aHead Coach: Herb Sendek: @ N.C. State: 127-98, 8th season; Overall: 190-124, 11th year. National Championships: 0; Final Fours: 0
2002-03 Record: 18-13 overall; 9-7 in the ACC (4th)
Player to watch -- Marcus Melvin will be the man in the paint for the Wolfpack, hoping to balance out Hodge's from-anywhere-he-wants-to-shoot stratagy. But Melvin can light it up from outside as well.
The North Carolina State men's basketball starting five will look different during the 2003-04 campaign. A few familiar faces will be gone, like floor general Clifford Crawford and center Josh Powell. Wolfpack fans can expect to see the return of power forward Ilian Evtimov, back from an ACL injury sustained during last year's preseason.
Despite all the changes, the focal point of the N.C. State team will be the same scoring machine it has been for the last two seasons: Julius Hodge. The Harlem native is a consensus pre-season All-ACC selection, a Wooden Award candidate, and the man who will be responsible for N.C. State's success or failure.
Averaging nearly 18 points and more than 6 rebounds per game last year, Hodge led the Wolfpack to their second straight NCAA berth. That was as far as head coach Herb Sendek's squad made it, losing a first-round heartbreaker to California by a mere two points.
The All-ACC performance Hodge turned in last year was an honor, but one that the 6-foot-6 junior is hoping to eclipse this time around.
"Even though that would be a great honor I'm always looking for more," Hodge said. "How about national player of the year? I think that's a pretty good goal."
While that goal may seem lofty for a man whose team isn't likely to progress very far into the postseason, there is a fundamental difference between Hodge and the other premier players in the ACC, like Raymond Felton and J.J. Redick: He is truly the focus of his team.
The help that Hodge can expect comes primarily from Evtimov, a Turkish bruiser who hopes to be a force in the paint. One of the more intriguing players on the team is neither-fish-nor-fowl forward-center Marcus Melvin, a senior whose size does not seem to go with his deadeye, nearly 40 percent 3-point shooting.
The fact remains, however, that no matter how effective the supporting cast is at N.C. State, this team is going exactly as far as Julius Hodge can take them.
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