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"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 in- jured. Not until Lacey decided to transfer him- self 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 in situations like that, and I enjoyed it." "I've known him a long time and watched him mature, and I also watched Ralston go through two difficult years at LSU where they didn't win a lot," Gottfried added. "At that time I had a number of their games working for ESPN. I felt for him, man he deserved to be a part of something more special than where he was. "Last year we played at Tennessee, we played really well and won the game and I can remember walking off the floor and Ralston put his arm around me and said, 'Coach, I'm not used to this,' going on the road and win- ning like that. It's been fun watching him develop. Last year he was really solid for our Lacey, a native of Huntsville, Ala., played 69 games over two seasons at Alabama, and aver- aged 9.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per contest. PHOTO COURTESY ALABAMA