Originally Posted by
Olympic Fan
When State had Atsur, healthy and playing well, they were an upper echelon ACC team. When he was out -- as he was much of the season -- they were near the bottom of the ACC pack.
I completely agree that Atsur's injury was devastating for last year's team, but they weren't exactly upper-echelon with him in the lineup. State went 20-16,5-11 (8-12 if you count the ACCT) last year. With Atsur out of the lineup (counting the Michigan game, where he played only 6 minutes before getting hurt), State was 7-6,1-3. So with Atsur, they were 13-10,4-8 (7-9 counting the ACCT). They had a fantastic run at the end of the season, and were playing some very good offensive basketball. Had Atsur been fully healthy all year, maybe they would have been an NCAA team. But to say they were upper-echelon with him in the lineup is a bit of an overstatement.
Everything else in your post I agree with. They should be improved inside (certainly the most versatile set of post players in the league) and on the wings, and their key will be getting steady point guard play. If their freshmen can do for them what Hayes/Vasquez did for Maryland, NCSU has a chance to be top 3-4 in the ACC.
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