TAMPA, Fla. – Superstitions are alive in the N.C. State locker room.
In his fourth game in the red jacket, coach Sidney Lowe pulled off his third win – this time in a quarterfinal match against No. 24 Virginia, 79-71 in the St. Pete Times Forum on Friday night.
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“It’s a magical jacket – there might be some magic hidden in there somewhere. He needs to keep that on,” sophomore forward Ben McCauley said. “We should keep the hospital visits to a minimum and keep the wins going on.”
His only loss in the coat was during the Wolfpack’s loss to North Carolina on Feb. 21 when dehydration forced Lowe to the hospital.
Freshman forward Dennis Horner, who only played five minutes, said the jacket is starting to set a tone for the team.
“Every time he walks out, teams are going to fear that red jacket,” Horner said. “Every time he wears it, we win. Every big game he’s going to start wearing that jacket.”
As the team did in the first game of the tournament, it trailed going into halftime. Its deficit against Duke was five points. This time it was 14.
During halftime, McCauley said Lowe did a lot of “loud talking” in the locker room – something that pumped the team up during the break.
“He was very loud,” McCauley said while laughing. “He said, ‘This isn’t the way you’re supposed to play, this is your last game – this should be your mindset, that this is your last game – and right now you’re not playing like it,’ he lit a fire underneath us.”
After shooting less than 35 percent in the first half, the Pack came out and shot nearly 75 percent in the second half. It made 13-of-15 free throws and hit 6-of-9 from behind the arc. And it outscored the Cavaliers 53-31 after the break.
Lowe said the adjustments came from both sides of the floor.
“We made a few adjustments defensively, and more important I guess offensively,” Lowe said. “We had several guys who just picked it up and played well for us.”
Junior forward Gavin Grant scored 16 second-half points while sophomore forward Brandon Costner totaled 14. But according to Lowe, one of the biggest contributors was senior guard Bryan Nieman, who scored six points on two three-point shots.
While Lowe said his team made plenty of second-half changes, Virginia coach Dave Leitao said it was his team’s lack of defense that lead to the loss.
“They continued to shoot the ball well, but the reason they shot the ball well was because we stopped defending,” he said. “We stopped doing the things we had been doing in the first half.”
As for what’s next for the Pack, it comes down to the winner from the Wake Forest and Virginia Tech game. And the jacket is supposed to be coming back for the team’s semifinal game. For Costner, as long as the team wins, he doesn’t care what the first-year coach does.
“[The jacket] is bright, I know that,” Costner said. “I’m not sure if I like it, but we keep winning – so I’ll let him wear it as long as he has to.”
