North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Follow the Bouncing Ball
2/24/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2004
By Tony Haynes
You can't blame Paul Hewitt for having nightmares in the aftermath of his team's 76-72 loss to NC State in Raleigh one month ago. In his sleep, the Georgia Tech coach saw one basketball after another bouncing long and bouncing short off the tight rims at the RBC Center. And more often than not, the balls would carom right into the hands of the players wearing the home white jerseys. Hardly a rebounding juggernaut, the Wolfpack scored 24 second chance points off of 21 offensive rebounds, stunning numbers that helped to offset a rare non-productive night by the Pack's leading scorer, Julius Hodge.
Hodge, who at the time was the ACC's leading scorer, tallied a mere two points against the Jackets that night. Amazingly, however, that didn't matter. On a night when it missed 29 of 41 3-point shots and hit only 35 percent from the field overall, State's rebounding was certainly the difference. Most of the damage was done by Ilian Evtimov and Marcus Melvin. Seven of Evtimov's career-high 14 boards came after Wolfpack misses. Nine of Melvin's 12 rebounds were of the offensive variety.
"They really out hustled us," Hewitt said on Monday. "They beat us to a lot of loose balls. As a matter of fact, in watching the tape, you could see it was a clear factor of guys like Melvin and Watkins just beating us to the ball. We're just going to have to hustle a little harder and box out a little stronger, and when those long rebounds come off we've got to chase them down."
In other words, it would behoove NC State to make a few more shots in the rematch on Wednesday night because it doesn't appear Tech will concede quite as many second chance opportunities when the two nationally ranked ACC clubs square off at Alexander Memorial Coliseum (7:00 p.m.).
For the Wolfpack to have a chance to post its first win in Atlanta since Justin Gainey hit a game-winner in 1999, Hodge will have to be more productive against the one team that has truly been his nemesis. In six career games against the Yellow Jackets, the 6-6 junior has averaged just 6.8 points and has scratched for double-figures only once - when he scored 10 points in last year's ACC Tournament.
"We don't do anything special, we just try to guard hard every night," Hewitt says of his team's ability to hold Hodge in check. "It's probably a combination of when he played us he didn't have one of his better games and maybe we do some things that he's not accustomed to. He's capable of going for a big number on anybody, including us."
Hodge's versatility often creates match-up problems for NC State opponents. Bigger players who try to guard him many times become susceptible to his attacks off the dribble, while smaller defenders have often found themselves victimized by Hodge's ability to get points in the post.
Georgia Tech, however, has always seemed to have the right kind of personnel to contain Hodge, players like Isma'il Muhammad (6-6, 228) and Anthony McHenry (6-7, 220) who are both athletic enough to contain his dribble drives and big enough to take away the low post game.
"I haven't really looked at that," NC State head coach Herb Sendek responded when asked about Hodge's meager numbers against Tech. "I don't really try to focus on how he plays specific to one opponent. We kind of have a much bigger perspective. Certainly, Georgia Tech is a really good defensive team, very athletic and quick. They can stop a lot of people."
Renaissance Man: By now, most everyone knows that Evtimov can shoot, dribble, pass and play tough physical defense in the post. The Bulgaria native's ability to speak four languages fluently has also been well-chronicled. But there's more.
After a team meeting at the hotel in Clemson last week, Evtimov sat down at a piano in the lobby and started playing the theme from the motion picture "Love Story." Then came the title track from "The Lion King."
"I was about nine or 10 and I took lessons for one year," Evtimov said of his piano prowess. "I wasn't really into the reading stuff; I just wanted to play by ear. I told the teacher that 'I want you to teach me to play a few pieces.' He taught me a few pieces and then there were some I learned down the road. Every once in a while, if I get a chance and I see a piano, I just go play. I probably can play about 15 or 20 pieces."
For now, Evtimov just wants to keep playing a winning tune for the Wolfpack on the basketball court.
Free Throw Update: With just a decent game by its standards against Washington on Sunday night, NC State could easily have moved its team free throw shooting percentage above the 80 percent mark for the season. Unfortunately, however, the Wolfpack dropped to 79.2 percent by hitting just 14-of-21 from the stripe.
The Pack still has an opportunity to break the all-time ACC record of 79.1 percent set by Duke's 1978 Final Four team, a squad that featured the likes of Jim Spanarkel, Mike Gminski and Gene Banks.
"I think they've got a terrific chance [to break the record]," said Gminski, now an analyst on ACC telecasts. "There's no reason to think they'll lose their confidence with four games to go. You look at it, I think NC State can be a very dangerous NCAA Tournament team because of the defense they play, they control the tempo and shooting free throws. We know how important that is in a tournament situation. It served them well at the end of the Duke game. Stepping up against the number one team in the country and knocking down 13 in a row....and there's a big difference between free throws in the last two minutes of the game as opposed to the first two minutes of the game. I was really impressed with the way those guys stepped up and everybody knocked down shots. I think it's going to serve them well in the postseason."
NC State is trying to lead the ACC in free throw percentage for the third consecutive season.
