N.C. State promoted Bobby Lutz to associate head coach of the men’s basketball team on Friday.
The former head coach at UNC Charlotte, Lutz helped first-year Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried win 24 games and reach the Midwest Regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament this past season.
N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien saw positives and negatives in the Wolfpack’s first scrimmage of the spring Saturday – which is about what he expected.
O’Brien enjoyed watching quarterback Mike Glennon throw against the first-team secondary. In 75 plays, the offense scored two touchdowns, both on passes. The defense, which had 27 interceptions last season, picked off two passes in the scrimmage.
O’Brien said Glennon and the secondary are improving.
“(The secondary) is operating at a high level, which is good for them and our quarterback,” O’Brien said. “It’s all about making each other better.”
If you are a subscriber (or even if you buy from the rack or the Kangeroo), you may have seen an unusual editor's note on today's front page. (Not a note from an unusual editor, but an unusual note.)
It said, "Because of the later tipoff times for tonight's UNC and N.C. State games, the News & Observer final edition will be delivered later than usual Saturday morning to include coverage from the Midwest Regional......"
The UNC game against Ohio is scheduled to start at 7:47, which could mean 8 p.m. The N.C. State game against (gulp) Kansas is scheduled to start at 10:17 p.m., or later, depending on when the UNC game ends. In these situations, listed TV game start times are accurate only within 15 or 20 minutes or so.
We will be hustling to get the UNC game in the State edition, which goes mostly to Eastern North Carolina all the way to the Four Corners Diner in Atlantic Beach (I've been looking for a chance to plug this place.)
The Final edition, which we usually have to send to the pressroom by 11:25 on Friday night, is being held to get the State game in, thanks to the extremely wonderful accommodation of the pressroom and our carriers.
We may not be sending the last pages of the Final to the pressroom until 1:15 a.m. We will start the press up and run a bunch of papers off so we can get the farthest Final edition trucks away from the dock. Then we will replate, which is newspaper jargon for updating several pages with additional stories and photos being sent by our reporters and photographers in St. Louis, hitting the button to send them to the pressroom, wrapping the new plates around the press cylinders and starting back up again. (If you want to know what pressure is, the reporters and photographers in St. Louis, who have been working all day, will have - starting at 12:45 - about 15 minutes to get their first stories and game-end photos to the editors and page designers who then will have 15 minutes to muscle all that into pages to start the Final edition press run. And then they have to do this all over again for the replate. Meanwhile, getting all this to our online staff.)
As Brooke Cain noted on today's front page, the State and UNC games have been directed to TBS by the CBS-Turner Sports cabal, which undoubtedly has caused WRAL no end of angst as they will be airing the Baylor/Xavier and Kentucky/Indiana games. Which are huge in this market, no doubt.
Of course, if State and UNC both win tonight, this weekend will be crazy. The Sunday head-to-head between State and UNC will dominate the Sunday paper and the Monday paper.
Lorenzo Brown hit three free throws in the final 10.6 seconds and N.C. State returned to the round of 16 with a 66-63 upset of third-seeded Georgetown in the NCAA tournament on Sunday. The Wolfpack (24-12) will play Purdue or Kansas on Friday.
The No. 11-seed N.C. State Wolfpack and No. 3-sed Georgetown Hoyas will go at it on Sunday in Columbus. Mark Gottfried and C.J. Leslie speak for the Wolfpack. John Thompson III talks for the Hoyas to the media.
With the suspense peaking, N.C. State was the last team announced for the NCAA tournament on Sunday evening.
The Wolfpack, a No. 11 seed, will face San Diego State (26-7) on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. Led by Mountain West Conference player of the year Jamaal Franklin, the Aztecs lost to New Mexico in the MWC championship.
After winning two games in the ACC tournament and falling short in the final seconds in the semifinals against North Carolina, N.C. State was on just about every prognosticator’s bubble heading into Sunday night.
As more and more teams were revealed, it looked like the Wolfpack may be on the outside looking in.
But after San Diego State was displayed, the N.C. State logo flashed on the screen, giving Mark Gottfried an NCAA tournament appearance in his first season as Wolfpack coach.
Kendall Marshall banked in a shot with 10.2 seconds remaining and the fourth-ranked Tar Heels came up with a pair of defensive stops to edge their state rival 69-67 in the Semifinals of the 2012 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.
The North Carolina Tar Heels held off N.C. State in a 69-67 thriller to advance to the ACC Championship on Sunday. CineSport's Noah Coslov and The News & Observer's Joe Giglio recap the action.
After beating Maryland & losing John Henson to injury, UNC will now face North Carolina State. CineSport's Noah Coslov discusses the matchup with UNC beat writer Andrew Carter & N.C. State beat writer Joe Giglio.
After an exciting start to the Quarterfinal matchups this afternoon, the ACC Digital Network's Kyle Montgomery and Drew Barry take a look at UNC's defeat of Maryland and NC State's win over Virginia.
