Ralston Turner was at every practice last season. He was in every huddle at every game. He probably would’ve played, too, but he was forced to watch the Wolfpack from the bench to comply with NCAA rules regarding transfer-student athletes.
Turner transferred to N.C. State from Louisiana State University after the 2011-2012 season. The Muscle Shoals, Ala., native has two years of eligibility remaining.
“Ralston is a guy who’s a team player, first and foremost,” Turner said. “I think my role will be just basically do whatever [the coaches] want me to do to win.”
After playing two seasons at LSU, Turner decided to pursue his educational and athletic careers elsewhere. After averaging 12.3 and 9.1 points per game in his freshman and sophomore years, there were plenty of suitors to court him. One of the coaches hoping to bring Turner to his program was N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried.
“I was looking for a change and obviously Coach Gottfried was here,” Turner said. “When I was in high school, he recruited me when he was at Alabama. One of the major factors was I had already had a relationship with him, so when I came here on my visit, I felt comfortable with it. So I decided to just run with it.”
Turner’s decision made a certain Wolfpack men’s head basketball coach very happy. But what has made Gottfried even happier is what Turner has done since he arrived on campus last summer.
“You’d have a hard time on our campus right now finding anybody that would even remotely breathe a negative word about him–from our academic people, to strength coaches, to teachers,” Gottfried said. “He’s a wonderful guy that I think took advantage of a redshirt year as good as you can. He couldn’t have maximized a year off any more.”
“Anything that doesn’t involve shooting, I probably worked on it,” Turner said, laughing. “Obviously I still worked on my shot, but I just tried to do some other things and try to expand in some areas.”
Although it is too early for coaches to determine how many minutes each player will get, Turner has been rumored as a potential starter on the wing for the Wolfpack. Although Turner is solid on both offense and defense, what excites his coaches the most are his intangibles.
“He brings an element of character to our team that we’re all excited about,” Gottfried said. “’Yes sir,’ ‘No sir,’ everything he does. He wants our team to win. He’s a terrific young guy, so even as a coach, you pull for guys like that. You want them to do well, which I think he can.”
One hole Turner may help fill in State’s offense will be long-range shooting. Turner made 34.6 percent of his three-point shots while in Baton Rouge, and according to his coaches his shot has improved since his days in an LSU uniform. The take-home (both words work together as a single unit to modify “message,” so the compound modifier needs to be joined with the hyphen) message: while Turner may not be as automatic as Scott Wood, he’s certainly a threat from deep.
But Ralston doesn’t care about who scores how many points or what player gets the most love in the media. He knows his role, and he’s more than willing to play his part to help the team.
“I just hope we win,” Turner said. “That’s really all I care about. I’m not focused on individual stuff or this or that—I just want to win. If you win, it’ll take care of everything else.”
What Turner can provide is perhaps what N.C. State missed the most last season. Former Wolfpack forward C.J. Williams played the “glue guy” role to perfection in the 2011-2012 season, contributing to his team wherever it was needed the most. But Williams graduated following that season, leaving the Wolfpack without not only one of its most important players but also its leader.
The State coaching staff expects Turner, along with sophomore guard Tyler Lewis, sophomore forward T.J. Warren and senior center Jordan Vandenberg, to provide the 2013-2014 Wolfpack with the leadership it so desperately needed last season.
Turner’s most important contribution to the team this year may not be seen in a box score. Leadership can’t be quantified, or its impact underestimated.
