N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe held his summer news conference Tuesday, and much of the attention, as expected, focused on the incoming freshmen. There’s no doubt point guard Ryan Harrow, guard Lorenzo Brown and forward C.J. Leslie give State an infusion of talent.

But the real difference in the Wolfpack’s season could be that, for the first time under Lowe, State has competition for playing time. Remember that State’s sophomore class is quite good, and college basketball players generally experience their greatest improvement from their freshmen to sophomore years.

State’s problem in recent years has been a lack of legitimate ACC players on the roster. That’s not the case now. Scott Wood started all 16 ACC games and averaged 28.9 minutes and 8.4 points.

With added strength, as detailed by A.J. Carr on GoPack.com, he should become even better. Look at it like this – wouldn’t State fans be thrilled if Brown averaged 28 minutes and 8 points in ACC play?

Sophomore Richard Howell missed the entire preseason and first four games with knee surgery but showed the potential to be a real beast inside by season’s end. He averaged 14.2 minutes and 5.3 points in ACC games.

Lowe, WRAL.com reports, said that Tracy Smith will play power forward and sophomore DeShawn Painter will compete for time at center. And you have to expect 7-1 sophomore Jordan Vandenberg to be improved and push for minutes as well. So remember, this is a sophomore class that helped turn around the malaise State had suffered in previous seasons and helped bring a tougher spirit back to Wolfpack basketball.

Lowe will have to balance out the playing time and build camaraderie, but overall, competition in practice makes for a much better team. Lowe finally will have that. The freshmen have a level of athleticism that surpasses the sophomore class, but the bottom line is Lowe has quality and quantity on the roster for the first time.

Speaking of Duke and North Carolina (see post below), CBS Sports announced Tuesday that the Duke at UNC men’s basketball game will be broadcast in prime time on Saturday, March 5, at 8 p.m.

Believe it or not, this is the first prime-time airing of the game on network television. The game will air locally on WRAL.

The complete ACC basketball schedule is expected to be released in August.

Duke basketball schedules are always carefully thought out, and you can bet the 11th through the 13th games of the 2010-11 season will be interesting when schedules are out in August as Mike Krzyzewski pursues Dean Smith’s victory total.
 
Krzyzewski, who held his summer media conference on Monday, now has 868 wins in his career. That’s only 11 short of Smith’s 879 victories, and you can bet Duke will want to be playing in Cameron Indoor Stadium when Krzyzewski ties and breaks that mark.

Last year, Duke’s 11th game came on Dec. 29 against Long Beach State and its 12th on Dec. 31 against Pennsylvania. Both were held in Cameron. The ACC opener, on Jan. 3, also was at home.

ACC teams tend to play at home over the holidays, often against weak teams, so they can get back into the groove after exams and prepare for league play. Look for the Blue Devils to hold a host of home games in that stretch as Krzyzewski closes in on major career milestones.

Krzyzewski probably will catch his former coach, Bob Knight, next season. Knight has 902 wins, followed by Smith at 879 and Adolph Rupp at 876.

By the way, the most interesting part of the news conference came when Krzyzewski , according to the AP, said, “I’m a basketball coach all the time. That’s what I do. I don’t play golf. I chase my dog, or he chases me, and I whack down some trees and bushes and play with my grandkids and drink a little bit of wine. I like to socialize, but I’m a basketball coach every day of my life.”

You can watch the entire news conference on GoDuke.com.

The spectacular start to Randy Woodson’s tenure as chancellor continued Friday when the Wolfpack named Debbie Yow its new athletics director.

Yow, who had been at Maryland, credited Woodson with convincing her to come. And in landing Yow, State lands an experienced athletics director who succeeded at a similar school and brings a legendary name – Yow – back to the West Raleigh campus.

The move, which was kept out of the public eye until Thursday night, gives a fresh jolt of energy to the Wolfpack and continues Woodson’s impressive run.

State needed a change at athletics director, with Wolfpack fans unhappy, and rightfully so, with the overall success of the program under Lee Fowler. The ground was laid for Fowler to leave before Woodson arrived, but Woodson made four critical, and important, moves:

First, he articulated why State needed to move in a new direction, and in particular because the school’s athletes needed to graduate at a higher level. In reading his comments and watching his delivery, you couldn’t help but feel Woodson appeared quite confident in his new role.

Second, he put together a smart committee that was chaired by Smedes York, the former Raleigh mayor who is highly respected in town. That committee included athletics department personnel and showed that Woodson was quick to grasp the lay of the land here.

Third, he kept the search confidential, which is no small success in the Twitter era.

And fourth, he landed an AD who knows the job and has succeeded in it. Maryland athletes also graduated at a higher rate than those at N.C. State. According to the NCAA, incoming freshmen in 2002-03 graduated at a 66 percent rate at Maryland and a 51 percent rate at NCSU.

Yow was clear about her goals on Friday. She said she wants to meet with Wolfpack coaches and find out what they need to be successful. She praised State fans for their support, which is especially impressive in football. And she said she had already met with the football staff and said of Tom O’Brien, “I did say to Tom, You’re my man.’

“I want and need him to be successful,” she said.

The only real disappointment in the announcement of Yow as that the popular head of the Wolfpack Club, Bobby Purcell, was passed over for the position. Purcell would have been a great choice, and has the personality and temperament to succeed in the job.

But in Yow, Woodson found his own person, and an experienced administrator with a strong tie to the school. It’s yet another impressive move by the new chancellor, who has set a goal of tripling the endowment to $1 billion – and needs the fan base energized to do that.