NCAA tourney brings SC's Tanner back to N.C. State for Raleigh Regional

RALEIGH, N.C. - Ray Tanner is back with the Wolfpack. <br /> <br /> After spending two decades as a student, player, assistant and head coach at North Carolina State, Tanner is ready to step foot on Doak Field as an opposing coach when he leads South Carolina in the Raleigh Regional of the NCAA tournament. <br /> <br /> ``I've popped in a couple of times,'' Tanner said Thursday. <br /> <br /> His second-seeded Gamecocks (38-21) take on No. 3 seed Charlotte (43-14) on Friday before his old team, top-seeded N.C. State (38-20), plays fourth-seeded James Madison (38-17). <br /> <br /> The Wolfpack are playing host to a four-team regional for the second time, but first at its 42-year-old home ballpark. Coach Elliott Avent's team was a site host in 2003, roughly an hour's drive east in Wilson while Doak Field was being renovated. <br /> <br /> ``When I saw that Coach Avent got a regional, I was really ecstatic because it's been a long time coming,'' Tanner said. <br /> <br /> They certainly have a history, although they have never coached against each other. <br /> <br /> Avent was on Tanner's staff at N.C. State in 1988 before Avent left for New Mexico State. Avent also coached current South Carolina assistant coach Sammy Esposito, the son of longtime Wolfpack coach Sam Esposito. <br /> <br /> But the friendship stopped at about 12:30 p.m. Monday when the pairings were announced and will pick up once the regional is over, Avent said. <br /> <br /> ``Coaches never think about that kind of stuff,'' Avent said. ``Our players don't give it any attention, and their players don't think about it. We have a friendship that started a long, long time ago. But this is all about baseball and all about the players. <br /> <br /> ``He's been at South Carolina a lot longer than he was here and probably considers himself a Gamecock. I'm sure he has a sense of accomplishment and pride on what we've been able to do here.'' <br /> <br /> N.C. State has dropped four of five, including two of three at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Sure, the boost of exposure is nice, but it's worthless if the Wolfpack don't play well against the Dukes. <br /> <br /> ``I told the players if they are smart, they'd turn their cell phones off,'' Avent said. ``I did. My cell phone has gone dead at 4 o'clock every day this week, and that's hard to do. Everyone wants to be part of this, and that wears you out a bit. You have to be smart about that. <br /> <br /> ``And then there's any pressure that, as a host, you feel like you have to win,'' he added. ``We feel like wherever we'd have gone, we'd be successful this week. You still have to go out and play between the lines.''<br /> <br /> Three of the four teams in Raleigh, N.C. State, South Carolina and Charlotte took part in the regional hosted last year by the Gamecocks. Charlotte beat N.C. State twice last year and lost twice to South Carolina, including an 11-6 rout in the title game. <br /> <br /> The Raleigh Regional winner advances to a super regional series against the champion of the regional hosted by Georgia. The winner of that best-of-three series advances to the College World Series.

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