North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Pack's First Round Foe No Lightweight
3/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Orlando, Florida - The biblical story that portrays David's unexpected triumph over famed Philistine Goliath is still - after all of these years - the upset by which all others are measured. But these days in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, it's often difficult to tell the difference between the Davids and the Goliaths. Such will be the case in NC State's first round tournament meeting with Louisiana-Lafayette on Friday. Since this match-up was unveiled by the selection committee last Sunday, it's become quite obvious that a win by the Ragin' Cajuns would not be an upset of - shall we say - biblical proportions.
Forget the fact that the Wolfpack is a No. 3 seed and resides in the all mighty and powerful Atlantic Coast Conference. The pundits on ESPN, TBS, FSN and every other cable sports network you can think of have all labeled this as a game to watch. Do those predictions speak of little faith for the Wolfpack or total respect for UL-Lafayette? Try the latter. Those who have seen the Ragin' Cajuns up close know full well how dangerous they are.
In fact, Pack coach Herb Sendek has gone so far as to say that using the word dangerous to describe Louisiana-Lafayette is a gross mischaracterization.
"When you say a team is dangerous," Sendek said, "you're implying that it can rise up on a very good day and do something unexpected. This team is just plain good; they don't need to be labeled as dangerous."
He may be onto something.
Any team that has great athletes that are interchangeable and shoots the 3-point shot from four positions is not one to be taken lightly. And after winning their last five games and 14 of their last 17 overall, the Ragin' Cajuns have probably forgotten what it's like to lose a game. Even before Florida transfer Orien Greene joined the team after the new year, UL-Lafayette had gone on the road and scared the daylights out of tourney clubs like Xavier and Arizona before losing by a combined total of seven points.
"We played five tournament teams in Dayton, Xavier, Georgia Tech, Arizona and Valparaiso," said coach Jessie Evans. "We played with those guys and other than Georgia Tech, we were ahead at halftime versus all of those guys. It gave us some confidence that if we buy into what we're doing, we can play with the good teams around the country. We've got good players and now that we've got a full team, we feel confident."
Confident players like lightning quick guard Antoine Landry who shoots 43 percent from the arc. Then there's sixth man Brad Boyd, a 6-6 forward who comes off the bench with his hand already cocked behind his right ear. With 270 career 3s to his credit, Boyd ranks as the second best long-range bomber in Sun Belt Conference history.
Evans, who was an assistant coach under Lute Olson on Arizona's 1997 national title team, has been around enough to know that tournament seedings, especially in this case, are somewhat deceiving. In other words, don't read too much into the fact that NC State is a 3 seed and UL-Lafayette is a 14.
"If you're not a 1 or a 2, everybody else is pretty much the same," said Evans, who was on the bench when Arizona lost a 3 vs. 14 game in 1992.
It seems that both coaches have been trying to convince their respective teams of that fact. While Evans wants to make sure his Cajuns' aren't in awe of NC State's high profile existence in the ACC, Sendek has sold his players on the notion that a very feisty first round game is at hand. The same type of games that Maryland and Wake Forest survived on Thursday.
"Coach let us know about the history [of the tournament]," said Wolfpack swingman Julius Hodge, the reigning ACC Player of the Year. "We're not going into this game cocky or overconfident. We're going to be ready to play. If we're not ready to play, they're going to be ready to step on us and get a win."
Such a result would bring a sudden and shocking end to a season that has, to a certain degree, given Sendek's program a higher profile nationally. After bowing out in the second round two years ago and being knocked out in the first round last year, NC State wants badly to go much deeper this time around.
"I think it's time for us to go out there and leave it all out on the court," said senior forward Marcus Melvin. "If we believe in ourselves and stay focused, anything is possible for us."
Anything is possible these days, which is exactly why the Wolfpack will have to be at its best on Friday to keep its season alive.
Injury update: The jury is still out on the availability of guard Scooter Sherrill and center Jordan Collins. In a closed practice Thursday morning, both players did some running and shooting, but were kept out of drills that involved game-speed type of work. Collins, sidelined by a sprained knee sustained in last Friday's ACC Tournament victory over Florida State, would seem to have a better chance of playing on Friday than Sherrill, who is still working his way back from a muscle tear in his ankle.
"I'm still in a lot of pain right now," Sherrill said. "It's my Achilles tendon right now that's giving me problems. At this time it's in a lot of pain, but I'm going to try to suck it up and try to go."
Sherrill was injured in a home game against North Carolina in late February.
