All posts by Bob Geary
Bob Geary ·
12 Mar 2010, 12:26 AM ·
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Farnold Degand
“Guts.” That was Sidney Lowe’s summary of why N.C. State knocked off Clemson, 59-57, in the first round of the ACC tournament. In a very physical game in which the refs’ calls were few and random, the Pack was stronger physically and mentally.
Interesting that Lowe brought Tracy Smith and Farnold Degand to the media room. (I’m listening on the radio after seeing the game on TV.) Smith played big, as did Richard Howell. Nice game by C.J. Williams too. In fact, nice game by the State guards, who stood up to Clemson’s pressure and — yes, there were turnovers — they made plays. That’s right, the much-maligned State backcourt had an excellent game.
And the best in the backcourt, the MVP of the State win, imho, was Degand, who played great defense all night, scored nine points, and handled the ball against pressure with zero turnovers and high energy, so that Clemson paid a price for pressing. Lowe shuffled his other guards all night. I don’t see a boxscore yet, but I believe Degand played the most minutes of anyone.
Dennis Horner was the star on Senior Day against Boston College. But the other senior, Farnold Degand, was the star tonight. Nice to see. Degand has been through a lot over his four years here — a sit-out year, out with an injury the second year, out of control as a point guard his third year, and this year finding a role as a two guard where his speed has been a big asset offensively and defensively. I remember Degand from media day at the start of the season. Friendly, smart. Glad to see him finishing the season strong.
ACC, Basketball, N.C. State c.j. williams, Farnold Degand, Richard Howell, Sidney Lowe, Tracy Smith
Bob Geary ·
7 Mar 2010, 5:51 PM ·
1 Comment
Horner in early-season action
Being Dennis Horner was an excellent thing on Senior Day. The N.C. State senior broke out with 11 points in the final seven minutes of the game against Boston College, helping turn a tight defensive struggle into a 12-point Wolfpack romp. The final: 66-54, State.
Horner finished with 14 points and left to a “Den-nis Hor-ner, Den-nis Hor-ner” serenade from the fans, who watched him get everything out of his game that was there over four solid years, the first three as a dependable sub and this year as a steady-contributing starter.
Another day at the office for Tracy Smith, who put up 19 points and 7 rebounds in a bid for, I’d say, second-team all-ACC? (Heck, he could be first-team: Vasquez, Delaney, Scheyer, Booker and ???’ Nobody who deserves it more than Smith is coming to mind.)
Smith played good ball all year long for a team that would’ve been in a big trouble — like, no ACC wins — without him.
Plaudits today, too, for C.J. Williams, who backed up his usual good defensive play with a number of strong offensive drives to the basket (and one miraculous 3 to beat an expiring shot clock). His last drive — a hard move across the lane from the right wing to a full-extension left-hander that just rolled in and earned him an and-one (but he didn’t hit it) — made it 59-50, finishing BC off. Williams had 14 points, nine in the second half.
Julius Mays also played well in relief of Javi Gonzalez, who was in foul trouble early and managed just 19 minutes, most of them ineffective. Javi did make a running shot with 1:12 left and BC back within eight at 62-54. Mays, in 23 minutes, had six points, four assists and if they calculated the plus-minus score for the time he was in the game, State came from behind in the first half and pulled away in the second half when he was in the game.
At 5-11, State’s ACC record won’t be remembered in the annals. But this was a team that, with Smith and not much else in the way of actual talent, fought hard all year long, and bounced back after every miserable loss (and there were some) to finish well. Coach Sidney Lowe thinks they may finally have figured out, individually and as a group, what it takes for them to win. What it takes is, imo, playing strong, because they aren’t fast — Farnold Degand excepted — but they are physical. That and making some shots, which they didn’t do much in the first half today (it ended 24-23, State) but did in the second half.
“I’m proud of how resilient this group has been,” Lowe said.
Ironically, State finishes in a tie with the light-blue team from Chapel Hill despite having lost to them twice. State beat Duke, Wake Forest and Florida State, three of the better teams in the ACC. Had State beaten that very bad light-blue team either time they played, the Pack would be closer to the middle of the ACC and the light-blue team last, which is where it deserved to be.
On to the tournament, where as Lowe says, no matter if a team would beat you nine times out of 10 if the one time you beat them is at tournament time.
Smith, C.J. and Horner brought State back from a 44-40 deficit with eight minutes left.
Basketball, N.C. State c.j. williams, dennis horner, Julius Mays, Sidney Lowe, Tracy Smith
Bob Geary ·
6 Feb 2010, 11:13 AM ·
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Tryouts. Photos by Arianna Hoffmann.
Your Carolina Rollergirls kick off their 2010 season in Raleigh Sunday with a 12 noon bout between the Tai Chi-tahs and the Trauma Queens. Doors open at 11:30. Get there early, folks, capacity at the Skate Ranch, “where it all began” back in ‘04, is limited to the first 500 arrivals. Adult tix $8; under 12, $5; under 6, free. For directions to the Skate Ranch, check the Rollergirls’ website.
The Rollergirls are looking to return to the nationals of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association this year after getting knocked out in the regional tournament in ‘09 — unfortunate since the regionals were held for the first time, and very successfully, at Dorton Arena in Raleigh.
“If everybody will give it their all,” says Lady Smackbeth, a team spokesperson, “we can definitely get there.” And win? “It’s sports. Anybody can win any game at any time.” And with a promising group of newcomers joining a strong cast of returning veterans, the ‘10 Rollergirls aren’t just anybody. Continue reading »
Carolina Rollergirls Carolina Rollergirls, Lady Smackbeth, Skate Ranch
Bob Geary ·
16 Jan 2010, 4:21 PM ·
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Julius Mays
I know, talking about a good loss makes you a good loser. And it may be little consolation to Pack fans, after today’s 73-70 loss to Clemson at the RBC Center, that our Wolfpack could easily be 3-1 in the ACC instead of the cellar-dwelling 1-3 that we are. We had the Virginia won a week ago, then gave it away. Today, we could’ve caught Clemson at the end, but just missed. That’s 0-for-2 at home so far, with a most amazing road win at Florida State in between.
I shall not bore you with today’s details — a nice summary of the finish is available at gopack.com, and the boxscore is here. The news is that State has a new backcourt as of today. Javi Gonzalez and C. J. Williams, the starters a week ago, are no more. The new tandem is Julius Mays and Farnold Degand. Javi and Degand started today, but Javi played poorly and was quickly replaced, in the first half and again in the second half, by Mays, who played a total of 31 minutes, scored 16 points, and had three assists with just two turnovers. Julius is not going to dazzle you with his footwork, and in fact is about as slow afoot as you can be and play major-college basketball. And yet, he played a solid game and, with a lot of help from Farnold and from Richard Howell (more on Howell in a moment), he took over the game for the Pack at the end and almost won it. Say this for Mays: He runs the offense. Javi? Not so much.
Degand giveth and he taketh away, but in the last two games he’s used his speed to make plays for the Pack that no one else on the team is capable of making, and he’s done it without the old basket-full of mistakes and silly fouls. And you know what, in the second half, as State rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to cut the lead to one with a minute left, Mays and Degand both were coming down the floor with wonderful focus and determination in their eyes — it’s the first time in I don’t how long that I found myself thinking that our backcourt was playing pretty damned well.
Up front, Howell played two-thirds of the game at the power forward spot to Dennis Horner’s one-third, and Howell registered a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. More than that, he was a man under the basket, teaming with Tracy Smith (16 points, 9 rebounds) to control the inside over the course of the second half against a very good Clemson front line. Meanwhile, on the wing, Scott Wood didn’t hit everything he threw up — as he did at Florida State, when he went off for 31 points — but he played well, shot OK, and hit a couple of key 3’s at the start of the second half when State decided to actually run a couple of offensive plays for him. What a concept.
In the first half, State fell behind by as many as 21 in short order: (1) We attacked the Clemson pressure early, broke it and blew a bunch of layups and open 3’s, and then (2) Back on our heels, we decided not to attack the Clemson pressure, and so we got murdered by it. At halftime, State had just seven turnovers, but that didn’t tell the story of an offense completely out of sync as a result of Clemson’s press. Meanwhile, Clemson ran their offense with good efficiency, going to their All-ACC quality forward, Trevor Booker (13 first-half points, 20 for the game), and finding open men as State was forced to help out defending him. Result: A 43-22 hole near the end of the half, from which we battled … battled … battled back, but couldn’t quite catch up.
Looking ahead, don’t be suprised if Howell replaces Horner in the starting lineup, and even if he doesn’t, Howell & Horner plus Tracy Smith — who once again played very well matched up against Booker — gives State a first-rate front line. Wood’s a solid player too, and it appears that C.J. Williams will be his backup from now on, meaning State has five very good defensive players in the frontcourt rotation. Thumbs up.
In the backcourt, Mays & Degand are a work in progress — a point guard who’s not quick, a two-guard who can’t shoot; it’s a different approach — but give them both an “A” for their games today. They are progressing.
Basketball, N.C. State
Bob Geary ·
22 Nov 2009, 3:12 PM ·
2 Comments
Photo by Arianna Hoffmann
ED. NOTE: See additional photos by Arianna Hoffmann here.
The most exciting sports event involving a Triangle team this weekend? Without a doubt, it was our Carolina Rollergirls winning a come-from-behind thriller Saturday night over the Steel City Derby Demons, 144-143, before 1,400 ecstatic fans at Raleigh’s Dorton Arena.
The ‘girls grabbed their first lead since early in the bout literally in the last second of action after they’d trailed by 28 with just four minutes to play. Holly Wanna Crackya (pictured at right) was the Rollergirls’ heroine, racing to a huge plus-20 from her jammer position to cut the lead to eight with 2:15 remaining. After Princess America sliced the eight points to four with a winning — and swift — jam of her own, Crackya returned for what proved to be the final jam. She blasted through to the decisive plus-5 as the game clock expired, then threw her hands in the air in triumph as the Demons watched helplessly.
For the Rollergirls, this seems like it was a critical victory in a couple of ways. First, it should mean that they hold onto their 5th place ranking in the East division of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Steel City (Pittsburgh) came in ranked 7th but clearly looking to move up after winning two of their three games at the recent Eastern Regionals in Raleigh, where their one loss was to the regional champions, the Philly Rollergirls.
As important, even with the veteran (and my favorite derby name) Celia Fate on the bench nursing a strep-throat illness, Carolina was able to overcame a Steel City team that jumped on them early (26-0) and then, after halftime, jumped on them again. Continue reading »
Carolina Rollergirls, Roller Derby Carolina Rollergirls, Celia Fate, DVS, Holly Wanna Crackya, Pink Skip, Princess America
Bob Geary ·
6 Nov 2009, 12:01 PM ·
1 Comment
Scott Wood
Tracy Smith, Dennis Horner, Scott Wood: They’ll start up front, and at the risk of reading too much into a single exhibition game, an 84-42 rout of St. Paul’s, they’re better than last year’s group of McCauley, Costner and Fells. Not because they have more talent — Costner and Fells had the talent. But Horner and Wood have the head for the game, and the consistency, that C&F never had.
But the backcourt? Same Javi Gonzalez, who’s still better than the same Julius Mays at the point. But at the two-guard, there’s still nobody who really fits with either one of them. C. J. Williams started (as he did in game one a year ago); he plays hard, but he’s not the scorer that Javi needs nor the slasher who’d complement Mays. Farnold Degand, who played the two with both point guards, is still superfast, out-of-control fast, and a bad shooter. Johnny Thomas didn’t appear until garbage time.
Bottom line, State has a go-to player in Smith and four pretty good starters in all, generously counting Javi in that group. But there’s no fifth starter, and there’s no bench — yet. More on that below.
Continue reading »
Basketball, N.C. State dennis horner, Scott Wood, Tracy Smith
Bob Geary ·
15 Sep 2009, 12:31 PM ·
1 Comment
DORTON ARENA/ RALEIGH—Your (our) Carolina Rollergirls put on a great show this weekend, playing host to the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association’s Eastern Regional tournament at Dorton Arena in Raleigh. The home team, unfortunately, was upset in the opening round Friday night by Boston, which cost them any chance to advance to the nationals in November. They bounced back Saturday to drub the team from Virginia, and on Sunday grabbed 5th place (out of 10 teams) with a convincing win over the Providence, Rhode Island club.
“What happened Friday was a big surprise to us,” said Pink Slip, the skater a.k.a. Laura Slipsky, a Raleigh graphic designer. “After that, I think we all realized we had to pull together and do what we always do — do what we practice — and play our own game.”
Boston, meanwhile, proved to be the cinderella team of the tournament. The Derby Dames upset Charm City (Baltimore) to finish third, behind Philadelphia and New York — top three advance to the nationals, scheduled for November in Philly. (Correction: An earlier version of this, based on my misreading of the WFTDA website, said Boston was the regional champion. h/t: Hydra.)
This was your correspondent’s first time at an R’girls event — the first time, actually, that I’ve seen roller derby since the olden days on New York TV, where the tracks were banked, the villains dirty, the stars clean as snow white, and it was all, ah, predetermined. (Fixed.) But there’s nothing fake — other than the skaters’ names — about these new flat-track events. The women still skate hard, and they battle for position as before, but the officiating — at least in the two games I saw — is excellent, which means you win based on speed, strength, strategy and effort. In other words, it’s a helluva sport, fast and gritty, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. Regular-season games at Dorton draw an average of 1,400 fans, I’m told. Continue reading »
Carolina Rollergirls, Roller Derby Carolina Rollergirls, Pink Slip, Roxy Rockett
Bob Geary ·
1 Feb 2009, 1:24 PM ·
6 Comments
When you lose a game by 17, it’s not just one thing, of course, it’s a lot of things. Against UNC yesterday, the Wolfpack’s “bigs” missed shot after shot in the lane — a dozen scoops, half-hooks and double-pumps by State’s Ben McCauley and Tracy Smith either rimmed out, rolled off or otherwise failed to go in from short range. Make half of them, and State loses by 5. Maybe. Meanwhile, Tyler Hansbrough had 31 for UNC on 12-17 shooting from the floor.
So when it was over, Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe told the assembled media: “Their bigs out-played us, you know? That’s it ….”
No, it isn’t. Continue reading »
Basketball, N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill Ben McCauley, Brandon Costner, Farnold Degand, Sidney Lowe, Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough
