On Wednesday, February 27, the Close the Gap campaign will be raising awareness of heart disease risk factors at the NC State v. Florida State men’s basketball game. Heart disease is the number one killer in North Carolina, accounting for more than a quarter of deaths in the state.

Boston Scientific’s Cardiac Rhythm Management division, has partnered with the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA), WomenHeart, the Athlete’s Heartbeat, the National Coalition of Pastors’ Spouses, several National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) schools (including NC State) and the NCAA itself in launching Close the Gap earlier this month to address disparities in cardiovascular care for the underserved patient populations of women, black Americans and Latino Americans.

A couple weeks ago, a twenty year old basketball player at a university in Ohio passed away from sudden cardiac death and just this past Tuesday, a star girl’s high school player tragically collapsed and died during a regional playoff game in Baton Rouge. The Close the Gap campaign is educating coaches, young athletes and their parents that with simple heart screenings, many of these deaths can be prevented. A key goal of the Close the Gap campaign is to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) as a leading cause of death among young athletes. Statistics reveal that in the United States, a young competitive athlete dies from sudden cardiac arrest every three or four days. The average age of those who die is 17.5 years, ninety percent of them are male, and more than half are black.

The Close the Gap campaign will feature PSAs running throughout the game and display a booth with information on heart disease and sudden cardiac death.

For more information please see the press release below and visit this link: www.heart-health-disparities.org.

-from Boston Scientific, Rachel Lonsdale

This senior from Fayetteville, NC has stepped up as a leader this season.  Her 241 career blocks puts her at 2nd in school history and one of the leading blockers in the ACC.  Even in her freshman year she averaged 1.5 blocks per game and was ranked 5th in the conference.  She injured her hand in UNC’s game against FSU and then twisted her ankle in practice and didn’t play at Miami last week, but is expected to play tonight.

Pringle was born in Germany, where her parents were stationed with the Army.  She played High School basketball and volleyball at Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville.  As a junior and senior in high school she led the team to winning the 4A State Women’s Basketball Championship in 2003 and 2004.  Even as a senior she was able to lead her team in blocks, averaging 9 blocks per game.  Also, her junior and senior years at Seventy-First she was named NC’s Miss Basketball.

The Lady Tarheels have 2 home games left in the regular season, one against NC State tonight at home, and against Duke on March 2nd.  This is the second week they have been ranked #2.  But with only 2 losses this entire season to the Lady Vols when they were ranked #1 and then at UCONN, and the strong play from upperclassmen including Rashanda McCants, Erlana Larkins, and Pringle combined with the efforts of rookie guard Cetera DeGraffenreid they will have a strong presence in post-season play.

Picture courtesy of Donna McWilliam, AP

The Pack’s schedule isn’t getting any easier and after their loss at home to UNC last week, the fans are still wondering what has been happening to their team in the second half.  Every team goes into the locker room at the half and makes changes to their game to adjust but the Pack has not made the same adjustments and come out with less effort and will to win than most of their opponents in the 2nd half.  We saw it in their game last week vs. UNC, and in games vs. Duke, Maryland, and GT.

With all of that in mind, former coach Herb Sendek is looking a lot better now than he did to the fans two years ago. Mediocre (22-10 record in the ‘05-’06 season, 11-5 in the conference) is now looking appealing compared to their 15-11 record this year (4-9 in the conference).  Sendek has done well for himself at Arizona State and his Sun Devils even upset #7 Stanford two weeks ago. 

Check out this parody below on what kind of message Sendek would send State after all they have been through this year, posted by hpermar.

Check out Wakefield’s Varsity Girls Basketball team, making it into the Girls’ Super 25 this week in USA Today!

They are still undefeated (24-0) after winning their game tonight against Broughton, 65-60.

The Lady Wolverines won the GlaxoSmithKlein Holiday Invitational in December led by their strong defensive that continues to intimidate their opponents and bring them a win.

For other stories on the team and their schedule and results check out MaxPreps.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of State’s NCAA Tourney win over Houston in 1983.  With point guard Sid Lowe from the 83 Championship Team at the helm now, it brings even more meaning to the significant anniversary.  At all of the games this season they have been playing highlights from the 83 season, and they all give me chills to see them.  So in honor of the team from ‘83 check out this video I found on youtube from the news coverage of the big win.

Check out the local coverage, by Eyewitness News 11, live from the Brickyard at State below:

National coverage:

So, there is a pretty big game tonight…Duke at UNC and I am stoked.  It is the best of the ACC, which isn’t saying much this year because the ACC as a whole has been down this year, but the battle of the top two ACC teams and in the nation, along with it being one of the best rivalries it should be awesome.  Some things to watch for tonight:

1- Will Lawson start?  They’re saying he is suiting up and it will be a gametime decision after his sprained ankle against FSU…if he does will he play with 100%?  If he was 100% I would think that a Lawson/Nelson match up would be very interesting…since they are both so fast and great ball handlers.  UNC has gotten bit with the injury bug with Frasor out the rest of the season and Ginyard and Lawson trying to fight through the injuries.  It hasn’t been too big of an issue for most of the season, but they’re gonna need all of their resources tonight.

2- Dickie V Returns–It will be his first game back since his throat surgery back in the fall.  Most of the country will get to hear him, but being in Raleigh, I won’t even get to here how ‘Awesome’ it is ‘Baby’, because ESPN is blacked out in this market.  The people in this area will be blessed with the sweet sound of Billy Packer’s rantings and ravings throughout the game (and that was said with the utmost sarcasm)….For those of you who do hear Dickie V…let the rest of us in this part of NC know how he sounds…unless we DVR the reruns on ESPNClassic tomorrow, we won’t hear it (Thanks for the suggestion, Derek).

3- Will Duke remain undefeated in the ACC?  UNC got their first ACC lost against Maryland earlier this year, but Duke has yet to lose a game in conference play…FSU and State both gave Duke a run for their money early on in their games, but Duke was able to gain control before the game got too close at the end and they haven’t been in any OT games this year.

I think Duke has a good chance and I’m calling Duke over UNC, in a close game.  78-72

I got to visit the new museum at the Ernie Williamson Athletic Center on Wednesday this week and it was amazing.  It finally opened to the public on Monday.  You can take a self guided tour of the museum from 10am-4pm on weekdays and it is open at special times on game day.  There had been about 150 people there that day I went, just in and out and they were expecting it to be crowded Thursday night for the BC game.  

To start the tour you can go in to see a short video, but it wasn’t working on Monday.  My favorite part was the floor painted up like the Tar Heels’ Court, with footprints in different places around marking key shots with the game and players’ name who made the shot.

Take a look at the video below to see what the rest of it was like!

So my favorite play of the past week has to be Deron Washington’s dunk against VT a week ago Saturday…he made SportsCenter Top 10 that night and is dunk has been replayed throughout the ACC games all week.  Excuse the fuzziness of the Youtube clip, it doesn’t do it justice but you can get a good look at how athletic Washington is.
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 The senior forward is 6′7″ but his wingspan seems like it is at least 7″….He also has his own highlight reel on youtube:
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 What was your favorite dunk of the week?  Jeremis Smith’s ally-oop from Causey vs. State?  James Johnson’s jam over Clemson?

Scratch that, and reverse it….it should say: ”Broken Records for NC State basketball.”  Everyone I have talked to about the game said the same thing that they said before it.  “State needs to play as a team” “State needs to make some outside shots”…  After taking a survey of the headlines from the local papers and websites, I learned all kinds of new ways that basically dress up the saying that it was an old fashioned butt whoopin.  The Pack was burned, embarassed, humbled, and my favorite headline was from The Durham Herald Sun writer Frank Dascenzo ”Don’t blink–UNC just Thrashed NC State”, because it was downhill after the first timeout.

The Wolfpack had 13 points going into half time after shooting 17%.  But, hey, that’s 6 more than the St. Louis Billikens had at the end of the first half in their A-10 Conference game last Thursday against George Washington.  That’s right… The Billikens had 7 points going into halftime and finished the game with 20.  That is a new record for the lowest score in a D-I game since the shot clock era (and all of that-or lack there of-from a team coached by the renowned Rick Majerus….but I will save that tangent for a whole other post).

I felt like the Pack/UNC game this weekend broke the record for the longest game EVER…yes, I did watch the entire thing.  The final score was 93-62.  But State has stayed consistent with the rest of their season scoring close to their average of 66.9 ppg.  Carolina did the same, staying close to their average of 92.2 ppg.  So really, neither team did any better or worse than they could be expected to play.  But the way they got to the final score was an uphill battle for the Pack the whole game.

So obviously the words of wisdom from below did not work, any other suggestions going into the game vs. Clemson Tuesday night????

After the State/NCCU game on Wednesday night I spoke to a few fans to get their thoughts on what the Wolfpack should focus on as they go into their ACC opener at Chapel Hill.

My advice for the pack is to play up their strengths.  They have one of the tallest teams in the nation.  If they were more aggressive and utilized the height, they could get all the boards- on offense and defense.  Also, let’s remember that on Saturday it isn’t Herb’s recruits vs. Sid’s recruits- it’s the WolfPACK against the Heels.  And whether they have Fells and Horner or not, they gotta be on their toes to beat the Heels….

And I’m not partial or anything….so I made sure my wardrobe reflected that today.