North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Hosts UNC-Asheville
12/22/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
There's at least one card carrying member of the Wolfpack Club that will be rooting for UNC-Asheville to upset NC State Friday night at the Entertainment and Sports Arena: his name is Eddie Biedenbach. A former Wolfpack player and assistant coach, Biedenbach isn't hesitant about attending Wolfpack alumni functions during the off-season.
But Eddie Biedenbach is also the head basketball coach at UNC-Asheville. With that in mind, there's a good chance he'll put his allegiance to NC State on hold for at least one night.
"He and I have become good friends," Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek said of Biedenbach. "He, as much as any other person, helped bridge my transition when I came to NC State. In fact, he helped me recruit Damon Thornton. He was very open in accepting me; he was very graceful. In our business, that's not always easy to do. There's not anybody in the Wolfpack community that doesn't like Eddie Biedenbach."
Biedenbach was a member of Les Robinson's outgoing coaching staff that gave way to Sendek in 1996. It was not long after Sendek took over at NC State that Biedenbach landed the job at UNC-Asheville.
Since that time, the Bulldogs have captured two Big South Conference titles. With a 5-3 mark this season, UNCA is off to its best start since the 1989-90 campaign.
The Bulldogs are led by the backcourt tandem of sophomore Andre Smith and leading scorer Brett Carey (12.8 ppg). Smith, a 6-0, 180 pound point guard, was the Big South Rookie of the year last season.
"Anytime you have an outstanding point guard, that's important," Sendek said. "The young many who runs the ship for them is a really good player."
This will be NC State's third encounter with one of its in-state sister institutions this season. Based on the outcome of those first two games, Sendek won't have any problems getting his team ready to play. On November 18, the Pack was spanked by Charlotte (formerly UNC-Charlotte), 95-78. And earlier this month, NC State needed a last second rebound basket by Anthony Grundy to pull out a hard-fought one-point win over UNC-Greensboro.
"To be quite honest, I'm getting tired of playing all these UNC teams," NC State forward Damien Wilkins said jokingly. "These games aren't easy and I know the one in Chapel Hill isn't going to be easy either. I think next year coach needs to do something with the schedule and not put all these UNC teams in there. We should let them play each other and see how they do before they come in here and play us. It seems like they play their best game when they come in here."
Said Sendek: "They're going to get up for the game and it's our responsibility to do the same thing. I remember when I was an assistant coach at Kentucky and we played Eastern Kentucky. It's one of those games that all the experts said that we could mail that one in. But I remember us winning in the last minute of the game."
NC State has won the 12 previous meetings with UNC-Asheville, including last year's 80-58 victory at the ESA. Damon Thornton led the Pack with 17 points and eight rebounds. Thornton, who was forced to sit out the first semester after being charged with DWI in October, is expected to make his 2000-2001 debut against the Bulldogs.
