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Coming off of a disappointing 2008-2009 season in which the team finished 16-14 (6-10 in ACC), the men’s basketball team is looking to rebound in this year. And one major key for the team’s success this year will be the play of junior forward Tracy Smith.
“He is going to be good for us,” junior point guard Javier Gonzalez said. “We will need him to score consistently every single game for us to be successful.”
Smith, who is coming off of his most productive season last year, in which he averaged 10 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. However, Smith showed his ability to be big time player at the end of the season, starting 12 out of the final 13 games and putting up back to back double-doubles against ACC opponents Wake Forest and Georgia Tech.
Numbers aside, Smith says he is focused on doing whatever he can this year to get this team back on track and bring back the Pack basketball tradition.
“I just want to win,” Smith said. “I want to get coach Lowe what he wants and I want to turn this organization around and back into a winning program.”
Smith will have a lot more added pressure this year to score with the loss of three of the team’s top scorers in Brendan Costner, Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells to graduation.
“We need him to score the basketball especially after losing a lot of our scorers from last year graduating,” Gonzalez said. “We just have to get him the ball whenever he is in the position to score.”
Aware of the increasing pressures coming from his need to score this season, Smith went into the offseason focusing on all aspects of the game but especially his offensive play. Smith worked on his jump shot and face up ability to try and make himself more multidimensional.
“Defense, rebounding, but mainly I have been working on my face of at the basket, my 15-footer and my speed,” Smith said. “Everything is coming along pretty well my 15-foot shots are becoming more consistent and my face up ability is improving.”
Becoming the main offensive threat has its down side. With a lot of the offensive plays being centered around getting him the ball, opposing teams will place a target squarely on his back. But Smith relishes the opportunity and understand his job when the double and triple teams come.
“I just have to play smart against the traps,” Smith said. “Double team me, triple team me, its ok. I just have to make the smart decision and pass the ball out to the open man.”
Playing at the level Smith is capable of playing at did not happen overnight. Since leaving high school, Smith has focused on dropping weight and getting to a point in which he can perform at the highest level. Coach Sidney Lowe explains Smith’s dramatic loss in weight to his determination to get into shape and his want to succeed at the college level.
“He has lost a lot of weight since high school and it is defiantly a credit to him for losing the weight and keeping it down,” Lowe said. “He knew he was a good basketball player and he knew he couldn’t do it at that weight. You’re happy for a guy like that. The fact that he wanted it that bad and lost all that weight and now he has put himself in a situation in which he is playing in arguably the best basketball conference and is playing against great players and doing well at it.”
With the team looking to run a more fast-paced game, with the depth at point guard, Smith knew he had to get into better shape and admits he maybe in the best shape he has been in since arriving at State.
“I feel like my conditioning is very good right now,” Smith said. “I am probably in the best shape I have been in since I have been at N.C. State because coach Lowe told me where we’re going to change it up this year and be more of a running team.”