North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: New Season, New Help in Backcourt
11/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 12, 2010
Editor's note: Tonight's season-opener is the first opportunity for fans to collect NC State basketball trading cards. Each home game this season, the first 5,000 fans will receive a trading card from a selected coach or player. The initial card in the set is head coach Sidney Lowe. For more information about NC State basketball trading cards, visit here.
Pack Hosts Tennessee Tech In Season-Opener
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. - Javi Gonzalez doesn't feel threatened.
Sure, he knows there is newcomer on the scene at point guard, the position where Gonzalez has started most of his three previous seasons for NC State's men's basketball team. And he knows that freshman Ryan Harrow is a skilled ballhandler and playmaker. It's plainly obvious to anyone who has played as much pickup basketball with Harrow as Gonzalez has since the summer.
But Gonzalez has had competition before.
Every year, it seems, there has been a plan to have someone else run the Wolfpack's offense. Or, at the very least, someone who would be there to complement Gonzalez in a platoon system. Several have come and gone, but as the Wolfpack heads into tonight's 2010-11 season opener against Tennessee Tech, Gonzalez is still standing as head coach Sidney Lowe's starting point guard.
To be perfectly honest, the senior from Carolina, Puerto Rico, by way of Miami, is actually quite glad to have Harrow on the squad.
Maybe it's a cultural thing, but Gonzalez doesn't understand how it could be a bad thing for him to have another guard ready to make plays that help the Pack improve on last year's 20-16 record.
"Growing up in Puerto Rico, we never had this whole thing of being worried about younger players," Gonzalez said. "We didn't have seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. Sometimes a younger player might come along who was very talented and he came and helped the team.
"That's not a bad thing."
Gonzalez grew up as a shooter, and converted to point guard out of necessity. He still has an effective 3-point shot, though at times he has been so focused on running the Wolfpack offense, he has been reluctant to look for his own shot. Harrow is a guy who makes things happen, as he showed the other night in the Wolfpack's lone exhibition game, scoring 17 points and handing out eight assists with only one turnover.
"To me, I don't see it as a problem.," Gonzalez said. "I see it as a good thing that we have other guys who can play the position. And in the times we are on the court together, it means our team will be better."
That's not to say that Gonzalez, a former Golden Gloves boxer, doesn't have some fight in him. He's going protect his playing time. But as one of the team's two seniors, along with forward Tracy Smith, he is going to make sure there are no petty jealousies among teammates.
He's seen that before, as well.
"My main goal this year is to try to get the team to be a family.," Gonzalez said. "We're always going to play together, no matter how bad we're playing. We're going to stick together and play as a team. I don't want anyone to go off on their own because we're in a slump or we aren't playing well."
So he's made sure that everyone is included when the team gathers for social outings, when they tailgate for football games, when they hang out doing nothing in particular at all.
"This team, we always seem to be together," he said. "We click. That helps a lot on the court. I've seen it in practice already. I try to help Ryan. I've seen C.J. Williams trying to help Lorenzo [Brown]. The thing I see this year is that it's not about competition for a position, it's about trying to win. "Nobody cares who's on the court at all as long as we win."
For Lowe, the situation is fairly similar to his arrival in the fall of 1980. The Wolfpack already had an established point guard in Clyde Austin, who as a sophomore helped lead the team to the National Invitation Tournament title game. But Lowe was a hotshot youngster with skills, looking for playing time.
"But I never tried to make it seem like I was coming after his job," Lowe. "He was the starter. He was my teammate. I was just looking to play. Mainly, I didn't want to have him come out of the game and have me let him down.
"All I ever tried to do was make it hard for the coach to take me out." By the end of the season, Lowe was in the starting lineup. Now, as head coach, Lowe has been impressed with how the two players have worked together, Gonzalez as the teacher and Harrow as the pupil.
"Javi's been great with Ryan and with Lorenzo," Lowe said. "They're battling and going at it in practice. This is the most I've seen Javi talk in practice. It's helped. He's not looking at it as this guy is coming in and taking my job. He's looking at it like we have another good player who can come in and make the team better.
"That's exactly what you want from your senior leader: We have help."
What does that mean for the Wolfpack backcourt this year? That will be determined as the season goes along. But for Gonzalez, that's not a threat.
It's an opportunity for the team to better than it has since he arrived.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
