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Sidney Lowe made his reputation as the starting point guard on N.C. State's surprise national championship squad more than a quarter-century ago. Yet as he enters his fourth year as the Wolfpack's coach, Lowe is still trying to find a guy to play his old position.

The Wolfpack enters preseason practice with the same point guards -- Javi Gonzalez, Farnold Degand and Julius Mays -- who spent last season in a revolving-door rotation that has yet to gain traction in the ACC.

Lowe, at the team's preseason media day Friday, said he's confident the trio will get the job done. He said one -- he wouldn't say who -- has an early lead in the race to become the starter, but that it's too early to know for sure.

"I think the main thing (we need) is some direction," Lowe said. "Direction and don't turn it over. I don't look for our point guards to try to lead us in scoring. Can that happen? Absolutely because there's going to be shots available for them. And we'd like for them to be able to knock them down, which I think they can. But it's more the control, having control of the game and having control of the team and the players out there on the floor."

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina lost a lot of talent from the team that won last season's national championship, from a four-year star who was the program's all-time leading scorer and rebounder to a couple of underclassmen-turned-NBA rookies.

Then again, that might just mean more playing time for John Henson.

The gangly, 6-foot-10 freshman scored 10 points in the intrasquad scrimmage during the Tar Heels' annual "Late Night with Roy" event to kick off the season Friday night, a glimpse of the talent that could make him a huge matchup problem for teams already grappling with North Carolina's talented front line.

"That size and athleticism is just one of those things that's tough to describe," fifth-year senior Marcus Ginyard said of Henson. "He's a guy who can do some interesting things out there. We've got to let it play out and see what he does, but there's no question he can be a big help to the team."

Henson's performance highlighted the night's festivities, which drew about 19,000 fans.

DUKE: After all the talk about how heavily Duke will rely on Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler for scoring this season, Nolan Smith wants to be part of that discussion as well.

Smith scored 11 of the first 19 points on his way to a game-high 25 in Friday's Blue and White Game, not a bad start for a player who averaged 8.4 points per game last season.

The junior led the White team to a blowout win in the first half, then switched sides at halftime as the score was reset to zero. On his new team, he made two free throws with 0.8 seconds on the clock to give the Blue team the second-half win.