SB Nation - Javier Gonzalez

Individual Stats Now Available

Akula Wolf — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:42:34 -0000

Here. W-L projections are out as well: 19-12, 6-10. Sounds about right at this point.

-- With Tracy Smith taking such a huge chunk of the shots, the leftovers are being distributed pretty evenly throughout the rest of the lineup. Everybody else getting significant minutes is taking between 15%-22% of the shots. In that regard, they're a little like this team.

-- Javi's assist rate ranks fourth nationally and is tops among power conference players.

Elsewhere:

-- Ed Davis, Deon Thompson, Ty Zeller...not a bad frontcourt. Will Graves should probably shoot less often.

-- Four ACC schools rank in the top ten in effective height. Ugh.

-- At least Ish Smith isn't turning the ball over quite as often.

-- Clemson needs a hero and the person for that job, clearly, is Ray Dungeon.

-- Tough start for Greivis Vasquez.

-- Iman Shumpert is still killing possessions with great frequency, but Georgia Tech's heralded freshman class is panning out well and their offense is vastly improved. If they can find a way to cut down on the turnovers...

-- Andre Dawkins holy crap.

-- Look at all those ugly turnover rates. Scoring points in the paint against FSU has been virtually impossible, and it looks like they're following the same win-ugly-with-defense model they did last season.

-- Note the number of possessions in the VMI/Seton Hall game, which ended in regulation. Who do I have to bribe to get VMI on the schedule? Or at least on TV? That system of theirs is epically self-defeating (just look at their FG% D) but so much fun.

NC State 77, Marquette 73 -- Cue The Happy Dance

Akula Wolf — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:44:09 -0000

More photos » by Morry Gash - AP

Heart. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

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Four Factors	NC State	Marquette
eFG%	59.8	44.7
Turnover Rate	17.5	21.9
Off Reb Rate	32.3	46.5
FT Rate	35.7	27.3

	Pts	Poss	OFF_EFF	DEF_EFF
MU	73	68.5	106.5	112.4
NCSU	77	68.5	112.4	106.5

Box Score

Wow:

NCSU Offense	OFF EFF	eFG%	TO%	OR%	FTR
1st Half	79.6	41.1	25.5	33.3	7.1
2nd Half	140.2	78.6	10.8	30.8	64.3

-- State hit 20-of-28 field goal attempts in the second half, including 4-of-4 from outside, and took great care of the basketball. Needless to say, they were crazy-efficient at the offensive end, averaging 1.4 points per trip. And they would've been even better than that had they hit more free throws.

-- The Macrowave woke up in a huge way, scoring 17 points on 8-10 shooting in the final 20 minutes, while Javi was a perfect 4-4 from the field en route to a 12-point half. I think those were two of the finest halves those guys have ever put together.

-- Josh Davis hustled his way to 9 points, 6 boards (4 offensive), and 2 steals in 16 minutes. Dennis Horner carried the Wolfpack through the first half and Farnold Degand provided a nice spark in his first game back.

-- It was a good defensive effort save the rebounding. Turnovers were a huge key in the second half; State forced a few early miscues to help get the rally going, and Marquette ended up with 10 second half turnovers to the Pack's 4. Between the poor shooting and 27% turnover rate, the Golden Eagles averaged less than a point per possession in the 2nd.

Around the ACC: 12.2

MRickman84 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:36:20 -0000

It was a rocky start to the Challenge with the ACC going 0-3 with the UVA, State and Wake losses, but the conference bounced back a bit in the second slate of games. Today will decide whether the ACC will win its 11th straight ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

NC State 53, Northwestern 65

So what was going on in this game? Two starters for State--Scott Wood and C.J. Williams--both had 0 points in a combined Tossed in with Javi Gonzalez's performance, those three starters combined for 3-21 shooting. Tracy Smith had an inspired game with 23, but Michael Thompsons's 22 points and Northwestern's 49% shooting (43% from 3) were enough to give the Wildcats the W.

Wake Forest 58, Purdue 69

We all know how this turned out. Nothing to see here. Turnovers, Purdue making 14 more FTs and the Boilermakers taking 12 more shots than the Deacs really told the story. E'Twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson and Robbie Hummel combined for 54 points in the win.

Maryland 80, Indiana 68

This one was close for a long time, but the Terps pulled away in the last 5 minutes. Greivis Vasquez continued his poor shooting, going 4-14. He's gotta figure this out and fast, although he had 23, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. 13 of his 14 pionts came off FTs. Vasquez's shooting has obviously suffered, but he is becoming a better point guard overall and is making better decisions (1.83 A:TO). Milbourne had 19 and 7, while Eric hayes added 14. Indiana did not shoot well at all, but Maurice Cheek led Indiana with 19 points in the loss.

UNC 89, Michigan State 82

In a rematch of last year's National Championship game, the Tarheels absolutely blitzed Michigan State in the first half, shooting lights out and looking unstoppable. The Spartans settled down in the second half, cutting the lead down, but in the track meet, UNC just had too much firepower. Ed Davis had a career game with 22 points and 6 rebounds. Larry Drew looked really strong, adding 18 points and 6 assists. UNC shot 58% while Michigan State shot 2-20 from beyond the arc.

Virginia Tech 70, Iowa 64

Props to Iowa for hanging tough in this game. Iowa is not a very good basketball team at all, but they played inspired basketball yesterday. It didn't help the Hokies' cause that they shot 4-15 from deep, but they committed only four turnovers and looked under control the whole game. Malcolm Delaney had 18 points and 5 assists. I don't know what to make of this VT team, but 5-1 with a loss against Temple doesn't look terrible. Let's see how they look in the rest of their non-conference schedule.

Around the ACC: 11.30

MRickman84 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:53:10 -0000

More photos » by Jae C. Hong - AP

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A clean sweep yesterday, huh? Really nice to see FSU pull out a big win and Clemson win a thriller against Butler. Those wins are going to look great for the conference come March. The ACC/Big Ten Challenge starts tonight with Virginia vs. Penn State, so start getting geared up now.

NC State 69, New Orleans 52
State's defense really helped in this game, holding New Orleans to 35% shooting and just 24 points in the second half. The Wolfpack shot 8-16 behind the arc, with CJ Williams and Javi Gonzalez hitting a combined 5-10. Tracy Smith led the way with 20 points and 8 rebounds on 8-12 shooting. The Pack draw Northwestern next in the Challenge.

UNC 80, Nevada 73
Here we go again. The Tar Heels let a team hang around and end up pulling out a victory by under a dozen points. This is going to haunt them if it keeps happening this way. Deon Thompson stepped up again with 23 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Larry Drew II had a solid game as well, getting a career-high 10 assists to go with 12 points. Ed Davis had his most effective game this season too, finishing with 16. UNC went through a 5 minute drought that netted only two FTs and eight missed shots.

Clemson 70, Butler 69
Clemson needed this one. The loss to a solid Texas A&M team actually may have been a blessing in disguise, as it probably loosened the Tigers up. This one came down to the wire as Demontez Stitt (19 points, 3 assists) netted both FTs with 3.3 seconds to put the Tigers up one with 3.3 seconds. Butler went the length of the floor and called time out and got one last chance, but Trevor Booker (12 points, 8 rebounds) blocked the shot and gave Clemson the win.

The stats were in Butler's favor, with the Bulldogs outshooting and outrebounding Clemson, but the Tigers hit 5 more FTs and hit 2 more threes, which was just enough. Gordon Hayward led Butler with 20 points and 12 rebounds. The Bulldogs are going to walk away really hoping that they had taken at least one against Minnesota or Clemson, but will have another chance to prove themselves against Georgetown and Ohio State later on.

Florida State 57, Marquette 56
In another exciting finish, Solomon Alabi came through with about 12 seconds left and FSU's defense held, with Marquette turning it over on their last possession. This was the shocker of the weekend. Marquette looked downright great their last two games against Xavier and Michigan.

Florida State, despite their 6-1 record, has looked shaky at times and got blown out of the gym against Florida. It's great to see them put it together though. Alabi is a beast and Chris Singleton (18 points, 10 rebounds) is looking very good so far. Lazar Hayward led the Golden Eagles with 19 points and 10 rebounds. The 'Noles will take on Ohio State next in another chance to prove what they're made of.

NC State 60, Auburn 58

Akula Wolf — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:15:31 -0000

Four Factors	NC State	Auburn
eFG%	37.3	50.0
Turnover Rate	17.3	23.4
Off Reb Rate	43.2	31.4
FT Rate	28.6	28.3

	Pts	Poss	OFF_EFF	DEF_EFF
Auburn	58	63.8	90.9	94.0
NCSU	60	63.8	94.0	90.9

Box Score

Winning in the margins. It's nice to be on this side of things. All too often throughout the Sidney Lowe era, NC State has wasted good shooting efforts with turnovers, poor rebounding, or both. Auburn shot 58% to State's 43.9% in the second half, but the Tigers turned the ball over twice as often, failed to control the glass, and continued to miss their freebies.

The Pack finished the game with a +4 turnover margin, hit 13-18 FTs compared to Auburn's 5-15, and rebounded well at both ends...which was just enough to overcome the 37% shooting.

-- Tough night for Tracy Smith; I'm guessing his 4-18 shooting effort was the worst of his career. He was tired--a lot of attempts fell short--he was frustrated, Auburn collapsed down on every touch, and the refs were completely unforgiving. But he still came through with five enormous points in the final minute, including the game-winner. And he rebounded the hell out of the ball, grabbing seven at the offensive end and eight at the defensive end, which made him primary reason why the Pack won the rebounding battle decisively.

-- It's evident why Auburn generally forces opponents to shoot a lot of threes (though we did not). To combat their lack of size, they would double just about every entry into the post regardless of who it was with the ball.

-- Can't say enough about Dennis Horner's effort all weekend. If we needed a bucket to stop some bleeding, it seemed like he was always the guy stepping up to hit it.

-- Javi was up-and-down in all three games but I think when you compare his play to Mays' performance, there's no doubt Javi is the team's primary distributor. Javi may be more prone to a careless turnover here and there, but he attacked defenses more aggressively than Mays, looked quicker in general, and displayed a knack for real point-guard-type passes. I'm not sure how to properly describe that last bit other than to say that he put his teammates in high-percentage situations and Mays didn't. His dish to a cutting Dennis Horner for a right-down-main-street dunk in the first half of the Auburn game was the highlight of the weekend.

-- Positive signs from the defense. The Pack had one bad half defensively all weekend. In four out of the six halves, NC State held its opponent to less than 0.8 points per possession. Doesn't matter who we've played; those are encouraging results.

-- For whatever reason, none of our opponents could hit a free throw this weekend. We're currently ranked #1 nationally in opponents' free throw percentage (42.9%). Thanks for throwing us a bone, basketball gods.

-- We rank 301st in tempo with an average of 63.7 possessions per 40 minutes. In case anybody was wondering how the up-tempo thing is working out.

NC State 69, Georgia State 53 (Updated)

Akula Wolf — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:53:58 -0000

More photos » by Ethan Hyman - AP

about 1 month ago: North Carolina State's Tracy Smith (23) looks for room as Georgia State's James Fields (4) defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Ethan Hyman)

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Four Factors	NC State	Georgia St.
eFG%	43.9	39.8
Turnover Rate	14.4	19.1
Off Reb Rate	34.3	34.1
FT Rate	71.4	20.3

	Pts	Poss	OFF_EFF	DEF_EFF
GSU	53	62.7	84.5	110.0
NCSU	69	62.7	110.0	84.5

Box Score

Tracy Smith picked up his second foul of the first half with 7:40 to go, and for the first couple of minutes the Wolfpack seemed to be proving the could be okay without his presence on the court. Dennis Horner took control of things offensively and Jordan Vandenberg added a couple of free throws to give the Pack it's largest lead with a little over five minutes left in the half. From there, though, the offense lost its direction and the defense suffered along with it, and Georgia State crawled back into the game. There was a moment of panic in the closing stages of the half, that's for sure.

The first eight minutes of the second half were a continued struggle, but the Pack finally started to build some cohesion offensively as Georgia State tired and their numerous fouls began to catch up to them. NC State took care of the basketball down the stretch (zero turnovers in the last 12 minutes), got the rebounding situation back under control, collected some easy transition points, and that was that. Tense in the middle but ultimately nothing to worry about.

-- As he has been throughout his career, Tracy was a point machine while he was on the floor, scoring 18 in 25 minutes. When he got the ball in the post, good things happened--he didn't shy from contact and the eager slap artists from GSU rarely failed to reward him with a trip to the line. A cheap foul or two was the only thing that kept him from a larger impact. (Tracy says Karl Hess and company threw him a fast one; they called the game differently than he anticipated. Regardless, one or two of his fouls were cheap, and they were Tracy's his fault. If the officiating's consistent going forward (ha!), he'll adjust, and this game will end up an exception. At least until conference play.)

-- Josh Davis. I doubt the kid is going to contribute much in terms of points, but the three offensive boards he had in 10 minutes are a testament to his hustle. One of those boards was particularly significant--with the Pack up four with 10 minutes to go in the game, he grabbed a CJ Williams miss and found Javi, who buried a huge three-pointer.

-- Jordan Vandenberg. His lone field goal attempt was a relatively uncontested six-footer that he shot too strongly off the glass and missed. So it was pretty clear how raw he is offensively. But he didn't turn the ball over in 10 minutes of playing time, and he was a definite factor in the paint defensively. The box score credits him with two blocks, but he also forced a couple of jump balls by stuffing GSU players which didn't count as blocks but should've. He justified 10 minutes/game going forward, I thought.

-- Tempo. Despite the slow pace, which was about four possessions under the national average, I thought the guys looked pretty committed to pushing the ball when they could. They would run the ball up the court in transition or after a made basket, though they usually were forced to slow down and run the halfcourt offense. Georgia State discouraged the running game with some well-timed pressure defense after made baskets. I liked what I saw from Javi, who pushed the team harder than Julius Mays. Javi was effective with the dribble drive when he wanted to be, and that's not reflected particularly well by the box score because of some missed shots by open teammates. He could've had double-digit assists easy. Javi just needs to be more consistently assertive.

Greivis' Last-Second 3-Pointer Riling Up Wolfpack

Ben Broman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:05:46 -0000

Some Terp fans were a bit afraid when Greivis Vasquez put up a last-second three pointer against North Carolina State the first time around. The Terps were already up by 8 at the time, but that didn't stop Vaz from running down court and setting up to drain an open, unnecessary three. His reasoning?

N.C. State fans "were talking about me being an immigrant and [having] a green card and stuff like that," he said. Although Vasquez said he later recognized the fans were trying to be funny, "at the moment I thought it was racist."

The fans likely were being disrespectful, but he's a junior - he should've experienced it before and moved past it. The opinions of the other players differed at the time: some thought that NCSt stopped playing early and held no grudges. Others...not so much.

N.C. State guard Javi Gonzalez [said] he'd like to punch Vasquez in the mouth.

"That's still in the back of my mind now. I think that was disrespectful," N.C. State forward Courtney Fells said.

I enjoyed Vasquez's response a bit more:

"When they stay that stuff about me, it just gets me fired up and motivates me to kill them," Vasquez said.

Now, it's obvious there was something lost in translation (much like the "vanquish our adversaries" quote he had last year). Still, it's pretty BA. It sounds like Gonzalez and Vaz want to mix it up a bit. That could get interesting, especially if Gonzalez guards Vaz, which is possible.

Quite a few NCSt players think they have a good chance with this one, and though I can't blame them (after all, Maryland just lost to UVA), I don't really see where it's coming from. Maryland beat them in the only matchup of the year, and it was in Carolina. They don't add anyone, so unless they've gotten better, I don't see why they're particularly confident. It was already set up to be an interesting game - this just adds a bit of extra intrigue.