North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Travels to Wake Forest in Regular Season Finale
3/1/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 1, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-Just where did the season go? But maybe what they say is true: time does fly when you're having fun. Picked to finish seventh in the ACC, NC State has surpassed all expectations by clinching no worse than a tie for third place in the ACC standings. At the risk of sounding selfish, the Wolfpack (20-8, 9-6) would love to cap its best basketball season in 10 years by grabbing sole possession of third place and a number three seeding in next week's ACC Tournament. It's all there for the taking, but only if the Pack can knock off Wake Forest (18-11, 8-7) in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday.
"It's real important to finish as high as we can because we were picked to finish seventh at the beginning of the season," said sophomore forward Marcus Melvin. "Coach let us know that at the beginning of the season and we really took that to heart because we felt like we were better than a seventh place team. We just kept working hard and now we're in the position where we can finish third in the conference."
The Pack has not finished higher than fifth in the final conference standings since 1991 when it notched a fourth place finish. Thought to be shoo-in for its NCAA Tournament berth since 1992, NC State has other things to play for as well. Every win between now and next week can only improve the Wolfpack's chances of landing a more favorable seed in the NCAAs. Saturday's contest at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem will also afford the opportunity to avenge an 82-81 loss to the Deacons back on January 26. On that night, Wake strongman Darius Songaila scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half and Josh Howard added 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists as the Deacs were able to overcome a five-point halftime deficit.
"They're really a good team," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "You look at the stat sheet and the one thing that really stands out is the fact that in ACC games, they're averaging over 85 points per game. They just have the capacity to score in almost every way. They have a dominant inside force in Songaila, surrounded by really good three-point shooters. They really look to push the ball and they're a good offensive rebounding team. If you had an offensive checklist and went down it, you would see that they score every way that's conceivable. The first time around, we just really had a tough time guarding Songaila down low in the second half."
The only thing that slowed Songaila down in that game was foul trouble, he had three fouls in the opening half that limited him to just five minutes on the court. After intermission, however, he put together 18 very destructive minutes.
"Songaila is a tough player to guard in the post because he's smart, he's strong and he knows how to use his body," Melvin said. "He can play around the basket and away from the basket. When you go up against a guy like that, you really have to be on your toes."
Songaila's excellence of late-he's averaged more than 22 points over his last six games-hasn't been enough to save the Deacons from a difficult stretch which has seen them lose five of their last six games and three in a row. Following a heartbreaking 90-89 defeat at Maryland last Sunday, Wake's defense was ineffective in a 90-77 loss to Georgia Tech on Wednesday night.
"In my naivete, I didn't appreciate just how good and tough this league is," said first year Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, who came to the Deacons from Xavier. "You can be fourth or fifth in this league and still be a pretty good basketball team, a team capable of doing a lot of damage in March. I've been surprised at the depth of talent that's present in this league. I knew it was a good league, but it's better than I could have ever imagined."
That harsh reality really hit home a few weeks ago when Wake Forest dropped a 118-116 double overtime decision to a Clemson team that has already clinched last place in the final ACC standings.
After missing four games with a high ankle sprain, Howard, a 6-6 junior, has come back to average 17.5 points more than 10 rebounds in Wake's last two games.
Howard, who is one of the league's best perimeter defenders, will likely be matched up against Anthony Grundy when NC State has the ball on Saturday. Grundy, who put up 24 on the Deacons in the first meeting, has averaged 21.2 points and nearly six rebounds over his last 12 games. In last Sunday night's 98-76 victory over North Carolina, he became the first Wolfpack player to surpass 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 steals in a career.
Because of a bye week in its schedule, this will be NC State's first game since last Sunday's contest against the Tar Heels.
"The advantages for us this week were basically two-fold," Sendek said. "One, we got a little bit more time to recover. We took Monday completely off. Tuesday we just watched film, lifted some weights and walked through a couple of things on the court. Then we came back on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and we were able to focus a little bit more on ourselves than you normally would when you have a two or three game week. We had a little more time to spend on things like our own offense."
NC State, which owns a 122-89 advantage in the all-time series, will be trying to snap a five-game losing streak to the Deacons on Saturday. Wake hasn't defeated the Wolfpack six consecutive times since 1922-25.
