North Carolina State University Athletics
Seniors Make Last Stand at RBC Center
3/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. -
Fours years worth of triumphs and disappointments will likely flash before the eyes of Tracy Smith and Javier Gonzalez Sunday night when they play their final regular season home game at the RBC Center against Florida State (20-9, 10-5).
Tip-off is set for 6:15 with pregame coverage on the Wolfpack Sports Network beginning at 5:30.
Smith, Gonzalez and Enrico Kufuor, a walk-on who joined the Wolfpack program prior to the 2008-09 season, will all be honored in traditional senior day ceremonies prior to the ACC finale against the Seminoles.
Under coach Sidney Lowe, NC State is 3-1 in senior day games. During a college basketball career, there are a lot of games, road trips and practices, but there is only one senior day. Lowe, who as a point guard orchestrated a 130-89 romp over Wake Forest in his final home game at Reynolds Coliseum in 1983, dearly wants to send his seniors off on a high-note this Sunday.
“That’s something you want for your kids,” Lowe said. “You want them to go out on a good note in their last home game in front of the fans. We’ll talk about it with the team that we want to do it for those guys and give them the opportunity to walk off that floor and show the fans what they have meant to them.”
Entering what will be the last regular season game played in the ACC this year, NC State is 15-14 overall and 5-10 in the league. The campaign itself, an up and down affair, somewhat mirrors the careers of Smith and Gonzalez. And both players have endured disappointing senior years for different reasons.
After undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in late November, the 6-8 Smith was forced to miss 10 games, a stretch in which the Pack struggled without its most imposing inside threat in the line-up.
And although the Detroit native has put together another solid season, averaging 14.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest, it’s not been the first-team All-ACC caliber season he had hoped for.
“It’s unfortunate that he got injured in his senior year,” Lowe said. “He never got back to 100 percent. That’s unfortunate for him.”
Playing behind J.J. Hickson and Ben McCauley as a freshman, Smith was lost in the numbers game his first year. Still, his unique back-to-the-basket scoring touch was obvious from the very first day. Once he learned other nuances of the game, things like learning to use his body to get position in the post and finding open shooters against double-teaming defenses, Smith emerged as one of the most feared inside players in the league.
“He was patient as a freshman and waited for his turn, something that’s very hard to do,” said Lowe. “I never had one problem with him complaining about not playing right away as a freshman. I’m very fortunate to have coached him.”
Smith is one of only 25 players in NC State history to collect over 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in a career.
Never one to back away from a battle, Gonzalez, a tough guard from Carolina Puerto Rico, was confronted with more than even he could handle his first year. After starting point guard Farnold Degand went down with a season-ending knee injury in December of the 2007-2008, Gonzalez, a shooting guard in high school, was thrust into the role of point guard at the very beginning of ACC play. Making matters worse, NC State’s first two conference games that year were at North Carolina and at Clemson.
As expected, neither game turned out pretty for Gonzalez, but to his credit, he never allowed those two potentially devastating performances to destroy his confidence.
“One of the things about Javi is he won’t get down,” Lowe said. “He won’t get down in terms of questioning whether he can do it or not. You saw him continue to battle, to work and he got better at it. I appreciated it and understood exactly what he was going through. That’s a tough situation to be thrown into, starting two games like that as a freshman.”
And there’s been more adversity for Gonzalez in his senior season. After starting the Wolfpack’s first 16 games, he was eventually replaced in the starting line-up by freshman Ryan Harrow. But with his final season drawing to a close, Gonzalez has played his best basketball down the stretch, giving the Pack a much-needed boost off the bench. In Tuesday’s loss at Virginia, it was Gonzalez who triggered a 17-2 run after NC State had fallen behind 16-0 at the beginning of the game.
“I think the same thing that happened to Dennis Horner last year is happening to Javi right now,” Lowe said. “There was a period there where, and I told him this, he was throwing a pity-party for himself. Then you look up and say, ‘why don’t I play as hard as I can and as well as I can because I only have four or five games left. That’s what happened with Dennis.”
On Sunday, Gonzalez, Smith and the rest of the Wolfpack will be trying to avenge an 84-71 loss to Florida State back on January 15. In that game, the normally defensive-minded ‘Noles shot a blistering 69.2 percent in the second half. Of late, Florida State has gone 2-2 without its best player, Chris Singleton, who is out for the remainder of the regular season with a broken foot.
The agendas will be quite different on Sunday. While Florida State will be trying to improve its already solid NCAA Tournament credentials, NC State will be looking to send its seniors off with a win.
Lowe hopes the Wolfpack’s underclassmen will rally around Smith, Gonzalez and Kufuor.
“What’s good about it is you know those guys are going out there and play for the seniors,” said Lowe. “Hopefully we can come out and play well.”
