Braxton Beverly: "I Feel Good"
NC State senior guard Braxton Beverly is eager for the start of the upcoming season. Here he discusses his health, the team, and much more!
Coach Keatts talked about your overall health. Where do you feel like you are?
I feel good right now. Of course it’s still an everyday process that I’m dealing with, but in terms of how I was last year, it’s the complete opposite of how it was. I feel good. I’m actually going to be able to go full speed and do what I do in practice each day I take the court. It feels much, much better.
Your role for this team has changed since your freshman year. With the need for some experience at the point guard position, how much have you stepped into that role while still playing the two?
To start this year, I’ve had a lot of opportunity to play more of the one. Especially since [Markell Johnson]’s gone now. So I’ve had quite a bit of experience over my three years playing that position. So I’ve been thrown in there, here and there. So I’ve also been able to help the younger guys and the new guys come along and learn that spot. We’re going to have many guys that we can rotate in and out to play that position. So I’ve just been doing what I can, as if I’m playing or trying to help other guys come along as well.
Do you feel like that’s more of your natural position, at point guard, as opposed to shooting guard?
I think it does come a little bit more natural. Naturally, I enjoy helping other guys. I enjoy throwing the ball for other guys to hit shots and make plays. That’s how I always was growing up and at all the other schools I played at. But of course, there’s so much talent here, I’m going to be able to play on and off the ball -- just kind of do whatever I can.
Coach Keatts joked that you guys are high school classmates with you being one of the older guys on the roster. But being here your senior year, how does it feel being one of the guys that the younger guys look up to, and what’s it been like mentoring the young guys in the program?
It’s been great. I did hear him joke about that, and he does that every single day. But we’ve got a lot of really good young talent coming into the program. I feel honored that I’m able to help these guys out and help them get ready for a big career here at NC State. I feel very good that I get the opportunity to be a part of that, to really help change their careers, and for this university, as well.
How much were able to do physically this summer, and what did you do to elevate your game?
One thing I did was I lost some weight; I went back down to some smaller weight. I took a bit of my muscle mass off, I guess. I feel a little more comfortable being a little lighter than I was. And other than that, the main thing was just getting healthy. During the quarantine, I was able to do some stuff, but of course it was trying to be really careful with it, on and off, weeks at a time, just to allow myself to heal. Just to take advantage of that opportunity to let my body relax and decompress. I took a lot of beatings over these last three years here. It was good to have that opportunity to restart.
With the influx of young talent, do you think this gives the Wolfpack the chance to play the defense that coach Keatts wants to play for longer stretches?
Definitely. We have a bunch of young guys that are really active and really play hard. They’re really buying into the system and what coach Keatts wants to do. So, of course it’s going to be great for his system, and just adding more bodies... it seems like, especially the last two years, at some points we were down a couple guys, and it’s been hard to really give 100% to his system and what we want to do. It’s like I said, we want to string it back at times. But now, we have a bunch of young guys who are active. It’s going to be really good for us.
When did your injury happen, and how frustrating was it with you off to a really good shooting start last year?
It wasn’t a specific injury; it’s actually something that’s built up over years of playing with how my body’s designed. I actually took a hit, I’m pretty sure it was against The Citadel, right before our little three-day Christmas break. After that, we were able to figure out that it wasn’t just that hit that sparked this, it’s actually something that had been ongoing, but that allowed us to find it and figure out what we needed to do to cope with it and work with it.
How frustrating was that?
It was extremely frustrating. I think everybody in this program would tell you, I’m a huge competitor. I try to give 100% every single day. The fact that I was trying to give 100% every single day last year, it wasn’t anywhere near what my 100% actually is. So it was really frustrating to be physically held back from doing something you love to do.
How important is your leadership role to help hold young players accountable off the court to keep the team healthy and safe?
It’s definitely important. We have a lot of mature freshmen. They’re not out here acting like freshmen. I think they do understand that this is different times. They don’t have the social aspect of college that me or Devon or anyone else got to go through. We have to be careful, stay cooped up in our rooms. We can’t be out meeting people or hanging out like normal. So it’s definitely been on us older guys to make sure they’re doing the right thing, keep encouraging them and keeping the team together, just like every other team in the country’s going through. Nobody's really out doing things right now. Everyone’s trying to stay in, stay safe so we have the opportunity to play. That can take a toll on people, as well. So as the older guys, even though it can be tough on us too, we’re trying to stay strong for the younger guys, bring them along, and teach them the ropes.