North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Pack Begins ACC Grind
1/5/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BY TONY HAYNES
RALEIGH, N.C. – It’s what coaches and players commonly refer to as “the grind.” Over the next two months, ACC teams will be immersed in an unforgiving two month stretch of basketball that will ultimately determine the league’s pecking order heading into postseason play.
For NC State (10-4, 0-1), this test of will, endurance, and mental toughness begins Saturday with a 2 p.m. meeting against
Boston
College (9-4, 0-1) in
Raleigh.
After dropping its league opener at
Virginia back on December 3, the Wolfpack will be trying to give first-year coach Sidney Lowe his first ACC win against a veteran B.C. squad that tripped up
Maryland last month, 73-62.
The Pack has 15 regular season games remaining, and all 15 will be against conference opponents.
“I expect very physical play from most of our teams in the ACC,” Lowe said. “I expect some pounding inside. Obviously, there are some very tough guards in our conference so there are going to be some tough matchups. We just know it’s going to be a battle every single night, whether we’re playing home or away.”
After competing himself as a player in an ACC that featured elite talents like Ralph Sampson and Michael Jordan, Lowe knows what it’s all about.
Many of the players in his starting line-up on Saturday, however, haven’t yet experienced the January – February ACC minefield.
A year ago, guard Courtney Fells and center Ben McCauley were mostly freshman observers. Forward Brandon Costner was being redshirted after sustaining an injury early in the season. Freshman forward Dennis Horner, who has started the Pack’s last five games, was in the midst of his senior season at Holy Spirit High School in
Fells saw a grand total of 30 minutes in five ACC regular season games last season. McCauley appeared in 13 games, playing 72 minutes.
“You have to be strong mentally more than you have to be physically in order to win these games,” said Fells, who will likely play more minutes in Saturday’s game than he played in all 16 conference games combined last season. “You’re not going to blow many teams out in the ACC. It’s going to come down to the last five minutes and that’s where you win ballgames.”
NC State’s most experienced player in conference games could be available to see his first action in nine games on Saturday. Senior point guard Engin Atsur, who pulled a hamstring against
Michigan on November 27, practiced on a limited basis on Wednesday and Thursday.
“As of yesterday he was doing ok,” Lowe said before practice on Friday. “Things are still positive right now and we’ll see how he feels today.”
If Atsur is able to return and give Lowe some minutes at the point on Saturday, it will free up junior Gavin Grant to return to his more natural position of wing forward. During Atsur’s absence, Grant has been forced to sacrifice his more-preferred aggressive, slashing offensive style in order to run the team.
“He’ll be relieved when he doesn’t have to run the one spot,” said Fells.
Boston
College is also expecting one of its most seasoned performers to return to the court on Saturday. Forward Jared Dudley, who started 110 consecutive games before missing the last three with a foot injury, will be bringing his eye-popping averages of 18.8 points and nine rebounds back to the Eagles’ line-up. He joins 6-5 senior Sean Marshall, 6-10 junior John Oates and 6-10 junior Sean Williams to make up one of the league’s most experienced starting fives.
The teams who successfully negotiate the unrelenting ACC schedule usually find a way to adapt to the variety of offensive and defensive styles they encounter from game to game. But perhaps no other team in the league offers up an offensive system that is as unusual and physical as
Boston
College’s tight flex.
While Maryland, Georgia Tech, Duke and even NC State offer up some flex actions as part of their offenses, no team in the ACC runs it quite like B.C., which will sometimes have all five of its players screening and cutting within a box that extends no further than 15 to 20 feet of the basket.
“It’s very difficult to defend,” Lowe said. “Any team that executes well, they’re tough to defend, especially when you have people who will set screens. Screening is one of the lost arts of a lot of teams, not just on this level but on every level. This team here they do a great job. They keep it tight and they force you to stay in your stance and defend until they can find an opening.”
The Eagles are always looking to score inside first, which explains why they shoot the fewest number of 3-point shots (194) in the league.
“It’s a little different because they like to keep everything jammed inside,” Fells said. “I didn’t play against them last year, but I’ve watched enough film on them to know what I have to do. You have to be ready at all times because at any given time they can break it off and get a layup.”
McCauley, NC State’s leading scorer (17.1 ppg), will likely be guarded by Williams, who has blocked more shots than any other player in college basketball this season. Averaging 5.7 rejections per game, Williams registered 13 blocks against Duquesne on December 28 and had 12 in a loss to
Providence back in November.
After being nationally ranked at the beginning of the season,
Boston
College has been somewhat inconsistent thus far, losing to the likes of
Vermont,
Providence and Duquesne. But then again, the Eagles were 0-3 in ACC play a year ago after getting drilled at home by NC State, 78-60. By the end of the year, however, coach Al Skinner’s club was playing as well as any team in the conference.
Boston
College’s turnaround last season proves once again that a lot can and will change between now and the beginning of March. It always happens during the ACC grind.
