In Sunday's ACC action, Clemson got by UNC-G, 71-61, BC beat Bryant 93-77, and State lost to Arizona 77-62.
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Norfolk State vs. UVa | 7:00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Is it time to start the Sidney Lowe termination watch? Based on the State sites we've looked at, it's already happening. Since they're missing their best player, it's a bit unfair, but that's the way things work in college sports.
What we saw in the first half was a team that is young and uncertain, and no one more than C.J. Leslie.
He is, without a doubt, a huge talent. He's also a long way from being a serious factor offensively.
Time after time, he turned, bulled his way to the basket, and time after time, he tried an acrobatic shot and missed.
It reminded us of a Pete Newell story: he had a guy in his Big Man Camp who kept dunking and Newell told him that wouldn't work. "Don't mess with my game," he said.
"Son," said Newell, "you don't have any game."
Leslie has all the talent in the world, but his game is weak. That won't last forever, but right now, it's killing State. Shooting 1-14 with his talent is pretty pitiful.
On the bright side, he did grab 11 boards, six of them offensive. Most of his shots were offensive too, unfortunately.
State is getting 45% of their offense from the freshmen, but it's a pretty inefficient 45%.
So if things don't improve, what might Debbie Yow do?
They say that every A.D. has a short list in case he or she needs it. If we were Yow, we'd look for a younger coach who might stick around for a long time. These names would absolutely be on our list:
All four have some interesting qualities. Josh Pastner has a long reputation as a wunderkind, which is funny since he's just 33. An ACC job might be a temptation. He's a freak recruiter and seems to be a good game coach as well.
Shaka Smart, a former Clemson assistant, is off to a solid start at VCU. He's an impressive talent. Brian Gregory has done a great job for Dayton and has already shown he can beat UNC - a big plus for State fans. Donnie Jones is less well-known, but he's got Central Florida off to a 10-0 start, which is pretty solid. State has time to turn it around, but what they need most is time. For El Sid, that might be a stretch.
Bryant is not much of a test, but B.C. is starting to be a fun team. They're playing a lot like Cornell did the last couple of years, which means they could compete with a lot of teams.
They also nearly hit a higher percentage from three point range - 56.5%Â to 57.6%.
With their upcoming schedule, we could see even see them running out to 17-2. As it is, they're going to start getting some Top 25 consideration.
Clemson walked over UNC-G in the first half, but gave up 18 out of a 20 point lead before reasserting themselves. Devin Booker and Milton Jennings managed just nine points and nine boards between them.
The fun and games from Chapel Hill grows ever more interesting:
StateFansNation.com plucked a couple of interesting things out of the e-mails released by UNC. First, a letter from a professor making some startling if unsupported allegations.
We have no idea of the veracity of this stuff, but many of you have heard similar accounts just as we have, none proven, over the years. It is a bit surprising to hear it from a member of the faculty.
Here's an interesting back-and-forth about text messages from John Blake's Verizon phone, apparently issued to him by UNC. UNC's position is that Verizon will not release them without a subpoena, to which an N&O reporter asked: "Not to put too fine a point on it, but are you saying that UNC sought the text messages for its own phone and was denied [by Verizon]?
Finally, and this is a bit mind-boggling, UNC is arguing that parking tickets qualify as academic records:
7. Parking tickets.
> We do not agree with the legal analysis of Amanda Martin with
> respect to parking tickets. Pat Crawford and Joanna Carey
> Cleveland discussed the Universityâs position on this issue with Ms.
> Martin several weeks ago and explained that, because of the way we
> issue and maintain parking tickets, we believe they qualify as
That's a bit hard to swallow, honestly. Not publicizing someone's grades or their health issues is one thing. But parking tickets? What's the point in covering that up?
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