North Carolina State University Athletics
"Road Hardened" Wolfpack to Host Seminoles
2/9/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 9, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-NC State, ranked 21st in the latest AP College Basketball Poll, will experience something this week it hasn't enjoyed in a while: an actual home stand. With Florida State (4-5, 16-7) visiting the RBC Center Tuesday night and then top-ranked Duke coming in for a 6:30 tip-off on Sunday, the improving Wolfpack (14-5, 7-2) will have the luxury of playing back-to-back home games for the first time since early January when it recorded three straight home wins over Virginia, UNC-Wilmington and BYU. Despite its recent travels, the Pack has managed to put together its best stretch of basketball in years, winning four of its last five ACC games and two in a row on the road.
Currently 11-0 at the RBC Center, NC State is also trying to shed its image of being a poor road team. Not only is the Wolfpack coming off back-to-back ACC road wins at Maryland and Virginia, it also captured those two games by double-digit point totals, something no NC State team had done since the 1982-83 season. And going back to the end of last year, the Pack has actually prevailed in five of its last seven conference games away from home.
For now, NC State is more than happy to stand on the sidelines while other teams in the league endure questions about their inability to win on the road. Florida State, for example, has yet to win an ACC game away from home, going 4-1 in Tallahassee and 0-4 on the road.
"We actually haven't really played that poorly on the road," said Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton. "In the Clemson and the Virginia games, we were ahead with two minutes to go. We just haven't played well enough to win. We're playing much better on the road than we were last year; we're just not playing well enough to win."
Hamilton has a point. Along with the games at Clemson and Virginia he mentioned, the Seminoles also battled Duke to a 7-point game in Durham (56-49) and were within striking distance for the entire second half before falling at Maryland on Sunday, 73-62.
"If you want to be a team of significance at any level you have to win games away from home," Hamilton said. "I haven't completely bought into the fact that it's that difficult to win on the road in any league. It's a mindset that you allow yourself to get into. I don't know whether we're in that mindset or not; I do know we're playing better than we played last year. We've just come up a little short. I think we're making progress and I think it's just a matter of time before we start being a little more competitive on the road."
Florida State certainly isn't alone in that area. In conference games, ACC teams are currently 13-27 on the road. Between them, Duke (5) and NC State (3) own eight of the 13 road wins that have been posted thus far.
As for Tuesday's night's match-up, the Wolfpack will be looking to extend a 10-game winning streak over FSU. When the two clubs met back on January 11, Levi Watkins drilled a huge 3-pointer with just over a minute to play as NC State continued its dominance over the Seminoles by posting a 58-53 victory at the Leon County Civic Center.
"It was a very significant win because Florida State is an outstanding team," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "I think at the time that we went down there, they were 12-2 and had just gotten a big win over Maryland. I think that win had great significance then and it still does now. Perhaps some are surprised by Florida State's play; we don't happen to be counted among them. We think they've been good all season long and obviously they're playing good basketball now."
The ability to control Tim Pickett, Florida State's high-scoring guard, is one major reason why the Wolfpack has enjoyed a great deal of success against the 'Noles over the last two years. In three games against NC State, Pickett has averaged just 13.6 points and has shot only 31 percent (13-of-41) from the floor.
How did the Wolfpack do it? Mostly by throwing a blanket over Pickett with a sticky match-up zone that has since become a more prominent part of its defensive package against other teams as well.
"We've got a tremendous amount of respect for their defense," Hamilton said. "They seem to be able to play zone when it's necessary, they seem to be able to play man when it's necessary. It seems like they do whatever they need to do to give themselves a chance to win. They'll play against two teams and basically play all zone. Then they'll come back against other teams and play all man. They're just a smart, heady team that makes great decisions. That's a tribute to Herb and the fine job he's doing."
NC State and RPI: Thanks to its recent success both at home and on the road, the Wolfpack has zoomed up the various RPI rankings. In The RPI Report, the Pack is ranked 14th. NC State comes in at No. 12 in the latest Sagarin Computer rankings. And perhaps it's no wonder Sendek sounded a little annoyed a couple of weeks ago when a few callers to his weekly radio show questioned the Wolfpack's overall schedule strength. In The new RPI report, NC State's schedule is rated as the 18th toughest in the nation. At College RPI.com, the Wolfpack's schedule is ranked 14th. Those rankings reflect not only the overall strength of the ACC, but also the success some of the Pack's non-conference foes have experienced. Boston College (15-7), South Carolina (19-4), BYU (11-7), Michigan (13-6) and Wisconsin-Milwaukee (15-6) are all top 50 teams in College RPI.com.
A Hot Rotation: While the importance of starting line-ups can be wildly overrated, NC State has found a starting five that seems to be creating a good results. The fivesome of Engin Atsur, Scooter Sherrill, Julius Hodge, Marcus Melvin and Jordan Collins has been together for the last five games.
"I like what it does for our rotation," Sendek said. "I don't know that we won't change at some point. We've talked about the fact that this team doesn't really have a starting five. We have any number of guys that you could call starters and depending upon match-ups, and our team's situation at a given point, we've made some changes."
And though Collins starts at the "five" spot, he's usually quickly replaced by Evtimov, whose skills are perfectly suited for that particular position in the NC State offense. In his return from major knee surgery, Evtimov got of to a fairly slow start, something that shouldn't have really been unexpected. Lately, however, the redshirt sophomore has seemingly had a little more spring in his step, a fact that has allowed him to drive past overplaying defenders and get to the basket.
"I think his knee feels good right now," Sendek said. "Watching it on film, I think he is moving with greater mobility. He just seems to have a shade more quickness than he had at earlier points of the season."
