North Carolina State University Athletics
Tony Haynes: One More Chance for Pack
3/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TONY HAYNES
RALEIGH, N.C. Moments after NC State had dropped its eighth consecutive game a 78-67 loss to Wake Forest last Saturday Wolfpack head coach Sidney Lowe gathered his team in the lockerroom for a longer than usual postgame meeting. His message was straight to the point.
“I wanted to get their minds on something new, something positive,” Lowe said. “We talked about the ACC Tournament and opportunities. It’s a new season and we have an opportunity to do something special. We had an excellent practice [on Monday], and I think our guys were focused and they see we can do something in this tournament.”
When the 55th ACC Tournament begins Thursday in
If nothing else, Lowe can fall back on last year when that very message did get through to a team that finished 10th in the regular season standings. After getting drilled by 20 points in its final regular season game at
Regrouping in similar fashion this time may be a bit more challenging. The Pack hasn’t tasted a victory since it knocked off Virginia Tech way back on February 5th. Eight games and five weeks have passed since Lowe and his players could walk off the court with smiles on their faces.
Ironically enough, however, two of NC State’s four ACC regular season wins came over the two teams that show up in the first half of the tournament bracket. Along with its 73-63 triumph over the Hokies, the Wolfpack also knocked off
“There are always going to be tough times and they’re never fun, but the question is how you handle it and how you react to it,” said Lowe. “Now we have a situation we’re going into the tournament and we have a great opportunity to erase a lot by going in there and playing well and going as a far as we can go.”
While NC State will be fighting to keep its season alive for at least one more day, the stakes for Miami on Thursday will be just as high or even higher. A victory over the Wolfpack would certainly make coach Frank Haith and company feel a little more comfortable about their NCAA Tournament hopes.
“In terms of where history stands with us being .500 in the league and winning 20 games, since the field was expanded to 64 teams no team in our league has not gotten in with those credentials,” Haith said. “With our strength of schedule and our strong RPI, I’ve got to think we’re in. But you don’t know what’s going to happen with some of the other conferences so you don’t want to take anything for granted. Obviously, we’re going into the ACC Tournament understanding that we want to win as many games as we can.”
If
After a J.J. Hickson tip-in of a missed shot tied the score in overtime, Gavin Grant stole Anthony King’s inbounds pass and scored with just two seconds remaining to give the Pack a dramatic two-point win. To its credit,
“I went back and watched that game and there’s no question that game was in our hands and we didn’t take care of business,” said Haith. “I thought State played well that night and we played well in the second half, but we didn’t finish the game. I’m sure it gives NC State confidence that they were able to win that game. I know our guys will be ready to play and I know they’ll be ready to play. You look at what NC State did last season, they came into the tournament as the 10th seed and got to the finals. I know they’re encouraged by the tournament setting and have confidence in what they did in the tournament setting last year.”
First-team All-ACC guard Jack McClinton will again be a handful for an NC State team that has often been challenged to defend quick, high scoring guards this season. In game one, McClinton scored 26 point, torching the Pack with a variety of difficult shots from the perimeter.
“He so tough,” Lowe said. “You can’t give him anything easy because he’s going to kill you. I think you’ve got to try to deny him the basketball and keep him out of his comfort zone. A player like that, you’re never going to shut down because he can do so many things. He can shoot it off the dribble, he can catch and shoot it, he can come off screens and shoot it and he can run ball-screens. He gets involved in so many ways and when you have a player who can do those things, there are always going to be those opportunities for him to score.”
One thing that has been missing for NC State much of this year has been offensive balance. The
To extend its season for at least another day, the Pack will need more of the same on Thursday.
“This is a one game elimination and we don’t want to go home,” Lowe said. “We’ve got play 40 hard minutes.”
Radio Coverage: The Wolfpack Sports Network will provide full coverage of the ACC Basketball Tournament. Airtime for Thursday’s first round game will be 2 p.m. In the
