North Carolina State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Takes on Tech
2/16/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
Fresh off its most complete game of the season, NC State (12-11, 4-7) will be shooting for its second consecutive ACC win Saturday afternoon when it faces Georgia Tech (14-9, 6-6) in Atlanta. Other than North Carolina and Duke, every team in the league has experienced more than their share of ups and downs this season. The Wolfpack is no exception. A series of close losses in the first half of the conference campaign left the Pack wondering if its time would ever come. But following Wednesday's 85-51 route of Clemson, NC State's players are hopeful that a late-season surge is imminent.
"We haven't played our best basketball throughout the course of the year and we all know that," said Wolfpack forward Damien Wilkins. "Lately, we've gotten better at a number of things. If we can continue to get better with our shooting, ball handling and rebounding, we should be in great shape. We'll find out more when we go to Atlanta."
It's highly doubtful coach Paul Hewitt's Yellow Jackets will be interested in giving NC State the red carpet treatment this weekend. The Wolfpack certainly didn't show Tech any hospitality when it whipped the Jackets 72-60 at the ESA back on January 16. The victory was the Pack's first in the ACC following an 0-3 start.
"Our defense did a pretty good job in the game, and created a lot of offense in transition," said Pack coach Herb Sendek.
Although Georgia Tech center Alvin Jones did some damage with 21 points, the perimeter players around him were held in check by NC State's relentless pressure on the ball. Jackets' guard Sean Fein, who came into the game hitting 48 percent of his three-point shots in four conference games, could muster only eight points on a 3-of-11 shooting night.
Meanwhile, NC State shot 54 percent in the second half and held a commanding 39-29 advantage on the boards.
Now the trick is to repeat the performance against a Tech team that's generally considered one of the surprise clubs in all of college basketball. Despite Wednesday's 81-65 loss at Wake Forest, the Jackets have put themselves in a great position to make the NCAA Tournament after beating powerhouse teams like, UCLA, Kentucky, Virginia twice, and Maryland.
For Tech, it all begins with the 6-11 Jones, who is averaging a double-double (15.2 points, 10.3 rebounds) in ACC games.
"He's a year older and a senior so he's the benefactor of all the experience that he has garnered through the years," Sendek said of Jones. "I think he's probably better across the board in every area. Not that he was bad earlier in his career. I remember in his sophomore year he came over here to Reynolds and we literally couldn't stop him."
Jones is particularly dangerous because he's surrounded by a number of very good three-point shooters. Fein, point guard Tony Akins, freshman guard Marvin Lewis and first year forward Halston Lane are all capable of lighting it up from the arc.
"They're a highly skilled team," said Sendek. "They're also a great shooting team. It's difficult to overestimate the importance of good shooting."
Tech has made 39.1 percent of its three-point field goal attempts this year to rank second only to Duke in the ACC. Fein and Lewis are shooting better than 40 percent from the arc.
For NC State, Wilkins is coming off a 22-point, five rebound, seven-assist performance against Clemson. The 6-6 sophomore also recorded seven assists in the Pack's home win over Virginia more than a week ago.
"When he's doing that, we're a much more effective offensive team," Sendek said.
And NC State is a much better offensive team when it's not sharing the ball with the opposition. After turning the ball over 24 times at Duke last Sunday, the Wolfpack cut that number in half when it recorded only 12 turnovers vs. Clemson.
"A lot of it is decision making, awareness and time and score management," Wilkins said when asked about the Pack's turnover woes. "We haven't done a great job of that throughout the course of this year. If we continue to get better at it, we'll be fine."
Saturday's matchup will be the 67th meeting between NC State and Georgia Tech. The Wolfpack leads the overall series 40-28. The Pack has also captured eight of the last nine.
