RALEIGH - N.C. State's Sidney Lowe said Wednesday that Wolfpack fans would be proud of their men's basketball team next season. What the coach did not say was if center J.J. Hickson would be a part of next season.

"We're moving forward, not looking back," Lowe told members of the Wake County chapter of the Wolfpack Club. "We're going to do everything we have to do to move forward and get back to those glory days."

The Pack was hugely disappointing in Lowe's second season, losing its last nine games to finish 15-16. Soon after the season ended, Hickson entered his name into the 2008 NBA Draft. He has not hired an agent and has until June 19 to make a decision on whether to remain in the draft or return to State for his sophomore year.

Lowe said he still is not sure what Hickson will do. Some NBA mock drafts have the 6-foot-9, 245-pound post player being picked low in the first round while other mock drafts have him pegged as a second-rounder.

Lowe said the team's offseason conditioning program had been intense, noting forward Brandon Costner had shed 15 pounds. He said Wolfpack fans would notice another difference in the players, as well.

"You'll be proud of their effort," he said. "That's something we'll demand of them."

More than 600 club members gathered under a large tent on the football practice field for its annual spring outing. Noting the rainy, chilly weather, football coach Tom O'Brien joked "it might be a good time to talk about that indoor facility."

O'Brien was 5-7 in his first year at NCSU but said he was pleased by the dedication and hard work the players have shown since the season ended. He noted he recently caught his assistant coaches chuckling among themselves and asked what was so funny.

"They said it's fun again," O'Brien said. "They said it's fun coaching again, the way the players were working and preparing."

O'Brien noted he gained a reputation for developing "tough, physical" teams in his 10 years at Boston College, saying Wolfpack teams soon would be the same.

"We weren't that way last year, but we will be," he said. "We may get beat on the scoreboard at times, but no one is going to beat us up."

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