North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Lowe Looks for Some Post-Holiday Focus
12/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Editor’s note: The doors of the RBC Center will open at 6 p.m. for fans wishing to watch the final moments of the Papajohns.com Bowl between NC State and Rutgers from Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. Kickoff for the game is slated for 3 p.m. (EST).
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Sidney Lowe knows that there are dangerous times in a season, when outside activities can distract a basketball team from the job at hand. The final exam period after Thanksgiving is one of those times.
And the Christmas break, when players are out of school and mostly on their own, is another one.
So the coach is interested how his team, which continues to battle against the challenge of early-season injuries, will handle three non-conference games in six days, beginning with Monday’s 7 p.m. matchup against Loyola College at the RBC Center.
The Pack plays Towson at the RBC Center on Wednesday at 2 p.m. and then travels to Gainesville, Fla., Saturday to play Florida in a nationally televised game.
This is the fourth all-time meeting with Loyola, but the first since 1982. The Wolfpack won the three previous meetings, all played in Raleigh, by an average of 29 points. But that won’t mean much in this game, Lowe says.
“We want to have good energy coming off this break,” Lowe said Sunday. “There are certain times you have to be careful of, and this is certainly one of them. We can’t slip up and not be ready to play in this game.”
The Wolfpack (7-2) played its last game a week ago, a 68-65 last-second home loss to Marquette. The players then dispersed to go to their homes for some time with their families at Christmas. The team returned to practice Friday afternoon for three consecutive days of workouts.
For Lowe, the practices were much needed since he now has to find a new starting rotation since junior guard Trevor Ferguson will be out three to six weeks with a non-displaced broken finger on his non-shooting hand. Ferguson has a team-leading 17 3-pointers this season and is shooting 41.5 percent from beyond the arc.
“Not having Trevor is definitely going to change our rotations and our lineup, as far as who is going to start for us and who is going to provide the outside shooting,” Lowe said. “We are going to have to have guys step into that position and play their game and play as well as they can to give us a lift.
“They may not be able to shoot quite the way Trevor can, but they can score in other ways, defend and do other things that we need to have done.”
Freshman C.J. Williams started at the off-guard position the first five games of the season, but was replaced in the starting lineup by Ferguson after senior Courtney Fells was injured against Davidson.
However, Lowe said he would not reveal what his starting lineup for this game will be until game time.
“We don’t know which way we are going to go right now,” Lowe said. “I have looked at different lineups. We are trying to look at guys coming off the bench and make sure we are strong that way and get the combination of guys out there on the floor that is going to help us get off to a good start.”
Whatever the lineup, Lowe expects everyone on the team to give a little extra to replace Ferguson’s 7.9 points and 2.6 points. Ferguson is also tied with junior Brandon Costner for the second-most assists on the team with 22.
Senior Ben McCauley leads the team at 14.4 points per game, followed closely by Costner at 14.2 and Fells at 11.4.
“We need everybody right now,” Lowe said. “This is a team that has to do everything by committee. One guy is not going to carry us. We need other guys to step up. We need everybody to contribute to the ball club.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
