Last Night’s Winner: Tracy Smith’s Beard

By Brian, on January 21st, 2010 | 20 comments

Photo Credit: WRAL Sports Fan

NC State finally managed to get over the hump last night in a big game and clock a major upset knocking off Duke in fairly convincing fashion, 88-74. NC State did almost everything right to the point it reminded me of the Wolfpack win over UNC in 2007 where NCSU didn’t miss a shot in the 2nd half or that’s what it seemed like. The shooting performance was not nearly that good but when you have Javy Gonzalez dribbling back and forth as the shot clock winds down then shooting a rainbow three over the outstretched hands of a Plumlee Brother and draining it, you know it is your night.

The big story was the play of Wolfpack junior Tracy Smith who 23 points on 10-12 shooting and basically made every Duke post player his…well…you can fill in the rest. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski opted to leave Smith’s man in single coverage which often times resulted in Smith doing whatever the heck he wanted down there. The lack of answer for Smith on the defensive end was coupled with a poor shooting night by Duke. The Blue Devils only kept themselves viable with 17 offensive rebounds and at one point had as many offensive boards as NCSU had totals rebounds. For the night Duke shot 38% from the floor while the Pack blistered the Devils to the tune of 58%. Dennis Horner also came up big scoring 20 points before fouling out despite a bum knee.

As noted above, the big winner is Tracy Smith’s Beard which now must be listed in the official score book so NCSU is not hit with a technical foul. By my count Tracy Smith’s Beard accounted for at least 10 of his points and while it was briefly challenged by Bryan Zoubek’s Beard, the latter was seen trying to crawl back inside the Duke senior’s face during latter portions of the game.

Meanwhile, down the road in Chapel Hill, UNC sucked…again…losing to Wake Forest 82-69 giving Roy Williams his first three game losing streak since returning to his alma mater. Wake Forest’s Ish Smith carved the Tar Heels up repeatedly in transition offering UNC a taste of what Ty Lawson regularly dished out over the past three seasons. UNC, playing without Ed Davis, had no prayer versus the Deamon Deacon post tandem of Chas McFarland and Al-Farouq Aminu who did to the Heels what Tracy Smith did to Duke. McFarland made life difficult by tipping every missed shot around and forcing UNC to work twice as hard to get any rebound. Overall UNC shot horribly, executed on both ends worse and looked like Maverick and Goose’s plane just after it went though Iceman’s jet wash. A loss to NCSU at RBC next Tuesday would most certainly mean they are in a flat spin heading out to sea.

Share This:

carlspackler

January 21, 2010 at 10:14 AM

So let me get this straight: Duke and UNC lost. State won.

Someone pissed off the ACC basketball gods.

J Mohn

January 21, 2010 at 10:22 AM

Good bye.

Up is Down. Down is Up.

Hello.

Brian

January 21, 2010 at 10:23 AM

Dogs and cats living together!

January 21, 2010 at 10:28 AM

The whole system is breakin’ down!

Alpha Wolf

January 21, 2010 at 10:42 AM

I was a bit surprised that Tree Beard didn’t slow down Tracey Smith. I thought that in the second half Duke would put an end to that show and that would be that for State last night.

January 21, 2010 at 10:47 AM

If NCSU marketing is smart(and we know how that goes) they hand out fake beards to the students for the UNC game.

January 21, 2010 at 10:50 AM

State was just feeling it. Every player wearing red and white was in the zone and the crowd kept feeding it on. Duke had no answer for Smith, the Plumlees couldn’t duplicate their performance from the other night and Duke couldn’t throw it in the ocean. Kudos to the Pack for putting together a complete game. 58%? Impressive, but it seemed like 85% to Duke fan.

January 21, 2010 at 10:54 AM

Maybe all the State players should grow a beard…..Take on a playoff hockey team like persona.

oneal

January 21, 2010 at 11:00 AM

The key for State is going to be to build on the win. Reference was made to that win in 2007, and I can remember State fans calling into the old Buzz proclaiming that “State was back” etc. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep the momentum going. If they can harness whatever the hell they had last night, and not act like the season is now over (which shouldn’t be the case with the Heels coming in Tuesday night, but you never know) then PackNation could be seeing the beginning of something special.

As for my Heels; obviously, when you sit at the top of the mountain (which they did last April) there is only one way to go. However, I thought that it would be more of a gradual decline, instead of a flat out free fall.

I-Like-Tacos

January 21, 2010 at 11:04 AM

One small thing Brian, Tracy is a Junior. I wish he was a Sophomore though.

Well I will finally decide that what I saw last night actually happened. I certainly didn’t think State could’ve stayed red hot as they did the whole game. Although it was a nice win, it won’t mean anything to me if we still lose to Carolina at home, seeing how much they have struggled the last week. I don’t want to look past Maryland, but it’s hard not to think about possibly being able to beat Carolina on Tuesday.

UNC RAJ

January 21, 2010 at 11:10 AM

“Dogs and cats living together!”

Sigh… just cross the streams and get it over with…

danofnc

January 21, 2010 at 11:11 AM

I could give a **** about Carolina right now.

State needs to find a way to beat Maryland Saturday.

January 21, 2010 at 11:35 AM

Mass hysteria!

Hopefully, that is what State looks like when a complete game is put together. But the VA and Florida losses are still the better indicators of how this team will compete the remainder of the season.

Yeah, the Florida game came down to a heave but free throws would have remedied that. Hopefully I’m wrong.

My other canine affiliation has Texas this weekend. Oh man.