North Carolina State University Athletics
Change is on the Way for Pack
1/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - On his weekly radio show Monday night, NC State basketball coach Herb Sendek offered an unusually blunt assessment of his team as it gets set to open ACC play at Miami this Sunday. Acknowledging that injury and illness had set the Wolfpack back over its last three games, Sendek also indicated that the first two months of the season had not produced the clear-cut playing rotation he had hoped to establish by this time of year. He also implied that freshmen Andrew Brackman, Gavin Grant and Cedric Simmons may become more prominent factors in that rotation in upcoming games.
Momentum will not be an ally for NC State (10-3) as it begins the conference portion of its schedule. The Wolfpack has dropped two in a row and three of its last five. As a result, the Pack slipped out of the A.P. top 25 for the first time this season.
In last Thursday's 63-45 loss to St. John's, NC State shot just 20 percent from the field. Three days later, defense became the problem as the Wolfpack allowed West Virginia to shoot 59 percent in an 82-69 defeat at the RBC Center.
"If you look at the bare facts, we have to get a lot better," Sendek said. "We weren't nearly good enough against West Virginia and we haven't minced any words about St. John's; we were horrible. But before we can start getting better with our team, we have to get better with our health. The latter isn't happening until we get healthy. Hopefully this week we'll turn the corner. Once we do, we've got to get better because right now, we're not good enough."
It's now pretty clear that a long road swing that took NC State away from Raleigh for four games in different corners of the country took its toll. After returning home from a game at BYU on December 21, guard Tony Bethel came down with a severe case of the flu that has limited his production and minutes on the court over the three games since. By the time the West Virginia game rolled around last weekend, Cameron Bennerman, Ilian Evtimov and Gavin Grant were also feeling under the weather. And of course, leading scorer and rebounder Julius Hodge missed Sunday's game with a sprained ankle.
It goes without saying that having a week between games was the best thing that's happened to the Wolfpack in a while.
But when NC State opens ACC play this Sunday, its starting line-up and bench rotation could look very different from what Sendek has used to this point. There could, in fact, be a youth movement in the works for a team that has several veteran players.
"If nothing else over the last few weeks, we have learned a lot about our team," Sendek said. "I'll be honest with you: we have struggled to come up with a clear rotation. We've struggled trying to put our guys in the right roles. I think some of these most recent games have done that. I'm really pleased with the play of Andrew Brackman and Gavin Grant. I think that Cedric Simmons is the next guy you'll see emerge from that young group of basketball players. Ced has been coming along and I could very well have gotten him involved [against West Virginia]. In evaluating things, we have to look at our basketball team very closely. These last couple of games have brought things into much clearer focus for us."
After putting together strong performances at Washington and BYU, Brackman, like most of his teammates, struggled on the New York trip. He then came back with a vengeance, scoring 19 points to go along with eight rebounds in 28 minutes against West Virginia. Brackman's emergence has already begun to shorten the playing time of senior forward Levi Watkins, whose streak of 12 straight starts came to an end on Sunday.
"Levi right now is going to have to settle into a role where he tries to help our basketball team in whatever way he possibly can," Sendek said. "The last segment of our season has probably shed some light on our personnel. I'm really excited about some of our young players. Some other guys are going to have to adjust and settle into some roles. Up until this point, I don't think we've played with enough consistency to allow those answers to be readily available for us. If we're going to be a better basketball team here in the New Year, consistency has to somehow be achieved."
Before hitting a 3-pointer right before halftime in the contest against West Virginia, Watkins had been held scoreless in three of his previous four games. But even during periods when his production on the court has slipped, Watkins has remained a solid and respected leader off the floor.
Grant impressed against West Virginia by putting the ball on the floor and attacking gaps in the Mountaineers' 1-3-1 zone. As for Simmons, his practice performances of late have picked up as he's become more and more comfortable with NC State's offensive system, which is demanding for anyone playing the '5' position. The 6-9 rookie has also needed a little extra time to acclimate himself to competing against players that are as big and strong as he is, something he didn't encounter very much playing at a small high school. His progression has been typical of most freshman post players, who usually need a little more time to develop.
One veteran player who now figures to become a more prominent part of the rotation and perhaps the starting line-up is Ilian Evtimov. The redshirt junior had part of his offseason shortened after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. The resulting rehab then limited his time on the court during both practice and games. But over the last few weeks, Evtimov has shed his knee brace and looked more comfortable on the floor. His season-high 16-point outing against the Mountaineers leaves room for optimism.
"Ilian Evtimov is starting to turn the corner," said Sendek. "If you look at his numbers, they're almost exactly where they were a year ago. I think Ilian is going to play his best basketball as we move forward. It's hard to go through the knee problems that he has and not being able to go through the off-season and pick up as if nothing happened. For the first part of the season, he wouldn't even go through the game day shootaround. That's how sensitive we were to his knees. Those things are hard to overcome."
As it kicks off its 16-game league schedule, NC State will need to shore up a couple of key areas in order to have success. A team that relies heavily on the 3-point shot, the Wolfpack is hitting 33 percent from the arc through 13 games. Sendek has said that the goal is to convert on somewhere between 36 and 37 percent.
On defense, NC State is a team that traditionally does an excellent job of limiting dribble penetration and then recovering to 3-point shooters. But in recent games, the Wolfpack has allowed far more dribble penetration than usual. Last week in New York, Columbia nailed 11-of-18 3s by driving and kicking. West Virginia also had success with straight-line drives that set up scoring opportunities.
It's ACC time, and at NC State, some changes may be on the way.
