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team, did a really nice job once he got going." Watching those moments like the Ten- nessee game from a distance was Lacey. As Turner did the year before, Lacey had to sit out per NCAA transfer rules, and thus he did not travel with the team on the road except for local games such as UNC, Duke and Wake Forest. "It was terrible," Lacey said. "The fun part about it was when we played home games and we did scouting reports. I could kind of help guys for the game because I was the opposing team's best player. I could be like a coach on the bench, too, but other than that it was no fun at all." It added another related experience for the two Alabama natives who transferred to NC State from football-crazed SEC schools. Thus Turner was there for Lacey. "There was only one time I told him, 'I feel your pain,'" Turner noted. "It was kind of late in the season. At that point, it had been a while and kind of worn on him a little bit. He was good about the whole situation, so I never really had to help him too much." Like Turner, Lacey is being counted on to contribute heavily in his first season for the Pack. He averaged 11.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists as a sophomore for the Tide, and he made 62 three-pointers while shooting 37.3 percent from long range, giving the Pack a much-needed second long-range threat. "He knows how to play," Gottfried said. "He's very unselfish. I think he enjoys pass- ing as much as scoring. The ball seems to move so well when he's involved in the play offensively. He's always finding the next guy to pass the ball to. I think he can score when he needs to score. "I really like that he's one of those 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