The Sensible Moderate

Donald Trump has crashed the Republican Party and reversed the fortunes of many of his fellow contenders. But there’s one candidate who’s benefited from the rise of Trump and that’s Ted Cruz. Because of Trump, the Senator from Texas looks like a sensible moderate in comparison. Trump has shifted the Overton window enough to the […]
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Western Carolina just can't say no to the Koch Brothers

The Beatles were wrong, money can buy you love:

Western Carolina University’s chancellor has endorsed a proposal for a new center funded, in part, with money from the Charles Koch Foundation.

The new Center for the Study of Free Enterprise would be funded with $2 million from the Charles Koch Foundation. The total budget would be $3.4 million. The proposal for the center came from Edward Lopez, Western Carolina’s BB&T Distinguished Professor of Capitalism.

Republican cuts to higher education spending *and* their recent closure of several perceived left-wing centers is making even more sense now, isn't it? It's part of a well-choreographed dance to indoctrinate the tens of thousands of UNC System graduates every year into voters more amenable (susceptible) to Free Market talking points. Stalin would be impressed. As far as that "Professor of Capitalism," that is another very similar story of corporate influence over higher education:

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When was Pat McCrory laid off and unemployed?

Pat McCrory released a re-election video yesterday and it opens with an interesting story. He says that one of the hardest days of his life was when he had to tell his wife that he had lost his job. It’s a slow deliberate statement accompanied by dramatic music. It’s clearly meant to show the people […]
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NC State basketball needs a quick course correction at the offensive end

We're about a quarter through the basketball season, and one thing that's been persistently worrisome about NC State is its inability to efficiently shoot the ball. The difficult part at this stage of the season is we are still dealing with small samples, and it's hard to parse true talent level from meaninglessly random cold starts by the players.

But while there are several players who can and should shoot the ball better over the long term, the deep trouble is in the fundamental operation of the offense. Which is to say that there doesn't appear to be any sort of offense at this point. No plan, but rather some theoretical form of order in useless screens, feints into the lane, and contested jump shots. It's not working, and without a philosophical change, the Wolfpack's offense is not going to be good enough to make anything of this season.

Here's where the NC State offense stands, through the Michigan game:

NC State Offense -- Four Factors	eFG% (National Rank)	TO%	OR%	FT Rate
2015-16	46.1 (254)	14.4 (20)	33.6 (99)	46.4 (53)
2014-15	49.3 (157)	16.0 (25)	33.9 (82)	35.4 (222)

As bad as that effective field goal percentage is, I'm not sure it gets at the real problem, which is State's tactical incompetency. The Wolfpack is for whatever reason attempting to mimic what it did with Trevor Lacey and Ralston Turner last season, which is an awful idea. This is a jump shooting team with zero proven jump shooters--though much credit is due Caleb Martin for a good start.

The problem is not so much three-point attempts, but rather the jumpers that come two or three steps within the arc. These are horrible shots, and NC State routinely takes a bunch of them every night. State did this last year, but at least Lacey could mask some of those inadvisable decisions with his tremendous talent. There's nobody who can do that on this team. They have not adjusted.

I don't know what Mark Gottfried is doing during his practices. I get that you want to let Cat Barber loose, let Cat do his thing. Seventeen-footers are not his thing; they should not be anybody's thing. Barber is shooting 39.1% inside the arc this season. He's the leader of the offense. This simply cannot work.

Maverick Rowan will get better, and we'll get Terry Henderson back, and Cat will start hitting threes. That's all going to help, but until the Wolfpack addresses these idiotic long twos, it's hard to feel optimistic about the rest of the season. The key is getting the right shot, and we are not doing that. Nobody seems to have any idea what constitutes a good shot.

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Wolfpack take 66-59 loss to Wolverines

NC State lost 66-59 against Michigan in a sluggish and lethargic effort from the Wolfpack. Although NC State made a 2nd half push to cut a double digit deficit into a competitive contest, the ultimate result was the product of inefficient offense and multiple players having weak showings. The biggest letdown came from Maverick Rowan who went 1-11 from the field. Abdul-Malik Abu was 0-6 shooting wise and Beejay Anya went 1-6 from the line.

As a team, NC State shot 32.8% from the floor and only drilled 4-of-17 three-point attempts. Caleb Martin dropped 19 points and Cat Barber put up 16 of his own, but help wasn't found elsewhere. There were constant possessions of aimless dribbling that lacked any sense of cohesive rhythm. With Abu struggling and Anya or Lennard Freeman being unable to do significant work in the post, the Wolfpack didn't have many interior options against Michigan.

For the Wolverines, they managed to win in spite of point guard Derrick Walton Jr. not playing in the 2nd half. He suffered an ankle injury trying to defend a Rowan shot. The production of Duncan Robinson who blasted NC State with his 5-of-7 shooting from deep and 18 points from Caris LeVert doomed the Wolfpack. It's surprising Michigan only won by single digits given their superior shooting display of 50% in this contest.

Additionally, as was noted during the ESPN2 broadcast, no one in a Wolfpack uniform other than Caleb Martin or Rowan has made a three pointer on the season. That's where Terry Henderson is deeply missed, both in terms of his offensive threat and his mere presence for minutes. Mark Gottfried attempted to use Shaun Kirk to fill the void in depth, but he picked up quick fouls and looked uncomfortable with the ball in his hands.

Sitting at 4-3 with two questionable losses and possibly no quality wins at the moment given LSU's struggles, NC State definitely needs a change. Tonight was an opportunity to grab an impressive non-conference win against a team who didn't have its starting PG for half the game. Even without Henderson, the Wolfpack probably should've taken care of business tonight.

Looking ahead, NC State's next game will be a Saturday, 12/5 home showing against Bucknell that tips at 12:00 PM ET. The Wolfpack are already in a position where bad losses can't be afforded, and any future opportunities for resume wins will need to be circled on the calendar.

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NC State parts ways with volleyball coach Bryan Bunn after six seasons

Yes, I'm gonna spend a few words on volleyball here in light of the news that Bryan Bunn is no longer the head coach of the team. The Wolfpack finished its 2015 campaign 16-16 overall and 5-15 in league play. It was the second consecutive year State had a rough run through ACC play, and it was Bunn's demise.

But the thing is, for a guy who just lost his job, Bunn's done some impressive work in Raleigh. As I've mentioned in the past, NCSU volleyball had been the very definition of abysmal prior to his arrival, and frankly, there seemed little point in even maintaining the program. (Though I'm sure Title IX would be an issue there.)

See here:

	Overall W-L (Pct.)	ACC W-L (Pct.)
Volleyball, 1990-2009	201-441 (.313)	35-277 (.112)
Bunn Era, 2010-20015	108-83 (.565)	45-73 (.381)

Are .565 and .381 winning percentages great accomplishments? No, but look what he walked into--the program had won 35 league games over the previous 20 years. During my four years at State, they won exactly one ACC game. One. Bunn twice led the Pack to winning records in the ACC, and in 2012 took the team to the NCAAs, which would have seemed insane a few years prior. They were close to getting back in 2013.

But ultimately he couldn't sustain that success, and his teams regressed from competitive in the ACC to bad once again. The Pack won only 10 league games in 2014 and 2015 combined. So moving on from Bunn is not without justification, but it is bittersweet. We can acknowledge it was time to make a change and also applaud the man for a rather incredible--albeit short--turnaround from the deepest regions of futility.

One last tip 'o the cap to you, coach.

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Filing Day

Elections usually aren’t won or lost on Election Day, the early voting period, or even during the campaign itself. Rather, they’re lost in the filing period and in particular the months leading up to it. You can’t win unless you show up and failure to recruit strong candidates often results in conceding a number of […]
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