WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University

Pack basketball players say last season's squad was selfish

By Dane Huffman

Oct 17, 2009

Sidney Lowe enters his fourth season at N.C. State as a coach still looking to swing his program around. Last year, the Wolfpack was 6-10 in ACC play and 16-14 overall.

The top three scorers from that team – Brandon Costner, Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells – are gone. But Lowe likes what he has seen so far of his current young team and realizes how Wolfpack fans howl for a winner.

“I went to school here. So I know. I know what it’s all about,” Lowe said. “But I can’t worry about what other people want. I cant put any extra pressure on myself or on my team.”

Lowe even declined to talk about any problems with the squad last year, saying he wanted to talk about this season and these guys.

But several Wolfpack players were quick to say the attitude on the team wasn't what it needed to be last season.

This year, Julius Mays said, "We have no individual just about themselves. When I got here, we've had players that have been more about themselves. They'd rather score 30 points than N.C. State win the game.

"You can't win like that. We've also had players that try to turn other players against Coach to get them on their page instead of Coach's page. You can't win like that."

Tracy Smith, who will be a key player inside, agreed.

"Last year and the year before that, everybody wanted to come in and play their own way," Smith said. "I don't think we'll have that problem. Everybody's on the same page."

And these players, Lowe believes, have a chance to show some promise. He’s particularly excited about moving to a faster-paced style.

“We’re going to get up and down the floor a little more unless they show me they can’t do that,” he said. “But if you’re going to play up-tempo, you can’t play seven guys.

“We’re going to have to count on 9, 10 guys. And the minutes will fluctuate, depending on the game.”

Forward Smith enters his junior season as the key player on the team after starting just 12 games last season.

And Lowe is really high on Dennis Horner, who averaged 6.4 points in 18.9 minutes per game last season.

“I expect Dennis to have a big year,” Lowe said. “I didn’t say that about any else, but I do.”

Point guards Farnold Degand, Javy Gonzalez and Mays continue State’s eternal quest to replace Engin Atsur.

“Julius is making that transition to be more of a point guard,” Lowe said. “He obviously can shoot the basketball but he’s trying to do a better job of controlling the game and getting the ball to the right people. He’s doing that. But I don’t want to take away from his ability to score.”

C.J. Williams, a 6-6 forward from Fayetteville, will be competing for minutes, as will a five-man freshman class.

That class, and some recent success recruiting current high school freshman, has Lowe confident about the program’s future.

“There’s no question we have great coaches, but you look around, you see players making plays,” Lowe said. So stocking the roster with talent, he insisted, is critical.

“We’re heading in that direction,” he said.

Of course, the challenge N.C. State faces is its ACC neighbors are dominant. Lowe said the fact that Duke won the ACC title and North Carolina won the national title didn’t affect him or his program. He also noted that he travels often in the summer.

But he did say he runs into UNC and Duke fans often, even when he travels in the summer.

“They catch you on the plane a lot. I always have one of those Duke or Carolina guys sit beside me,” he said.

“They are always cordial, though.”