Recent Comments

Yeah but are they giving away free Qdoba?

just a question since we are on season tickets subject... when do we get the option to select our seats? ive already paid my HC dues and reserved my season tickets. I thought it was in march or early april that we got to make our selections? ive had some issues getting communications in the past with stuff because my dad (same name totally different address state, city, etc) is some how linked to my HC account because he was a HC member back in the day (idk if he still is or not we haven't spoken in quite some time) but I know I sometimes get his mail from VT and sometimes I don't get things im supposed to get in relation to VT. any insight would be helpful. ive tried calling the ticket office a couple times but have not been able to get a real definitive answer on anything at this time. thanks

Sigh....it's the off-season.

To say Valvano was "cheating his way through the NCAA" just isn't true. The allegations that were thrown at NC State in the late 80's are allegations that would be laughed at today. There simply wasn't that much going on, and it was an over blown witch hunt.

It's highly unlikely that Abu remains in the draft, he did not hire an agent, and will be back next year. Barber was always a given that he'd be gone after this year, and they can plug Smith in and not lose much. Honestly, the Martins where not all that good, and they would be competing with each other next year for the same spot. One was a high volume/low percentage shooter and the other was a competent defender.

State has Terry Henderson and Torian Dorn coming in as well - Henderson from WVU, Dorn from Charlotte. Both are better ball handlers and scorers. Rowan is coming back and should improve his percentages.

The problem with State last year is they didn't have perimeter scoring that was consistent other than Barber. They were a team that could compete with anyone when Barber, Abu and a third scorerproduced. But that didn't happen a lot for them. They simply had too many guys on the roster who couldn't score. There are a lot of reasons for that - recruiting misses, Transfers, etc.

Gottfried has shaken up the staff as well, they have hired Butch Pierre to take over Rob Moxley's spot, and are on the verge or either hiring Joe Dooley from FGCU or Heath Schroyer from UT-Martin to take Bobby Lutz's spot. In my opinion, both changes where needed - Moxley's health has impeded his ability to recruit on the road and Lutz isn't a strong recruiter. Dooley or Schroyer would be an upgrade.

State is heavy in the transfer market and are looking at adding a F/C or two and maybe another guard. They will have 8 or 9 scholarships available after next year, so 2017 is the big recruiting year for them.

Gottfried is not on the hot seat for next year, I think that that is crazy talk. He's had 4 NCAA tourney appearances and 2 Sweet 16's in the last 5 years. State hasn't seen that sustained success in years. The biggest gripe on Gottfried from the fan base is that his teams don't play good defense. That's never going to change. Gottfried is an offensive coach, he wants to beat you by scoring more points. With a team that had not a lot of scoring options last year, you could see that philosophy hurt NC State in full last year. I expect them to be much improved next year with the additional wing scoring and Abu being back.

Sometimes the most is learned from letting your players reflect in silence.

-Mike London

Has a location been chosen? I'm good to bring some beers and food.

Speed, speed, speed. That word is getting thrown around a lot. If we an execute come the fall it is going to be a new ACC...

Lots of Zima and Wine Spritzers will be consumed no doubt...

Shoog,

This is certainly a divisive topic among both the research community and the general public. There are a few researchers who have publicly voiced their disapproval of the research so far. However, I think there are a larger number that are legitimately concerned about the link between CTE and football. I want to respond to a few different points that you make without trying to discredit them, because I think they are valid. Here goes:

1) As a medical professional, you know that CTE is a pathological disease state of the brain, and can not be diagnosed based on symptoms, nor can we definitively link the symptoms experienced by these retired athletes to this disease. This is a big unknown, but I think the general public is misinformed.

2) While you correctly report there are 1 million high school football players, there are 3.5 million kids playing youth football (i.e. Pop Warner, etc.). That figure says there are roughly 2,200 adolescents playing football for every 1 NFL player. If there is a causation effect of repetitive head trauma and the development of CTE, then it is in my opinion important to know how to protect our youth from it while still providing the vehicle for personal growth and development achieved by the comradery of the sport of football. The causative link between the two is still far off / might not exist, but a lot of evidence points that way and I think it's important to move forward in case that link does exist.

3) The quote you use and the first article that you cite which provides dissent to the research being done in the field was authored by the team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am not questioning his integrity, but if ever there was a conflict of interest that should have been reported, it was there. However, he chose not to say that in the manuscript, and that is concerning.

4) Dr. McKee at Boston University has received close to 100 brains at this point. Of the brains that BU has seen, 70% were determined to have CTE. Of football alone, 80% had CTE, and of NFL players alone, 96% had CTE. That is a staggering percentage.

5) However, we are still awaiting matched-pairs data. If we had a handful of retired athletes that were exposed to head impacts throughout their careers that also had siblings that did not, then that would be the jackpot. We could tell if this tauopathy was a genetic disease or a function of the head impacts.

6) Finally, in my personal opinion, the focus on concussions as the cause of CTE is misplaced by the public. As a biomechanical engineer, I think the cause of CTE is the development of strain at the depths of the sulci during head impacts, even in the absence of clinically diagnosed concussion. The fact that this disease has been seen in football players is most likely a function of not only the number of concussions, but also the number of sub-concussive blows they received throughout their career. Using highly detailed models of the brain, we are seeing mechanical stretching of the material in the same location as the Tau protein deposition in CTE in low impact scenarios and also in high impact scenarios (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26762217).

P.S., I originally didn't mean for this post to be so long. However, I thought that it contains important information that some people would find interesting. I've tried to steer clear of politics and opinions (except for pt. 6). You are entitled to your opinion that the CDC shouldn't be funding youth football research. I disagree, but that is ok. Thanks for the dialog, Shoog!

I'm not sure getting No Audio is a sufficient replacement for getting reps for the younger guys.

I'm no quarterback guru or anything but it doesn't seem like the best training opportunity.