DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997               TAG: 9703080606

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C.                  LENGTH:   74 lines

HOT-SHOOTING HARRISON ISN'T READY TO 'PACK IT IN

Everybody calls Clint Harrison ``C.C.,'' which doesn't stand for ``cool'' and ``confident,'' but it could.

Pick any college basketball player in the land. Evaluate his last seven games. Finding somebody who's doing it better than North Carolina State's sharp-shooting guard might take you longer than you think.

``He's playing as well as anybody in the country right now,'' Duke's Jeff Capel said Friday after the wonderfully plucky Wolfpack, seeded No. 8, toppled the top-seeded Blue Devils 66-60 in an ACC tournament quarterfinal.

``You can just see it in his step and his eyes. He's in a groove right now, he's in an incredible groove, and we couldn't do anything with him today. Nobody. He's a very good player, and he's great in their system.''

The system? The same North Carolina State system that powered the Wolfpack to all of four regular-season conference victories in 16 tries? None other, only now coach Herb Sendek's machine is humming thanks to kids who don't know how to quit and Harrison, a 6-foot-4 junior who apparently has forgotten how to miss.

The specifics: N.C. State has won six of its last seven games, not good enough to avoid Thursday's play-in game against Georgia Tech, but enough to tell the rest of the ACC that it's a bottom-feeder no more.

Harrison has done the most to drive home that point. In those seven games, Harrison, a second-team all-ACC pick, has averaged 21 points on 53 percent shooting, including 54 percent from 3-point range.

He scored N.C. State's first five points, which didn't seem to matter much when Duke blew out to a 21-5 lead in the first 10 minutes. But then it was as if the seventh-ranked Blue Devils lost interest, which allowed the Wolfpack to regroup and trail by just six at the half.

When the N.C. State deficit reached 14 early in the second half, Harrison, who averages 15 a game, scored nine of the next 22 points that put the Wolfpack on top for good with six minutes left.

Even though the Wolfpack had knocked off Clemson when the Tigers were ranked seventh in the country, and also dumped then No. 2 Wake Forest - on Harrison's controversial 3-point buzzer-beater in overtime, remember - the thought remained, at least among some Blue Devils, that the 'Pack would wilt.

Not so fast.

``We thought they maybe would fold and give it up to us, but in the ACC tournament, nothing is given,'' said Duke's Ricky Price, one of the Blue Devils who failed to contain Harrison. ``They weren't going to give up tonight.''

It was stunning, really, as much for N.C. State's chutzpah as Duke's vulnerability. The Blue Devils know the loss blew their No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament, but that's the least of their problems. They return to Durham with much bigger problems, infected with no less than a crisis of faith that they're not sure they can solve.

``This game right here's been coming for about three weeks, the way we've been playing,'' Capel said. ``The sad fact is we played better tonight, we played hard, but we ran into a team that's extremely confident. We didn't give them anything, they beat us.''

Duke had lost two of three entering the game, though losing to UCLA and North Carolina on the road isn't usually reason to dial 911. But after Friday, the Blue Devils sense they've morphed into a different club, and they're not fond of the reflection.

``If we can get our faces back to where they used to be, we can go into the NCAA tournament and really do something,'' Price said. ``We're just not the same Duke team. We're still good, but the fire's definitely not there.''

Capel called the Blue Devils lucky they have a game next week, ``at least one more, so hopefully we can find out what's missing. I can't tell you right now.''

In the opposite locker room, the one with the markedly lighter atmosphere, Harrison was puzzled when told that the Blue Devils admired the Wolfpack's self-assurance.

``Yeah, we have confidence, but I think that they should have confidence, too, being a top-10 team in the country,'' Harrison said. ``Why wouldn't you have confidence?''

Easy for him to say.

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