Well, our season is over so it's time for another write-up. We had pretty much the year I expected, no more, no less. We won our division, went 12-4 in conference, 10-0 overall at home (2nd undefeated home season for NC State ever), we even beat UNC during the regular season. We earned a 3 seed in the NT. We beat Depaul and Syracuse before bowing out to Texas Tech (and their new coach tanzetti). I was pleased with our performance, although I wish we could have had Zmich with us. If we had Zmich I think we would have been capable of another final four run, but those are the risks you take at high level D1.
Albert Fowler improved quite a lot over the course of the season and developed into a PG who could handle the press, which really helped us towards the end of the season and in the NT. David Dixon also did quite a nice job this year, his last, as our starting SF. He scored very efficiently and was named 3rd team all-ACC, something I didn't expect from him at the beginning of his career.
Albert Sims also deserves a shout-out, as he finished 1st all-time on the NC State records in Rebounds (by 1) and FG% as well as 3rd in Blocks. He was honored with 2nd team all-ACC honors.
Our two juniors, Howard and Potter, were our leading scorers once again. Potter was left off the awards list this year after being a 1st teamer as a sophomore, but Howard was once again honored with 1st team all-ACC. We have 5 seniors leaving, so there's still room for Howard to leave unfortunately, and I think he will.
Also graduating are Jeff Payne (a key contributor these past two years after coming in as a JUCO, Steven Covell, a very good role player, and Charles Jennings, who never really made it far off the bench, but was a very solid 4th big man. If Howard leaves early, Ernest Gerke, who took 3 shots all year, will be our only remaining big man on the roster.
We will have 6 or 7 openings to fill this offseason, and a high A or A+ prestige to work with. Needless to say, I am very excited. Here's this year's team: