North Carolina showed great guts in a comeback win at Florida State. It was down and could have easily lost that game and dropped to 0-3 in ACC play. And North Carolina just does not go 0-3 to start league play.
And it showed in that game against Florida State what I think is the key to this team this season, and that is P.J. Hairston.
Hairston, in high school, was an incredible scorer and when he went to Hargrave Military Academy he was an incredible scorer there, too. He has underachieved in Chapel Hill. He has not been the scorer they thought he was going to be. Well, here against Florida State he comes up with a career-high 23 points and North Carolina walks out with a win. I think with what we've seen out of North Carolina — and, certainly, this is not the North Carolina team we've seen in years past – Hairston has got to be a scorer for them to win.
What's going to be interesting is to see how it integrates Reggie Johnson back into the lineup once he returns from his broken hand.
But the point guard, Shane Larkin, my goodness what a year he is having. He's doing all his work defensively — he leads the league in steals. And what he is doing is he is really disrupting the other teams' offenses, and never was that more evident than in the game against Maryland. He was a disruptive force in that game, and, obviously, Maryland got nothing going offensively and scored just 47 points.
Look at steals in the league: Larkin and Durand Scott are Nos. 1 and 3. When you have your guards who are not letting the other team get into their offense, that's going to cause problems for opponents. And that Miami-Maryland game was a classic example.
I think Miami is a team that's really coming on and it's a team that's going to continue to get better.
Jim Larranaga has been awfully demanding of these guys, they all were forced to change the way they played. His system could not be more different from Frank Haith's system. It has not been an easy transition. And now, these players have finally bought into Larranaga's system, and he's tough on them. And I think Larranaga, as a coach, has proven with what he did by leading a mid-major George Mason program to the Final Four that he can coach.
My concern about Miami is this: The team could get worn down.
Larkin leads the league in minutes played. He plays over 36 minutes a game. And I know he's in great shape, but that's tough to do and still be ready to go when you get to March. You also can look at Scott and he's in the top five in minutes played around the ACC. So your two guards are playing great and playing hard on defense, but it's the middle of January and these two guys are playing big-time minutes. I'm not trying to be negative about it, but I do think Larranaga has to be careful because if you play that many minutes there's no way your body is not going to wear down a little bit.
First of all, we've seen this over the last couple of years: Good team beats Duke, fans storm the court, but then it's what you do after that. We saw with Florida State last year that it went on to win the ACC Championship for the first time ever after its big win. I'm just hoping that NC State realizes that this is just a step in its journey. But it is an excellent team.
Here's the reason I think the team is good: I think to win consistently, you can't rely on just one guy, and NC State has really solid players at every position. It does have a guy who can take over in C.J. Leslie — he is, I think, one of the best athletes in college basketball. He's got long arms and he has really developed his basketball skill set. But even more important: He has developed his attitude. He was so immature when he first came to NC State, he was a hothead, he'd get disgruntled very easily. Now, he has become the leader of that team. I think it's as evidenced by what he did in the game as it is in what he did after the game while being involved in that celebration, saying, "This is why I came to NC State."
Even the point where he picked up the kid who fell out of his wheelchair during the celebration, that all shows maturity. And I think that maturity has not only rubbed off on that team, but is also a big reason they are where they are.
Richard Howell is an absolute beast. You look around college basketball and you see big guys with athletic ability, but you just don't see many beasts. And I mean, this is a guy who, in the huddle, said, "Hey Coach, don't worry about the rebound, I got you." That kind of confidence, I call it a swagger. That kind of swagger leads me to believe that this could be a special year for NC State.
Now, you have to understand, that it has been longing for this for 30 years, ever since Jim Valvano's "Cardiac Pack" in 1983.
Sure, NC State has been to the NCAA Tournament and has won some decent games, but it hasn't had a team with this kind of expectations in a long time. It is within 30 miles of Chapel Hill (UNC) and Durham (Duke), and for years the basketball world has centered around Tobacco Road. And NC State hasn't even been in the conversation.
Well, now it is in the conversation.
