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USAToday: NC State Bans Booster Eric Leak

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(CJ Leslie , pictured above, was given over $400 from former Wolfpacker and current booster, Eric Leak. Leak is now banned from stepping foot on NC State’s campus) 

USA Today ran this article last night about NC State banning the booster (Eric Leak) who gave money to both CJ Leslie and Tracy Smith.

According to the article Leak (a former NC State wide receiver) was given notice (in 2011) that he was to stay away from NC State after they found out about the benefits he was handing out to Leslie (and previously Smith). Leslie was suspended a few games and it seemed like it was over with. Then Leak was caught again, this time after contacting Wolfpack football standout David Amerson in 2012. That’s when NC State send him a cease and desist letter, banning them from the University and saying this:

“N.C. State will not tolerate aberrant conduct from an agent, runner or financial adviser. Furthermore, N.C. State will seek to take all actions necessary to protect its interests and to preserve the eligibility of its student-athletes.”

That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. Yesterday news broke about Eric Leak’s wife, Emily, had her car ticketed while on NC State campus. This put up another red flag that maybe the Leak’s aren’t complying to the University’s request. Here is what NC State sent to the Leak’s after the most recent episode:

Dear Mr Leak

This letter and the attached notice is a trespass warning from NCSU Campus Police Department. We have been recently made aware of a disassociation letter issued to Mr Leak by the NCSU Athletic Department on November 23, 2011. The Transportation Department at NCSU has a record of one or more of your vehicles being on campus and receiving parking citations for violations in areas are Athletic Facilities as recently as May 2013. In addition, a background check of Mr Leak has revealed a current Order of Arrest out of Union County from 2003. Due to these situations and your non-affiliation with the university, you are hereby trespassed from ALL OWNED OR LEASED NCSU PROPERTY and not allowed to be on such property. This order is in effect as of this date and will be in effect immediately.

If you feel this action has been unfairly taken upon you there are instructions on the reverse side to appeal the trespass warning. If you wish to appeal, follow those instructions to the letter, but do not return to campus until you are instructed that you are allowed to do so or you will be arrested for trespassing.


OUR TAKE:
 So what does this all mean? And why the heck is PI posting this? It makes NC State look bad!

We’re posting this because, in our opinion, this makes NC State look good. With all the news about boosters and agents handing out money and universities getting caught with their pants down, NC State is making news by cracking down on these people. No one can stop individuals from contacting players but if players know that it’s illegal and the university is getting aggressive in trying to stop this, then the Wolfpack is doing their job. Now, to be clear, this news doesn’t incriminate Leak or prove he’s doing anything wrong. His wife may have been on campus for any number of reasons, however it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Ever since Debbie Yow got here the University has been on lock down from agents. Even former players who are now agents have had their season tickets removed and haven’t been allowed to get tickets left for them by friends in the University. I, for one, am impressed with the lengths that Yow and the administration have gone to make sure that the Wolfpack doesn’t end up like a certain lawless institution down the road.

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NC State’s Ebe Dowuona Enters Transfer Portal

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NC State Junior F/C Ebe Dowuona has entered the transfer portal, with two years of eligibility remaining.

This year, Ebe played in 30 games, averaging 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game. As a Sophomore, after the injury to Manny Bates in the first game of the season, Dowuona went on to start in 27 of the 31 games he played in, averaging 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.

I’m not shocked. I don’t blame Dowuona for wanting to find a place where he would get more playing time.

Nonetheless this is a hit to the Wolfpack’s front court. While he didn’t offer much on the offensive end, he continually altered shots on the defensive end.

Ernest Ross will be a Junior next year, and fans will likely get to see Freshman Isaiah Miranda for the first time after redshirting after arriving to Raleigh midseason. Greg Gantt will be a Redshirt Junior next season as well.

Other questions loom for the Wolfpack front court as well. Will DJ Burns and Jack Clark return for their final year of eligibility? Will Dusan Mahorcic be granted a medical waiver for an additional year of eligibility?

Time will tell.

We wish Ebe all the best!

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NC State Ranked in Top-25 in Men’s Basketball Attendance in 2022-23

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When it was all said and done, the NC State fans represented in 2022-23, ranking 20th amongst Division-1 teams in Men’s Basketball attendance. The Wolfpack ranked 4th in the ACC, behind UNC, Syracuse, and Virginia.

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Wolferetti: Feed me my crow. NC State lost to Creighton and I’m here to break it down (and admit I was wrong)

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I was wrong.

I thought this matchup was a good one for NC State. I watched a lot of Creighton this year and to me, they looked like a team that NC State could roll over. Let me explain why.

I knew a few things. I knew Nembhard was a PG that could get a little out of control if sped up. I knew with a little defense and physicality, Sheierman could be made uncomfortable. I knew Kalkbrenner was a good defender but was going to sink on the pick-and-roll to protect the basket.

Joiner’s pull up just wouldn’t fall

I figured that Joiner, the pull-up king would be taking that DJ Burns screen, getting to the middle, and pulling up as Kalkbrenner sank. I figured Smith would exploit this as well. Well, turns out Joiner was off and couldn’t get his pull-up game going and Smith, well yeah Smith did exploit this pretty well.

Burns didn’t look like Burns

The other thing I’d figure would happen is that I thought DJ Burns would really frustrate Kalkbrenner. If you’ve looked at games where Kalkbrenner had to face a really good, physical back-to-the-basket big man, those bigs usually had pretty good games in the scoring column.  I honestly don’t understand what happened to Burns in this one. Sure he got a few stupid early fouls, but before he even picked up a foul he looked out of it. With no double teams coming, Burns is usually calculated, slowly backing you down and hitting you with a flurry of head fakes, pump fakes or spins. If the big doesn’t bite, Burns can fade away, go with a contested hook shot, or pass out.

In this game, Burns looked sped up for some reason. The first time he got the ball he quickly backed in and threw up a hook that rattled out. Not awful, but usually you see him probe a little more. Then the next time he didn’t even look for contact, instead, he threw up a little floater that didn’t fall. While neither were awful shots, both were uncharacteristic of Burns. On top of those things, he looked absolutely gassed within minutes of coming in. My guess is that it was the altitude, but either way, it took a toll on him.

Whatever it was, it had him frustrated and he had two really bad fouls where he just shoved Kalkbrenner (he also had a phantom foul that was ridiculous). That said, it just wasn’t his night and this made NC State a lot more one-dimensional.

Casey Morsell came to play, but this NC State roster just wasn’t built to get a guy like him going, which is a shame. Jarkel Joiner was a huge reason why NC State got to where they got. His scoring ability, his speed and his toughness and leadership skill were huge. But Joiner is a scoring guard, and great basketball teams need POINT guards.

What is a point guard, and why can’t we have one?

A point guard isn’t just a guy who dribbles it down. It’s a guy who understands the games within the games. Guys who dictate pace, call plays (sets) and are essentially coaches on the floor. NC State and Kevin Keatts never had that this season, and while you can get a long way with scoring guards and good big men, you’ll never compete for anything of worth until you prioritize the skill set of a true point guard. I think that has been NC State’s problem for years, and I find it kind of insane that coach after coach falls into this idea of having a scoring guard play as a PG for more offense to get on the court.

This is no shot at Jarkel, either. The guy was one of my favorite players to watch on this team, but it just is what it is. He is a scoring guard who happens to be slotting in at PG. When you see Keatts bring in a guy whose priority is getting his guys open and dictating pace, then you can start to believe that this program may be close to arriving. Until then, sneaking into the tournament and hoping guys get hot hands is as good as it gets.

Look at Kihei Clark (Virginia’s PG). I know it’s not a great time to be talking about Clark, whose errant pass ended up losing the game for Virginia on Thursday, but look at Clark’s build.5’10, 170lbs. Look at his stats. Mid-30s shooting % from 3. Hight 70s from the FT line. The guy is nothing special when it comes to the numbers, but he’s a leader and he distributes the basketball to the right guys at the right time. Tony Bennett has started Clark for 4 years despite the fact that he’s coaching a team that is always in the running to win the ACC and won a national championship less than 5 years ago.  He could replace Clark with an elite, tall, athlete at any moment. But he doesn’t. Why? Because he understands what I’m talking about. It’s a puzzle that coaches need to put together, and one piece of that puzzle is a guy like this.

I was wrong about this game. I thought things would play out differently. They didn’t. I’m not blaming anyone in particular, but the makeup of this team vs. the makeup of teams that play deep into March are different. Maybe this is step one to getting there. We’ll have to see how the roster shapes up next season.

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VIDEO: NC State falls to Creighton 72-63 in first round of NCAA Tournament | Extended Highlights & Box Score

NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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NC State came out flat, DJ Burns looked gassed, and for the most part, the Pack looked shell-shocked vs. Creighton from the opening tip. However, Terquavion Smith is excluded from all of that. He was amazing and in what was likely his final game at NC State, he kept the Pack afloat, dropping 32 points on 12-25 shooting. In the end, it wasn’t enough as their big man, 7’1 Ryan Kalkbrenner went for 31.

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