North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Familiar with Florida State's Desperation
3/11/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Greensboro, N.C - Been there, done that. Where NC State has been is not necessarily the best place to visit for anyone who has a faulty ticker. The last two years, the Wolfpack entered ACC Tournament play thinking that it would, perhaps, need a win or two to secure an NCAA Tournament berth. What the Pack did is quite remarkable given the fact that it looked that pressure dead in the eye and responded by making two straight visits to the ACC title game. In Friday's quarterfinals of this year's tournament, NC State, ranked 17th in this week's AP Poll, will be on the other side of the fence when it squares off against a Florida State team that could be equally as desperate.
Thanks to a sterling 11-5 conference record that left the Wolfpack all alone in second place during the regular season, not quite as much will be on the line this weekend. Having already secured its spot in the 'Big Dance,' NC State (19-8, 11-5) can get greedy this week and fight for a high seeding, while also trying to grab its first ACC title since 1987.
"We want to make sure that we take full advantage of this week," said Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek. "We'll worry about the NCAA Tournament next week. Right now, we have the real privilege of participating in the ACC Tournament. You don't want to live your live with one foot out the door always wanting to be at the next place. I know I don't take for granted the opportunity to participate in the ACC Tournament; that's very meaningful to me. All the preparation that goes into this week and then the actual event itself for me are totally consuming. I don't think it's always good to be into next week."
Florida State, however, hopes there is a next week in the NCAA. At 18-12 overall and 6-10 in league play, the Seminoles know that their postseason fate is quite uncertain. In a year when the ACC has clearly emerged as the nation's strongest conference, it's not totally out of the question that FSU has done enough. But then again, the 'Noles fit the description of the classic bubble team that quite possibly needs another quality win in order to impress the NCAA selection committee, which will be meticulously scrutinizing a handful of borderline bubble teams this weekend.
"There's no doubt that we need to win as many games as possible when you're a team that's a kind of upstart-type team that's on the rise and you don't have a lot of tradition," said Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton. "We have to do something kind of out of the box to get everyone's attention. That's why these tournaments are important to us; it gives us a chance to go play a high quality team and gives us a chance to keep our postseason tournament dreams alive."
The man who will be sitting on the other bench during Friday's Florida State - NC State match-up can certainly empathize with Hamilton's position. Even after going 9-7 during the regular season two years ago, Sendek's Wolfpack was being called a bubble team when it arrived in Charlotte for the ACC Tourney. Of course, the Pack quickly got off the bubble by knocking off Virginia in the first round before pulling off a stunning upset win over a Maryland team that would go on to win the national title three weeks later.
Last season, the Pack did it again by downing Georgia Tech and top-seed Wake Forest in the first two rounds before losing a close one to Duke in the title game.
"We were fairly confident the last couple of years, but you just never know because it's not just what you've done necessarily because of all the other games around the country," NC State head coach Herb Sendek said. "Looking back at it and thinking about it last year, we probably needed to win one game or maybe two. There were some who were saying that we needed to win the tournament. There's nothing actually like seeing your name up on that television screen on Sunday because really the only people that have opinions that matter are that selection committee. It's good to get conformation from the ones who count."
History suggests that Florida State faces an uphill battle, given the fact that it has dropped 10 straight games to the Wolfpack. During the regular season, NC State followed up a narrow 58-53 triumph in Tallahassee with a one-sided 75-59 victory over the Seminoles in Raleigh. In the second game, eight different Pack players hit 3-pointers as State knocked down 14-of-30 long bombs for the game. It was one of the very few times all year that Florida State was virtually out of a game going into the last five minutes.
"I'm not familiar with the past other than the last couple of years, but if I remember correctly, the last two times we played them in Tallahassee they have been games that went right down to the wire," said Hamilton, who is in his second season at Florida State. "At their place we haven't played as well and they just did a tremendous job of coming out early this year and shot the ball very, very well. They got off to such a lead, we just couldn't close the gap. They're an excellent basketball team and they've given a lot of folks difficulties the last couple of years in our league. They possess unique challenges for most teams. When your big guys can shoot as well as they do, and they make good decisions and they space the floor as well as they do, they're a good basketball team. We don't feel like they've singled Florida State out as a team to pick on."
As much as anything else the last few years, NC State has probably done as good a job as anyone in the league of controlling Tim Pickett, Florida State's first-team All-ACC guard. In the two regular season games this year, the Wolfpack held Pickett to just 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting.
In the first game, the senior guard was buried in a 2-3 match-up zone that the Pack employed almost exclusively. In game two, most of the credit for defending Pickett went to Scooter Sherrill, who of course is listed as doubtful with a an ankle injury for this Friday's game. When NC State plays man-to-man this time around, most of the defensive burden for containing Pickett will fall on the shoulders of sophomore Cam Bennerman.
"I think we have to be prepared like we always are to have a team approach with it," Sendek said. "We have to have other guys who are ready to step up as well."
Dating back to 1954, NC State owns a 55-40 record in ACC Tournament play and ranks third behind North Carolina and Duke in tournament titles with 10. Friday's meeting will mark the fourth time the Wolfpack and Seminoles have met in the ACC Tournament with the Pack holding a 2-1 edge.
The Wolfpack Radio Network will broadcast all eight games of the ACC Tournament, starting with Thursday night's 8 vs. 9 contest between Virginia and Clemson. Fans attending the tournament can listen to the broadcasts inside the Greensboro Coliseum on 87.7 FM.
