North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Hosts Clemson on Senior Day
2/26/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Clemson (9-17, 3-10) at NC State (15-10, 5-9) Sunday, February 27, 2000 4 p.m. Entertainment and Sports Arena Wolfpack Capitol Sports Network airtime is 3:30
By Tony Haynes
NC State will celebrate senior day when it hosts Clemson on Sunday, but it's highly doubtful the Wolfpack will be in a celebratory mood.
Thursday night's frustrating three-point defeat at Georgia Tech was the Pack's sixth straight loss. But perhaps more importantly, the loss virtually killed NC State's hopes of landing an at large bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Now the Wolfpack will have to do it the hard way by winning the ACC Tournament in Charlotte.
"Our year isn't over yet so we're going to try to make something special happen with these last few games we have left," said senior point guard Justin Gainey, who along with Tim Wells, will be playing his last home game on Sunday. "We're not giving up. We really want to take it to another level."
When he came to NC State four years ago, Gainey was a relatively unheralded guard from High Point. He watched on the sidelines two years ago when seniors C.C. Harrison and Ishua Benjamin soaked up the adulation of the crowd in their final home game.
"I'm feeling mixed emotions," Gainey said. "I can remember seeing Osh and C.C. leave and I thought at that time that I'd never want to leave. Now that it's here, it's hard to believe."
The high point of Gainey's career may have actually come his first season when, as a freshman point guard, he guided the Wolfpack to the championship game of the ACC Tournament.
Wells was a major contributor for the Wolfpack in his sophomore and junior years, but his senior campaign never really got off the ground. The Winston-Salem native has had a difficult time working his way into the regular playing rotation since being sidelined by a couple of aching knees early in the season.
Prior to visiting Clemson on January 26th, the Wolfpack was being referred to as the second best team in the ACC. But then the bubble was unceremoniously popped. NC State hit only 30-percent of its shots in route to a very disappointing 59-42 loss to the Tigers. It was probably the Pack's worst performance of the year.
