The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/406183
NOVEMBER 2014 ■ 33 WOLFPACK BASKETBALL PREVIEW play for me one day," Gottfried recollected. That was in the fall of 2007. Turner was a sophomore at Muscle Shoals (Ala.) High at the time. Seven years later, the two one-time AAU teammates will be reunited and playing for Gottfried at NC State. Rivals And Teammates Muscle Shoals High and Butler High are separated by about an hour drive on U.S. Highway 72 in northern Alabama. Lacey and Turner first met when they were around 10 years old while playing for competing local AAU teams. They later joined forces for the Alabama Challenge program. "We were pretty much the only two guys that actually knew each other," Lacey said. "We got close then." Only once did their paths cross in high school, and Lacey was hurt for that game. There was not a strong enough pull, though, to play together in college. In fact, they ended up at SEC rivals. Turner ma- triculated to LSU — spurning Notre Dame, Georgia and Butler — in 2010. Lacey, who developed into a ballyhooed, five-star recruit according to Rivals.com, signed with home- state Alabama a year later despite taking official visits to Kansas and Kentucky. Twice Lacey and Turner played against each other in the 2011 season. The first time they met was at Alabama, and both Lacey and Turner started. Neither had strong of- fensive games, with Turner going just 1 of 7 from the field for two points while Lacey scored six points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help the Tide win 69-53. Both were also quiet offensively when the two met again in Baton Rouge, with Lacey scoring three points on 1-of-4 shooting and Turner dropping in two after making 1 of 5 shots. LSU won 67-58. SEC loyalties remain, especially when the SEC West rivals meet in football. "We always are on separate sides, without a doubt," Turner acknowledged. It is somewhat ironic that both Lacey and Turner ended up at football schools origi- nally. Lacey half-joked that he figured there were about 10 guys in the state of Alabama that were serious about basketball when he and Turner were going through high school. "The rest wanted to play football," Lacey said. It's a phenomenon that hit home with Turner when he transferred to NCSU after the 2011-12 season at LSU. "It's definitely different," Turner said. "Probably my first year here I went to a high school game and I realized the atmosphere around it, and it was different. That being said, that was one of the reasons I came here — how popular basketball was." Lacey did not know Turner had left LSU when Alabama played the Tigers a year later. "It wasn't in the media as far as where we were from," he clarified. Instead, Lacey just figured Turner was injured. Not until Lacey decided to transfer himself and took a visit to NC State did he learn what had happened to Turner. "It was very shocking," Lacey said. "Coach Gottfried didn't tell me until my visit. He was like, 'You are going to like your host.'" Soon, Lacey would commit to join Turner at NC State. "I think it was kind of a coincidence," Turner said. "When he was about to come here, I didn't try to put pressure on him. I wanted him to try to make his own decision. "With that being said, I did tell him we have been down this road before and it would be really nice if we would reunite again." Key Roles Turner was NC State's second-leading scorer last season, averaging 10.5 points per contest. He made 77 of the team's 160 three- pointers, shooting 37.2 percent from long range. Turner played some of his best bas- ketball in ACC play, when he averaged 11.2 points per game. "I've always had confidence," Turner said. "Last year also helped me a lot. A lot of the questions I used to get was coming from the SEC to the ACC, it's a different stage — and it was — but that's why I came here to give myself the opportunity to play Turner — who hails from Muscle Shoals, Ala., and played two seasons at LSU — averaged 10.5 points per game and knocked down nearly half of NC State's three-pointers (77 of 160) last year. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN