Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

I just realized this is our only match up with the Pack this year.   I really do miss the old ACC where we had round robin games with each other.  However, that is for another day.  This post is to give you a little background on NC State itself, and this years basketball team.

In 1887, NC State was founded as the NorthCarolina College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts.  The first class opened in 1889 with 72 students, and 6 faculty.  Like most agricultural colleges in the 1800′s it too was part of the land-grant program. 

The history is kind of unexciting.  It appears sometime in the 1920′s the school took on the name State College in Raleigh.  It mentions the tough times of the depression.  Along with UNC, and the Women’s College of Greensboro, all three colleges were combined to cut down on redundancy during the depression.  The post WWII expansion thanks to the Gi Bill, brought higher enrollment to the school.  In 1956 the first two African-American Students were admitted to the school. 

1962 eventually brought on the name as we know it today.  There was much debate about this name, as it was originally named the University of North Carolina at Raleigh.  This did not go over well with faculty, students or alumni and eventually took the name North Carolina State University in Raleigh a couple of years later.

Current enrollment is over 31,000 students.  It will cost a North Carolina resident $16,028 a year for tuition, room, and board, while the same will cost an out of state student $28,846 for the year. 

Based on the feedback I have received, this is everyone’s favorite section:  Famous Alumni.  John Edwards is a graduate.  Jerry Punch of NASCAR sideline reporter fame is also and Alumnus.  Every one’s favorite pianist, John Tesh is also a grad.  Those of you who still watch network television might recognize John Reep.  Who is that?  He was only the winner of Last Comic Standing Season 5!  Jill Wagner (#90 on FHM’s Hot 100 2004) is also a grad.  They, like many schools have an extensive list of highly decorated military leaders.

As much fun as we like to have with history, and alumni, this is after all an athletics site, and we need to stay on track.  So with out further adieu (add-e-O for those of you who were in my 9th grade literature class ) we get on to the state of this years State squad.  Currently they are 15-11 (5-8 ACC).  That being said they are 4-2 at home in the conference with wins over GT, Miami, Wake Forest, and UVA.  With our record on the road, I don’t expect this one to be easy.

They are led by Brandon Costner, who is playing much closer to what he did as a sophomore compared to last year.  He is averaging 14.1 and 6.2.   Ben McCauley is also playing much better after an off year last year.  I don’t know what was in the water last year but McCauley and Costner were down a combined 16 points a game from their sophomore to junior years.  They have both improved this year closer to what they were as sophomores.  This year McCauley is averaging12.4 and 7.9.  Also scoring in double figures with 11.7 points per game is Courtney Fells.  As a team they shoot 47% from the field, 71% from the line and 39% from three.  They are scoring 73 points per game, and are averaging 14 turnovers per game. 

NC State’s season is not over, and they will fight.  They are tough at home, and Maryland has been suspect on the road.  I really expect this one to be a hard fought game.  If the Terps come out with the intensity they played with in the loss to Duke, I expect them to win this one.  That being said, the chances of them coming out and playing like that are far from 100%!  GO TERPS!

Extra Droplets

Wow I know the economy is getting tough, but it must also be impacting early 80′s TV stars as well.  Before I started writing this, I was spinning the dial on the TV, and Mr. T. was pimping the Flavor Wave Oven.  I guess those royalties from reruns, don’t pay as much as I thought.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.