A New Lowe

Before we discuss last night's embarrassment at the hands of the Wisconsin Badgers in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, lets quickly eliminate a couple of possible excuses the Pack (4-2) might have had for losing 87-48. And for those of you who might be wondering, this is State's worst loss in eleven years.

Possible excuse number one: No Tracy Smith. We knew this would play a factor, as it forced three sophomores, Richard Howell, Jordan Vandenberg, and DeShawn Painter to cover the versatile Jon Leuer. In the end, Howell and Vandenberg fouled out, and Painter finished with four fouls. For comparison, the three finished with 16 points and 14 fouls while Leuer ended up with 22 points and 11 rebounds (he's averaging nearly 19 and eight), so his numbers weren't too much better than usual. Even had Smith been in the game, his 6-8 frame would do little but foul Leuer like his three teammates did.

Possible excuse number two: The Kohl Center. So much is made of the hostile environment at the Kohl Center in Madison. Sure they are 70-5 against non-conference opponents at home under Bo Ryan, and yes they beat Duke at home last year, but come on, so did State. The crowd of a little over 17,000 did little to make the Pack feel uncomfortable. Most of the time the only noise from the crowd was laughter and an "aww" when Scott Wood's layup ended a 10 minute scoring drought in the second half.

The only viable excuse for this loss (besides the obvious lack of effort) was coaching. Sidney Lowe failed to have his team motivated and prepared for the versatility and patience of Wisconsin's athletes. If he did in fact have his team prepared, it only showed for the first six minutes. After that things fell apart quickly.

Wisconsin started shooting the lights out, as they shot an even 50 percent from the floor, and an incredible 55 percent (11-20) from three-point land. Of course, most good teams will hit about half of their unguarded threes, as most of the time there wasn't a State player with five feet of the shooter. Heck, my Cary Parks and Recreation basketball team from elementary school would have knocked a few of those down (with the exception of the Jordan Taylor long bomb that brought back memories of J.J. Redick hitting 35 footers against the Pack back in the day).

Before the final horn mercifully sounded, State fans were hitting the panic button, several forum topics with titles similar to "Top choices for next year's basketball head coach" and "Fire Sidney Lowe, tired of being a J.O.K.E." were already in action.

I'm not jumping ship... yet. If you could find anything encouraging from last night's game, it was the play of sophomore Scott Wood. His 13 points lead the Pack, and he played within the game the whole night. Not once did he give up on a play, let up on defense, or try to do too much. Hopefully this will spark the sharp-shooter, as he will definitely get his chances to shoot against Syracuse's zone defense on Saturday.

Don't forget about this freshman class, either. They were highly regarded for a reason, and I think they'll reach their potential as they learn the in's and out's of college basketball. The three (Lorenzo Brown, C.J. Leslie, and Ryan Harrow) did combine for exactly one-third of the Pack's 48 points, but several times turned the ball over trying to do too much. They'll settle down and get more comfortable with State's style of play over the next few weeks.

I'm going to do what every coach preaches after a big win or a tough loss, I'm going to put this one behind us and look toward Saturday. This season is not lost, I mean, with the exception of Duke, did you see how crummy the ACC is over the last few nights? There is still time to salvage this season. Saturday for all intents and purposes, is D-Day for this season of Wolfpack basketball. They can either play like they did last night (and lose by what is surely going to be worse than last night due to the fast pace play of Syracuse, and their incredible zone defense) or come out ready to play and prove themselves.

That being said, a loss wouldn't be the end of the world if State plays with heart, hustles to loose balls, and plays the seventh ranked Orange close. It would probably give them some confidence knowing that they are not as bad as last night's embarrassment might have shown. A win could really turn this season around. Without a doubt if the Pack beats the Orange in the Carrier Dome Saturday evening, it will propel them through what should be a fairly easy December schedule. Oh, and one final note while we're on a rare note of optimism for today, Tracy Smith stated yesterday that he is a "maybe" for the Syracuse game.