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Living in Boston, I probably shouldn’t start yelling anything about the Red Coats, but Sidney Lowe may try to conjure up some magic in College Park today by wearing his famous red blazer.  He sure needs some magic against the Terps.  Sidney’s NC State team is 0-5 against Maryland all time.  If you are one for streaks, here is another factoid for you.  Since the new year, NC State has alternated wins and losses.  Last game, a win against Duke. . .  stay tuned.

Speaking of the Duke game, NC State played a nearly perfect game.  They committed only 9 turnovers, shot nearly 60% from the field, 41% from three, and 73 % from the line.  The glaring stat they did not do well, was they were out rebounded by 15, as Duke collected 15 offensive rebounds.  Of course when you shoot 60%, your opportunities are limited at getting your own offensive boards.  It was one of those nights where it was just in the cards for the Wolf Pack, and they took advantage.  Somewhere I heard them saying that was the biggest win for the program under Lowe.  Let’s hope they are ripe for a let down game.

More on the pack, Tracy Smith leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 17 and 8.  Dennis Horner adds 12 and 4, while Javier Gonzalez adds 10 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists.  The Pack is 13-5 overall and 2-3 in the ACC.  Two weeks ago, I thought for sure this was a shoe in for a win, but as we have mentioned elsewhere, this years ACC basketball teams look a lot like the football season, where anything can and most likely will happen, and we will all say, it didn’t really surprise me when it does.

On the Maryland side, they will try to force the State offense into speeding up, as they play a little more deliberately than most teams do.  This is not the type of offense they had under Herb Sendek, but they are not going to try and run with Maryland.  It has been said before, but my key for the Terps is effort.  The last 3 games, they have played with emotion and a sense of urgency.  I really thought Eric Hayes tried to get things going early in that Longwood game.  He was aggressive offensively, got some rebounds, and had a couple of assists to help set the tone early in that one.  I really think a fast start today could shell shock (pun intended) the Pack.  So the key for me, will be containing Tracey Smith on defense, and just play with effort and sense of urgency and we will be recapping this one with a happy tone.  Go Terps.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 7:00 am 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.