NC State is asking a lot of questions related to basketball these days.
Will Farnold Degand be ready for practice in October? (Link)
Will Ryan Harrow continue his ascent up the recruiting rankings and have the ability to immediately impact NC State’s program? (Link)
Who is it that will be fired from NC State’s basketball program around August 1st? (Link)
…and, today Rivals.com is asking Can NC State’s Costner find his game again?
“I never really felt that I got into that good of a rhythm,” said Costner, who signed with previous N.C. State coach Herb Sendek. “Because I was taking a significantly less number of shots, I really needed to be almost perfect to match what I did two years ago. That’s nearly impossible.”
The N.C. State staff doesn’t blame Costner’s struggles on less shots or less playing time, instead pointing to a knee injury he suffered at tryouts for the U.S. Pan-American team in July.
“When he came back at the end of the summer we shut him down,” N.C. State assistant coach Larry Harris said. “He picked up some weight and was obviously out of shape and never really came around. I believe that had everything to do with it.”
Costner doesn’t believe the injury was a factor. Perhaps it was a combination of the extra weight and the shift in roles. What we do know is that the talented swingman was worn down by media scrutiny and constant questions about what went wrong.
“I’m pretty sick of hearing about it,” Costner said. “It gets old fast. I’m trying to move on from last year.”
