North Carolina State University Athletics
Brackman, Simmons Rise Above
11/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2004
BY TIM PEELER
The only controversial play in Friday night's BCA Invitational Championship game was whether freshman Andrew Brackman actually committed a foul he was called for against East Carolina's Moussa Badiane, one of college basketball's top shot blockers last year.
Brackman went up with Badiane underneath the ECU basket, got his hand on the ball in mid-air and held on tight as the two players landed on the floor. He was called for a foul, but the crowd at the RBC Center was vocal in its disagreement.
Later in the game, however, Brackman got plenty of other opportunities to block shots, as the Wolfpack rolled to a 100-66 victory over the Pirates. He even got help on occasions from fellow freshman Cedric Simmons. For the game, the Wolfpack had six blocks.
That's significant because last year shot-blocking was not a part of the Wolfpack's defense. State finished ninth in the ACC with a total of 69 blocked shots, which was 42 fewer than ACC leader Shelden Williams of Duke had by himself and 26 fewer than eighth-place Wake Forest had as a team. (Blocked shots was just another statistical category where Julius Hodge led the Wolfpack, in addition to scoring, rebounding, assists and field goal percentage. He had 25 blocks in 31 games.)
In three games, Brackman and Simmons have established that the Wolfpack now has a couple of legitimate shot-blockers as well as two talented rebounders. State, after three games, has 11 blocks, with Brackman leading the team with five.
"It really gives us a dimension that we haven't had in a while," said Hodge. "We've never had those big guys back there who can block a lot of shots. Now we have two Emeka Okafors in there.
"It puts a lot less stress on Tony [Bethel] and myself knowing that we have those two big guys back there in case we have some kind of slip-up on defense."
It also takes plenty of pressure of junior Ilian Evtimov, who often found himself outsized on the defensive end last year.
"Those are the only two guys on the team that are allowed to block shots," said Evtimov. "They both have great timing and long arms. They bring something different for us. It makes us even more versatile than we were last year, even though we were really good with our two seniors Marcus Melvin and Scooter Sherrill."
Brackman, the 6-10 center who came to NC State to play basketball and baseball, showed Friday night that he can definitely help in two ways: on offense and defense. He scored 12 points, had five rebounds and was credited with three blocked shots.
The thing is, he doesn't really know where his shot-blocking skills came from. As a high school freshman, Brackman was barely 6-feet tall and playing point guard for Moeller High School's junior varsity team. He began to sprout after that season, and gradually moved his way to shooting guard as a sophomore, small forward as a junior and power forward as a senior, when he was named Ohio's player of the year. However, shooting was more his forte, not blocking shots.
"I was short in high school," said Brackman, who grew more than nine inches while at Moeller. "So I guess it comes naturally. It's not something I worked on very much."
But, shot-blocking and strong interior defense is something that Brackman and Simmons can contribute immediately for the Wolfpack.
You may contact Tim Peeler at mailto:tim_peeler@ncsu.edu tim_peeler@ncsu.edu .
