North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Grant Ready to Step into Spotlight
11/7/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
For The Wolfpacker
RALEIGH Changes abound for the NC State men’s basketball team. Junior Gavin Grant says his attitude is one of them.
As the second-most experienced player and one of the few upperclassmen on head coach Sidney Lowe’s roster, Grant knows he will have increased responsibility in the Wolfpack’s new system.
And he’s ready to team up with senior Engin Atsur to be a leader on and off the court, for a group that will include three inexperienced second-year players in the starting lineup, two freshman reserves, a trio of transfers waiting to become eligible and a handful of walk-ons.
“They are looking up to Engin and me for guidance,” Grant said. “And if we can’t do it, we are going to have a problem.”
The versatile 6-7 junior from the Bronx, N.Y., recognizes the need to be a more mature, reliable player and teammate this season.
“On the court, I am going to be a lot more serious and take every possession more seriously,” Grant said. “Last year, I used to take possessions off. I’d be upset about something or I wouldn’t play as hard as I possibly could play. This year, we simply don’t have that room for error.
“I have to be more focused and give it my all on every possession of the game.”
Grant hopes to flourish in Lowe’s new up-tempo style of play, one quite different from former coach Herb Sendek’s motion offense, which relied on multiple cuts per possession.
Grant also wants to play the way he did at the end of last season, when he scored in double figures in four of the Wolfpack’s last five games, including a career-high 24 points in the ACC Tournament loss to Wake Forest.
He saw his playing time increase when seniors Ilian Evtimov and Cameron Bennerman were hampered by injuries, averaging six more minutes per game during that span, and raised his scoring average for the season to 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.
“Pretty much no matter what happened, or what I did, there was no sub to come in for me,” Grant said, smiling. “That made me play a lot looser.”
But as much as Lowe who believes Grant can be the centerpiece of the Wolfpack offense, a player who can take over the game wants to see a similar kind of productivity all season long, he also expects Grant to get the young players on the roster more involved.
“He can be more effective in taking over a ballgame by doing other things, by rebounding, by defending people, by getting other players involved offensively, by penetrating and dishing,” said Lowe.
“When he is thinking that way, he is a better basketball player, and we are a better team. I am trying to get him to think that he doesn’t have to score all the time.”
Through the first three weeks of practice, Grant seems to have taken that advice to heart, according to Atsur.
“He is trying to tell guys what the right things to do are,” Atsur said. “He has been here for two-and-a-half years. He has been part of really good teams. He has been through some good times and bad times.
“I think this year he is more mature.”
Grant knows that to get his opportunities on offense he is going to have to make sure Costner, Fells and McCauley are just as involved in putting the ball in the basket as he is.
“The most important thing I can do is get my teammates going and confidant,” Grant said. “They are young guys. We will have two sophomores and a redshirt freshman in the starting lineup. None of them have played all that much, so it is kind of like they are freshmen again.
“I think if we can get them playing just as good as they possibly can, we are going to win a lot of games.”
Grant admits it would have been easier if the Wolfpack had the two other members of his recruiting class, Cedric Simmons and his former roommate Andrew Brackman, returning to the squad this year. However, after his breakout sophomore season Simmons left for the NBA, where he was a first-round draft pick by the New Orleans Hornets, and Brackman opted to concentrate on baseball this year.
“People always say, You guys would have been so good with Cedric.’” Grant said. “It’s no secret, if we would have had Cedric, we would have been a lot better. If we had Andrew, we would be a lot better.
“But we can’t live on Ifs.’ We have to play with what we have. People on the outside of us, they still see Cedric and Andrew. We are not worried about it. It’s going to be hard for us to match up with a lot of teams, but it is going to be hard for other teams to match up with us.”
Lowe insists that Grant is a strong, effective leader, the perfect foil to Atsur’s somewhat muted voice.
“Gavin is going to be more vocal than Engin is,” Lowe said. “Engin will lead by example. Gavin will pull guys in and talk to them. He’s done a good job of that so far.”
Being vocal certainly isn’t a problem for the native of Jamaica who learned basketball on the playgrounds of New York City.
“I am vocal, no doubt about it,” Grant said.
“That’s a New York thing. ... I am going to speak when something needs to be said.”
Grant has certainly never been shy about speaking his opinion, sometimes to the detriment of his relationship with his coaches. He sulked during his first two seasons because he was so anxious to be more involved in the offense.
At times, he was overly anxious, which could be why he has more career turnovers (113) than assists (111). But Grant has always been a multi-faceted contributor, one Sendek repeatedly said Grant was one of the most versatile players in the country with his ability to score, handle and rebound the ball.
He hopes those assets will be more apparent to everyone this season. So far, it has, Lowe says.
“He’s done well in the new offense,” the coach said. “It is a little more open for him. He is a pretty good ballhandler. That gives him an opportunity to do that a little more. He is expressing that in practice.”
Grant is ready to accept the challenge of playing 35-38 minutes per game for the Wolfpack, as are all the NC State starters. Lowe has been pushing hard to get his team in the best possible condition.
“I think we are one of the two or three most athletic teams in the ACC,” Grant said. “We are well-conditioned. I am looking forward to when they throw the ball up. Then we will let our actions speak for themselves.
“I am also looking forward to playing a lot of minutes. I have been looking forward to that opportunity since I got here. That has been my dream.”
Tim Peeler is the managing editor of www.GoPack.com and a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. He can be reached at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
