North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Lowe, Krzyzewski Meet Again
1/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Raleigh, N.C. – When NC State (11-6, 1-3) hosts 14th ranked Duke (15-3, 2-2) Saturday afternoon at 3:30, it will mark the first time in 24 years Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski have crossed paths in an ACC basketball game. Needless to say, much has changed in those 24 years.
Given Krzyzewski’s elite status as a three-time national championship coach and basketball hall of famer, it’s almost hard to comprehend that he had once become very unpopular at the very place where he has since built an acclaimed college hoops empire.
But the last time ‘Coach K’ competed against Lowe, the words “embattled” and “beleaguered” were being mentioned by his name in newspaper columns. In fact, by the time Lowe, a former Wolfpack point guard, and his teammates laid a 96-79 whipping on Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium in February of 1983, a large contingent of Duke supporters were already urging athletics administration officials to make a coaching change.
The protests ultimately fell on deaf ears when then Duke athletics director Tom Butters made one of the gutsiest and savviest moves in NCAA sports history by defying the wishes of the Duke fan base and signing Krzyzewski to a contract extension. These days, of course, it’s impossible to find any Iron Dukes members who will admit that they once supported the ouster of a coach who has since led the Blue Devils to unparalleled success, including a 15-3 record this year.
“It’s hard to give him enough praise or credit for what he’s done,” said Lowe, who as a player, went 4-2 against Krzyzewski coached teams from 1980-83. “He took a program and built it into a dynasty. He’s got a great program, he’s a great coach and I’m glad he’s in the ACC. It makes us look that much stronger the fact that we have a school like that in our conference that we have the opportunity to play every year.”
But unlike in his playing days, Lowe will only get one shot at the Blue Devils this season unless the two longtime Tobacco Road rivals find themselves paired with one another in the conference tournament in March. Expansion has taken away the old round robin schedule, and one of the unfortunate casualties has been the Duke – NC State series. This will be the third straight year that the two clubs will play only once during the regular season.
“When you’ve been in this area and been in this league, you know that this is a big game,” Lowe said. “It’s not just another game.”
This game will also provide Lowe’s Wolfpack with a great opportunity. After dropping its first three ACC games, the Pack broke through last Saturday with a convincing 88-74 triumph at Wake Forest. Since putting that feel-good win in his hip picket, Lowe has had a full week to prepare his team for the Blue Devils, who will have a quick turnaround after disposing of the Deacons on Thursday night, 62-40.
“I’m hoping the time off will help us,” said Lowe. “Hopefully, it gave Engin [Atsur] a few more days for therapy and rest and to get a few more workouts in. Sometimes you get concerned because you like to keep playing after you’ve come off a pretty good game, but for our ball club it should help us.”
Lowe says Atsur, NC State’s senior point guard, could be available for duty if he gets through Friday afternoon’s practice without having any more setbacks from the hamstring pull that has kept him out of the line-up 11 of the Pack’s last 12 games. After conferring with Director of Sports Medicine Charlie Rozanski this week, Lowe is feeling better about Atsur’s chances of returning and taking over the Wolfpack’s primary ball-handling responsibilities.
“Charlie is very positive about it,” Lowe said. “He said that Engin felt as good on [Thursday] as he’s felt in a long time. It’s still more important for Engin to feel that way and I think he does. We still want to make sure that he’s 100 percent physically and mentally ready to go.”
The Wolfpack will need to have as many good ball-handlers on the court as possible against a Duke team that’s renowned for its pressure-oriented, halfcourt denial defense. And it is that defense that has carried the Blue Devils this year as they’ve waited for their offensive attack to adjust to the loss of All-Americans J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams.
An offensive juggernaut in recent years, Duke is averaging only 69 points per game this season, a figure that ranks last in the league statistics. On the flip side, however, the Blue Devils are No. 1 in scoring defense, holding their opponents to a measly 55 points per contest.
“You have to handle their pressure,” Lowe said. “It’s a reality. You know what they do. We have to take care of the basketball and you have to be strong. You have to set good screens because they’re going to get up there and deny and overplay. If you don’t set screens on those guys, it’s going to be tough for your receivers to get open.”
This game will feature, among other things, the two best passing big men in the league. Josh McRoberts, a 6-10 sophomore, leads Duke in assists with an average of 4.25 per game. Also a sophomore, the 6-9 McCauley ranks 5th in the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio (63 asst./32 TOs) and is the only frontcourt player to show up in the top-10 of that category.
“They both do a lot for their teams,” Lowe said. “The ability to pass the ball as well as they do from the post position gives guys so many open looks. They’re so good at passing the basketball and they’re so unselfish, they make their teams better. I told our guys that we’re playing through Ben; he’s like the point guard basically. We go to him and play from there. I think McRoberts does the same thing for them.”
McCauley and forward Brandon Costner average 16.6 points to lead NC State in scoring. Swingman Gavin Grant is putting up 16.1 points per game, and will likely draw a lot of attention from Duke defensive ace DeMarcus Nelson, who is also the Blue Devils’ scoring leader (14.4 ppg.). McRoberts is chipping in with 12.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
“They’re a new ball club because Sidney has come in and everybody has a fresh start,” said Krzyzewski, who picked up career win No. 768 on Thursday. “They play hard and McCauley has been the most improved player in the conference. He’s very, very good. They can put points on the board in a hurry. They’ve been resting all week and hopefully we have the energy and the poise to put ourselves in a position to beat them on Saturday afternoon.”
Another Saturday afternoon meeting between NC State and Duke, but the first between Krzyzewski and Lowe in quite sometime.
