Like former NBA All-star Allen Iverson once said, “We talkin’ about practice.”

The N.C. State water polo team wishes it had the opportunity to do what Mr. Iverson once took for granted—practice.

While renovations continue at Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center, the N.C. State water polo club finds itself with no practice facility, just 11 days away from its season-opening tournament at Virginia Tech.

Needless to say, the inability to hold practices has hindered the team, but it has been making attempts to find alternate pools for practice in preparation for its first tournament, according to club president Kamau Brown.

“We’ve been trying to go over to the Triangle Aquatics Center in Cary once a week and scrimmage with a team out there,” Brown said. “We’re also going to go to [North] Carolina and scrimmage with them starting this week. TAC charges us five dollars per person but it’s free to scrimmage Carolina, it’s just a matter of getting over there.”

One of the biggest hurdles in holding structured practices has been the struggle to find an adequate facility.

“We were supposed to practice last Monday but the space that they gave us wasn’t adequate enough for us to have a decent practice, so we didn’t,” Brown said.

Renovations at the aquatic facility have also had an impact on people’s interest in joining the club. The team had a record number of people who showed interest this season, but the lack of having a nearby pool to practice in has jeopardized the wellbeing of the team.

“It’s really detrimental to the team,” Brown said. “This is the first year we’ve had a lot of people to come out for the team. A lot of people showed interest. We had about 20 people come out for the first practice, which were pretty high numbers. The next practice we held, we had about 25 people show up, which was really good for us. So not having a place to practice has hurt us.”

Although the team may be pool-less, players have been making efforts to maintain personal conditioning, as well as keep the team spirit high by holding social events to promote team cohesiveness.

“We’re trying to do more things outside of the pool like cross-training,” Brown said. “We’ll get in some running out at the field and might go work out afterwards.

“Also, we’ve been trying to do more social-type things. Everyone on the team met up at the Cincinnati game last Thursday and hung out with each other. We’ve been trying to keep the team connected through social events and make sure everybody still feels a part of the team even though we’re not having practices.”

The renovations should finish in two to three weeks, right before the team plays its second tournament of the season at James Madison Oct. 8-10.

Despite stiff competition in its first tournament, the team is looking to see how it stacks up against fellow Atlantic Division foes of the Collegiate Water Polo Association.

“We’re playing some of the toughest teams in the conference in our first tournament,” Brown said. “We’re playing Duke, Virginia Tech and Virginia, which are three of the top five teams in our conference. It will be a good indicator of how we are as a team, even though we haven’t had a place to practice.”