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
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