North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: Atsur's Last Stand
2/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. – For much of his career, Engin Atsur went almost unnoticed while he quietly and consistently helped NC State win a lot of basketball games. Ironically, in this his senior season, Atsur finally got noticed, but mostly because he wasn’t playing.
Perhaps the line in the Chicago song “Hard Habit to Break” says it best: “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”
Indeed, coach Sidney Lowe, his players and Wolfpack fans gained a new appreciation for Atsur’s value to their basketball program this season when he missed 12 games due to a hamstring pull.
On Wednesday night, Atsur will be playing his last scheduled home game when NC State (14-13, 4-10) hosts Wake Forest (13-14, 4-10) at 9 p.m.
“Four years flew by,” Atsur said. “I can’t believe my senior night is on Wednesday night. I’m excited, but I’m also sad that I have to say goodbye to the Wolfpack fans and my teammates.”
There’s something to be said for a player who plays hard, plays smart and plays team basketball with no agenda every time he takes the floor. Atsur has done that for four years. Quickly cracking the starting line-up in his freshman year, Atsur averaged better than 33 minutes over the Wolfpack’s last 15 games primarily because it had become more and more difficult for then coach Herb Sendek to take him off the floor. Even as a rookie, he eventually became one of his team’s most reliable and consistent performers.
For three years, Atsur played in the shadows of players like Marcus Melvin, Julius Hodge, Ilian Evtimov and Cedric Simmons. Rarely one to display outward emotion on the court, Atsur’s quiet efficiency kept him under the radar at a time when the Wolfpack was making three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. In those first two years, when Hodge was filling up box scores with the stats that everyone notices, Atsur was doing the dirty work that helps teams win games. In his freshman season, he led the Wolfpack with 119 defensive deflections, and a team-best seven drawn charges in ACC games.
In his sophomore season, Atsur had 44 assists and only 19 turnovers in league games, while also topping NC State in steals, minutes played and deflections. Last year, he led the Pack in 3-point baskets (67), minutes played and assist-to-turnover ratio.
And if they named an All-ACC team made up of players who accrued the most floor burns while diving on the court for loose balls the last four years, Atsur would be on the first team.
This season, however, Atsur’s stoic demeanor has given way to moments of obvious frustration and angst. Since coming back from the hamstring pull, his mobility, flexibility and quickness have been undercut by an injury that will require many more weeks of nature’s healing before it’s completely back to normal.
“He’s hung in there and he’s provided that leadership when he’s been in there for us,” said NC State head coach Sidney Lowe. “He’s a good basketball player and he’s a great person. I feel bad for him that he had to go through this situation. You always like to finish on top and finish on a good note. That’s the other reason why it would be good for us to get some postseason play so he can really do well in it and send him off on a good note.”
The losing has also hurt. In each of Atsur’s first three years, NC State won 21 games and visited the NCAA Tournament. In his sophomore year, the Wolfpack stunned top-seeded Connecticut to qualify for the ‘Sweet 16.’ Good friends like Will Roach and Ilian Evtimov have moved on, while the coaching staff that brought him to Raleigh is also gone.
The changes have been dramatic and sudden for a player who has relied on his own mental stability to become one of the league’s most admired and respected performers.
“You’ve got to be a strong individual to get through what he’s gone through,” said Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe. “Obviously, he came into this year with expectations of having Cedric and Andrew (Brackman) with him, but those two guys are gone and basically, he’s the only senior who has started several games for his team. Everyone else that he’s playing with now hadn’t started many games or played many minutes, so you almost felt like he was out there alone. He’s just fought through it.”
But Atsur’s story is hardly typical. Imagine being 18 years old, leaving your family in Turkey behind and traveling halfway around the world to another country to play basketball and go to school. Yet, only a few weeks after arriving at NC State, Atsur left the impression that he was already one of the Wolfpack’s most polished, mature players.
“I had a big adjustment with the style of play and just moving into another country and living by myself,” Atsur said. “I was used to living with my parents. It didn’t take me too long to get adjusted because of all the wonderful people here in North Carolina and my coaches, teammates and friends.”
One of Atsur’s closest friends on the current team is former walk-on Braxton Albritton, who will also take part in senior ceremonies along with swingman Bryan Nieman. Although Albritton is a junior in eligibility, he will move on after earning his degree this spring.
All three will be honored in pregame ceremonies before NC State meets Wake Forest for the second time this season. Back on January 13, the Wolfpack shot 61 percent in handing Lowe his first ACC coaching victory, an 88-74 triumph over the Deacons.
Atsur could only sit and watch that day since he was still recovering from his hamstring injury. On Wednesday, he hopes his last hurrah at home will be one to remember and cherish.
Speaking to his team before Monday’s practice, Lowe made clear his feelings about Atsur’s senior game.
“I said we owe it to this guy right here, who has busted his tail for four years at this university in that jersey,” Lowe said. “We owe it to him to go out and win this game on Wednesday. I put it on our guys. ‘If you care anything about your teammates, you need to go out and play for him. We’ve got other seniors, but this guy has been here all these years and played all these minutes, we’ve got to send him off on a good note.’”
