North Carolina State University Athletics

The Delicate Balance
2/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2005
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - On his best days - and there have been many -- NC State's Julius Hodge is a player who stuffs the stat sheet with points, rebounds and assists. But on those occasions during his career when he has tried to force-feed the basket on the offensive end of the court, the versatility that made him the ACC Player of the Year last season often vanishes. There is, of course, a delicate balance between the two. Following the Wolfpack's two-point loss to Virginia on Saturday night, there was a new question being asked: Did Hodge play too unselfishly?
In 34 minutes against the Cavaliers, the 6-7 senior saw his streak of games scoring in double figures end at 36. Guarded by UVa's J.R. Reynolds most of the night, Hodge had just six points and had only two field goals out of five shots. In the first half, the Harlem, N.Y. native was 0-2 from the field.
"That's not the norm," said NC State head coach Herb Sendek. "He usually gets more shot opportunities than that. On Saturday, he was obviously limited to five shots, but if you look over the course of his career, he does get more than that."
Through 22 games this season, Hodge is averaging 11.6 shot attempts per game, a relatively low number for a player who is averaging nearly 18 points per game. But as a rule, his best games have often come on nights when he takes around 12 or 13 shots per game, totals that usually suggest he's done a good job of also looking to create open opportunities for his teammates.
A good case in point would be NC State's 80-70 victory at Clemson on January 29th. Despite taking just eight field goal attempts, Hodge finished with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists. It was, by any measure, a vintage Julius Hodge performance. On that particular day, he got eight points from the free throw line, a few baskets in transition and two or three more by working himself free out of the halfcourt offense.
But in Saturday's contest against Virginia, Hodge's scoring opportunities in the low post and on drives were limited. As a result, he only got to the free throw line four times.
"It's interesting because every game we try to take Julius and evaluate whether he tried to do too much or whether he didn't do enough," Sendek said. "Every game is different. He has to simply go out and see what the situation involves and make good decisions. Certainly, Virginia did a good job defensively, but I thought he did an excellent job of trying to help his teammates get good open shots. It seems like it's become an ongoing question of how involved was he. He's just out there like everybody else playing, and some nights he gets more opportunities than others and other nights he's creating more for his teammates."
Hodge did finish with five assists, three steals and three rebounds to go along with six points against Virginia.