North Carolina State University Athletics
Men's Basketball Holds Year-End Banquet
4/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. The 2006-07 NC State men’s basketball team gathered one last time on Sunday night, as the Pack held its annual awards banquet at The State Club to celebrate the past season. Under first-year head coach Sidney Lowe, the Wolfpack notched its fourth straight 20 win season, and advanced to the ACC Championship game for the third time in the last five years.
Brandon Costner was presented with the David Thompson Award, given to the men’s basketball player who displayed exceptional skills, versatility, a high-level of productivity, and a winning attitude. Costner was named to the ACC All-Freshman team, the All-ACC Tournament team, and was also a third-team All-ACC selection. He became just the seventh freshman in ACC history to lead his team in both scoring (16.8 ppg) and rebounding (7.3) in his rookie campaign.
Junior Gavin Grant and sophomores Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells were each awarded the Most Improved Award, given to the player who increases his level of play throughout the course of the season.
Grant was named to the All-ACC Tournament first team, as he averaged 14.8 points and 36.2 minutes in the Pack’s four-game tourney run. He unselfishly took over the point guard duties in 12 games when Engin Atsr was hurt. He finished 14th in the ACC in scoring (14.7) and 10th in assists (3.8). Grant played in the most games (36) and logged the most minutes (1,313) of any junior in Wolfpack history.
McCauley was an All-ACC honorable mention performer, and also named to the All-ACC Tournament second-team. McCauley ranked 15th in the ACC in scoring (14.4 ppg), and ninth in rebounding (6.9 rpg). He posted the second-highest scoring increase in the ACC this season, going from 2.1 points last year to 14.4 points this season, and also finished second in the ACC in field goal percentage, 58.4 percent.
Fells was a second-team All-ACC performer, as he averaged 12.8 points while shooting 58.6 percent (17-29) in the Pack’s run to the ACC Championship game. Fells increased his scoring output from 2.0 points as a freshman, to 11.0 as a sophomore, the fifth-highest increase in the ACC.
Senior Engin Atsr was presented with the Jon Speaks Best Teammate Award, as voted on by the team. As the Pack’s floor general over the last four years, Atsr finished his career with the second-most starts (114) and fourth-most minutes played (3,838) in NC State school history. He also finished his career with the second-most three-pointers made (223), and became the 39th player to reach 1,000 career points during the season.
Atsr showed great perseverance during the year, as a hamstring injury forced him to miss part of the season. He injured his leg just six minutes into the sixth game of the season, and was forced to miss the next nine games. He battled back to play against Boston College in early January, dishing out a career-best 10 assists, but injured the hamstring the next day in practice and missed three more contests. Despite not being at 100 percent, Atsr returned to the lineup for the remainder of the season and led the Pack on its late-season run.
Senior Justin Clark was given the Jim Valvano Coaches Award. The award is given to the player whose performance expresses the highest level of team loyalty, dedication to his school, and an attitude and spirit that inspires his teammates to never give up. Clark made the team during a tryout in the fall, and had his top performance on Senior Day when he started against Wake Forest. He hit all three of his field goal attempts for six points and dished out four assists in 22 minutes.
The Pack also honored the six players who achieved a semester GPA of 3.0 or higher. Seniors Engin Atsr, Bryan Nieman, Justin Clark, junior Braxton Albritton, sophomore Ben McCauley and freshman Bartosz Lewandowski were all given the Scholar Athlete Award.
