North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Pack, Deacs Go Through Growing Pains
1/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
The growth process for young basketball teams in a league like the ACC is often filled with pitfalls, inconsistency and discouraging setbacks, and no two teams are feeling the pinch of growing pains right now more than the Wolfpack and Deacons.
One glance at the current standings heading into this weekend’s action speaks to the value of experience. Three of the league’s most experienced teams -- Clemson,
The nation’s only unbeaten team with a 17-0 mark, Clemson starts three juniors and a senior. Anchored by veteran seniors Jared Dudley and Sean Marshall, B.C. has two seniors and two juniors in its starting line-up. Virginia Tech, which has won eight of its last nine games, puts three seniors and a junior on the floor at tip-off time.
Now to NC State (10-6, 0-3) and
The Wolfpack relies heavily on sophomores Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells, along with redshirt freshman Brandon Costner and true freshman Dennis Horner. In their most recent game, a 95-85 loss to
As much as Lowe would like to somehow speed up the seasoning process with his young squad, he understands as well as anyone how overwhelming the relentless intensity of ACC games can be for younger players.
“They’re down after a ballgame, but they come right back,” Lowe said. “We’ve talked about some things about how to approach these games and how we have to play these games in the ACC. They’re totally different. I had one of the guys say to me ‘hey coach, we’re learning. A couple of us have never been in this situation before.’ They’re learning the intensity level and how you have to play for 40 minutes in the ACC. You can’t do it just 20 minutes, you can’t do it just 25 minutes. They’re down and they’re disappointed because they want it.”
NC State’s plight has been further complicated by an injury to its most experienced player in conference games. A four-year starter, senior point guard Engin Atsur has missed 10 of the Wolfpack’s last 11 games with a hamstring pull. After playing 31 minutes against B.C. last Saturday, Atsur re-aggravated the injury during a practice session last Sunday and will likely be wearing street clothes again this weekend.
Without Atsur on the floor, the Pack is finding out just how little margin for error it has in one of the nation’s elite college basketball conferences. The better teams in the ACC rarely miss out on the opportunity to cash in on mistakes by their opponent, and this season, the Wolfpack has paid the consequences for every little slip up.
“That’s the way it seems,” said McCauley, who is NC State’s leading scorer with an average of 16.8 points per game. “They convert on a lot of our turnovers and just make the right plays at the right times. That’s what kills us. This is new for most of the guys on this team. I think these first couple of games we’ve learned a lot and we’ll come out of it a much better team. We know what it’s like now to play in the ACC.”
McCauley’s match-up in the middle with Wake center Kyle Visser on Saturday could be worth watching. After spending most of his career as a role player and backing up Eric Williams, Visser, a 6-11 senior, has emerged as one of the nation’s most improved players this season. Prior to this year, the
Visser is the ACC’s third leading scorer (18.8 ppg.), is second in field goal percentage (63%) and ranks No. 2 in rebounding (8.2).
“We can’t let the big fellow get in there and get us too deep and get easy baskets,” Lowe said. “They’re going to go to him a lot. We’re going to have to fight him and keep him off the box and try to keep him off balance.”
Although 11 of his 13 scholarship players are either freshmen or sophomores, Prosser has it least benefited from having a productive senior in his starting line-up. Lowe hasn’t had that luxury of late due to the injury to Atsur.
When tip-off time arrives at
Indeed, youth will be on display in what is one of the ACC’s oldest rivalries.
