North Carolina State University Athletics
Hodge: I don't understand
3/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGHJulius Hodge was devastated, he was sobbing, and he was taking the blame.
He believed he had let N.C. State down on Senior Day, a 55-53 loss to No. 4 Wake Forest at the RBC Center. It was a difficult night for Hodge, who scored eight points, had four rebounds and four assists in his final home game at the RBC Center. He was particularly upset that he made only two of his seven free throws.
"I don't understand," Hodge said. "I thought we had it. Free throws and offensive rebounding killed us. I don't know. I felt like I let my guys down.
"I go to the gym, and I shoot extra free throws and I work on my game, when I know other guys are out partying and having a good time. I don't understand. It just seems like I have been letting my guys down. I can't explain it."
But Hodge was also upset about other things that happened in Sunday's game, which resulted in him leaving the game briefly in the first half after contact with Wake Forest guard Chris Paul.
"I got punched in my groin by Chris Paul," Hodge said afterwards. "Then I get a technical foul for penetrating and then trying to help the guy up, nothing malicious about it.
"And I get hit intentionally in my privates. They throw my brother out of the gym on Senior Night, my last game here, because I got punched in the groin. And then several plays later I get a technical foul for going to the basket strong. That's the way it is sometimes. Those two plays didn't decide the game. We lost on the free throw line."
Paul later hit the game-winning shot, a running 10-footer after driving the length of the court in the final 4.3 seconds of the game.
Still, it was a night in which the Wolfpack played its best defense of the year, holding the high-scoring Deacons to 31 points fewer than their season average. "That is as good a defensive performance as I have seen in almost 20 years of college coaching," Sendek said. "That is as good as it gets in college basketball." But the outcome of the game might not be the most talked-about thing that that occurred in Sunday's game. As a freshman, Hodge served a one-game suspension, issued by the ACC office, for hitting Maryland's Steve Blake with his forearm. And he compared the contact from Paul to that.
"That's just a dirty play, man," Hodge said. "I know my freshman year, I screwed up with Steve Blake, and I retaliated. But I didn't do anything to [Chris Paul].
"I go out there and play ball. I good-nature talk. I have fun on the court. That was uncalled for. Actually, I enjoy watching Wake Forest play. I am a fan of theirs. I really like Justin Gray; I think he is a really good player. But for a guy to do that, I would never play dirty like that. I am not going to go out and intentionally knock somebody out. Now, when I was younger, I may have retaliated to Steve Blake, but I am not going to ever just go out and hit somebody for no reason."
Now, the Wolfpack will begin preparations for the ACC Tournament, which begins on Thursday at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C. The Wolfpack will be the seventh seed and will play Florida State at 2:30 p.m.
The winner of that game will play Wake Forest.
"We are going to have to win our first game, and if we meet up with Wake Forest again, that would be great," Hodge said. "Now I am going to shoot 200 free throws a day and continue to work on my game and eventually it is going to happen for us."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
