North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack and Wahoos Meet at ESA
2/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-Just like a 27-year old college graduate that's working his way up the corporate ladder, the NC State basketball team will be trying to build on its r?sum? when it hosts Virginia at the ESA on Wednesday night.
But this isn't a job search. For the Wolfpack, it is a quest to end the school's 10-year NCAA Tournament drought. And a season sweep over a Uva squad that has been ranked in the top 10 for better than two months would certainly grab the attention of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee when it convenes in early March.
On Wednesday, NC State will have a chance to prove that its impressive 81-74 win over then 4th ranked Virginia on January 5 was no fluke. And this time, the game will be played in friendly territory, in front of thousands of Pack fans eager to celebrate a big ACC victory on home turf.
It won't be easy, especially now that NC State will be without starting forward Julius Hodge, who has been suspended for one game by the ACC for throwing an elbow to the back of Maryland point guard Steve Blake's head on Sunday. Hodge, a 6-6 freshman, led the Wolfpack in scoring with 21 points in the first meeting with Virginia.
Ironically, many of NC State's biggest triumphs have occurred on the road this season. Along with the win at Virginia, there was an eye-opening 82-68 victory at Syracuse back in December. Four of the Pack's six losses have come at the ESA.
The tension in the building on Wednesday could be profound, given the fact that both teams are in the midst of rare losing streaks. The Pack is coming off back-to-back defeats to Wake Forest and Maryland. No. 10 Virginia has somehow managed to hang on to its high ranking in spite of a three-game skid that started with a 94-81 defeat at Duke on January 27th.
Injuries and Illness have begun to take their toll on the Cavaliers. To start with, Adam Hall has missed six of Uva's last seven games with a foot injury. The athletic 6-5 guard probably won't play against NC State. But there are other key Virginia players who are dealing with a variety of ailments as well.
"We've had some guys who have been sick," said Uva coach Pete Gillen. "Roger Mason probably shouldn't have played [against Missouri] on Sunday. Chris Williams was on medication, and so was Elton Brown, our freshman. Travis Watson has a hip pointer and a sprained foot and tried to play. We hope to have everybody for [Wednesday] but we probably we won't know until game time."
That list of players pretty much encompasses Gillen's entire starting line-up. Mason, a junior guard, is the league's fourth leading scorer with an average of 18.3 points per game. The 6-8 Watson is pulling down an ACC best 10.4 rebounds per contest. Williams, a 6-7 senior, is putting up 14.5 points per game to rank second on the team in scoring. And Brown's emergence at center in recent weeks has given Virginia more size and strength in the paint, something many of Gillen's teams have been lacking in recent years.
But Gillen's lengthy injury list won't draw any tears from an NC State team that has been down that road many times during the coaching tenure of Herb Sendek. In a strange reversal of fortune, this particular Wolfpack club appears to be getting healthier as the season progresses. For a few weeks in January, starting point guard Archie Miller was being held out of practice after complaining of soreness in his left leg. It was last year that a stress fracture in that same leg cause Miller to miss nine games. But reducing his practice time last month has apparently paid off.
"Fortunately, I think we're out of the woods with Arch," Sendek said. "His leg has responded very well. Our doctors and our athletic trainer Charlie Rozanski did a terrific job. In particular, Charlie did everything somebody could do in a situation like that to prevent us from losing Archie."
Not surprisingly, Miller has been playing the best basketball of his career since returning to the practice floor a few weeks ago. NC State's other senior guard, Anthony Grundy, has been on fire of late as well. Before scoring 19 points in Sunday's loss at Maryland, the 6-3 Louisville, Kentucky native had put up better than 20 points in his previous five games.
Averaging 16.5 points per game for the season, Grundy is putting 19 points per contest against ACC teams. Grundy and Miller's leadership skills could be put to the test this week, especially in the wake of a two-game losing streak and the suspension of Hodge.
"We can't drop our heads and let this turn into a domino effect," Grundy said following Sunday's 89-73 loss at Maryland. "You're always coming right back and playing another top team in just a couple of days, so you've just got to keep going. It's only two games, we still have seven more to go. If we win them, then everything else is forgotten."
Dating back to the 2000 season, NC State has won four of its last six games against Virginia. Overall, the Wolfpack holds a 71-49 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back 1912-13.
