Sports Passion The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 3 (February 2014) | Page 6

The last two seasons the Demon Deacons have finished an identical 13-18 with him at the helm. There is still almost 6 weeks remaining in the season, so my condemnation of the coach could possibly be premature. However, with games on the schedule against Syracuse and home and away dates versus Duke, Wake Forest would have to win the vast majority of the remaining contests or pull off an ACC tournament upset to make postseason plans. From my perspective this is highly unlikely. Can North Carolina State Turns Things Around? We are almost two thirds of the way through the NCAA basketball regular season and it is time to separate the “Big Dance” contenders from the pretenders. So where do the North Carolina Wolfpack belong? The season got off to a rough start when they went 2-2 in their first 4 games of the campaign. While no one is predicting greatness for the two teams that beat them early on, you can make a case for both injuries taking its toll on them and the opponents having at least some credibility. After an easy victory in game one of 201314 against poor Appalachian State, the Wolfpack lost to Cincinnati who figures to make a strong case for a good tournament bid out of the AAC. Following that contest another comfortable decision came over Campbell. They played North Carolina Central even during regulation before being blown out by 10 in the overtime session. No one is looking for accolades in this one, but NCCU does have a top scoring threat in Jeremy Ingram who carried the Eagles with 29 points overall including a personal 9-0 run during the OT. With Jordan Vandenberg missing with a sprained ankle, NC State was forced to play forwards out of position to begin the year. After the loss to Central, the Wolfpack won 7 in a row and 8 of 9 with Vandenberg and freshman guard Anthony Barber in the starting lineup. Two of the wins came in the Big 10/ACC Challenge against Northwestern (69-48) and an impressive 65-58 road victory at Tennessee. The only loss during that span was to Missouri who were ranked #25 at the time. The ACC opener loss at home against conference newcomer Pitt was a huge disappointment. They did rebound (no pun intended) nicely in South Bend with a win against the Fighting Irish. Unfortunately, 3 more consecutive losses followed that “W” which brings us to the premise of this article and as to whether or not they can come back to make 2013-14 a relevant season. The burden will lie squarely on the shooting hand of forward TJ Warren for that to happen. Before spraining his ankle in a blowout loss to Duke, he was in the midst of an All-America season. The 6’8”, 215 lb. sophomore was averaging 22 points and 7 Page | 6