North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: The Expectation Game
3/26/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. – By virtually any measure, the NC State men’s basketball team exceeded all expectations by posting 20 victories and advancing to the quarterfinals of the NIT this past season.
Of course, after being picked to finish last in the annual ACC preseason poll last fall, the Wolfpack had nowhere to go but up. But really, who thought it possible that a team with only one starter returning from 2005-06 would eventually come within an eyelash of becoming the first team ever to win four consecutive games at the ACC Tournament?
In coach Sidney Lowe’s first season, the Wolfpack beat Virginia Tech three times, and also delighted its passionate followers with victories over local rivals North Carolina and Duke.
Included in the low preseason prediction was the expectation that NC State would have a healthy starting point guard for the entire season, which makes the overall body of work even more impressive. What might have happened had Engin Atsur been 100 percent all season? With a healthy Atsur running the team for the entire 29-game schedule, it’s not a stretch to surmise that the Pack may have actually been an NCAA Tournament team by year’s end, in which case Lowe might have been a runaway winner of the ACC’s Coach of the Year award.
Hypotheticals aside, however, NC State overachieved primarily because Lowe and his staff were able to mold and develop second-year players Brandon Costner, Courtney Fells and Ben McCauley very quickly.
“Coming into the season I didn’t know what to expect because all of the players were new to me,” said Lowe, who became only the fourth coach in school history to win 20 games in his first season. “You never really know a player or a person until you work with them, so I didn’t have any expectations. The only thing I knew was that they would play hard. Certainly, after losing our point guard and not having him for 12 games, I was a bit concerned. These guys kept fighting and I think did a tremendous job under the circumstances.”
Costner, who was a redshirt freshman after sitting out his first year with an injury, will likely be a strong first-team All-ACC candidate next season after calling on his substantial talents to average a team-leading 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. The 6-8 native of Montclair, New Jersey saved his best performances for the big stage, scoring a school record 90 points in four games at the ACC Tournament in Tampa.
McCauley emerged as a better one-on-one post player and passer than anyone could have possibly predicted, putting up 14.4 points per contest, while also dishing out 115 assists, second only to Gavin Grant’s 137.
Fells, a stunning athlete, was streaky offensively and also had his moments on the defensive end of the court. But at his best, as he was in defending Virginia Tech’s Marcus Dowdell or lighting it up for 21 points in the Pack’s memorable 83-79 triumph over North Carolina on February 3rd, Fells gave glimpses of his eye-popping potential throughout the season.
“It was our job to help those players improve because you’re talking about guys who had never really played last year,” Lowe said. “As a staff, we had to develop these guys and put them in our system and try to take advantage of their abilities. We saw what Brandon Costner could do from the outside and we stuck him inside a little more this year. Courtney Fells is obviously athletic, and Ben McCauley really carried us quite a bit for a long stretch inside.”
From a motivational standpoint, Lowe was assisted by members of the ACC media, who looked at NC State’s overall inexperience and lack of depth when casting their ballots in the league’s preseason poll. Given the circumstances, the ominous forecast for a last place finish was reasonable, although it did add some fuel to NC State’s fire.
“I wouldn’t say it before, but it did bother them,” Lowe said about the impact the preseason prediction had on his players. “I told them that it wasn’t something that they had to talk about every day to the media or whomever. It’s just something that you keep inside when you’re fighting and battling every day. I think these guys did a tremendous job of changing some minds and earning respect.”
Based on what he’ll have returning next season, Lowe and his staff won’t be able to benefit from the same type of low expectations that left a big chip on Wolfpack shoulders this season. Regardless of what happens with early NBA defections from other teams around the league over the next few months, it’s quite possible NC State will be picked in the upper division of the ACC next year.
Joining the trio of Costner, McCauley and Fells will be a rising senior in Gavin Grant at forward, not to mention Dennis Horner, who played terrific basketball at the end of his freshman season. A host of highly-touted recruits will add more depth and perhaps allow Lowe to play the faster tempo that he prefers.
“Sometimes your personnel dictates that,” Lowe said. “Farnold [Degand], the point guard who was here this year and will be eligible, is an up and down guy; he can get the ball up the court as fast as anyone in the country I think. We’re going to need to take advantage of that, and we’re going to need guys to be in shape and be ready to run with him. I’d like to be able to sit over there and allow the point guard to run it and get some easy baskets.”
This past season, Lowe was like a point guard on the sidelines, orchestrating, calling plays and getting his team into the right sets on just about every possession. Degand, who sat out this season after transferring from Iowa State, will be the odds on favorite to start at the point primarily because he did have an opportunity to practice in Lowe’s system all year. But whether it’s Degand or a newcomer playing the lead guard spot, expectations will be much higher for next season than they were when Lowe gathered his first NC State team for those initial workouts back in October.
“We’re always trying to improve,” Lowe said. “We expect to be better. We’re going to add some players and our current players played a lot of minutes and gained a lot of experience; they’re going to improve this summer with some work. We’re not going to make any predictions, but certainly we’re going to be better.”
Hot Shooting Pack: Employing Lowe’s inside-oriented offensive attack, NC State shot 49.1 percent from the field this season, it best percentage since Jim Valvano’s 1989 squad hit 50.1 percent of its field goal attempts. The change in offensive emphasis was obvious as the Wolfpack attempted just 599 3-point shots, 178 fewer than coach Herb Sendek’s team the year before.
Rebounding on the Boards: While rebounding was never a strong suit of this year’s NC State team, the Wolfpack did improve its efforts on the glass down the stretch. Ranking last in the ACC in rebound margin throughout the season, the Pack was outrebounded only twice over its last seven games, and was close on the boards on both of those occasions. In the ACC title game against UNC, it was a push, with each team grabbing 24 rebounds apiece. The Wolfpack then outrebounded both Marist and West Virginia by 10 in its last two games.
Change of Seasons: Although coach Lowe’s final TV show aired on Sunday night, NC State will again have a presence on television locally throughout the spring and summer months when “Inside Wolfpack Sports” with athletics director Lee Fowler returns to the local airwaves in the Raleigh TV market this weekend. The show has a new time, at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday on WRAZ Fox 50. Lee will again be answering questions from viewers about Wolfpack athletics each weekend. To submit a question to Lee, click here.
