North Carolina State University Athletics
Duke and NC State: One and Done
1/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 12, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - Unless they meet down the road in either the ACC Tournament or NCAA Tournament, Thursday's contest between longtime Big Four rivals Duke (11-0, 1-0) and NC State (10-4, 0-1) at the RBC Center (7 p.m.) will be a one time only event this season. Sound odd? Well, it should since the last time the Wolfpack and Blue Devils didn't face off at least twice in the same season was during the 1924-25 campaign. To put that into perspective, Duke had only been called Duke for one year at the time, having switched from Trinity College earlier in 1924. It was about the same time that NC State `College' inherited the nickname `Red Terrors.'
As longtime members of both the Southern Conference and ACC, it was a tradition for NC State and Duke to play each other twice every season. But that changed with the arrival of the ACC's 2004 expansion to 11 teams, a growth that wiped out the league's round robin schedule format.
Former Wolfpack coach Everett Case requested that he be buried along highway 70 between Raleigh and Durham so that "his boys" could give him a wave every time NC State made its annual trip over to Duke. This year, however, there will be no such trip since the Pack will not play a game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"It's not ideal when everybody in the conference doesn't play the same schedule," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "We've talked about that repeatedly since expansion. To have a true champion, to have a conference where the standings reflect things with as much equity as possible, everybody plays the same schedule. But there's no use going down that same road because we're not."
The basketball ties between Duke and NC State are significant. Vic Bubas, who played at NC State before eventually becoming an assistant under Case, went on to build a national powerhouse as the head coach of the Blue Devils in the 1960s. Another ex-Wolfpack player, Bucky Waters, was also the head coach at Duke from 1970-73. Former NC State coach Jim Valvano and current Blue Devils boss Mike Krzyzewski became very close friends during Valvano's fight with the cancer that eventually took his life back in the early 1990s.
"I think all the coaches are adjusting to it," Krzyzewski said when asked about the new ACC schedule. "There are inequities in the schedule. Duke and State have had an unbelievable amount of great games, so it's too bad we won't play two of them this year. On [Thursday night] I'm sure we'll have a great one. The State people support their team so well, and it's always been an honor for us to go to Raleigh and play them."
More than any other teams in the ACC thus far, Duke and NC State have been stricken with injuries and illness that have certainly taken a toll. To their credit, the Blue Devils have continued to win despite losing forwards Shavlik Randolph (mononucleosis) and Reggie Love (broken foot). The 6-10 Randolph, who hasn't played since December 18th, has begun to practice and could return to game action next week.
NC State will again be without guard Tony Bethel on Thursday night. Out for what Sendek says is "an indefinite period of time," Bethel continues to deal with the side affects stemming from the flu and colitis. Leading scorer and rebounder Julius Hodge is also less than 100 percent as he continues to nurse a sprained ankle and sore back. If there is a silver lining for the Wolfpack, it appears that the bug that spread throughout the team last week has finally run its course.
"The overall health has improved," Sendek said. "It's still certainly not where we would ideally like it to be. Tony remains sidelined and some other guys are battling some nagging things."
Another thing that's nagging the Wolfpack right now is a three-game losing streak, its longest such streak since the 2000-01 season. And while the Pack can certainly use some improvement in just about every phase, the biggest area of concern is rebounding. In Sunday's one-point loss at Miami, the Pack allowed the Hurricanes to pile up 21 second chance points on 17 offensive boards.
"It's a mindset," said forward Ilian Evtimov. "We just can't allow other people to just crash the boards on us and use that as another weapon against us. We play good defense in the halfcourt set for 25 or 30 seconds, they'll throw up a bad shot and we should get the rebound and go on. Instead, they get the rebound and score. That helps them get emotional and get more confident. It's something we've got to turn around. We've been struggling with that all year long and we've got to fix it because the teams are only going to get better and bigger."
Bigger and better indeed. In Duke's Sheldon Williams, the Pack will be facing the ACC's top rebounder (12 pg.) and shot blocker (3.64 average). On the perimeter, the Blue Devils feature the league's number one scorer in J.J. Redick, who averages 21.5 points per contest.
"The thing about [Redick] that's so impressive is he's been able to do it night in and night out. His consistency is amazing," said Sendek. "Sometimes he's labeled as just a shooter, but he's so much more than a shooter. He has a great one-on-one package. He can go by defenders and he's a very good passer. He attracts so much attention that he does make his teammates better players because of his presence."
The Blue Devils are also getting 16.8 points per game from the highly underrated Daniel Ewing.
NC State has won the last two games played between the two teams at the RBC Center, a pair of victories that really got the Wolfpack headed in the right direction towards the NCAA Tournament.
"Since Herb has gotten his program established, State has become one of the better teams in the country," Krzyzewski said. "In Hodge (18.8 ppg., 7.2 rebounds), you have one of the better players in the country and an outstanding senior leader. A lot revolves around what he does because he's going to want the ball and he's going to want to win. That will help his teammates go to a high level, which is what Julius has done during his four years."
Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that Krzyzewski scheduled Princeton a week before the Blue Devils were to face NC State. Much has been said and written about the Wolfpack's transition into a Princeton-style offense nearly four years ago.
"There are some things that are similar," Krzyzewski said. "NC State's more talented, they post more and they're a lot bigger. What Herb and his staff have done is take what some people say is the Princeton offense and he's created the NC State offense, using that as a starting point. He and his staff have been smart enough to personalize it for the players that they have. As a result, they're very difficult to defend."
Unlike year's past, the losing team on Thursday night may not get a second chance to redeem itself with a second game. Once the players and coaches leave the floor, it will indeed be somewhat odd knowing that another Duke - NC State game in 2004-05 won't be just another month or so around the corner.
"I love playing Duke and I love playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium," Evtimov said. "I wish we played them more than once, but it's certainly something we have to embrace because there are new teams in the ACC. That means we've got to play Duke once and this is the biggest game of the year for us right now."
