Costner taking leadership role for Pack

N.C. State forward working hard to bounce back from tough sophomore season

RALEIGH -- About three weeks before his 21st birthday in July, N.C. State forward Brandon Costner put his right biceps under the care of a tattoo artist in New Jersey near his home.

Costner had his initials, "BC," placed on his arm. He had them surrounded with words that are important to him.

"God."

"Family."

"Pride."

"Integrity."

Other elements in the new tattoo are phrases Costner likes to live by:

"Don't be afraid to be good."

"Conquer fear and mediocrity."

"Humbly embrace your destiny."

The fresh ink was a tangible, permanent affirmation of his difficulties over the past year and his hope that he has overcome them. After a disappointing sophomore season, Costner may be the most pivotal player on the 2008-09 basketball team, which plays host to Winthrop at 7 p.m. today.

Over four wonderful days during the 2007 ACC Tournament, Costner looked like one of the best players in the nation as a redshirt freshman. He averaged 22.5 points, shot 51.8 percent from the field and sparked the run to the ACC finals that has been one of the marquee moments of third-year coach Sidney Lowe's career.

That performance made Costner a first-team preseason All-ACC selection a year ago by the media covering the league, but he never lived up to those expectations. A knee injury prevented him from working out the way he wanted during the summer of 2007.

"He was hurt last year," Lowe said, "and as a result he gained some weight and continued to try to do the things he thought he was capable of doing.

"And he wasn't the same player."

Costner can live with that. He owns up to the fact that his scoring averaged dipped from 16.8 points per game the previous season to 8.5.

But the reaction of N.C. State fans to his slump still bothers him.

Hurtful rumors

Costner tried to avoid the nasty comments.

He said he's not one to seek out opinions about himself in the newspaper or on Internet message boards. But those opinions reached him anyway.

Friends would approach him on campus and ask him if he'd heard the latest rumor. Two comments in particular angered him most.

When fans called him lazy and said he didn't care about N.C. State, Costner was furious.

"Anyone that knows me knows I'm far from lazy, and I care tremendously about this institution," he said. "I'm getting my degree from here. If I didn't care about this place, I could have left two years ago. I came back and I wanted to be here and I wanted to be successful."

Costner red-shirted in his freshman season and once had a plan to graduate from N.C. State in three years. Had last season gone as he'd planned, that could have given him an opportunity to turn pro and have his degree by now.

Instead he has slowed his academic schedule with plans to earn a degree in communications in December. He doesn't know if he'll return for his senior season, but has worked hard to improve himself and his team on the court this season.

"My performance, our team's performance, is in the past, and there's nowhere to go but up," Costner said.

Impact beyond stats

During N.C. State's August trip to Toronto to play exhibition games against two Canadian teams, Costner's teammates noticed that he had changed.

The box scores bore witness to that. He totaled a team-high 49 points and 22 rebounds in two games.

But Costner made his impact felt beyond the numbers. Last season the ball went in to freshman team-scoring leader J.J. Hickson in the post and seldom came back out no matter how many defenders surrounded him.

In Toronto, point guard Farnold Degand was impressed with how Costner skillfully passed out of double teams. Off the court, Costner made sure teammates were aware of the schedule for meetings and meals and prodded them to show up on time.

"This year he's more of a vocal leader for us than he was last year," said teammate Javi Gonzalez. "Last year we had a lot of talent and he didn't feel he had to do too much, and he didn't push himself as much as this year. This year he knows he has to do a lot of stuff for us."

That's not to say Costner is doing everything right. He was 0-for-4 from the field in the second half against High Point on Saturday after leading N.C. State with 19 points and seven rebounds in the opener at New Orleans.

But Lowe mostly has praised Costner's effort since the end of last season.

The two have met several times to discuss Costner's leadership.

Costner said the team didn't really have a leader among the players last season, and he is pleased that he and Lowe seem to have the same plan for him this season.

"I felt like I needed to have certain standards in order for the guys to follow and get on board," Costner said. "I feel like that's my responsibility and my job."