North Carolina State University Athletics
Youthful Pack Becomes Even Younger
6/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 20, 2001
By Tony Haynes
The sudden and surprising resolution to the Damien Wilkins saga has left the NC State basketball team with one less upperclassman on its roster. In other words, an already young basketball team just got a lot younger.
With Wilkins now gone, the Wolfpack will have two scholarship seniors (Archie Miller and Anthony Grundy), one junior (Clifford Crawford), two sophomores (Scooter Sherrill and Marcus Melvin), one redshirt freshman (Michael Bell) and five incoming freshmen.
Of the returning players, only Miller (21.8), Grundy (31.2) and Crawford (27) averaged more than 20-minutes of playing time last season.
Wilkins becomes one of six players from that 13-16 team that won't be around next season. Kenny Inge, Ron Kelley, Damon Thornton and Cornelius Williams are graduating while guard Trey Guidry has transferred. Together, those six players accounted for 53 percent of NC State's scoring last season.
The 2001-2002 Wolfpack will be unique in many ways. From all indications, coach Herb Sendek's five-man recruiting class appears to be his best yet. Those five players, along with Bell, are highly skilled performers who will likely improve the squad's chances of scoring more consistently from different spots on the floor.
And despite the multiple personnel losses, the Wolfpack should still be a very deep basketball team. As many as 11 players will have a legitimate chance to earn meaningful minutes on the court. As a former assistant under Rick Pitino, Sendek has been exposed to the uptempo, trapping style of basketball that worked so well at Providence and Kentucky. However, recent NC State teams, which featured a heavy dose of interior players, lacked the offensive and defensive versatility required to employ that philosophy. With its many interchangeable parts and depth, next season's squad would seem to be tailor-made for that particular style of play.
While size and a lack of overall experience will be the big question marks next season, the Pack is getting smaller at a time when the game of college basketball seems to be downsizing. Many coaches have chosen to combat overplaying defenses by putting more shooters and ballhandlers on the floor at the same time. It's a strategy that certainly worked well for Duke last season.
"The days of having a post man who plays close to the basket and isn't very mobile has kind of been passed by," said new NC State assistant coach Larry Hunter. "It makes offenses more difficult to defend when you can have a team of interchangeable parts. You can create more match-up problems because you have different ways of scoring."
