N.C. State Wolfpack

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In the aftermath of his greatest disappointment, Julius Hodge found reason to work harder. He was already the hardest working player on North Carolina State's roster, even before he spent the summer in the gym, sweating off memories of the final game of his freshman season, when he fouled Connecticut's Caron Butler with only seconds left in the Wolfpack's second-round NCAA tournament game.

For the Wolfpack, which had gone 10 years without making the NCAA tournament, getting to that point was one of the major accomplishments in a turnaround season, one in which sixth-year coach Herb Sendek went from the hot seat to the driver’s seat.

The Wolfpack not only finished in a tie for third place in the ACC regular-season standings, but it also knocked eventual national champion Maryland out of the ACC Tournament, thanks to Hodge's play, and advanced to the title game.

Those were all nice, but distant, memories for the 6-foot-6 Hodge (10.7 ppg, 4.8 ppg, 2.2 apg), as he watched Butler sink all three free throws and give his team a 77-74 victory, ending the Wolfpack's first trip to the big tournament since 1991.

What the lanky guard from Harlem primarily remembers about his freshman year was that he was beaten out for the ACC's Freshman of the Year Award by Georgia Tech's Ed Nelson and that Butler, the No. 6 pick of last year's NBA Draft, scored a career-high 34 points against him.

"That is the lowest I have ever felt as a basketball player,'' Hodge said. "I feel I really let my teammates down. Ever since that day, I have been working twice as hard. I am sticking to my cliché that, 'Champions are made while no one is watching.' ''

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So Hodge spent up to six hours a day in Reynolds Coliseum, working on his jump shot, his defensive skills and his ball-handling abilities.

In case it's not obvious, Sendek's seventh Wolfpack team likely will revolve around Hodge, just as last year's breakthrough squad belonged to senior guard Anthony Grundy.

There is only one senior on this year's team, point guard Clifford Crawford. He is likely to be a role player off the bench, as Sendek goes into his second year of running a position-less offense that is effective because of its interchangeable parts, its constant motion and its hard-to-defend cuts to the basket.

Last year, that offense ran smoothly with Grundy as its leader. He finally stepped into the spotlight to become a first-team All-ACC pick, the first player recruited by Sendek to make any of the league's three all-conference teams. Grundy (17.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.5 apg) led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals, becoming a do-it-all player that seemingly might be hard to replace.

That's where Hodge comes in. The highly touted 6-foot-6 guard -- the highest-rated player to enter the ACC last year -- sat back and watched Grundy become a star, convinced by Sendek that his turn would come later.

Hodge obviously had a few things to learn. He injected great spirit and energy into a program that was growing moribund, with his playground attitude and his trash-talking ways. But he also needed to grow up a little. He and Maryland's Steve Blake got into a couple of scuffles during the season, and in a February trip to College Park, Hodge hit Blake in the back of the head with his forearm. The ACC, in an unprecedented crackdown on unsportsmanlike conduct, suspended Hodge for one game, sending the freshman into a scoring tailspin.

He came alive in the regular-season finale against Wake Forest and helped lead the Wolfpack to three postseason wins, including a victory over the Terps in an ACC semifinal and Michigan State, which had been to the previous two Final Fours, in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"Last season, we played well, but I am used to winning championships,'' said Hodge, who led St. Raymond's High in the Bronx to back-to-back state titles. "I didn't accomplish that goal. Going into this year, I am going to do whatever it takes to do that, whether it is score 30 points and get 10 rebounds or score six points and get 14 assists.

"I am going to do whatever it takes to win.''

Even if it means playing a different position.

Hodge started 33 of the team's 34 games at small forward, with senior Archie Miller at the point and Grundy at shooting guard. This year, however, with those veteran guards gone, Hodge may be the point player in Sendek's offense.

Crawford (4.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.3 apg) is not only the team's only returning senior, he's also the only returning point guard. But Crawford has never really learned to rein in his superior athletic ability to run a halfcourt offense. So Sendek likely will use him as a spark off the bench.

Sendek, who lost top point guard prospect John Gilchrist to Maryland, signed Dominick Mejia of Vorhees, N.J., as a potential replacement at the point.

The coach, of course, says it's not a big issue.

"I am not nearly as concerned about [who will play point guard] as the many questions I get regarding that topic may lead some to believe,'' Sendek said after enduring that query for weeks on the rubber-chicken booster circuit.

Sendek tap-danced around the question by saying he wasn't pigeon-holing any of his players to certain positions. That was true last year, when anyone from Miller to Grundy to Crawford to Hodge to 6-foot-8 forward Marcus Melvin brought the ball up the floor in the modified motion offense that was developed by Sendek, with heavy input from former Ohio coach Larry Hunter, who was hired before last season to help turn the program around.

"I like the latitude that our offense gives us,'' Sendek said. "I like the fact that we have any number of players who have the skill and versatility to handle the ball right now. I don't know, given our system and given our personnel, that it is a dramatic issue for us.

"We have guys like Julius and Clifford and Dom, who have the capacity to be primary ball-handlers and transport the ball for us.''

Sendek admits, however, that having Hodge at the point creates some intriguing matchup possibilities, especially for someone who is itching to have the ball in his hands.

"Julius is kind of like a utility infielder, because he can play anywhere,'' the coach said. "I think we have a real advantage from that standpoint.

"I also believe that Julius, over the course of last season, grew as a leader. I don't know that you wake up all of a sudden one day and you are a leader. It follows along a continuum. You are constantly growing and earning the respect of your teammates. Certainly, even at the end of last season, Julius had emerged as a leader on our basketball team.''

And Hodge is all for it, as long as he is the team's top go-to player.

"I will continue to play any position that coach wants me to play, whether it is point guard, shooting guard or small forward, and do whatever it takes to get this team to the Final Four,'' Hodge said in the summer. "I have been hearing some rumors going around that I might be playing point guard. I hope they are true.''

But that leaves lots of other possibilities for Sendek, whose roster is filled with a handful of versatile backcourt options. He has athletic shooter Scooter Sherrill (5.7 ppg, 1.2 rpg) ready to take over Grundy's shooting-guard spot.

The 6-foot-3 junior can provide instant offense and is getting better on defense, which has always been his biggest deficiency.

Sophomore forward Ilian Evtimov (7.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.7 apg), 6-foot-7, turned out to be one of the biggest freshman surprises in the ACC. He and Hodge would have been members of the league's all-freshman team if the sportswriters who covered the league could have spelled his name correctly. (Long story, but the league went to an electronic balloting system. Evtimov's name was spelled so many different ways his true total wasn't known until after the team was already announced.)

The native of Bulgaria is a hard-nosed player who can be deadly from 3-point range. He got significant playing time after fellow 6-foot-7 freshman forward Levi Watkins (3.2 ppg, 2.0 rpg) suffered a season-ending knee injury in the conference opener on Dec. 30.

Evtimov spent the summer playing for the French National Team, getting stronger and more experienced against international competition.

The rest of the perimeter is made up of players who haven't played before -- freshman guard Dovonte Edwards, who red-shirted last season after joining the squad from the football team; incoming freshmen Cameron Bennerman, a 6-foot-4 swing player from Greensboro who spent last season at Hargrave Military Academy; and 6-foot-4 sharpshooter Justin Flatt of Savannah, Tenn.

Each has different talents, allowing Sendek to switch them in and out at will, as he did last year with Grundy, Miller, Hodge and Sherrill.

Frontcourt experience was the Wolfpack's biggest weakness last year. Sendek's five-player recruiting class included forwards Evtimov, Watkins, Josh Powell and 6-foot-10 center Jordan Collins.

They will rotate with 6-foot-8 junior forward Melvin (10.1 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.9 apg), a versatile player who is as comfortable bringing the ball up the court as he is setting up inside. If anything, Melvin played too far away from the basket at times last year, leaving the Wolfpack without much of an inside scoring threat.

That will have to change this year. Collins (1.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg) was the only freshman who didn't look comfortable getting significant playing time last year, something Sendek hopes will change after a summer of being pushed in the gym by Hodge.

Powell (7.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg) played well enough early in the season to earn a spot on the ACC's All-Freshman team, but he was pretty invisible his second time around the league. That probably should be expected of the skinny 6-foot-9, 217-pound youngster who had never been in a weight room before he arrived on campus.

Sendek said Powell had gained about 15 pounds over the summer, which should help him make it through an entire season. Watkins, who was just starting to get more playing time when he was injured, is expected to make a full recovery and contribute inside and out.

Red-shirt sophomore forward Will Roach (0.6 ppg, 0.1 rpg), 6-5, rounds out the roster.

Finally, the last member of Sendek's recruiting class is 7-foot center Adam Simons from Burlington, N.C. He certainly has basketball knowledge: His father Mark Simon is the head coach at Elon College, and his step-mother, Gail Goestenkors, is the head coach of Duke's nationally prominent women's program. But he is a raw and uncoordinated player who could be a candidate for red-shirting.

Overall, the Wolfpack looks to be building up a head of steam for another impressive run in the ACC. It will take its bow in the nation spotlight by competing -- for the first time in the 10-year history of the event -- in the Jimmy V Classic, the ESPN-sponsored double-header in East Rutherford, N.J., that pays tribute to Jim Valvano, the late Wolfpack coach.

The Wolfpack, which has already begun celebrating the 20th anniversary of Valvano's improbable run to the 1983 NCAA Title, will play Gonzaga in the Dec. 17 event.

With only one senior and two juniors to go along with 11 freshmen and sophomores, Sendek's team is probably a little too young to be considered a Top 25 team at the beginning of the season. By tournament time, however, it should have plenty of experience to be there at the end.

"We really only have three upperclassmen on the roster,'' Sendek said.

"We were young last year -- even though we had two veteran guards who had played an awful lot of minutes over the course of their careers.

"On paper, we may be younger this year. The difference is we have a young, but experienced team. Last year we were young and inexperienced.''

The key is that Sendek has established an impressive roster of talented, interchangeable parts, making the Wolfpack a program on the rise.

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