North Carolina State University Athletics
Wahoos and Wolfpack Ready to Run and Gun at ESA
1/11/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Virginia (10-4, 1-1 ACC) at NC State (10-2, 1-1 ACC)
Wednesday, January 12, 2000 7:30 p.m.Entertainment and Sports Arena (19,722)
Radio: Wolfpack Capitol Sports Network, GOPACK.com and 87.7 fm in the arena.
TV: none
By Tony Haynes
NC State prefers to play at a fast pace, but compared to Virginia, the Wolfpack looks more like Princeton. Just when the Cavaliers look as if they can't run anymore, they shift into another gear.
In other words, there could be some serious run and gun basketball at the Entertainment and Sports Arena on Wednesday night.
"They're a real uptempo team," said Wolfpack guard Anthony Grundy. "They're also real feisty. They're very talented and athletic along with being kind of 'helter skelter' in the way they play."
And simulating Virginia's breakneck style in practice is nearly impossible.
"It's kind of hard because you don't have their guys to practice with," Grundy said. "It's just something you have to prepare for the best way you can."
Something will have to give on Wednesday. NC State's first twelve opponents have averaged just 59.3 points per game, a figure that leads the ACC. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are putting up 84 points per contest. UVA is second only to Duke in scoring offense.
When forced to play halfcourt basketball, Virginia sometimes resembles a fish out of water. For that reason, the Cavaliers aspire to lure their opponents into a 40-minute frenzy. They accomplish their plan by inviting quick shots. Quick shots that are missed turn into long rebounds, which turn into transition opportunities. Virginia then recycles the entire process all over again by employing a variety pressing defenses.
"They are as athletic and as explosive a team in recent memory in college basketball," said NC State coach Herb Sendek. "I really believe that Virginia is a legitimate top 15 team in the country. They just amaze you with their quickness and athleticism. They reach a new level of transition basketball."
Certainly, Cavaliers guard Donald Hand reached a new level last season when he lit the Pack up for 41 points in Virginia's 82-79 victory in Charlottesville. And it appears that Donald has a 'hot hand' right now. The junior has averaged nearly 19 points over his last four games. He had a season high 27 in UVA's 83-65 triumph over Georgia Tech last Saturday.
"Donald Hand is a great player," Grundy said. "What he did to us last year, that was something. We don't look forward to that happening to us this year."
But unlike last season, when Virginia only had six scholarship players available, Hand can actually get a breather every now and then. The UVA bench, which produced just 12.4 points per game last season, is accounting for 29.7 points this year.
The addition of freshmen Travis Watson, Roger Mason, and Majestic Mapp has given coach Pete Gillen more options with which to work. The 6-7 Watson is third in the ACC in rebounding (9.1). Over the last two games, Mason is averaging 18 points and is shooting over 70 percent from the floor.
Reigning ACC Rookie of the Year Chris Williams is averaging 15.2 points per game and is the league's second most accurate marksman from the field (59.7 percent).
"I think this is a tremendously important game for both teams," said Gillen, who's in his second year as the coach of the Cavaliers. "We want to see if we can play a quality team in a tough environment. This game will tell us if we're getting better or just staying the same."
The recent history of the Virginia-NC State series suggests that Wednesday night's contest will be close. Since 1978, 34 of the 48 games have been decided by less than ten points. Four of the games since that time were decided by one point, five by two points and three by five points.
NC State leads the overall series 67-47.
