Hi, welcome to FTW. I'm James Cummings. Floppy birds are distracting your feeders now more than ever.
And I'm Logan Sims.
Welcome to FTW, where everything is made up and the points don't matter.
Yep, that's right. The points are just like Dorsberg commentating.
Well, we're going to go ahead and start off with men's basketball. In the last week, the Wolfpack took on Florida State at home at PNC
and then traveled to Chapel Hill. They won against Florida State. They lost to Chapel Hill.
As of right now, Logan, where does the basketball team stand?
As of right now, I believe NC State's basketball team is looking, standing right about where they are predicted going into the season. They are eighth in the conference at, I believe it's 14 and eight on the season, four and five in the conference.
The game versus Florida State, they came out looking pretty strong. They were up seven at the half, or six at the half, 39 to 33.
Got a really strong game out of TJ Warren, Desley, all the guys really chipped in. They just, they never really put it away, you know.
I feel like that's been their struggle all season is they're not having those real finish out games. They're not closing out.
They're winning by four and two like they did to Georgia Tech, just slipping by some games. I feel like a couple of these they should have really put away.
TJ Warren, like I said, 30 points, seven rebounds and three stills before he finally fouled out. And the good thing to see was that even when he fouled out, packed in, shut down.
They went ahead and finished out the game, really had a solid team performance.
Yeah, no. So we're going back to the Florida State game. I was, you know, I was, it looked like the team from last year really, like this team got up, they were up by six or seven and a half time and then towards the end of the game, they were trying to give it away.
Just like, you know, the team last year, they let their opponents creep back in on them. But this Chapel Hill game, man, I tell you what, I was so frustrated with it.
Like the whole time I'm sitting here on the couch, like looking like Kyle Washington, you know, like.
So, like it is just like Coach Godfrey said at the beginning of the week that every single game in the ACC counts once, but this game against Carolina, you know, counts a little more.
So, like the Florida State game was good because I gave us three straight wins.
But this, this Carolina game was really, really big for us. I thought it should have been a lot closer.
Like they were, you know, 45th in the RPI and we're 57. So really, there was no reason that they should have been up at 20 at any point in the game.
They should have been a lot closer.
I agree. Like you said, going into it, I felt coming off a three game win streak, I feel like if we'd beaten Carolina, that would have really propelled us into a really good end of the season run coming down the last couple of games.
So I feel like that was a huge game for us. If we'd won it, it would have really just launched us into it.
DJ Warren, to me, I know we always speak of him. He had a quiet, really quiet 21 points. As I was watching the game, I was really kind of frustrated, but just getting down as quick as we did.
Yeah, DJ, he had like nine points in the last four minutes and by that point, the game was over.
So, honestly, like, you know, and Jordan Vanderberg, is he worth starting?
Exactly, I know what you mean.
As most students know, earlier this week, the Wolves in Wolf Plaza were vandalized by some assumed to be some UNC students.
They were painted Carolina blue. This is believed to be in retaliation to a couple of students spray painting a Block S and Wolf Pack on the Dean Dome prior to the NC State Carolina basketball game this weekend.
James, what do you think? Some NC State or some Carolina students really don't believe that there's a big rival between us and them. What do you think about that?
Well, again, okay, hold on. My name is James Thomas and I approve this message. I love this. This is great.
Carolina, okay, my girlfriend is from Carolina, so I get to hear about this, you know, every time that we even come close to, you know, having a game with them.
Carolina fans think they're only rivals with Duke and nothing makes my skin crawl more than that because, you know, this is like for them to say that and then our Wolves get spray painted and then, you know, they come out and dance on our field after they win in football.
No, like, this is exactly the definition of rivalry. You know, we hate them, they hate us, you know, and they can deny it all they want, but I mean, at the end of the day, this is exactly what this is.
Yeah, right, I mean, right down the road, not even 25 miles away, it's always Carolina hates State, State hates Carolina.
True, there's Duke in the mix, especially with Carolina, but I mean, you fill it around campus when that Carolina basketball or football game comes, you know it's time to play.
And you know the exact same things happening over there on Carolina's campus. They want to beat us just as bad as we want to beat them. I don't think there's any denying it.
And in fact, there was an interview done with Roy Williams, I think it was prior to the Carolina State game, where they asked him and he said that he believes that it's one of his biggest games, it means more to him than almost any game that he ever coaches.
And I feel like that's huge coming from Carolina's basketball coach himself.
I want to say just about the vandalism, whatever, we see this all the time with other schools. You know, a couple years ago, when Cam Newton was playing at Auburn, a couple Auburn fans put a Cam Newton jersey on the Bear Bryant Statue out in front of the stadium in Tuscaloosa.
We see this all the time. This is kind of a known thing for us. They hate Carolina. When ESPN covers it, they say that we're rivals. I don't understand why they don't think we're rivals.
Yeah, I know what you mean. To be honest with you, Carolina has kind of had the upper hand a lot, but that doesn't mean that it's not a rivalry because you're playing in the moment.
You want to win the next game. The next game against Carolina later this month is the game that we're all going to be getting right up for.
And I'm really interested to see if Carolina decides to try to vandalize the PNC arena because that's a little bit bigger, I believe, because we kind of share that with the Hurricanes.
So I'm interested to see how this comes down, but yeah, it's definitely a rivalry. It means as much to us as it does to them, in my opinion.
Alright, moving on. Now, the women's basketball team took on No. 8 Maryland last Thursday and beat them 72-63. This will put the NC State women's basketball team at No. 14 in the latest polls.
Logan, how big of a win is this for the Wolf Pack?
I believe this game is quite possibly the biggest win the NC State women's basketball team has had all season long. It was huge. It's the first home win against the top 10 opponent since beating North Carolina just a couple of years ago in February 2007.
I feel like this is really showing our dominance, especially at home. The Wolf Pack women's basketball team is something to see. To be honest, I've not seen a game yet, but it makes me want to go see a game, especially the Carolina game coming up soon.
Just to split out some stats. We even talked about last week, you and Greg talked about Marquesha Gatling, awesome player, amazing shooting percentage, really a star player. She had 15 points. It was huge. She was big for us. She had a 9 rebounds, which I'll get back to in a little bit.
But one player really stepped up who didn't even score in the first half was Maisha Gowyn Coleman. This girl stepped up in the second half. I'll tell you what, she scored 16 points, all of which in the second half, including a go ahead 3 with 351 left in the game.
Prior to that, Maryland had tied it at 57, I believe, and it was almost as if they're either going to hit some and turn this game around and propel them into the rest of the game, or if they didn't allow them to take the upper hand, because they've led most of the game, I believe.
I feel like it could have turned out different, but she hit that 3, took over, ignited 11-2 runs to finish out the game. It was huge.
To me, this game was about the women's basketball team exerting their dominance. In the first half, the women's basketball team were down by 10 or something like that. They locked down defense, and Maryland is an outside-in team.
They get the 3-pointer going. They hit 0-3-pointers in the second half. They went 0-14, and on the other side of the court, on the offensive side for us, we had 28 points in the paint. Then all of that, we got to the foul line 20 times and made 15 of those.
You want to guess how many times Maryland got to the free-throw line? One time.
With that, our team just took over the game. They controlled the tempo. We slowed it down, got the ball down low, and just let our big guys go to work.
The big guys, NCSU had a 37-34 advantage on the rebounds. It's one thing to win, but they did that against the third-ranked nationally team in rebounding, meaning Maryland just comes out on top with the rebounding. That's a huge stat.
Cody Burke had 10, and like I said earlier, Gatling had 9 to add to a huge game for the state, for NC State, helping them propel them to that win.
Yeah, big things to come from the women's basketball team.
Definitely.
And last Sunday's Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks completely routed the Denver Broncos 43-8. The Wolf Pack were very well represented in the hashtag PACT Super Bowl.
James, were you impressed by the alumni?
Sadly, no. I mean, it was a great accomplishment that we had four guys representing the Wolf Pack in this game. But really, once we got there, this game wasn't about the NC State players.
Russell Wilson was a quarterback, and I love me some Russell Wilson, but this game wasn't about him. He was a quarterback.
So, you know, it was great that Husky hit his field goals, but honestly, they weren't clutch field goals, and Russell Wilson didn't have to make a two-minute drive in the fourth quarter.
So, I mean, Trell Manning probably had the best game of them all, and really, he ended up on the losing side.
For me, there's no real story here as far as the Wolf Pack go. I mean, congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks on their Super Bowl win, but this isn't that big of a story for me.
I know what you mean. Russell Wilson, he led his team. He had a great game. What surprised me, a lot of people called it saying he was going to come out shaky, or he was going to come out lean like he did every other game.
I feel like the first couple passes, he didn't look quite there, but he settled down at an average game, 18 for 25 for 206 yards, zero interceptions, two touchdowns.
Good game. I wouldn't really say impressed, but it was a good game. It was a Super Bowl. He did what he needed to do.
The general manager for the Seahawks even quoted, Russell's not a stats guy. He's a guy that's about winning games.
It kind of stood out to me. Paint Manning, who's usually, I mean, this season, entire seasons have been about him making records, breaking records, having the best stats.
What happened to him? I mean, he threw two or three interceptions, one return for a touchdown. Not a very great game.
Like he said, Stephen Hoshka had 11 points, two short yard field goals. Nothing really impressive. It was five for five on his PATs.
One thing that I found interesting that was quoted in one of the articles I read was that he recovered the fumble on one of his kickoffs, but that was later returns.
I guess it doesn't really matter. But still, he was in the play. He was there where he needed to be.
To be honest, the guy who I was most impressed with was the guy who was on the losing team. Nate Irving had a pretty good game.
The one he could do, he had a couple of tackles. Early in the game, when the score was five to zero, when it really mattered, he knocked the ball out of the curses' hands.
They ended up scoring, routing him. But he did what he needed to do on that play and forced a field goal. So I was pretty impressed with that.
Yeah, good win for the Seahawks.
Definitely.
One of the most intriguing matchups this weekend is against the George Washington hockey team. The NCSU hockey team is number one in the conference.
Excuse me, Logan, how big of a game is this?
It's our last home game. I feel like this is a huge game. It could not be any more exciting. Number one versus number two, that's what dreams are made of.
If I was a player on the NC State club hockey team, I'd be like, let's go. NC State has completely dominated this entire season.
Since the New Year started, their beating teams tend to 1-9-3-7-0. Our NC State hockey team is looking pretty good.
One big thing that's standing out to me is Danny Frenberg, big injury. He was our first or second highest point-gater and he broke his collarbone this past weekend against the Wake Forest demon deacons.
That's going to play pretty big, I believe. It'll be interesting to see because they still beat Duke. We'll talk about that later. They still beat Duke pretty bad without him.
But what are they going to do against the team that has come after him?
Frenberg's got 15 points in this season and that's a solid 15 points. I would say that the other guys have got to step up. This is the matchup of the year for this team.
This will decide who is the ACC HL champions, basically, regular season champions. They still have the tournament to go.
Other guys have got to step up. Mackie Heyman, Garrett Sunda, Danny Blue, Chris Nelson, Billy Manuela. They've got to get racked up for this game. George Washington is not a push-over opponent.
They have lost one ACC HL game this entire season. We are undefeated in the ACC HL, but one overtime loss.
The guys on the other side of the ice are really concerning for me. Jacob Lesick, Sam Holbert, and Matthew Diskin have combined for 83 points on the season. All three of them.
George Washington is going to be a very tough opponent for these guys.
I agree. It'll be interesting to see, especially for our goalies.
Nick Kamaris. It'll be a big game for him to see if he can keep George Washington out of the net.
I mean, you did a game earlier this season following a big game against Georgetown. We had James Madison the next day.
He did some backflips in that game, I believe, to keep it pretty low scoring. We came out with a win. I think we can do it this weekend.
Make sure you guys are out for that game this weekend. That's going to be a very good game.
Alright, so coming up after this break, we will be talking about Julius Hodge and the upcoming cheerleading and mascot tryouts to stick around.
Got it! Touchdown, North Carolina State!
Lauren Robinson!
Just a second. You can see the time. Wittberg, Orange along the way. They won it!
Welcome back to FTW. Now it's time to go into the segment we like to call What's the Word?
Alright, James, our first topic today is about TJ Warren. He is still currently the leading ACC scorer.
James, fill in the blank. TJ Warren's scoring is...
I have to say that the word for this is unimportant and not that it's like TJ Warren scoring doesn't matter because this team probably would not have as many wins as they do without TJ Warren scoring.
But looking back at the Carolina game, he scores and it doesn't influence the game. It's not in clutch times. They don't run plays for him.
So he just kind of gets points. You look up and TJ Warren has 20 points.
I know exactly what you mean. For me, I said TJ Warren scoring is quiet. Like you said, it's just you look up and he has 20 points.
Like where would that come from? I feel like I agree with the unimportant part. He's needed. He's a big playmaker.
But like in the Maryland game, he didn't even play and that was one of our biggest wins this year by seven points.
I feel like that might be wrong, but still one of our biggest wins. I agree. TJ Warren, not quite as big as I would expect.
Next up, Chris Nelson had the goal of the year against Duke. Logan, Chris Nelson's goal was blank.
For me, I got to say Chris Nelson's goal was meaningful. We're going to go into a little bit more detail about it later.
It was later in the game. Like I said, we beat them 10-1. We beat Duke 10-1 in that breast cancer awareness game.
But exactly that. It was a breast cancer awareness game. Chris Nelson's mother fought and won the battle against breast cancer.
So it was very meaningful for him to be able to get that score. Like I said, we're going to talk about it a little bit later.
But he had a little bit of celebration. I don't think it made the Duke team or the officials very happy.
But it was a meaningful shot for him. I completely understand. I'm sure if the other team knew what his mother had been through, they would understand.
My word for this is nasty. Did you see this thing? Every time I see this, as I just hear Chris Berman's voice going,
he pulls it, he fails. Yeah, exactly. And we had a producer actually send this into a sports center. We don't know if it made it yet, but it was a very exciting play for the hockey team.
Now we move on to Julius Hodge. Jules was named an ACC legend and will be honored during the ACC Men's Tournament in March.
James, Julius Hodge's legacy is blank.
Legend. Wait for it. Dairy. This guy was my childhood hero growing up. I bought a 24 football jersey because I couldn't find the 24 basketball jersey.
I have childhood memories of this guy beating Chris Duhan on a midweek game against number one Duke.
And then he runs into the crowd and starts high-fiving people. He runs back into the locker room and gives the famous, we hungry, we eat speech.
So for this, this is a great story for me. I'm a big Julius Hodge fan.
I understand. For me, I got to say Julius Hodge's legend status is not very exciting, but expect is my word.
He played for us from 2001 to 2005. It was a very big part of the Wolf Pack during that span. And he was a 2004 ACC player of the year, so pretty expected.
Also, if you haven't followed this guy on Twitter, he's hilarious. My other word is Twitter-tastic. He's funny. Go follow him. You'll see why.
Know what you mean.
Before the break, we talked about the women's basketball team. Logan, fill in this blank. The win over number eight Marilyn was blank.
I'm going to put on a little Dick Vitale imitation. I'm going to say, it was huge, baby.
That was, like we've already talked about, one of the biggest wins. I think NC State's had any sport this year.
I'm looking forward to some huge ones in baseball, but definitely one of the biggest ones against Marilyn, a ranked team number eight in the NCAA.
I see big things happening for this NC State basketball team. I'm really looking forward to it. Like I said, huge.
Yeah. My way for this though is it's going to be overlooked because going into this game, the story was, well, NC State's won the basketball.
They had a nice run when they were playing easy for opponents, but now they play a big dog and people are still saying, well, they have to play Duke and have to play Carolina
and they have to play Notre Dame and people are still discounted.
That's a question. No, Carolina is at home. Well, we are absolutely dominating women's basketball. I want to see that game.
What about Duke? Is that a home game or a road game?
I'm not sure. But either way, you know, this women's basketball team is doing big things. We've got to go support them, people. I'm going.
Coming up after the break, we're going to talk about more hockey than an identity of NC State athletics.
Hey Wolfpack fans, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with NC State sports and more. Do it today.
Welcome back to For the Win. In the past week, NC State's club hockey team has been really hot beating Wake Forest and Duke because we've already talked about.
James, what's some other information you can share with me about that?
Well, the Duke game, for those of you who were not at the game, it was a complete blowout. They beat them 10-0.
10-1.
Yeah, excuse me. And, you know, this Wake Forest game was about the same script. And I think it was a good marker for this team because back before they played Wake Forest already one time this season, they beat them 43.
So the margin for this team has really opened up.
I know what you mean. Like you said, that back earlier season when they played them at home, they beat them 4-3, that was quite possibly one of the worst games NC State's played all season.
Even some of the losses they've had, that just shows that they've matured a lot, especially this half of the year since New Year's.
They've been extremely hot. They lost one of their senior captains, Mike Riesland.
Mike Riesland, that's right. Mike Riesland. And just this entire half of the season is showing like, yes, they lost him, but they have got some awesome leadership somewhere in there.
One of the captains or a couple of the captains have really got them going. The Duke game 10-1 huge, huge game for breast cancer awareness.
Like we already talked about Chris Nelson's goal was massive. It was an awesome time, awesome feeling for him, I believe, to bring that home to his mom just to make that one goal.
And it was a shorthand goal. I don't think we said that yet. It was a shorthand goal. If you haven't seen this goal, people, you need to check it out.
Google Wolfpack Sports TV. It's an awesome goal. I really see some bright things for this team as they head into George Washington this weekend.
I just want to say that, you know, I really want to make sure that this team is clicking at the right points. You know, sometimes you can peak too early in the season and then by the time you hit tournament play, you know, the best part of the season is already behind you and you won losses.
That's all it takes to get out of the season.
Yeah, I know what you mean. It'll be really exciting to see. I'm excited to see what happens the rest of the season.
Last weekend, Wolfpack Sports TV was slated to cover the rugby match at Method Park. However, due to the snow, we were not able to get that.
Logan, should the university think about upgrading the facility at Method Park?
I believe that the university really should consider it. The University of North Carolina State is really well known for its turf management department.
We're really well known for our ability to take care of fields and look at Dell Soccer Park. It's one of the prettiest places on campus.
Our field is extremely nice. It's always in game condition. I don't know how many soccer games have been canceled this year.
So I believe there would be a really good investment to see.
There's the issue right there, Logan. It's an investment and honestly, this is going to cost a boatload of money.
I don't know that this is really worth it. Who uses the fields? A couple of club teams that we almost never hear about.
Getting rugby is nice every once in a while. But honestly, this isn't like the money-making sport.
Having a turf field for the soccer team is very important because the soccer team is kind of important.
But for these club teams, how much do we really need to invest in them?
I know what you mean. It's not really the most popular sport. There's not thousands of fans or even hundreds of fans wanting to go out there.
But there are people who enjoy to go watch it. There's people that go and spend some money on some of the items they sell.
Just like at the club hockey game, they sell shirts. I know they sell a boatload of shirts, especially for the 100, 250 people that show up to those.
But I feel like one of the classes or courses at NC State could even make a project out of it. Last year, when I was in high school playing football,
we always had a problem with mud on our practice field. Our coach always wanted us out there.
One kid made it a project for himself to put down a 3 foot by 10 foot little bit of turf himself.
It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but we could go out and practice anytime.
See, I don't think it's worth it. How is this university going to benefit if we pour a million dollars into this field?
Parents get a better experience out of it. That's nice, but why can't we just reschedule for these games for mid-week? I don't get it.
Our final topic for today was a Twitter suggestion by Ryan Leffler. Again, people, that's a Twitter suggestion.
Feel free to tweet anything with the hashtag Ask FTW. Again, hashtag Ask FTW. We'll be glad to answer a couple of them for you.
James, Ryan wants to know if we think NC State is a basketball school or a football school. What do you think?
Shout out to Ryan Leffler. Thank you for the question today.
I'm going to go ahead and say we're a football school.
I know you don't really agree with me on this one, but NC State is a football school.
If you look at Carter Friendly, we throw that thing up every Saturday, providing that we have a home game.
I watched the football team grow these past couple of years, and with Doran coming in, there's a lot of excitement surrounding this program.
Our recruiting day was this last Wednesday, and I saw these guys are sending in their letters of intent.
I'm excited for the football season, and it is basketball season right now, and not that I'm not excited for the basketball team.
I think our football team has a more exciting story.
I know what you're saying. Football is football. Everybody is going to fill a house for football.
I'm at ACC's football conference, but I mean, ACC is known for its basketball.
It's got Caroline, it's got Duke now, it's got Syracuse, the only undefeated team in the NCAA, if I'm not mistaken.
I feel like that, and the fact that we have a couple of championships, we're a basketball school.
We struggle. Seems like we've had a curse on ourselves, but I mean, we have a lot of young, exciting talent here at NC State's basketball program.
I feel like it is a basketball school we have a lot to work on.
I know we probably won't have TJ Warren much longer, but we have Trevor Lacey coming in next year.
We should have Desley, I think, another year, and like I said, all the young freshman, Kat Barber, all of them are going to be around for a while.
I'm excited to see what the basketball team does. I really honestly feel like it's a basketball school.
I say that it's a basketball school, but how many times have you gone to a basketball game and you're just like, well, that's not really what I expected out of this team or something like that.
To be honest, it's exactly what I expected. This entire season, I had a lot of hope coming into it, and I still have a lot of excitement.
I think they could win some things, but after the first couple of games, I know what to expect. That doesn't mean it's not really a basketball school.
I mean, the football team, it was three and eight.
Three and nine.
Three and nine?
No, ACC wins. I'll concede that to you.
Dave Doran's first year, we'll give him a pass on that one.
I just think that this is a great story about how everybody's coming in, and this program has really grown by leaps and bounds.
Even going back to the Mario Williams and Phillip Rivers day, I think this is a very strong story.
I'm excited to see what happens to the football team and what happens in the future with the basketball team.
I feel like NC State has a bright future in sports, to be honest.
Now for today's big finish. Men's and women's tennis, are they making any noise?
Besides the grunts on the court, I've got to say none. Men's basketball versus Miami, what's your score?
No Reggie Johnson, no problem. State by six.
Wrestling beat Carolina today. Sorry, this week. Is this a big deal?
Pretty big deal.
They beat him 19-16 going into the final home draw. I think it was a pretty big win.
Track and softball starts Thursday. Are you excited?
Calling it right now. Softball is going to go back to back champs.
Swimming and diving this week. Are you swimming and making a big splash?
I've got to say they're making a little splash.
Fall, cheerleading and mascot tryouts. Are you excited?
I know I'm trying out. Hockey against George Washington. What's our final score?
I've got to give it NC State five, George Washington four and a real nail biter.
Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter. That's all the time we have for today.
You've been watching FGW. We'll see you next time.
Oh, by the way, I'm buzzing. He's woody.
There's a snake in my boot.
