North Carolina State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Opens Season Against Penn
11/16/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
To answer one of the most often asked questions of the last two weeks, CoSida stands for College Sports Information Directors of America. Having cleared that up, NC State will tip off its 2000-2001 basketball season against Penn in the opening game of the CoSida Classic on Friday night (11/17) at 7:00 p.m. Charlotte will face Fordham in the other half of the bracket. The winners will advance to meet in the championship game on Saturday night at 9:20.
All of the games will be played at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
"I think it's going to be a great tournament field," said Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek. "We should really have four excellent college basketball games this weekend at the ESA. Penn is a basketball team that's been to consecutive NCAA Tournaments. They're picked to win the Ivy League again this season. They were 14-0 in the conference last year."
Penn, in fact, has won 21 consecutive Ivy League games dating back to the end of the 1999 season. However, coach Fran Dunphy's Quakers will be facing some question marks as they attempt to overcome the loss of their leading scorer from last year-a guy by the name of Michael Jordan. Jordan, who was named the Ivy League's Player of the Year last season, is one of three starters gone from a team that received an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament after posting a 21-8 mark.
The Quakers do return the services of 6-8 sophomore Ugonna Onyekwe, who captured Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors last season.
"I expect to see a very solid basketball team," Sendek said. "Coach Dumphy has been there 12 years; his teams are always very well coached and fundamentally sound. They have a terrific front court, including the preseason Ivy League Player of the Year (Onyekwe). We expect a team that's going to be extremely competitive. Even in their final game last year in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, they took Illinois to the wire."
Onyekwe, who hails from London, England, averaged 11.7 points and 6.0 rebounds during his successful debut season. Center Geoff Owens gives Penn a presence in the paint. The 6-11, 240 pound senior contributed an average of 9.0 points, 7.3 rebounds per game last season. Owens has also recorded 152 blocks in his career.
As for NC State, the Pack tuned up for the regular season by posting a pair of exhibition victories. After hanging on for an 86-84 victory over Interhoop on November 4, the Wolfpack came back and drilled the California All-Stars one week later, 120-87.
"I think the biggest thing for us is that we got better every time out," said Sendek, who is starting his fifth season at NC State. "We were clearly better the last time we played than we were going back to that first Red/White game at the end of October. Even between successive exhibition games, we took positive steps forward every time we took the court."
Setting the tone during the preseason was senior forward Kenny Inge, who tallied 46 points and 25 rebounds in the two exhibitions. There has also been some intrigue at the point guard position during the preseason. Junior Archie Miller started against Interhoop and played 21 minutes. Cliff Crawford, who got 19 minutes off the bench in the exhibition opener, saw 27 minutes in a starting role against the Cal All-Stars.
Sendek said Crawford would probably get the start against Penn, but added, "it really doesn't matter because they're both going to play. I don't put a lot into that."
Sendek said he is still wrestling with the question of whether he'll redshirt freshman guard Trey Guidry.
"Right now he's deferring to me and is willing to do whatever we think is best," Sendek explained. "It's just one of those things that there's really no answer to because you don't have a crystal ball. I don't know that he has real strong feelings one way or the other. If he does, he hasn't expressed them yet."
After returning to his home in Texas for a few days to mourn the death of his mother, Ron Kelley will be back with his teammates this weekend.
Senior Cornelius Williams will not play in the CoSida Classic after reinjuring his shooting hand in practice on Wednesday. The 6-11 Williams could be sidelined for another two weeks or more.
