North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Summer Optimism Is High For Lowe
7/22/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
July 22, 2010
RALEIGH, N.C. - RALEIGH, N.C. - For a college basketball coach, summer optimism is like a 100-degree day: there's not much you can do except talk about it.
But NC State coach Sidney Lowe has plenty to be excited about, even if the 2010-11 season is still a good five months away. Not only does he have one of the ACC's top big men in senior forward Tracy Smith, he also welcomes back a solid roster of returning players and three nationally prominent freshman recruits for the coming season: Ryan Harrow, Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie.
"I'm excited about the possibilities, just [by] bringing in a few more players that we feel we can help us," Lowe said during his annual summer press conference Tuesday morning. "The expectations are higher this year, but we still have to go out and approach it the same way. It's not like we are going to say we are going to work harder than we have been.
"We try to work hard every day. We definitely feel good about the possibilities."
Just a month after Leslie's decision to stay in the Triangle, the trio of freshmen is still getting much of the attention at the moment. Harrow and Brown, both from the metro Atlanta area, have long known they were going to play for the Wolfpack, and Leslie has been around the program since he was a high school freshman.
Lowe expects them to contribute immediately, but he does not want to overburden them with pressure before they have even arrived on campus.
"You like to think they can come in right away and help you right away," Lowe said. "We all know how tough it is in this conference to do that. There are some talented teams with big-time players, but young. It's always a learning curve. Very few guys come in and dominate as a freshman. I don't want to put that kind of pressure or expectations on these guys. [But] I expect them to come in and help us. I expect them to come in and play right away."
One of the reasons Lowe believes the newcomers will fit into the team is because of his long-term relationship with them. He recruited each of them for at least four years and believes they will fit into the mix with returning players, like senior point guard Javi Gonzalez, junior swing player C.J. Williams and sophomores Scott Wood, Richard Howell, Jordan Vandenberg and DeShawn Painter.
"I have formed that relationship with them," Lowe said. "I know who they are. I know how competitive they are. I am going to give them all they can handle. I don't want them to think they have to come in and be saviors or anything like that. I just want them to come in and play the way they are capable of playing."
It's that potential that has Lowe and his team - and all NC State basketball fans - excited about the future. The coach wants to make sure the expectations aren't too high, but he knows better than anyone what kind of talent his team - which is two-deep at every position - has going into the fall.
"I'm glad everyone is excited," Lowe said. "[But the newcomers] are going to be young. They will take some bumps, but they are going to do more good things than bad. They are going to be great for this program.
"I like the fact that our fans are excited. I want them to be. This is the way they are supposed to be."
From all accounts, if the Wolfpack's three newcomers play the way Lowe expects, the coach and his team will have more than just the weather to talk about when the season gets underway.
You may reach Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
