North Carolina State University Athletics
Waiting Game Over for Pack
12/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - The NC State men's basketball team, ranked 25th in the A.P. Poll and No. 24 in this week's coaches poll, will be celebrating what amounts to a `turn back the clock' day when it hosts Appalachian State at venerable Reynolds Coliseum on Saturday (2:00 p.m.). But you also have to the turn the clock back quite a ways to find the last time the Wolfpack actually played a game. It will have been 10 days to be exact since the Pack's last outing, a tough 45-42 loss at Iowa back on November 30th. And while the top priority over that period has been final exams, coach Herb Sendek would have preferred to fit in another game last weekend.
"It's just what it is," Sendek said of the layoff, NC State's longest since an 11-day break in December of 1997. "We weren't able to find a game that we tried to schedule for last weekend. We ended up scheduling the VMI game right after the [Hispanic College Fund] tournament, so we had an onslaught of games right out of the gate and an open date right before finals. I think it's been good from the standpoint that we've really been able to focus on ourselves and go back to work. I think we've been able to make some improvement over the last week and a half. But obviously, it's time to play another game."
From an offensive standpoint, the three-point loss at Iowa wasn't pretty as the Wolfpack had 24 turnovers to go along with frigid 34 percent shooting. The high number of turnovers was particularly surprising since the Pack's low turnover rate in recent years has been among the best in the country. On the flip side, NC State stayed in the game because of its relentless defense, which held the offensive-minded Hawkeyes to just 30 percent shooting from the floor.
"We were most pleased with our defense," Sendek said. "That's kind of been there for us here early in the season. Our defensive numbers have been really strong. Iowa is an excellent offensive team, as is Notre Dame. We did a good job defensively in both of those games. Offensively, the thing that stood out from the Iowa game were the turnovers and we had them of every possible garden variety. Historically, we've been a team that has played with a manageable number of turnovers, and I think this team will end up doing the same as we go through the season."
More than likely, the turnover hailstorm at Iowa was an aberration given the history of some of the players who were involved. It's doubtful, for instance, that guard Engin Atsur will record as many as five turnovers in another game this season. There were times last year when the junior from Turkey would go weeks and several games without accumulating that many, one reason why he had the ACC's best assist-to-turnover ratio in conference games. Atsur is as sure-handed as they come, and so is senior Tony Bethel, whose playing time may soon increase. Sendek hinted on Friday that Bethel, who has spent the last month still fighting off the affects of a severe groin tear sustained in last March's ACC Tournament, could return to the starting line-up on Saturday.
"We are going to take a look at that," Sendek said. "Not because it's a case of anybody beating someone else out. I think this is the type of team where that lineup could change throughout the season. I don't know that we necessarily have the type of team that we're going to have to have the same starting lineup all season long. The one thing that's changing with our team every day is Tony. As we try to get him re-immersed in our lineup as one of our point guards, that's not just a transition for Tony but it's a transition for the entire team. He's had some of his best days here recently, so I'm really encouraged by what I see in terms of his progress."
Bethel's return to health comes at a time when freshman forward Brandon Costner remains out of action with a leg injury. Fearing that Costner was close to developing a stress fracture in his leg, Sendek and director of sports medicine Charlie Rozanski shut him down after NC State's victory over Notre Dame on November 26.
"Brandon is still sidelined," Sendek said. "We don't anticipate him doing much before sometime next week, and then it will really be a function of just how he feels. We've basically shut him down for about two weeks to let his leg just get some rest."
The Appalachian State team that NC State will host on Saturday dropped to 3-4 with a competitive loss at Tennessee on Tuesday night. Leading by as many as 12 points in the opening half, App. State couldn't hold on and faltered down the stretch in an 89-81 setback to the Vols. Earlier in the year, the Mountaineers toppled Virginia Commonwealth and hung around at Wake Forest for 36 minutes before losing by 13 points (91-78).
Dangerous from 3-point range, Appalachian State shoots a very respectable 38 percent from the arc.
"I think Appalachian is really a good team," Sendek said. "They shoot the 3-point shot from as many as five positions on the floor at one time. They really prey on mismatches; they're quick, they're athletic, they want to play at a fast pace and they put points on the board. I think they're an excellent offensive basketball team and one that we're really going to have to be ready to defend."
Guard D.J. Thompson leads the Mountaineers, scoring at a clip of 18 points per game. Nathan Cranford, who's shooting better than 43 percent from the arc, averages 10.6 points per contest.
This will mark the fourth straight season that NC State has returned for a one game engagement at Reynolds, the Wolfpack's legendary home for 50 years from 1949-99.
"Obviously, the atmosphere at Reynolds is tremendous," said Sendek. "Anyone who has ever been there kind of lights up when they think about the first time they saw a game there. There's just so must mystique, history and nostalgia to the building that I just think it makes it special for everybody. I know our guys look forward to playing there every year."
NC State, which usually practices at its new facility in the new men's basketball complex, did hold a practice session at Reynolds on Thursday.
Basketball and Bowl conflict still a concern: At the same time the NC State football team will be facing South Florida in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on December 31, the men's basketball team is scheduled to entertain 19th ranked George Washington at the RBC Center. On his weekly radio show earlier this week, Sendek said that NC State is trying to get the basketball game moved to avoid the conflict. A time change could prove to be complicated since the basketball game is scheduled to be televised by Fox Sports Net.
"We're still looking at some different options," Sendek said on Friday. "I know that there's also a hockey game that night [at the RBC Center]. It's a busy sports day and we'll try to make it work the best way we can. We're just in the preliminary stages of considering some options. It's usually fairly difficult to change the day of the game."
