BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH Help is coming for the NC State men’s basketball team, in the form of redshirt freshman Trevor Ferguson. It’s been a long and arduous journey to get to this point, but Ferguson is finally ready to make his college debut.
After sitting out last spring semester and the fall semester after transferring from Pittsburgh, Ferguson will be in uniform and ready to help Wednesday when the Wolfpack (7-2) host No. 10 Alabama (9-1) at 6:30 p.m. at the RBC Center.
“I haven’t been able to sleep for about three weeks now,” Ferguson said.
And the Wolfpack, which has used just six players the last two games, is anxious to have another body on the court, someone who can contribute outside shooting, ball-handling and a bunch of minutes.
Ferguson’s path to get to Raleigh has been, at times, tragic, unfortunate and quite prolonged. Born in Kentucky, Ferguson’s family moved to Pensacola, Fla., when he was 10. Three years later, they moved to Palm Harbor, near Tampa, where he played on an undefeated junior varsity team as a freshman at Palm Harbor University High School.
He made the varsity team as a sophomore and began developing his game. But early in his junior year, Ferguson’s mom, Karen, died of breast cancer. One of the final promises his dad, Mark, made to Ferguson's mom was that he would attend a private Christian school, a nod to their frequent trips to Sunday School when he was younger. Trevor had gotten off track during his mom's illness, and was not going to class.
“I wasn’t going to school like I was supposed to,” Ferguson says. “I wasn’t focused. I just really wasn’t thinking about basketball at the time.”
Mark Ferguson is proud of the way has bounced back from the personal difficulties he went through back then. He's even proud of the large tattoo on Trevor's right arm that pays homage to his mother.
"Trevor was devastated by Karen’s death," said the elder Ferguson, who will be in attendance at Wednesday's game against the Crimson Tide and Saturday's game against Cincinnati. "She was a wonderful mom and one of the nicest people that ever walked this earth. He has a cross tattooed on his arm with her initials and dates. I had never allowed Trevor to get tattoos, but how could I not let him do that?
"Trevor loves NC State and it has been a really good atmosphere for him. I think Trevor is going to do fantastic with this team.
Ferguson got back on track, thanks to the help of several friends, Larry and Bobby Bache, the sons of his high school basketball coach, and Ryan Pannone. By the time they were seniors, Oldsmar had one of the top Class A program’s in the state. Ferguson had played the AAU circuit and was getting some recruiting attention.
But 12 games into his senior season, Ferguson was going up for a breakaway dunk. A trailing defender brushed his legs midair and Ferguson went face-first to the ground. He put his hands out to break his fall, and possibly saving his life, but he suffered compound fractures in both arms. His senior season ended in an instant, and there seemed to be little possibility that he could return.
South Florida, Ferguson’s school of choice in Tampa, backed away from its scholarship offer. For two-and-a-half months, Ferguson was just trying to learn how to cope with both arms in casts. He moved in with his then-girlfriend’s family because she had a stay-at-home mom who could help him take care of the basic necessities.
In the fallof 2004, Ferguson went before the Florida High School Athletic Association to ask for a fifth year of eligibility at Oldsmar Christian, a request that isn’t typically granted. However, four of the seven members of the committee that made the decision couldn’t be there because of back-to-back-to-back hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast area. His appeal was approved by a 2-1 vote.
“If everyone was there, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it,” Ferguson said.
He had another outstanding season at Oldsmar, and some of college basketball’s biggest names called, as well as several local schools. His eyes were opened about the possibility of going out of state, and was convinced that Pittsburgh was the place for him. So he signed a letter of intent without ever visiting the school.
When he arrived in the Steel City following his high school graduation for summer classes, he knew immediately that he needed to head back south. He was homesick and Pittsburgh was a far cry from Tampa.
Even though he knew he would have to sit out and entire year, Ferguson decided to transfer elsewhere. He chose NC State, though he could not enroll until the start of the spring semester earlier this year. So he spent last fall semester at New Creations Prep School in Richmond, Ind., where he played only a few games, but got all of his school work in order to enroll at State for the spring. And, just as last season wrapped up, the coach who had recruited Ferguson, Herb Sendek, decided to go elsewhere, leaving Ferguson up in the air about his future.
Now, however, he loves Sidney Lowe’s offensive system and thinks he can be a big asset to a program that has played only six players the last couple of games. He might be a primary ball handler on occasion, behind Atsur and Gavin Grant, but mostly Ferguson sees himself as a scorer.
“Honestly, I am more of an up-and-down kind of player,” Ferguson said. “I love to run and get up and down the floor, and Coach Lowe’s offense is great for that. I knew I was going to fit in right away.
“I am more comfortable on the wing,” Ferguson said. “But I also feel like I am one of the better ball-handlers on the team. I feel like I can get the ball to the right people who need to score, especially Gavin, because he is a beast and we need to get him the ball as much as possible.”
Heading into his first college game, Ferguson is about to burst to get on the floor.
“I don’t want to jinx anything, but I finally feel like everything is going perfect for me right now,” Ferguson said. “I have been waiting to play college basketball for about two and a half years, and I will finally get my chance to go out and play. And it’s against a Top 10 team.
“It’s very exciting.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
