Quote:Pickett Key Reason For Success
DOUG CARLSON
Tampa Tribune
Published: Feb 19, 2004

TALLAHASSEE - By definition, the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in men's basketball comes from Tobacco Road, or close by. He plays for a team that finishes first or second in the league and goes deep into the NCAA Tournament, more often than not all the way to the Final Four.
When he leaves school, he goes on to a career in the NBA.

Florida State senior Tim Pickett might not meet any of those criteria. But he might be doing more for his team's success this season than any other player in the ACC.

Not that he's alone in deserving recognition. North Carolina State junior Julius Hodge, a favorite to win the award, ranks in the top 10 in the ACC in scoring, rebounding, assists and field-goal percentage and his team is contending for the league title.

Part of Pickett's problem, when it comes to postseason honors, is that voters can't always see in the box score how valuable he is to the Seminoles. In Tuesday night's victory against Virginia, he was held to nine points, four rebounds and no assists.

"He rebounded, he defended and I told him this might have been one of his better games,'' Coach Leonard Hamilton said.

"We couldn't guard him man-to- man,'' Virginia coach Pete Gillen said.  "He's like Batman - got a cape on and just flies around.''

Pickett's energy didn't make the statistics, but it affected everything else in the box score.

"They were so worried about matching up with where he was that it leaves [Alexander Johnson] or me or somebody else wide open underneath the basket, and that's where a lot of easy baskets came from,'' FSU forward Adam Waleskowski said.

Bob Sura, in 1994, became the only FSU player named first-team All-ACC in men's basketball. Pickett should be the second.

If he could help the 'Noles pull off victories in at least two of the remaining games (at No. 16 North Carolina Saturday, at No. 15 Wake Forest Wednesday, home against No. 3 Duke on Feb. 29 and at No. 18 Georgia Tech on March 6) he ought to get serious Player of the Year consideration.

"His energy gets the crowd going, gets the team going. He has a great will to win,'' Gillen said. ``He's a little bit like Hodge in that way. I think he's a first-team All-ACC player because of what he does for their team.

"You've got to have some guy like a Pickett, who can grab a team by the neck and say, `Hey, we're going to do it.'''