North Carolina State University Athletics
Lowe, Players at ACC's Operation Basketball
10/21/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 21, 2010
Pack picked 4th in Preseason Poll
Tracy Smith transcript
Javi Gonzalez transcript
A transcript of NC State head coach Sidney Lowe at Wednesday’s 49th-annual Operation Basketball, held at the Renaissance Suites in Charlotte.
Question: Anything exciting happen at practice over the weekend?
Lowe: Not really. The guys are working hard. We’ve had a couple of good practices. They’re really competing, with having a few more guys in there.
Question: Your approach has always been that minutes will take care of themselves. Is that the case this year, even though you have more options?
Lowe: Probably more so this year because we have more depth and more options at each position. When players know there’s someone behind them that are capable of getting things done. If they go out and play as hard as they can, every single play, you can’t go hard for 35 minutes. Some games you might play more than others. We tell them to play hard and concentrate on winning.
Question: it seems a lot of guys, like Tracy, make their biggest improvement between their sophomore and junior year. What is it about that maturation process?
Lowe: When you’re a freshman, it’s an eye-opener. When you come in out of high school to play in the ACC, you start to realize how good these players are. The sophomore year, you’re a little better, but don’t quite have it yet, for some people. But there’s something about the second half of that sophomore year you start to see that change.
Question: Why the decision to ban Twitter for your players?
Lowe: it’s just too much information. Who wants to know that you went to McDonald’s yesterday? I understand that it’s a way for fans to keep up with their favorite players. But I think there could be more negative things that come out of it than positive. Guys just don’t know about the impact of it. They might think they’re just writing to a friend, but it goes out to everyone.
Question: Was there any particular player who was posting that caused you to shut it down?
Lowe: It was just too much information. There’ve been cases at other schools where it’s just way too much. A guy talked about going to Vegas or something or going to this place and spending this much money. You don’t want your players doing that. I think these guys are seen enough. They’re out in public all the time and there’s enough media coverage on them, I just didn’t feel it was the best thing for us. Plus, you’re trying to protect your kids from different people, other than fans, and you don’t want them telling everyone where they’re going all the time.
Question: The players say you are smiling more and yelling less this year. Is that true?
Lowe: I haven’t noticed that. I don’t know. I like where we are. I like our team and the effort we have. They’ve done all the right things so far, to send the message to me that they want to win and do the right things. That’s what you want as a coach. You want to feel that you are getting it. We don’t have it yet, but we’re getting it. We are headed in the right direction.
Question: Can you talk about pushing the ball more this year?
Lowe: That’s a result of having the players who can do that. We’ve been trying to get to that point for a couple of years. We had the chance to recruit Ryan Harrow as a high school freshman, C.J. Leslie as a freshman and Lorenzo Brown as a junior. We were on them early enough to get those type of players. This is what they do well and this is how I like to play. I like to be able to get up and down the floor and let them make some decisions. When you look at the teams that usually win, it’s not the teams that play a lot of sets. It’s the team has players who can create opportunities for themselves and their teammates.
Question: Do you feel like the supporting cast around those freshmen can hold up with the faster paced game.
Lowe: Definitely. They’ll benefit from it. A guy like Scott Wood is going to benefit. If he’s open and those guys are pushing and the defense sucks in, he’s out there able to knock down some shots. They enjoy these guys being here and playing this pace. The big guys have to run a little more. They have to get down the floor. That’s a little change for them. I think they enjoy it. Having said that, if we turn it over too much, we’ll have to tone it down a little.
Question: Given how much you hate turnovers, are you going to be okay with that?
Lowe: Some might say, the more you run, the more you might turn it over. But if we learn the passes not to make, we will get better. They’re going to make some turnovers, just because they’re freshmen. But I think they’re going to get it.
Question: Is that the kind of style you enjoy playing when you were in college?
Lowe: We didn’t push that much. I had the choice. Coach Valvano would allow me to push it if something was there. It depended on the flow of the game. I had the freedom to call a set play if I wanted to or push the ball or throw it to Dereck Whittenburg or whatever. I want to give these guys the freedom to do that too. Their strength is being in the open court.
Question: You have a tough ACC schedule. You play Duke twice, Carolina twice. Is that a good thing?
Lowe: I don’t know if that is a good thing. Being at NC State, playing Duke and Carolina twice is good for us, because of the rivalry there in the Triangle. You know you’ll get them twice. Being able to play those games and win them is tough. But that’s what ACC basketball is.
Question: This year, Carolina, Duke and State all have the chance of being very good. How much does having all three of those teams good simultaneously really bolster the ACC’s reputation as a whole?
Lowe: If any of the teams in our conference do well, it helps our conference. Maryland has won a national championship. Virginia Tech has all of their players returning. If any of the other teams do well, it helps our conference.
Question: Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with new athletics director Debbie Yow.
Lowe: It’s very good. She came in and wanted to meet with me and the first thing she said to me was what did I need to help the team. That was big. She’s already started on a couple of things. She talked about her vision of what she wants, not just for us, but for the university and for the athletics department. As a coach, that’s all you want, to know where you stand with things. She’s already started a couple of things.
Question: She also said that once you got what you needed, she would expect results. Does that put more pressure on you?
Lowe: No, because I think any AD would. If an AD didn’t give you what you wanted, they’d still have high expectations. But I don’t feel like there’s more pressure. There’s enough in this job already. You can’t worry about the pressure. I try to focus on my kids, making sure they are going to class and doing what they are supposed to do.
Question: What is the pressure, to make the tournament this year?
Lowe: Do we want to make the tournament? Absolutely. Will it be big for these kids? Of course. But I can’t worry that if we don’t what happens. What I worry about is if Tracy Smith and Javi Gonzalez are going to graduate this year. That right there, when I look back at my time in college sports, how many of my kids graduated. I want to look at them and look at their mothers and say ‘We’ve prepared your son.’ We’ve been very fortunate so far that every senior we’ve had has graduated. We’re in the top 10 in the country again in graduation.
Question: The Sporting News called NC State the most interesting team in the ACC. Do you feel like you are on the verge of something big here?
Lowe: I do. This is the first time we have been able to get this type of class and these types of players. You hope for one a year. Two would be great. But we got three great players. Some schools do that every year. But this is our first time. Building those relationships has paid off here. The program is definitely going in the right direction in terms of getting the players we need to be successful.
Question: You have a lot of options for handling the ball and making plays.
Lowe: This is the first time in a long time we’ve had a backcourt with this kind of talent since maybe Rodney Monroe and Chris Corchiani. But look at the years that NC State has been good, look at the backcourts: Monte Towe and Mo Rivers; Dereck Whittenburg and some other guy; Corchiani and Monroe. We haven’t had that since I’ve been here. Now we do.
Question: One other thing you have that you haven’t had is the expectations. Have you talked to your team about that and do you worry that they are unrealistically high?
Lowe: You know, what I try to do is keep them grounded. We have to have our own expectations from within our team. We can’t get caught up with what others are expecting from us. I don’t mean we don’t want the excitement from our fans. I don’t want our guys to feel pressure. I want them to go in and work as hard as we can. We have our own expectations. If we meet our expectations, then I am sure that will be enough for everybody else.
Question: When you land a class like this, is it easier getting the next class?
Lowe: Absolutely. We needed to get that start. We’re already on some guys who are friends of theirs. No question, when you get good players, other good players follow.
Question: Has it been eye-opening how many kids on the high school level know each other and how that helps you.
Lowe: It’s different now than before. We knew each other coming out of high school. But we really didn’t talk about going and playing together. Today they talk about that. it’s important to get some of those top guys. They talk about each other and know each other. It happens more times than you think.
Question: What do you get out of a closed scrimmage as opposed to a second exhibition game?
Lowe: We get a chance, especially with this group, to put them in situations, like to press us more , show us some zone. We can go against it, correct it and talk. We can break it down. It helps us learn better and correct mistakes.
Question: Last year, we asked you what the most important thing you had to do and you said to prove that you could win. Did you do that?
Lowe: I think, when we made that run last year, I think we showed that we were capable of winning. We won five out of seven near the end. We showed that we can win. The good thing about that is that the guys who are returning they were able to experience that. That’s what so good about this group right now. It’s good to see the way they are together.
Question: You talked last week about picking up the pace and also being lenient with the turnovers. Javi Gonzalez said today that there have been fewer turnovers pushing the ball and going faster. Do you agree with that assessment?
Lowe: That sounds like a player’s assessment to me. Actually, we’ve had some spurts where we’ve turned it over. I think what he’s talking about is that the first couple of practices, we were pushing the ball hard. We had one session where we turned it over a few more times than we would have liked. I’ve been very pleased by it. I do understand that the more we run, the more opportunities we might have to turn the ball over. The more we push it, the better we’re going to get at it.
Question: Are you hesitant to start a freshman over a senior at the same position, like you will have a point guard this season?
Lowe: I’m going to have to see how this works out. Javi is our senior this year. He certainly can help Ryan understand what it’s like to be a freshman in this league. His first two games were at Clemson and at Carolina. Javi’s playing real well right now. He’s playing great.
Question: You were able to work in with Clyde Austin when you were a freshman. Did that help you?
Lowe: I got a chance to watch first. I got a feel for the flow of the game and was able to come in. By me being able to watch Clyde first and let the butterflies calm down, it certainly helped me. I was chomping to get in, but I wasn’t bothered about it. I knew I was going to play. My position as a player was that if I got the opportunity to play, I was going to make it difficult for the coach to take me out. Clyde was a senior and I respected that. My mindset was that once I got in there I was going to make it difficult for Norm to take me out. It eventually worked out that he moved Clyde over to the 2 position and I started at the point.
Question: Both Tracy and Javi said they’ve never seen you smile so much. Have you changed?
Lowe: Sometimes you change with your team. I have a different type of team. We’re more of a running team. I don’t have to call a lot of sets now. These guys have done everything through the summer to this point to say to me as a coach that we’re trying to do everything we can to get better. Javi has gained weight and is stronger. Richard Howell has lost weight. Tracy has lost some weight. They are working their tails off. It’s hard for me not to enjoy this.
