No. 10 Alabama Plays At N.C. State Tonight
12/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. - The No. 10 ranked University of Alabama basketball team, 9-1, will play at N.C. State, 7-2, tonight. Tip off in the RBC Center in Raleigh is 5:30 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports Net (FSN).
“I think it’s going to be a great challenge for us to go on the road,." said Alabama coach Mark Gottfried. "I think our guys are anxious to go on the road. They want to go on the road and play a very good North Carolina State team. So we’ve got a full plate. I think they’re very, very good, and we need to play well.”
Alabama has only played one other "true" road game this season, a December 7 date at Notre Dame. Alabama lost that game 99-85. It was within the first two minutes of that game that Alabama's All-American point guard Ronald Steele turned and sprained his left ankle. Because of the injury, Steele sat out the December 9 game against Alabama State and was able to play only four minutes against Southern Miss on Saturday. Steele has practiced with the the team the past two days but his playing status will be questionable, right up to tip.
"I'd obviously like to know sooner than game time, but it's just one of those situations where you don't," said Gottfried. "We’ll see if he’s got any bounce in his step. Obviously this is a great intersectional game with North Carolina State. I know he wants to play very, very badly.”
Wednesday night's game marks the seventh time these two teams have played one another in basketball. North Carolina State tied the series last December when it defeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa 68-64. Both teams have five players who are averaging in double digits in scoring. And both teams have one of those key players in questionable playing status, Alabama with Steele and N.C. State with Engin Atsur who played in and started in five games, averaging 13.8 points but pulled his left hamstring in N.C. State's November 28 game against Michigan and hasn't played since. He, too, is day to day. Sophomore Alonzo Gee leads Alabama in scoring with his 16.4 points a game, though senior center Jermareo Davidson is a close second at 16.1 points a game. Davidson, who leads the SEC in rebounding, averages the double double as he adds 10.6 rebounds per game to go with those 16.1 points.
The game pits two men who are head coaches for the schools they played at in college, Gottfried at Alabama, and Sidney Lowe at N.C. State. Gottfried played for Alabama in 1985, 1986 and 1987, starting at guard and helping lead Alabama to NCAA Sweet 16 appearances all three of those seasons as well as the 1987 Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament championships. This is his ninth season at Alabama. Lowe is in his first season as N.C. State's head coach at the school where he played point guard in 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 and helped lead the Wolfpack to the 1983 NCAA championship. After playing in the NBA and CBA for seven years, he was coaching in the NBA before taking the N.C. State job.
"They’re not a deep team," said Gottfried of N.C. State's team that has only been playing six and seven players this season. "But the six or seven guys they have playing I think have really gelled well together. They can pass it. They can shoot it. They moved (Gavin) Grant to the point guard position. He’s a 6-6 ?? point guard and they’ll post him up some. They’ve got an interior player, an inside guy in (Brandon) Costner that steps out and makes three’s, so that poses some problems. So they’ve done a great job with their team this year.
“I won’t watch last year’s tape," said Gottfried, referring to the game between Alabama and N.C. State last year. "I always do but they have different players playing for the most part and a different system, so I don’t know that would help us a whole lot from a year ago. They’ve got some other guys who have filled in, stepped in. They’re playing very different than they did a year ago. I think they’ve done a good job. They’re limited, I think, with their depth, but I think they’ve managed it pretty well and played pretty well.”
Alabama will return home from N.C. State to host Coppin State on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are available and on sale now through the Athletic Ticket box office at Coleman Coliseum or by calling 1-800-TIDETIX. That's the first of three straight home games for Alabama. Alabama hosts Lipscomb at 7 p.m. CT on December 29 and Oklahoma at 1:30 p.m. CT on New Year's Day. Fans of collectables will want to come to that Oklahoma game early as the first 1,000 will receive a Ron Steele drawstring backpack which is in the design of Steele's 2006 "retro" Alabama jersey.
