North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Wolfpack Together and Clicking
2/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2004
By Tony Haynes
In a coaching career that has spanned more than 30 years, Florida State's Leonard Hamilton has seen it happen many times before. A group of individuals from all walks of life and varying backgrounds magically comes together to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This strange and often elusive cohesiveness is what basketball coaches on all levels hope to achieve, yet pulling it all the parts together is often so very difficult. Before and then after his Seminoles faced NC State on Tuesday night, Hamilton knew he was watching a Wolfpack team that is perhaps in the process of venturing into this hallowed basketball territory.
In posting a 75-59 victory over Florida State, NC State improved to 15-5 overall and 8-2 in conference play for the first time since the 1988-89 season. Want more? The Pack has now captured four consecutive regular season conference games for the first time since 1985-86.
But it didn't take Tuesday night' game to convince Hamilton that something unique might be in the works for NC State. As his team was shooting around at the RBC Center earlier in the day, the veteran coach said that we were all witnessing a Wolfpack squad that was indeed reaching Herb Sendek's goal of thriving on one heartbeat.
"The most impressive thing about NC State is that they have bought into the system," Hamilton said about nine hours before Tuesday's tilt. "They're playing within themselves and they're playing to each other's strengths; they're not necessarily concerned with anything other than winning. They give Hodge the freedom to make the plays and everyone plays off of him. That's unusual in this day in time. You have youngsters who have been the best players on everybody's team, they come from all walks of life and they have all their family and friends trying to tell them how great they are. Then all of a sudden, the coaches are trying to tell them to play unselfish and buy into a system. Herb should be commended for that. He gets my vote for coach of the year because I know how difficult it is to get youngsters to buy into that."
Hamilton wasn't kidding when he talked about the difficulty of bringing kids from all walks of life together. The ingredients in NC State's recipe for success are in a word, "diverse."
Imagine putting together a guest list for a party that includes Julius Hodge from Harlem, Engin Atsur from Turkey, Ilian Evtimov from Bulgaria, Marcus Melvin from Fayetteville and Scooter Sherrill from Mt. Ulla.
Sounds like a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The only difference is that NC State's group of international representatives can actually agree on something. The word "winning" appeals to everyone, whether they speak in a southern English drawl or Turkish.
"They're sensing that they have an opportunity to be special," Hamilton said following Tuesday night's game.
As fate would have it, the Wolfpack will truly get a chance to find out just how special it can be in its next game, a meeting with top ranked Duke on Sunday night (6:30 p.m.) at the RBC Center. While they may not be invincible, the Blue Devils have certainly been unbeatable since losing to Purdue in the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout back in November. In keeping its unbeaten conference record in tact, Mike Krzyzewski's team has managed to separate itself from the ACC pack, something no one thought possible this year.
Then again, there's 'The Pack' and then there's the rest of the pack. Should State find a way to pull it off on Sunday night, it would trail Duke by only one game in the standings. The combination of their smothering pressure on defense and deep arsenal of weapons on the offensive end make the Blue Devils difficult to deal with. But for NC State, there will, at least, be some extra time between games to allow for a combination of rest and preparation.
"Duke is the top team in the country," said Atsur, who has averaged 13.5 points while knocking down 55 percent (11-of-20) of his 3-point shots over his last four games. "We have to be fresh to defend them. They play pressure defense and we'll have to run our offense well to beat them here. It's going to be very difficult because they are playing very well."
By now, however, the Wolfpack has seen and even conquered a large share of the difficult challenges it has faced. Instead of pouting and overreacting to a few disappointing non-conference losses, the team itself never lost sight of the big picture. All along, coming together and getting better throughout the long season has been the key objective.
Now that it's happening, even rival coaches like Leonard Hamilton are willing to stop and admire the handy work.
