North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State Looks to Rebound at Clemson
1/27/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2006
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - As they exited the RBC Center on Wednesday night, neither NC State's coaches nor its players nor its fans could figure out what had happened in an uncharacteristic performance that led to the 14th ranked Wolfpack's 83-65 loss to Seton Hall. Afterwards, Pack coach Herb Sendek admitted that his team had played poorly in every phase of the game. But perhaps he can take solace in one fact: NC State (15-4, 4-2) is not alone. Just in the last few weeks, college basketball has been filled with a long list of inexplicable outcomes. One needs to look no further than the Wolfpack's opponent this Sunday. Clemson was 11-1 when it lost at home to Elon back on December 30th.
Last weekend, nationally ranked Wisconsin had its 27-game non-conference homecourt winning streak snapped by North Dakota State, which traveled 500 miles by bus to play the game. On Wednesday, formerly 2nd ranked Florida fell at South Carolina. On the same night, No. 9 West Virginia lost to Marshall. A Kentucky team that was ranked in the top 10 earlier in the season recently dropped back-to-back home games to Vanderbilt and Alabama. The list goes on and on and on.
Clemson coach Oliver Purnell has been there and done that. He understands the nature of college basketball as well as anyone and knows that NC State will likely return to form when it arrives at Littlejohn Coliseum for a 1:30 ACC battle on Sunday.
"NC State lost the other night, but it was kind of a classic setup: out of the league, they just played Duke, in the middle of the ACC season at home, and they probably just took things for granted a little bit probably," Purnell said. "You can be rest assured that on Sunday we'll see NC State at their best."
When the Wolfpack is at its best, it executes on the offensive end, scores both inside and out, and makes it difficult for opponents to score with its hard-nosed, position-oriented man-to-man defense.
Lately, however, the Pack's defense has been about as iron-clad as Swiss cheese. Once the league leader in scoring defense, NC State has dropped to fifth after allowing its last three opponents to score more than 80 points. To put that into perspective, it's the first time the Wolfpack has given up 80 or more points in three straight games since Sendek became its coach in 1996.
"We just have not played good defense lately," said Pack forward Ilian Evtimov. "That's not our character. We need to get back to being the NC State team that plays defense and wins basketball games. We can't rely on our offense to win games. Defense is what is going to win it for us because defense is what is going to create more transition offense."
And this particular NC State team has often played its best basketball when it has been able to create run-out offensive opportunities with its defense. When the Wolfpack is forcing turnovers, getting stops and grabbing big defensive rebounds, it is usually difficult to beat.
"They run more than people think," Purnell said. "That's something you have to game-plan against and get back on defense. I think it's a little bit of a myth that they're trying to rundown the shot clock all the time. Their ability to run the floor is much underrated. They really can get up and down the floor and they'll get baskets in transition. NC State is averaging 77 points per game, so they're not spreading it out as much as you might think."
But in order to get more transition opportunities, NC State will have to rebound better than it has the last two games. Between them, Wake Forest and Seton Hall had a whopping total of 35 offensive rebounds against the Pack, prompting Sendek to crack on Friday, "we've even been challenged to get some rebounds in the warm-up lines, and we've been the only ones on the court."
Clemson, which is coming off a 73-63 victory over Georgia Tech in Atlanta last weekend, has its eyes on a possible NCAA Tournament bid. With a 14-5 record overall and a 3-3 mark in conference play, the Tigers are certainly in the `March Madness' mix. And there's very little doubt that they view this game as a great opportunity to significantly improve their postseason résumé.
Clemson's only two double-figure scorers are guards Vernon Hamilton (13.1 ppg.) and Shawan Robinson (10.8). Robinson, a Raleigh native, has hit 16-of-29 field goal attempts in his career against NC State, including 6-of-14 from 3-point range. The Tigers' frontline came to life against Tech, however, with Akin Akingbala scoring 19 points and freshman forward James Powell adding 16.
If history repeats itself on Sunday, the game will be close since six of the last 10 contests between the two teams in Littlejohn have been decided by five points or less. Last year's 10-point win by the Wolfpack was the largest margin of victory by either team in the last five games in Death Valley.
Sunday's game will also mark Sendek's 400th as a head coach (three years at Miami and 10 at NC State).
