#lou wilson my king champion of the bit

[dontmindme-imjustfangirlin]

the way i would go fucking missing if any of the shit that happened to fabian happened to me

[junker-town]

Undefeated NC State, explained

Dave Doeren and the Wolfpack lost a metric ton of NFL talent after a season of missed opportunities ... and got better? The Wolfpack are your CHAOS TEAM OF THE WEEK.

On October 24, 2002, Philip Rivers completed 15 of 24 passes, T.A. McLendon rushed for 178 yards, and Terrence Holt both picked off a pass and returned a blocked punt for a score as No. 12 NC State destroyed Clemson. The Wolfpack moved to 10th in the AP poll. They then lost three in a row, all to unranked teams.

In 1991, State moved to 11th after a win over defending national champion Georgia Tech. Next, the Pack barely got by I-AA’s Marshall, then lost to Clemson and Virginia.

In 1974, coached by Lou Holtz, the Pack were 6-0 and 10th in the polls when they lost at unranked UNC by 19, then to Maryland for good measure.

In 1967, they rose to third following an 8-0 start and a win over No. 2 Houston. They then scored 14 combined in road losses to unranked Penn State and Clemson.

The story of NC State is unrequited potential.

The Wolfpack live in a talent-rich area and have provided a stream of All-American talent and NFL draft picks: Rivers, Russell Wilson, and Roman Gabriel at quarterback; Mario Williams and Bradley Chubb at defensive end; Torry Holt and Haywood Jeffires at wide receiver; etc. Seventeen first-round picks in all.

Photo by Craig Jones/Getty Images

Philip Rivers’ 13,484 career college passing yards were second-most in FBS history when he graduated. (It’s 13th-most now.)

But despite all this talent, they have never — NEVER! — finished in the AP top 10. Every fan base in the country claims their program is cursed. Only one might actually be.

That’s why 2017 felt like such a missed opportunity. From my 2018 NC State preview:

[slams fist on keyboard] THAT WAS YOUR WINDOW. THAT WAS YOUR CHANCE.

Florida State had its worst team of the decade. Louisville’s defense was awful. Miami wasn’t fully weaponized. Hell, even Clemson was a step or two off of its 2016 pace.

You had seven draftees (plus whoever maybe gets drafted in 2019). And you lost four times. You let Clemson off the hook again. You lost to Wake Forest. You outgained South Carolina by more than 250 yards and somehow lost. With as much talent as you’ve ever compiled, you’ve lost seven one-possession games in the last two years.

The draft narrative wasn’t “Wow, look at the talent NC State is producing!” It was “How the hell did they only go 9-4 with all that talent? And what are they going to do now that it’s gone?”

State had seven players drafted from last year’s nine-win squad, including four defensive linemen. Chubb is in the running for Rookie of the Year. Nyheim Hines has 36 rushes and 31 receptions for the Colts.

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

Bradley Chubb had three sacks against the Rams on Sunday and has 4.5 for the season.

And yet, without all that departed talent, the Pack are 5-0, 16th in the AP poll, and 19th in S&P+ heading into the game of Week 8, a battle with third-ranked Clemson.

The last time they came to Death Valley, they had a shot to beat the eventual national champions but missed a field goal. They have played the Tigers super-tough for three straight years. Do they have a fourth in them?

After a shaky season opener against James Madison, the Wolfpack have handled their business, beating Georgia State by 34, a solid Marshall by 17 in Huntington, and top-50 Boston College and Virginia squads by a combined 19.

They have not necessarily looked the part of a title contender, but they have been better rounded than before, currently ranking in the top 30 in both Off. and Def. S&P+. (They were 21st on offense last year but somehow, despite the talent on the line, only 63rd on defense.)

Since a September battle with West Virginia was canceled because of Hurricane Florence, this is State’s first marquee game. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s Wolfpack:

1. The passing game is really damn good.

In 2017, Ryan Finley threw for 3,518 yards, and State ranked 17th in passing success rate. This year, despite the loss of Hines and do-it-all Jaylen Samuels, two solid safety valves, the Wolfpack are currently fourth in passing success rate.

Last year’s top receivers, Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers have combined for 63 catches, 853 yards, and three scores, but depth has come in handy. Sophomore Emeka Emezie had 13 catches in 2017 but already has 20 this year, and freshman Thayer Thomas has been an ultra-efficient possession option, catching 16 of 19 passes for 202 yards.

Photo by Lance King/Getty Images

Ryan Finley is one of the country’s most underrated passers.

With the veteran Finley leading the way, State has been brilliant at catching up to the chains. The Pack are fifth in passing-downs marginal efficiency; more impressively, they’re first in the country in blitz-downs success rate (second-and-super-long or third-and-five or more). They’re also first in third-and-long success rate, third in third-and-medium success rate, and third in overall sack rate allowed.

Finley’s quick release and a wealth of options have made the Pack blitz-proof. That’s good because the run game has mostly stunk. It showed some life against Boston College, with Reggie Gallaspy Jr. and Ricky Person Jr. combining for 196 yards and a 49 percent success rate, but State still ranks just 110th in rushing marginal efficiency.

Passing is the way to go against Clemson anyway. The Tigers have maybe the best defensive line in the country and rank second in rushing marginal efficiency allowed. They’re only 70th against the pass, though. If Finley is able to avoid pressure, he could find success.

2. The defense stiffens like crazy in the red zone.

Despite the turnover, NC State’s defense has improved in virtually every category this year. Granted, we’re only halfway through the season — we’ll see how much of that improvement can be sustained — but the Pack are up from 56th to 39th in success rate allowed. More importantly, they’ve improved from 63rd to fifth in points allowed per scoring opportunity (first downs inside the defense’s 40).

In this year’s team stat profiles, I am sharing a more extensive breakout of red zone stats. State aces pretty much all of them:

15th in success rate allowed between the 21 and 30

33rd in success rate allowed between the 11 and 20

14th in success rate allowed inside the 10

eighth in success rate allowed on first-and-goal

first in turnover rate inside the 10

Granted, relying on red zone turnovers over a long period of time is a fool’s errand, but even without the turnovers, the Pack have been tremendous at stopping opponents short of the goal line and at least forcing field goals.

They’re able to do so because of a front seven that is once again talented and disruptive: end James Smith-Williams and tackle Larrell Murchison each has six tackles for loss already (they’ve combined for six sacks and 12 run stuffs), and veteran linebacker Germaine Pratt has chipped in with 4.5 TFLs as well.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Germaine Pratt has been the quarterback of the still-effective State defense.

Red zone stops have been important, however, because they’ve been letting opponents off the hook a bit on passing downs. They rank 27th in marginal efficiency on standard downs but only 62nd on passing downs. They’ve been vulnerable to draw plays due to kamikaze pass rushes (and youth in the secondary), and they rank just 92nd in third-and-long success rate allowed.

But they make tackles, force opponents to run extra plays, and eventually make a stop.

Finishing drives will be a massive key on Saturday.

Clemson’s pretty good at it (17th in points per scoring opportunity on offense) and should create a handful of opportunities.

Meanwhile, the Tigers are even better than State at stopping opponents short of the end zone — they’re second in points per scoring opp allowed. State will struggle to score touchdowns, but if the Wolfpack continue to force mistakes, they’ll yet again give themselves a chance at the upset.

Clemson is an obvious favorite. The Tigers are projected to win by 14.4 points per S&P+ and are 15.5-point favorites per Vegas.

But even if the Wolfpack were a bit disappointing overall, State has played Clemson really well in recent years. And after a week of mayhem and blood that shook up the national title race, State is the key to unlocking even more in Week 8.

[junker-town]

Carmelo Anthony deserved better from the New York Knicks

He had his flaws, but the Knicks shoulder most of the blame for his six-year tenure not fulfilling its promise.

I remember exactly where I was the night Carmelo Anthony broke the record.

I was at a bar called Stillwater Tavern in Hampton, Va., where I did my undergrad years. While my friends were ordering drinks, I was watching Melo go to work against the Bobcats on a cold winter night in January. I was obsessed with the Knicks back then. I still am.

Eventually, everyone saw what I saw: Melo was absolutely unstoppable. All he needed was a hair of space to get his shot up, and God bless the defender who bit on his jab step. Anthony finished with 62 points, breaking Bernard King’s long-standing 61-point record and Kobe Bryant’s 60-point mark for the most points ever scored at Madison Square Garden.

For as long as I live, that’ll be part of Carmelo Anthony I remember.

Now, Anthony is no longer a Knick.

If you’re a New York fan, Melo’s exit is equal parts confusing and concerning.

Six years ago, the Knicks moved heaven and Earth to land a player then regarded as the NBA’s most feared inside-outside scorer. They sent Denver virtually an entire starting lineup — Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and three draft picks — for Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Anthony Carter. The deal produced New York’s only 50-win season this century, which temporarily brought the Knicks out of the doldrums that plagued them for nearly a decade.

Melo was supposed to retire a Knick. He was supposed to bring New York to the doorstep of its first championship since 1973. He was supposed to make being a Knick fun again. He was supposed to make being a Knicks fan fun again.

None of those things happened. Six years after that blockbuster deal, a lukewarm one ended the era— Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a 2018 second-round pick. He was pushed out the door by a franchise that used his prime to sell tickets, but never thought to strategically put the pieces around him to compete for a championship.

Like a parasite, New York sapped Melo of his best years, then kicked him to the curb, flipping him for the best possible offer. With two more years on his contract in the stacked Western Conference, odds are Anthony never wins the championship he desires.

Let’s get real for a second: Carmelo Anthony wasn’t without flaws.

I’d be remiss not to mention how often my blood boiled when he held onto the ball for eight seconds before jabbing, side-stepping and shooting a flat mid-range J. The league outgrew that move and Melo couldn’t even hit it with the same regularity, but he kept trying. Miss or make, the Garden crowd held its breath when Anthony held the ball for longer than three seconds.

I’d be remiss not to mention how many defensive assignments Melo botched and how many game-winning or game-saving jump shots he missed in the second half of his Knicks career.

I’d be especially remiss not to mention how he couldn’t adjust his game to play alongside Amar’e Stoudemire. We’ll never know what that team could have been had those two meshed on the court.

In total, New York finished 207-269 in Melo’s full six seasons with the Knicks. They won only one of four playoff series and missed the postseason each of the past four years.

That’s all part of the Carmelo Anthony I, and most Knicks fans, will remember, too.

Offensively, Melo was — and still is — in a class of his own. His flaws were his flaws, but New York knew what those flaws were when they traded an arm and a leg for him. They got an all-world scorer who had only been to the conference finals once. He leaves New York an all-world scorer who has only been to the conference finals once.

But as much as you might want to blame Melo — his ball-stopping tendencies, lack of effort on defense and an ostensibly nonchalant approach to winning basketball games — these last six years are (mostly) not his fault.

They’re the Knicks’ fault, first and foremost

When New York’s 54-win team missed the playoffs the following season, the front office didn’t look for ways to get better. They brought Phil Jackson in to blow the team up. That should have been Melo’s cue to leave town and never look back.

Instead, Anthony signed on for five more years with a president who would sleep through a prospect’s pre-draft workouts. That president sold a false dream of a culture change in New York and gave his coaches little-to-no wiggle room to adjust his famed Triangle Offense to adapt with the changing times. He blanketed the Knicks with his read and react system no one but Sasha Vujacic wanted to play. He brought in three different coaches and bulldozed everything built around Anthony in his first three years in New York.

Jackson demolished the Knicks roster, built it back up and demolished it again. Only an 11-time NBA champion would be allowed to do that three times before ownership had enough.

Shane Larkin, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, Alexey Shved, Samuel Dalembert, Travis Wear, Pablo Prigioni, Ricky Ledo, Cleanthony Early, Langston Galloway, Andrea Bargnani, Lou Amundson, Quincy Acy, Jason Smith, Lance Thomas and — ah, how could I forget — Cole Aldrich, with a rookie head coach in Derek Fisher. Those were the players Knicks management surrounded Anthony and an aging, battered Stoudemire with when they posted a franchise-worst 17-65 record in 2014. It didn’t get much better from there.

In total, Melo had 72 different teammates during his time in New York. Seventy-two. Of those 72 players, only Tyson Chandler made an All-Star team during the same season as Anthony.

Give credit where credit is due: Anthony stayed professional until the end.

There were no media outbursts, no alternate social media accounts roasting his coaches or teammates. Even when Jackson publicly cast aspersions on the weaknesses in Melo’s game, the most he did in response was post a meme on Instagram.

REALLY #StayMe7o

A post shared by Carmelo Anthony (@carmeloanthony) on Apr 14, 2017 at 1:02pm PDT

That’s why Anthony’s tenure and subsequent exit is equal parts confusing and concerning. The Knicks couldn’t put the right pieces around Melo to turn a solid core into a legitimate contender. Now, they’re going to try their hand at putting the right pieces around Kristaps Porzingis, Frank Ntilikina and Tim Hardaway Jr.

Don’t hold your breath.

On Dec. 16, Carmelo Anthony will return to Madison Square Garden as an opponent for the first time since 2011. I’ll expect nothing but a standing ovation from the MSG crowd. Because in spite of his visible weaknesses, he remained strong in one area:

Melo only ever wanted to win in New York. Somewhere along the line, New York stopped believing it could win with Melo.