North Carolina State University Athletics
19th Ranked NC State Hosts Exhibition Opener on Wednesday Night
11/2/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 2, 2004
By Tony Haynes
The NC State men's basketball team, ranked 19th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, will get its feet wet at the RBC Center on Wednesday night when it entertains Fayetteville State in the first of two exhibition games. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. Coming off a season in which it finished second in the powerful ACC with an 11-5 conference mark, the Wolfpack will be led once again by reigning ACC Player of the Year Julius Hodge, who will be surrounded by a versatile and experienced cast.
The 6-7 Hodge, who has already been named to various preseason All-America teams, averaged 18.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game a year ago, while also leading the ACC in field foal percentage with a .507 accuracy rate.
Center/forward Ilian Evtimov, who is still recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, will not play in Wednesday's contest. Head coach Herb Sendek said on Tuesday that he did expect Evtimov to rejoin his teammates for practice in the very near future.
The redshirt junior, who sat out the entire 2002-03 campaign after undergoing major knee surgery, expects to get back into the swing of things fairly quickly when he returns to practice.
"After watching these guys for two weeks, it's really going to be exciting for me to get back on the court," said Evtimov, who averaged 9.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game last season. "I'll have to be a little patient at first as I get back into rhythm, but I'll be fine. This shouldn't be a big setback. I had been practicing for a whole month before I had this surgery, so I'm not missing too much."
Evtimov's absence on Wednesday should open up some extra playing time for some of NC State's newcomers, especially frontcourt players Cedric Simmons and Andrew Brackman.
After facing St. Augustine in a second exhibition tilt on November 9, NC State will begin in its regular season with the three-day BCA Invitational November 17, 18, 19. For ticket information, click Here.
The Wolfpack Radio Network will provide play-by-play coverage of Wednesday's exhibition game starting at 7:00 p.m.
