It’s fun to discuss being an alpha male in NC State circles and refer to them as “Alpha Wolfs.”
Guard Julius Hodge of Bronx (N.Y.) St. Raymond’s, power forward Levi Watkins of Rockville (Md.) Montrose Christian, power forward Josh Powell of Riverdale (Ga.) High, center Jordan Collins of Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic and forward Ilian Evtimov of Kernersville (N.C.) Bishop McGuinness Catholic were each alpha wolf’s in their own ways, which proved to be the difference in turning the program around.
The players each talked about the competition within the team in this oral history to The Wolfpack Central.
Forty years of NC State basketball recruiting: 1980-85 | 1986-90 | 1991-95 | 1996-00 | 2001-2005 | 2006-2010 | 2011-2015 | 2016-2020
What was it like having five players who each thought they were the best player?
Powell: “We came from our respective places and we were the man from where we were at. Julius was obviously an McDonald’s All-American. We had four of us in the top 100. That was one of the things that made us that good [the competition]. I think too if we had channeled it a little differently, we could have been even better than we were. We had a lot of times where things got personal. I only stayed for two years and Levi got hurt and Ilian got hurt, so there was a lot going on. I think looking back, we were appreciative of that moment and that time to help us grow and mature into the men we are today.”
Collins: “We all thought we were good, but we didn’t know how it would be put together. We all thought we were really, really good. All of us thought we were good enough to start and play as freshman, or at least get major minutes. That was very important to us. We’d be like ‘you aren’t going to the gym today?’ They’d be like, ‘Nah, I already got my 1,000 shots. I already did my running today.’ You couldn’t fall behind. Julius was really big on that. He’d be like, ‘You didn’t shoot today? I already got my shots in, man.’ Just the little stuff where he’d egg you on to get you going. We were always in the gym, one way or another. We’d be playing one-on-one with each other, just shooting and working out. We were always in the gym.”
Watkins: “We all thought we were the best player in the country. I knew I could play the three and the four. I knew Josh could play and he thought he was a three or four at the time. Jordan knew he was a center and Julius could play all types of positions. I felt I was the best player in the class. Julius thought he was. Jordan thought he was and Josh did too, and even Ilian as well.
“We all graduated and got to summer school pretty soon. We were so competitive. Our seniors were Archie Miller and Anthony Grundy, small guys, and we were all big guys. We came in like we are going to turn this around. We knew they were 13-16 the previous year, and we knew we weren’t going 13-16.
“Julius would just walk in and be like, ‘I’m the king.’ I was the best player in the DMV, and while New York was loaded at that time, but the DMV has a lot more players than New York. They just got more hype.
“Josh had a lot of pride and he became the man in the weight room right away. He was always athletic and long. That first summer, he just put on a lot of muscle. He just got so much better quick.
“Ilian was very smart, could really shoot and pass. He was and unbelievable passer. He would watch me workout and I would watch him workout. I always had him in my rear view because we kind of played the same position.
“Marcus Melvin was playing behind all those guys as a freshman and he was the guy, who was like ‘This is my moment too.’ All those seniors were gone and he wanted to be the guy too.
“We all wanted to go against each other. That is how I knew right then this was going to be something.”
Hodge: “We were all very young strong-minded individuals. We just knew we would win. We never went freshman vs. the seniors [or veterans]. That was never important to us, to try and show up guys and prove we were better. We all felt like we were really good. We were coming in to win and work hard. That is how we are going to do it.
“If I came in and shot earlier that day, and shot 400 shots. We had to report how many shots you took. They wanted you to be truthful, but a lot of guys wouldn’t be because if they said a number too low, another guy would go to the court and try and beat your number.
“I would go and tell Ilian that I got 400 shots. I’d say, ‘I got my work in for today and I’m up.’ Then he’d go and get 450 shots. He’d come back and tell the guys. Then Levi would go to the gym and shoot like 600 shots. Levi would try and out-do us. Jordan would go to the gym and try and shoot 550 just so he could say he was better than you guys.
“Then I would go back at about 11 p.m. at night and shoot an additional 300 shots just so I could win the day. We would play this game with each other. This was during our entire time at NC State. It started literally that summer. It was, ‘How many have you shot today? Oh, you haven’t worked out, then you aren’t trying to get better. We would joke that and embarrass him into going into that gym. It could have been a guy who worked out six days in a row and was tired and wanted to chill with his girlfriend. It was ‘No, nothing comes before what we are doing.’ We always had that mindset.
“Ilian was like that. Levi was like that. If Levi spoke up on something, and even if I was fired up, Levi would be like, “Nah Jules, we got to do this.’ I would go with it. It didn’t matter what it was. We always had that respect and we wanted to get better.”
Evtimov: “You have no idea how much trash talking there was. It was just crazy. People were just ready to fight every single day in pickup. People would score baskets and talk crap to the other player, and it would go back and forth. It was great and I miss those days. It isn’t like that anymore and I play pickup all the time, even today. It isn’t like that anymore. People are too cool for school. We were out there and everybody would step on the other guy to make sure they want to play.
“Julius always used to instigate and get people against each other. He’d be like, ‘Are you going to let him talk to you like that? You going to let him score on you like that?’
“You look at my story and the fact I was 15 and went to a high school [Saint Mary’s in Manhasset, N.Y.] in the United States and left my family behind. I went to a country where I didn’t speak the language and I didn’t have any friends. I went to New York and was the youngest player on the team, and they constantly made fun of me because I was a sophomore and not very strong at the time at 185 pounds. It was tough for me physically, and I was doing homework for three hours every night. I didn’t necessarily like where I was. I never questioned if I should go back. It was always forward. That was the road that I chose and that was the way. It was the only way it could happen.
“I endured a very difficult season there in New York. I would play with an AAU team called Brooklyn USA, and would be the lone white kid, not just on the team but the whole tournament when we played in the city. Coach [Tim] Cluess was the coach there [at Saint Mary’s], the former coach at Iona.
“My junior year, I left New York. I was visiting my brother for his birthday that May and he was at UNC. His ex-wife’s family [in North Carolina] said if you really like it, you can come here if this is a better place for you and you are happy. They said they could help me find a high school, and I found a high school. Everything was great and I decided to move and be closer to my brother.
“The moment I decided to do that, a couple of weeks later, he decided to turn pro and remain in Europe. I ended up living with his family, but the idea of being close to him was gone. However, it was a totally different atmosphere between North Carolina and New York. People were nicer. Life was not as fast. I really didn’t have anything else to do but play basketball. I now spoke the language. I liked where I was and everything changed.
“One thing that I will never forget is that when I signed with NC State, I played pickup in the city of Winston-Salem. One guy asked me ‘What is up, man? Where are you going to college this upcoming year?’ I said ‘State.’ He said, ‘Winston-Salem State?’ I said, ‘No, NC State.’ I remember that and I will never forget it. I told myself and my friend with me, ‘Next year, I am going to start at NC State.’ My friend said, ‘Yeah man, I believe you.’ I said, ‘No, I know you don’t believe me, but I will. From now on, we shoot 500 shots every day.’ We started off for months shooting 500 shots every day. I didn’t care who would be out there or who was my competition or if they were coming from New York, Maryland or Baltimore. I knew that somehow and someway, I’d make my way to the starting five.
“I remember Julius would go hard at Jackie Manuel [of UNC in a pickup game there], and Jawad [Williams] was going hard at me, but he didn’t know who I was. I was just a white kid, but I was holding my own and killing Jawad as well. We killed them that day when we went. Julius was like, ‘Yeah, Shoush, tell him who you are, Shoush.’ Jawad would score and was like, ‘I’m a darn American and you know who I am?’ Jawad was really good and underrated at UNC. He never got the credit for everything he did. They wouldn’t have won the championship without him. We played against each other many, many times in France. He was with Sean May before he went into coaching [at UNC].
“I didn’t get the visibility that some other players did, but every time I got to play Shavlik Randolph [of Raleigh Broughton High and Duke], I was out for blood. Every single time I played Shavlik, I made sure I obliterated him or dominated him. I still remember to that day that game I played [at Bob Gibbons], when it was him, Michael Thompson and Eric Williams, and the next day in the paper it was ‘Evtimov stole the show.’ I had like 22 [points] and 10 [rebounds] or 25 and 10.”
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