North Carolina State University Athletics
Behind the Scenes With Tony Haynes: The Temptation of Satisfaction
1/28/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2003
By Tony Haynes
Moments after his team had finished off a most impressive sweep of Duke and North Carolina in the same week, the facial expression worn by NC State head coach Herb Sendek wasn't much different than the look he had following a disappointing loss to Boston College less than two weeks ago. Even the normally ebullient Julius Hodge tried to downplay an accomplishment that hadn't occurred at NC State since 1985. Welcome to the ACC, a place where satisfaction over big wins and disappointments over key losses must not last more than a few hours.
Just as the Wolfpack (11-4, 4-1) didn't get too down after back-to-back defeats to Georgia Tech and B.C., it must now avoid the trap of feeling overly fulfilled following its most satisfying week of the season.
Sendek's message before Sunday's North Carolina game, a message that employed the words "consistent excellence," is just as important now as it was before the Pack took out its rivals from Chapel Hill, 86-77.
"For us, consistent excellence is synonymous with giving great effort and having the right attitudes," Sendek remarked after Sunday's win over the Tar Heels. "If you do those things, then you put yourself in a position to have a chance to win. Sometimes you can be excellent and not win. Sometimes you can be less than excellent and win easily. We focus on ourselves first and foremost. Our mission is to give great effort through our preparation and through our play on the court, and then to play together and have the right kind of attitudes because there's a lot of teamwork involved in basketball."
Sendek's words, in part, explain why his team was able to put together stellar performances against Florida State, Duke and North Carolina after looking so uncomfortable and vulnerable in the previously mentioned games against Georgia Tech and Boston College. Instead of crawling into a hole of manic depression following those two defeats, players and coaches alike became more determined than ever to pull together a season that some thought was about to slide into an abyss.
"It wasn't so much after the Boston College game, but after the Georgia Tech game we were really upset," Hodge said. "We knew we had to play more together and not be selfish out there. We've been making strides. We were doing that in the Boston College game, but we just happened to lose. We know that success doesn't always come immediately. We stayed with it, and now in practice guys are grinding and pushing. No one wants to lose. Since then we've been playing well and winning games."
Having dealt with adversity in a positive fashion, NC State must now respond favorably to its recent success. Becoming fat and happy is not an option, especially with a Thursday night battle against the defending national champions looming. One thing is for sure: the Wolfpack will have no chance of sneaking in under the radar when it travels to Maryland (12-4, 5-1). Not only will first place in the conference standings be on the line on Thursday, the returning Terrapins will also be reminded that NC State was the last team to beat them before they made their championship run less than a year ago.
While it's still early, Maryland now appears to be the team to beat, especially after coming away with a pair of road wins at North Carolina and Clemson last week. Victories away from home are always a rare commodity in the ACC, especially this year. For that reason, the Terps, armed with two of the five road wins that have been recorded in the ACC, will certainly be able to nestle into a January catbird seat if they can slow down the fast improving Wolfpack on Thursday.
A win by NC State, however, would certainly set up perhaps one of the wildest and most unpredictable regular season races the ACC has seen in a number of years.
"We know we've been winning a couple of games, but we have Maryland coming up for first place and that's where we want to be," Hodge said. "We're really going to need to focus on Maryland for the next couple of days and hopefully get a big win."
The imminent challenges ahead were already omnipresent in the Wolfpack lockerroom on Sunday, even after the Pack had managed to turn back its two biggest rivals within a dizzying period of five days. Herb Sendek knew it and so did Julius Hodge: NC State must avoid the temptation of satisfaction.
