. When he has some space, he’s a hard guy to contain one on one. I thought he had a matchup we could take advantage of.”

On the senior ceremonies for Scott Wood and Richard Howell
“One of the joys of coaching is to watch guys improve and watch them grow up. Even though I joined those guys when they were midway through their college careers, I think both of those guys have taken big steps in the last two years. When you’re coaching, we all love to win and that’s what you’re hired to do, but that relationship you build with your guys and watching them develop – it’s great to watch them have phenomenal senior years.”

On the team’s 11 ACC wins this season
“We’re taking some steps in the right direction. We have big goals. I came to this program with dreams of one day winning a national championship, and you’ve got to make progress toward that, and we’ve been able to do some of that. Hopefully this year we can continue to win and put ourselves in position to get into the NCAA tournament. It’s the greatest show on earth and once you’re in that tournament, anything can happen. Everything that has happened along the way is good, but I know what our goal is.”

Featured stories, UNC

Smaller Heels whip Terps to earn first-round ACC bye

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With North Carolina playing a taller Maryland team and with Tar Heel James Michael McAdoo in foul trouble, it took big games by both Reggie Bullock and PJ Hairston to give UNC a 79-68 win at Maryland.

Bullock scored 19 points and hauled in 12 rebounds while Hairston, who left the game for several minutes after slipping awkwardly, scored 22 points and got eight rebounds.

“We have a height disadvantage,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “Rebounding is always a concern of ours with a short lineup.”

Williams added that it was impressive that his team got 20 rebounds from its wing players – Bullock and Hairston.

The Tar Heels have been on a run since Williams put Hairston into the starting lineup and diminished playing time for taller players. Carolina has now won six in a row and gone from an NCAA bubble team to a lock with a chance to make some noise in the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

The victory guarantees that the Tar Heels will get a first-day bye in the ACC Tournament. Since the tourney format change, no team without a bye has won the tournament.

Williams said the team has come a long way as they have bought into playing with a sense of urgency and playing unselfishly.

The Tar Heels got out to a 12-4 lead in the first five minutes but the Terrapins came back to take a three-point lead at 27-24 with 3:22 left in the half.

The game then turned quickly and Carolina took control with a 10-0 to finish out the first half. Leslie McDonald hit a jumper to start the run and Hairston hit a three from the left corner to give UNC the lead for good.

To read more, please click here.

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Voice of Virginia Tech to speak at Raleigh Sports Club

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Bill Roth, longtime voice of the Virginia Tech Hokies, will be the guest speaker at the Raleigh Sports Club Wednesday.

Roth, in his 25th season as the lead play-by-play announcer of Virginia Tech football and basketball, also serves as the host of the weekly radio shows featuring Tech head coaches Frank Beamer and James Johnson. In addition, Roth hosts Virginia Tech Sports Today, the Sunday morning television magazine show that airs on television stations and cable networks throughout the mid-Atlantic and southeast.

Aaron Redus, a wrestler at Holly Springs High School, will be recognized at the Student Athlete of the Week.

The Forks Cafeteria cater a Southern buffet starting at 11:30 a.m. at the RSC luncheon at Highland United Methodist Church, located at 1901 Ridge Road at the intersection of Lake Boone Trail, just inside the belt line.

Annual dues for the remainder of the 2012-13 season will be $30. This is 1/2 off the normal membership fee so that we can encourage visitors to join the “best sports club in the nation.

The weekly attendance fee remains $15 while guest fees will be $25 each.

Featured stories, UNC

UNC’s big three crush Florida State as minutes dwindle for non-starters

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North Carolina needed a confidence builder following a sloppy second half at Clemson and prior to big regular-season ending games at Maryland and vs. Duke.

The Tar Heels seem to be heating up at the right time with the tournament season approaching thanks to the big three of Reggie Bullock, James Michael McAdoo and PJ Hairston. The three combined for 57 points in a convincing 79-58 win at home against Florida State.

The three shot 65 percent from the floor, including 8 of 13 from beyond the three-point line.

Carolina’s intensity and high-octane offense got into a good rhythm during spurts in both the first half and the second half.

If they could temper some of that wild-open style of play though they would be less likely to give up easy transition baskets – which didn’t hurt them against Florida State but might against other teams down the road.

The player rotation has gotten very interesting lately. Only one non-starter played more than nine minutes and that was Leslie McDonald, who really didn’t make much of an impact during his 20 minutes on the court.

Two that did make an impact during limited action were Jackson Simmons and Joel James, who probably had one of the day’s best highlights during his four minutes of play.

James tracked down a tough pass and, off balance, tried to pass cross court through the lane but the ball was tipped by a defender and it plopped into the basket for two points.

Simmons might not have made the highlight reel but his sprawling on the court for a loose ball and quickly calling timeout energized his teammates. Marcus Paige even brought it up in his post-game comments saying how much it meant to see him hustle and make a heady play.

The halftime was eventful as former coach Bill Guthridge and former point guard and assistant coach Phil Ford were introduced by Roy Williams. Guthridge was honored for being be named an inductee into the NC Sports Hall of Fame while Ford was honored for being named to the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Coach Williams said that when you think of Carolina basketball, you think of Dean Smith but that those two weren’t very far behind. A nice tribute ran on the video board and the crowd gave a loud, long, resounding ovation for the two.

Another interesting (and now touching) video that shows during Tar Heel games ends with Dean Smith, recorded within the past year or so, saying, “THIS is Carolina basketball.”

It certainly looked like Carolina basketball against Florida State.

For more on the game, please click here.

Featured stories, N.C. State

Gottfried’s comments following State win at Georgia Tech

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Mark Gottfried’s post-game press conference

Opening Statement
“The first thing that jumps out at me was that our defensive effort was as good as it has been in a while. I thought that was the key to the game. We had a game where we went 1-for-11 from the three. Scott Wood seemed to struggle to get in a groove, but I thought the difference was how we defended. We had active hands, we really pressured the ball well, disrupted the post–feed pass to go inside, so I thought that was the key for us tonight.”

Something you saw on defending the post
“We just talked the last couple days about being sound fundamentally. But again, being in a better stance, having active hands. Instead of getting our hands by our sides, we’ve got to be more active with everything that we do. We spent some time on that this week and I thought our guys carried that into the game.For us to become a good basketball team, that has to get better for us. Tonight was a good step in that direction.”

On the play of Richard Howell
“I thought Richard was great. You run out of adjectives for that guy. He plays so hard, he had a big-time first half and I wasn’t sure that he could have a second half like the first half, but he was really good offensively and at rebounding the basketball. He did everything he always does.”

On how big C.J. Leslie’s layup was with the score 51-49
“I thought it was a big shot. I’ll tell you another shot that I thought was big for us was Tyler Lewis’ three (10:52 mark of second half). There was a stretch where we had a couple empty possessions, were a little out of sync and Tyler’s three was huge for our team as well.”

On the early 28-14 lead
“We’re on the road and they’re going to respond. I felt they would be really competitive and come back like they did. I thought (in the first half) we played 17 minutes of great defense. Then we had three in there right towards the end where we didn’t get a rebound, they hit a three pointer, got another three pointer. But out side of that stretch I thought our defense was awfully good.”

Duke, Featured stories, UNC

Duke women seeded first, Carolina third in ACC tourney after Devils trim Heels

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The Duke women’s basketball team defeated rival North Carolina 65-58 in a game that was nip-and-tuck until close to the end. Duke won the regular season title and is seeded first in the women’s tournament set to start Thursday. The Tar Heels, who finished tied for second in the ACC, is seeded third. Both teams get first-round byes, along with Maryland and Florida State.

ACC Tournament Bracket

Duke, Featured stories

Magazine names Duke coaches ACC’s best coaching duo

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Taking into account several factors, including past performance, current and recent results, future expectations, and how good a fit a particular coach is for their school, AthlonSports.com listed the ACC’s best men’s basketball and football coaching pairs. In the end, the rest of the league found itself looking up at the combination of Duke head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and head football coach David Cutcliffe.

North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Larry Fedora ranked third on the list. To see Athlon’s entire list of the ACC’s top coaching duos, click on this link.

Duke, Featured stories

Duke basketball artwork up for auction

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As part of the NCAA’s 75 Years of March Madness celebration, the NCAA and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) commissioned world-renowned artist Opie Otterstad to create 75 one-of-a-kind paintings depicting prominent coaches, programs and moments in NCAA Tournament history.

Otterstad created several pieces honoring Duke basketball, including portraits of Coach K and all four Duke national championship teams. The pieces were on display at the Duke-Miami game on Saturday and are now available for auction at the link below:

http://www.cstv.com/ot/ncaa75/ncaa75-home.html

– News release

Duke, Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny, UNC

Does Virginia’s win over Duke help or hurt Carolina and State?

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While everybody but Duke was probably rooting for Virginia to defeat the Blue Devils, it remains to be seen if the Cavaliers 73-68 victory over the Devils will help or hurt NC State and North Carolina.

Miami isn’t going to lose its last three games so the Hurricanes are a lock for regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament. That leaves three other teams to get byes in the first round of the ACC Tournament. A bye is a big advantage so Duke, Virginia, State and Carolina really want to finish second, third or fourth.

Certainly if the Tar Heels win out, which includes a win against Duke, the UVA win could help them get a higher seed and a bye in the ACC Tournament but probably only if Duke also loses to Miami at home Saturday.

Duke, 11-4, has games at home against Miami and Virginia Tech before finishing the season in Chapel Hill. Virginia, 10-5, plays at Boston College and Florida State before ending the season at home against Maryland. NC State, 9-6, plays at Georgia Tech, home against Wake and at Florida State. Finally, UNC, 10-5, hosts Florida State and travels to Maryland before Senior Day against Duke.

The Wolfpack has the easiest remaining schedule and would finish 12-6 if they win out. They’d need Carolina to lose just one game to be tied with the Tar Heels and, according to tie-breaker rules, would be seeded ahead of UNC if the one Tar Heel loss is to Duke because the Pack would have a better record against the teams ahead of UNC and State. It appears that a two-way tie between UVA and UNC for third would favor the Cavaliers if Miami and Duke are No. 1 and No. 2 because the Cavs will have a better record against Miami and Duke.

If there is a three-way tie for third between Carolina, State and Virginia, the Cavaliers would get third and the Tar Heels would get fourth by virtue of each team’s record against the other two. Virginia is 2-1 against Carolina and State; Carolina is 2-2 against State and Virginia; and State is 1-2 against Carolina and Virginia.

If State wins out, Duke loses to Miami and Carolina, for instance, Virginia loses to Maryland or Florida State and Carolina loses to Maryland, there would be a four-way tie and things get complicated. It appears that Virginia, by virtue of a 3-1 record against the other three, would be the second seed while Carolina, with a 3-2 record against the other three, would be third. Both Duke and State would be 2-3 against the others and I’m not sure which team would be the fourth seed.

The rules say that if the head-to-head doesn’t solve things then each tied team’s record shall be compared to the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings. Duke would have lost to Miami twice while State would have lost to Miami once but the tiebreaker system says that 0-1 is no better than 0-2. Both Duke and State are 0-1 against Virginia so then you’d have to go to the third place team. That would be Carolina and each team would be 1-1 against them. If I’m reading the tie-breaker rules right, and I haven’t gotten clarification from the ACC office yet, it sounds as if it could come down to how Duke and State did against Maryland or Florida State.

Of course if State wins out and Carolina loses to both Maryland and Duke, then there would be no need for a tie-breaker as the Tar Heels would be fifth and would not get a bye.

Here are the tie-breaker rules:

(1) When two teams are tied in the standings, regular season head-to-head results are used as the tiebreaker.

(2) If the tied teams played each other twice in the regular season and split their games, then each team’s record vs. the team occupying the highest position in the final regular season standings (or in case of a tie for first place, the next highest position in the regular season standings) and then continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

a. When arriving at another pair of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record against the collective tied teams as a group (prior to their own tie-breaking procedures), rather than the performance against the individual tied teams.

b. When comparing records against a single team or a group of teams, the higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against a team or group is unequal. (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1; 1-0 is the same as 2-0; 2-0 is the same as 4-0; 2-1 is the same as 4-2; 1-0 is better than 1-1; 0-1 is the same as 0-2; 0-2 is the same as 0-4). If the winning percentage of the tied teams is equal against a team, or a group of tied teams, continue down through the standings until one team gains an advantage.

(3) If three or more teams are tied in the standings, the following procedures will be used:

a. The combined record of conference games between the tied teams involved will be compiled. Ties will be broken, and seedings assigned, based on the winning percentage of the combined conference records. The higher winning percentage shall prevail, even if the number of games played against the team or group is unequal (i.e., 2-0 is better than 3-1; 1-0 is the same as 2-0; 2-0 is the same as 4-0; 2-1 is the same as 4-2; 1-0 is better than 1-1; 0-1 is the same as 0-2; 0-2 is the same as 0-4).

b. If procedure (a) fails to break the tie, then each tied team’s record shall be compared to the team occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings, continuing down through the standings until one team gains an advantage by a higher winning percentage.

c. If the tie is broken by (a) or (b) regarding one of more teams, but three or more teams remain tied, then procedures (a) and (b) will be reapplied among those tied teams only.

d. If two teams remain tied, procedures (1) and (2) will be followed.

(4) If there is more than one tie in the standings, and when utilizing the tie-breaking procedures there are a pair of teams tied, a team’s record against the combined tied teams (prior to their own tie-breaking procedures) is used, rather than performance against the individual tied teams.

(5) If procedures (2) and/or (3) fail to establish an advantage, a coin flip to break the tie will be conducted by the commissioner after the final regular season game before the Conference Championship.

(6) If a coin flip or draw (for a three or more team tie) is required, the procedure takes place immediately following the conclusion of the last regular season game prior to the Conference Championship.

Featured stories, UNC

First half run the difference as Heels win at Clemson

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North Carolina took its fourth game in a row, winning 68-59 at Clemson, tying the longest streak of the year, but it took a 20-6 run over the last 10 minutes of the first half to do it as the second half was ugly.

With the score tied at 18, UNC’s Leslie McDonald came off the bench to drain a pair of threes from opposite sides of the court to start the 20-6 run.

P.J. Hairston followed with a three and James Michael McAdoo added an old-fashioned three to put the Heels up 30-20. A Dexter Strickland jumper followed by a Marcus Paige to McAdoo play worked the lead up to 14 at the half at 38-24.

In the second half, the Tigers couldn’t take advantage of Carolina’s sloppy play but, after UNC increased the lead to 17, they did cut the margin under 10 near the end.

“I’m happy we got the win but the way we finished the game was about as ugly as you can win it,” UNC coach Roy Williams said, pointing out that the Heels were outrebounded by 14 in the second half in addition to going only eight of 15 from the foul line.

Click here to read more about the game.