North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Pack Not Buying Into Low Expectations
10/25/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
GREENSBORO, N.C. – NC State senior forward Dennis Horner has been around the ACC long enough to know that preseason projections are never, ever right.
So he's not worried about where the sports media gathered at the 48th-annual ACC Operation Basketball picked the Wolfpack for the coming 2009-10 basketball season. He knows those picks are usually wrong, based on how teams finished last season, mixed with a little dangerous knowledge about who is returning and what new players are arriving on campus.
Horner, the last player remaining on the current Wolfpack roster who was part of the team's run to the ACC Tournament Championship game in 2006 in Tampa, knows that low expectations often result in a totally different outcome.
"I kind of like it though, because it means we are underestimated," Horner said Sunday afternoon at the Grandover Hotel and Resort. "We are flying under the radar. We like that role.
"Obviously, I would like to be in position where people are picking us to win the ACC, but we are not going to dwell on it no matter what the predictions are."
For the record, the Wolfpack was picked to finish 12th in the conference, earning 76 points in the preseason balloting by 48 members of the media who regularly cover the ACC. Duke and North Carolina tied for first, the first time in the 41 years of selecting a preseason favorite that two teams were picked to finish first.
Horner says that last-place prediction isn't his motivation going into the season. He wants to cap his final season with his first trip to the NCAA Tournament and is fully convinced he and his teammates can accomplish that goal.
"I have not yet been since I got to NC State," Horner said. "That's something I really want to do. We just have to go out and play well."
The Wolfpack's other senior, guard Farnold Degand, has a similarly defiant attitude.
"I'm just excited and ready to go prove some people wrong," said Degand, who is 100 percent healthy for the first time in more than a season and a half. "We know we don't have high expectations from the outside, but we have high expectations for ourselves.
"We go into every game expecting to win and we go into every game expecting to play hard."
Head coach Sidney Lowe, beginning his fourth season at his alma mater, says he's not worried about the outside expectations.
"It's not something I have to talk about with them," Lowe said. "I have told them before, you need to get to a point where you don't need something from the outside to motivate you. You need the basketball game to motivate you, the competition, the winning."
Lowe has made some changes and adjustments since the beginning of practice a little over a week ago. He intends to run a much more up-tempo offense this season.
Degand will likely play more shooting guard than point guard, and junior Javi Gonzalez and sophomore Julius Mays are still vying for the starting position at the point.
Lowe said freshman forward Richard Howell, who suffered a torn meniscus during individual workouts in late September, will likely be unavailable through most of November, until his knee is completely healed.
But the coach has also been pleasantly surprised by two of the other freshmen who have come in and made an impact, Cary's Josh Davis and Australian 7-footer Jordan Vandenberg. DeShawn Painter has been learning from veteran big man Tracy Smith and shooter Scott Wood is still making nearly three-quarters of all his outside jumpers.
"It's not like we have guys who can't play basketball," Horner said.
Lowe said his team had a preseason scrimmage with an outside team late last week that left good impressions.
"I was pleased with t he way we played, and I was pleased with how hard we played," Lowe said.
He is also encouraged that his veterans have helped the newcomers buy into the program, something that has not always happened in recent years.
"We have some guys who are taking the young guys under their wings," Lowe said. "Tracy Smith has done a great job with that. I saw him pull someone aside the other day and say 'That's not how we do things here.' I had never heard him say something like that before.
"It's good to hear that kind of thing. When you hear it out loud, you pretty much know what is being said behind closed doors."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
2009 ACC Operation Basketball Preseason Predictions
1. Duke (25) 545
UNC (20) 545
3. Clemson 409
4. Georgia Tech (2) 387
5. Maryland 378
6. Wake Forest (1) 315
7. Florida State 314
8. Virginia Tech 273
9. Boston College 251
10. Miami 135
11. Virginia 116
12. NC State 76
Preseason All-ACC
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland
Trevor Booker, Clemson
Kyle Singler, Duke
Malcolm Delaney, Virginia Tech
Ed Davis, North Carolina
Preseason Player of the Year
Kyle Singler, Duke
Preseason Rookie of the Year
Derrick Favors, Georgia Tech
