WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University

Lowe says N.C. State is headed in the right direction

By Tim Hall

Nov 12, 2009

Greensboro, N.C. — The 2009-10 N.C. State men's basketball team enters another season without high expectations from those outside the program.

Ben McCauley, Courtney Fells and Brandon Costner are all gone. Head coach Sidney Lowe hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since he took over the program.

The program seems to be in a full-fledged transitional phase and the ACC media picked N.C. State to finish at the bottom, but Lowe is already seeing improvements as well as a sense of togetherness in his players.

N.C. State opens Thursday night against Georgia State at the RBC Center at 7 p.m.

"It's interesting because we can already see it and we haven't played a game yet," Lowe said. "We are there every day and we can see it.....but to watch Tracy Smith take a young player under his wing and to watch Dennis [Horner] to watch Tracy to watch C.J. [Williams] take these young guys and then after practice take them and go somewhere and do things together, we haven't had that.  It tells me we are going in the right direction, now we have to continue to bring in the talent level in order to get back to where we should be. "

That talent wave may have already started as Lowe brings in his biggest recruiting class yet. Five new faces will wear the Wolfpack uniform.

Two of them were ranked in the Top 20 nationally at their position by Scout.com. Joining forwards Richard Howell and DeShawn Painter is center Jordan Vandenberg of Australia, guard Scott Wood from Indiana and Raleigh's own Josh Davis.

With a league low 77 returning starts on the current roster, some of those new faces will have to play big minutes right away.

Howell, one of those top freshmen, injured his left knee in preseason workouts and Lowe is not expecting the 6-8, 255 pounder to be there when the season starts.

"Hundred percent, I don't know. But in late November we hope to start getting him involved in some things, and it's important because we will really need him," Lowe said.

One of the two seniors on the roster is 6-3 Farnold Degand. Degand will fight for minutes at the point guard position this season. Julius Mays and Javier Gonzalez took away some minutes at his spot last season, but more importantly so did a rebuilt knee.

"I'm starting to feel like I did a couple of years back before the injury," Degand said. "I definitely feel 100 percent this year and I feel like I can move the way I did a couple of years ago."

The freshmen and Degand may not be able to help this team at all if its point guard play doesn't improve. The play at that spot last year was a borderline comedy routine.

It's especially frustrating for a head coach who played the position here and won a national championship while doing it.

Mays, Gonzalez and Degand all return. All of them started games in 2008-09 and all of them also went through long stretches where they didn't even step foot on the court. The Pack is going to need more stability if it has any chance of doing better this season.

"We need them to run the team, not turn it over, not turn it over, and not turn it over," Lowe reiterated. "To play the position well you can't turn it over and that's one of the things we talk to them constantly about, Monte [Towe] and I."

N.C. State hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 2006. It hasn't finished higher than 10th in the ACC since then either. But Lowe has improved in his ACC win column for three straight years and finally he has the players he personally chose to be here.

If there is anything you need to know about Wolfpack basketball it's this: You never know what's going to happen.

Coach: Sidney Lowe - 4th year with N.C. State (51-46 record at N.C. State, 51-46 overall)

Record last year: 16-14 overall (6-10 in the ACC) - N.C. State did not play in a postseason tournament.

Key Losses: F Brandon Costner, C Ben McCauley, G Courtney Fells,

Best Recruit: Richard Howell - 16th best power forward in the nation according to Scout.com

Mark Thomas' take: Have you ever been driving down the highway and happen to cross a major car wreck? For some reason, you can’t look away! The car wreck may be the only reason Wolfpack fans have to go see games at the RBC Center this year. Guard Julius Mays said that former teammates played selfish basketball. You must wonder if that could have been the root of the problems over the last two years in which NCSU struggled to stay above .500. Head Coach Sidney Lowe has tried to bring in a top recruiting class to his alma mater. There’s only one problem with the class: No point guards! When John Wall said no and headed to Kentucky, Lowe couldn’t find another guard to say yes to the Wolfpack. Freshmen forwards Richard Howell and DeShawn Painter will be an effective in the frontcourt as soon as Howell’s knee heals. Prediction: 15 wins, 3-13 in ACC.

Projected Starters (Stats from 2008-2009 season):

Name	MIn	Pts	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	FG%	FT%	3P%
Javier Gonzalez	20.7	6.6	2.0	3.3	1.0	0.0	.467	.720	.429
Dennis Horner	18.9	6.4	2.8	1.2	0.4	0.3	.450	.820	.357
Tracy Smith	18.2	10.0	4.5	0.6	0.5	0.3	.540	.593	.000
C.J. Williams	14.6	3.7	1.2	0.7	0.3	0.4	.429	.588	.364
Farnold Degand	18.8	4.7	1.2	2.4	0.5	0.4	.435	.778	.357

Key Reserves (Stats from 2008-2009 season):

Name	Min	Pts	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	FG%	FT%	3P%
Julius Mays	15.1	4.7	1.3	1.9	0.4	0.1	.459	.852	.448
Johnny Thomas	11.0	2.1	2.1	0.5	0.0	0.3	.393	.750	.286
DeShawn Painter	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA

Schedule (All times EST):

Date	Opponent	Location	Time	TV
November 5	St. Paul's College (Exhibition)	Raleigh	7pm
November 12	Georgia State	Raleigh	7pm
November 20	Akron	Daytona Beach, FL	330pm
November 21	Austin Peay	Daytona Beach, FL	815pm
November 22	Auburn	Daytona Beach, FL	815pm
November 29	New Orleans	Raleigh	2pm
December 1	Northwestern	Raleigh	7pm	ESPNU
December 5	at Marquette	Milwaukee, WI	3pm	Big East Network
December 12	Georgia Southern	Raleigh	2pm
December 17	Elon	Raleigh	7pm
December 20	at Wake Forest	Winston-Salem	745pm	FSN
December 23	at Arizona	Tucson, AZ	1030pm	FSN
December 29	Winthrop	Raleigh	7pm
December 31	at UNC-Greensboro	Greensboro	6pm	FSSO/SUN/CSN
January 3	Florida	Raleigh	3pm	FSN
January 6	Holy Cross	Raleigh	7pm
January 9	Virginia	Raleigh	12pm	Raycom
January 12	at Florida State	Tallahassee, FL	7pm	RSN
January 16	Clemson	Raleigh	12pm	Raycom
January 20	Duke	Raleigh	9pm	Raycom
January 23	at Maryland	College Park, MD	6pm	ESPN2
January 26	North Carolina	Raleigh	9pm	Raycom
January 30	N.C. Central	Raleigh	2pm
February 3	at Virginia	Charlottesville, VA	7pm	ESPNU
February 6	at Georgia Tech	Atlanta, GA	4pm	Raycom
February 10	Virginia Tech	Raleigh	9pm	ESPNU
February 13	at North Carolina	Chapel Hill	4pm	ESPN
February 17	Maryland	Raleigh	9pm	RSN
February 20	Wake Forest	Raleigh	2pm	Raycom
February 27	at Miami	Coral Gables, FL	4pm	Raycom
March 3	at Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, VA	7pm
March 7	Boston College	Raleigh	2pm	Raycom
March 11-14	ACC Tournament	Greensboro