Cavalier Corner Digital

for three years. Gottfried also coached the Crimson Tide from 1998-2009. It was during Gottfried's coaching tenure at Alabama that he first began to develop sepa- rate relationships with both Turner and Lacey. Gottfried can recall eating with Turner's par- ents at a Golden Corral, while his oldest son Brandon and Turner were teammates on the same AAU squad. Gottfried can also remember walking into Butler High in Huntsville, Ala., when Lacey was just a freshman there. "I shook his hand as a ninth-grader and told him he was going to 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 matriculated to LSU — spurning Notre Dame, Georgia and Butler — in 2010. Lacey, who developed into a bal- lyhooed, 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 offensive 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 originally. 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. "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." ■ Turner on Lacey

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