It was in late March when word began spreading — Iowa State men’s basketball coach Wayne Morgan had been fired. Suddenly, point guard Farnold Degand was without a coach and without a home. This all changed after a call from basketball coach Sidney Lowe, and an official visit to Raleigh. Degand knew he belonged in a Wolfpack uniform.
Degand joins forward Simon Harris as the two transfer students on N.C. State’s basketball team. Harris, a Pittsburgh native, transferred from Elon University over the summer and is also the son of men’s basketball assistant coach Larry Harris. According to NCAA regulations, transfers must sit out one year before they are eligible to participate in competition. This has been a tall order for Harris. “It’s rough to just sit down and watch,” Harris said. “Ever since we were little, all we ever wanted to do is play ball. Its not frustrating because you support your teammates fully — you just wish you were out there.”
For Degand, the NCAA rule is particularly tough given the extreme lack of depth at his position on the men’s team this season.
“It’s extremely hard, because I’ve never really sat the bench my whole life,” Degand said. “Even more so with Engin [AtsŸr] being hurt — I could help the team a lot right now.”
Both players are embracing their role on the scout team, however, and are doing their best to prepare the starters for game days. With limited time to practice between games, it is up to the scout team to get the starters accustomed to game speed and an opponent’s style of offense.
“What I try to do is basically just try to play like a point guard would play against Gavin,” Degand said. “So in practice I just try to put a lot of pressure on him, and just try to disturb his thought process because that’s what happens in a game.”
Although their main focus is to get the team ready for the next opponent, games between starters and the scout team often get very competitive. Despite having to run another team’s offense, it is not uncommon at all for the scout team to win these scrimmages. “I’d say were a good 20-2 right now,” Harris said. Sometimes, however, another program’s offensive style can be quite hard to operate effectively.
“The other day we had to run Delaware State’s offense, and they didn’t try to go the hoop until 10 seconds left on the clock,” Degand said. “That was the style we were playing, so we had to stand there waiting for 10 seconds left on the shooting clock and then try to score, which is terrible because everybody is just standing waiting on you to just throw something up. That was one of the games that we lost, because of Delaware State’s game plan.”
With the hardships of being a student athlete adjusting to a new school, both players are thankful to play under Lowe.
“I take it as a blessing really,” Harris said. “Coach Lowe has so much experience with different types of players on every level. He just knows how to handle each person individually. You can see that coming out in practice. He talks to certain people different ways. He goes about different positions different ways. It’s really cool to just have a guy that you can relate to because he’s done everything that you’ve wanted to do as a player.” Farnold’s assessment of Lowe is more enthusiastic.
“For me personally, I think we should have a campaign for coach Lowe to run for president,” Degand said. “Coach Lowe understands the fact that we are all basketball players, and that we’re pretty talented and we understand how to play the game, so all that yelling and screaming is a little bit unnecessary.”