North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack to Face Future ACC Opponent Boston College on Tuesday
1/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-When it travels to Boston College on Tuesday night, NC State (10-3, 3-1) will get a glimpse of one of its future ACC rivals. But this time around, it will be a non-conference game. The Eagles, who are set to become a fulltime member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005, enter Tuesday's match-up with a 12-4 record following a 72-63 Big East win over Seton Hall on Saturday. Currently all alone in second place in the ACC standings, the Wolfpack is coming off an 86-69 triumph over Clemson on Saturday night.
The mere mention of B.C. certainly brings back some bad memories for the Pack, which had very little to feel good about the last time these two teams met. On a night when it was missing a plethora of open shots against the Boston College zone, NC State was just as helpless on the defensive end of the court, allowing the Eagles to ring up 93 points and 60 percent shooting in a 12-point defeat at the RBC Center last January.
One of the ringleaders of that romp was Craig Smith, a Charles Barkley-like post player who took NC State to task inside, scoring 20 points on a 7-of-13 shooting touch. This season, the 6-7, 265-pound Smith is back to his old tricks in the lane, averaging 18.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per contest. He was certainly at his best this past weekend, hitting 12-of-17 shots in a 26-point, nine-rebound outburst in the win over the Pirates.
To compliment the contributions of Smith, Boston College is also getting 12.8 points per game from 6-7 freshman Jared Dudley and 11.2 points from 6-8 forward Uka Agbai.
"I just think they're a good team," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek, who picked up his 200th career coaching victory on Saturday night. "They seem to be a tough team; a team that has good chemistry. They play well together and they play both ends of the floor. They're obviously off to a good start."
And while this game won't have an impact on the ACC standings, it could very well have NCAA implications down the road. Both teams are certainly viewed as NCAA Tournament worthy at this point, meaning the club that comes out with a win on Tuesday will certainly add another notch to its postseason r?sum?.
In its victory over Clemson on Saturday, the Wolfpack got big contributions from junior swingman Julius Hodge (23 points) and senior forward Marcus Melvin (15 points). But the most encouraging performance may have belonged to senior guard Scooter Sherrill, who had been mired in a deep shooting slump before hitting 4-of-8 shots for 11 points against the Tigers. Riding a 1-for-26 3-point skid coming into that contest, Sherrill nailed his first 3-point basket in five games midway through the second half.
"To be honest with you, we haven't made a big deal of [Sherrill's slump] before or even after," Sendek said. "We're just focusing on moving forward and not making much of it and just have Scooter go out and play as hard as he can."
After starting NC State's first 11 games, Sherrill was asked to come off the bench Thursday at Duke and again against Clemson. When asked if Sherrill had worked his way back into the starting line-up following Saturday's game, Sendek said it "was possible," but that the starting line-up could continue to change as the season progresses. The Wolfpack has gone with six different starting line-ups through 13 games.
Other NC State Notes: Hodge, who leads the ACC in scoring with an 18.3 average, has made 29-of-30 free throws over his last five games....The Wolfpack, which was the ACC's top free throw shooting team the last two seasons, is again No. 1 this year (.782)....NC State is 9-0 at home this season and 1-3 on the road...Freshman guard Engin Atsur has averaged 10.5 points in his last four outings.
