RALEIGH, NC --- It isn't just the alley-oops or flushes in the open court. It isn't the 6-point spurts, the long bombs off the fingertips of Scott Wood, or the grit N.C. State shows when pushed in the paint.
All of those reasons and more are why the Wolfpack is ready for ACC play to begin. NCSU still must host Western Michigan and UNC-Greensboro before diving into an 18-game ACC slate that begins with a trip to Boston College, but if the last few games are any indication, this club is more than ready.
"I'll tell you I am," said junior forward C.J. Leslie. "I'm ready for the ACC. I think we are."
N.C. State clobbered a solid St Bonaventure team 92-73 on Saturday at PNC Arena even though its best player and leader thus far this season, senior forward Richard Howell, failed to score and fouled out in just 12 minutes of action. Anyone wondering what the Sidney Lowe era was like for Howell, they saw it on this day.
So all the erratic Leslie did was step up and deliver perhaps the best performance of his career: 33 points; 8 rebounds; 3 blocked shots and a steal. More so, Leslie flowed with his teammates and defended. He even passed the ball a few times when shooting was the better option. If there has ever been a time Leslie was too unselfish, perhaps it was on this day.
But that's a good thing because it shows he was dialed in and thinking about the other four NCSU players on the floor. And when the 6-foot-9 Leslie plays hard and gives the team his mouth-watering array of skills, the Wolfpack (9-2) can beat anyone in the nation anywhere.
Howell and his lunch-pail approach has been huge for the 25th-ranked Pack, but Leslie is the ACC preseason Player of the Year for a reason. He's the guy NBA scouts are most fixated on when they watch N.C. State play.
And against the Bonnies, the Leslie that can make gobs of cash at the next level was at his best.
"It was one of the better feelings," he said about how he flowed on the court. "It's kind of a game where I started gaining confidence and bunkered down a little bit, so it's one of those games to say I'm focused."
To be ready for the ACC ready, though, it must be about more than one player with star potential because, after all, Leslie doesn't tap that potential very often. But even when he's average, N.C. State is still an ACC contender because point guard Lorenzo Brown improves with each game, most notably he's making his teammates better more.
Brown handed out 11 assists against two turnovers Saturday. Senior wing Scott Wood used his 6-6 length and marksmanship to drain 5 of 7 3-pointers and finished with 23 points a few days after hitting as many treys and totaling 17 points in a win over Stanford.
Freshman guard Rodney Purvis continues to jell and freshman forward T.J. Warren is the best rookie in the ACC and may have the longest NBA career of anyone on the team.
"They've got pros… That's why they were picked to win the ACC," St, Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said.
He's right, and they are also a college team coming together. State assisted on two-thirds of its made field goals, but it seemed like an even higher percentage. The Pack's recognition of each other was outstanding.
"Yeah, it's interesting, we shoot 57 percent and we're sitting over there as a staff still frustrated at times because we're not running our offense as well as we can, but we get 32 baskets with 21 assists; pretty good day," second-year NCSU coach Mark Gottfried said. "We're doing a lot of things well."
And this wasn't against a meek and meager opponent. The Bonnies were an NCAA Tournament team a year ago and lost to the Wolfpack by two points in New York. They are physical kids, mostly from the northeast, and they came to make the Wolfpack work and defend, which makes NCSU's performance more impressive.
The Pack has pulled away from each of its last four victims, none of which are slouches. Cleveland State was eliminated by Stanford in the NIT last season – the Cardinal won it all. Norfolk State beat Missouri in the NCAA Tournament past spring.
"We're getting better, and I think that's the main thing," Wood said. "You don't really want to peak at the beginning of the Year. There are some things we can do better, so we're going to continue to work on it."
And N.C. State will continue to get better, which should shake the boots of the rest of the ACC.
