North Carolina State University Athletics
Crawford, Wolfpack Seek Big Win on Senior Day
3/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2003
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-In his final home basketball game at NC State, Cliff Crawford will play against the team that sits right in the middle of his hometown. Since leaving Winston-Salem to join the Wolfpack four years ago, Crawford has been through more than his share of ups and downs. So maybe it should be no surprise that the 6-3 point guard will once again be forced to overcome a little more adversity when he tries to lead the Pack past 9th ranked Wake Forest Saturday afternoon at the RBC Center. Along with suffering a strained hip flexor against Maryland last Sunday, Crawford has also been under the weather the last several days.
Bothered by a cold last weekend, Crawford started feeling even worse just a few hours after NC State had returned home following its big win at Clemson Wednesday night.
"With all that's gone on with Cliff, he's now contracted a pretty good case of the flu," said Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek on Friday. "He didn't practice yesterday. An intestinal virus has stung him pretty good. The night we got back from Clemson he started to come down with this."
But this is senior day and a chance for NC State (16-10, 9-6) to perhaps nail down its second straight berth into the NCAA Tournament. And if there's anyone on the Wolfpack team that has shown an ability to overcome illness and injury, it's Crawford. Whether its playing through the back injury he sustained early in the game at U-Mass, or giving more than 30 minutes with the hip-flexor problem against Maryland and Clemson, Crawford has shown a tremendous amount of toughness this season.
"He really is a tough young man," Sendek said. "He is strong physically and he has that edge that you need sometimes to play during a week like this. If most people had what he has, they would be at home in bed and wouldn't be doing anything. It would be a struggle to get up and get a drink of water. Yet he's played basketball in the ACC, so I think that speaks to his toughness."
Quick, strong and competitive, Crawford has arguably become the ACC's top perimeter defender this season. His ability to make life miserable for many of the league's top-scoring guards as been well documented throughout the campaign. Yet, there are many coaches around the ACC that would tell you that he is also capable of doing some damage on the offensive end of the floor as well.
"He's a great offensive player to, but he's just never been asked to shoot and score for NC State," Clemson coach Larry Shyatt said prior to Wednesday's game against the Pack. "He's a very well respected senior in this league and probably one of five or six very unheralded seniors. There have really been some seniors that have really gotten lost in the shuffle because of all the freshman thunder. Clifford is a tremendous athlete who plays hard at both ends. That in itself equates to success normally."
Crawford's effort and willingness to take more of a leadership role in his final college season have impressed his coach, who has always had high expectations of the recruit he signed out of Parkland High School.
"The one thing I'm most pleased about is the way he's really stepped up in this his senior season," Sendek said. "We knew going into the year that his play would have a direct bearing on our ability to enjoy a measure of success. I think he's played his role very well and he's had his career best season as a senior. I think one thing he's benefiting from right now is the value of experience. To go along with his size and athleticism, he now has a first-hand knowledge of our system, both offensively and defensively. That knowledge base is serving him very well right now."
Heading into his final home game, Crawford is averaging 9.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He is also second in the league in steals (2.27 pg.) behind only Tim Pickett of Florida State.
Watkins Update:The groin strain that kept forward Levi Watkins out of Wednesday's game at Clemson could also prevent him from playing against Wake Forest.
"Our health situation remains fragile," Sendek said. "Levi has not been able to return as of yet. I don't know if he'll be able to join us on Saturday. He remains questionable at best."
