Monroe Fits Nicely in a Starring Role : College basketball: High-scoring guard at North Carolina State handles the spotlight with aplomb.

When he is not in a North Carolina State basketball uniform, Rodney Monroe doesn’t project the image of a basketball star.

He is tall, 6-feet-3 to be precise, but he is slender at 170 pounds and quiet and self-effacing.

But. there can be no mistaking that Monroe is the big man on campus.

While standing at the west entrance of Reynolds Coliseum one morning this week, Monroe is passed by no shortage of people, from blondes to middle-age men, all of whom recognize him.

In fact, one woman is so trusting of Monroe that she leaps out of her cream-colored Firebird, to ask if he will move her car if she cannot come back from the athletics office before a parking ticket writer gets there.

“And if I don’t see you,” she says, “hold on to the keys and I’ll get them from you later.”

Monroe sheepishly admits that the woman is a member of the team’s academic support unit, but the story indicates just how much folks here love and trust Rodney.

“He is universally liked,” said Coach Jim Valvano. “I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like Rodney. I can’t imagine anybody saying a harsh word about Rodney from high school to three years here. He’s a wonderful young man.”

Of course, the fact that he can stick a jump shot from seemingly anywhere inside the hash mark may have something to do with Monroe’s high popularity rating.

But in his modest, almost “gee, shucks” way, Monroe shrugs off his fame.

“It’s all very nice with all the good publicity,” said Monroe. “But you have to be realistic and not be egotistical. People are very nice here. They treat you very nice.”

Monroe has treated Wolfpack fans very nice. The preseason media pick for Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year, Monroe has done nothing to disappoint, as his 23.3 per game scoring average is second best in the ACC, behind Georgia Tech’s Dennis Scott.

Monroe has led N.C. State in scoring in all but two of its 18 games, and has to be counted as the chief reason for the Wolfpack’s 13-5 start.

“After our first game, Dick Tarrant (the coach of Richmond) and I were going over each other’s teams and we were going over each person,” said Valvano.

“I said, ‘Monroe,’ and he said, ’20.’ I said, ’20 what?’ and he said, ‘He’s going to get 20, no matter what. It might be a tough 20, it might be a good 20, but he’s still going to get them.”’

On Wednesday night, Monroe, a junior from St. Maria Goretti High in Hagerstown, Md., got a tough 19, as Duke played excellent defense on him, causing Monroe to hit just six of the 26 shots he took from the floor.

But, in the typical scorer’s psyche, Monroe, less than 12 hours after the 85-82 overtime road loss to the Blue Devils, already had forgotten that game and was pointing to the next foe, Maryland on Saturday.

“I felt that I had the shots, but they just didn’t fall,” said Monroe. “I was taking 12- to 15-foot jump shots all night and they just didn’t hit. I felt I could take my man. I hit that shot in practice nine out of 10 times.

“One good thing is that we suit up again. We have another chance to come out and play another ACC team. We’ve lost two in a row. We have to grow up.”

After the game, Valvano said that Monroe had taken “some atypical shots” for him.

“What I was responding to,” Valvano said later, “was that he had a tough night. I think that part of the reason was that he feels a certain obligation to score for us, and he knows that we’re always going to him because we have a lot of plays for him.

“When we’re struggling getting points, I think he feels that he has to create more. He’s always been terrific at just letting the game come to him. The fact that I said it is probably more a credit to Rodney than anything else.”

The game has always seemed to come to Monroe. At Goretti, where he was named The Evening Sun’s Player of the Year as a senior, he averaged 27 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals a game, and hit a 60-foot buzzer beater to win the city championship.

He graduated as Maryland’s all-time career scoring leader with 3,047 points and took his act here, choosing N.C. State over Maryland.

Yet, there are traces of Hagerstown still in Monroe. He speaks fondly of his older brother, who played at Shepherd College, and who he shares more than a few similarities.

“A lot of people say that we have similar games,” Monroe said of his brother. “We have similar sizes and similar builds.”

Likewise, Monroe says good things about his hometown, and a wealth of basketball talent there that he seems to have exposed.

“It’s not very big, but there’s been a lot of talent that has gone unrecognized,” said Monroe. “There have been a few players that have got out.”

His parents also have exerted a certain healthy influence over Monroe. They attend about 12 Wolfpack games a year, and will make the trip here Saturday.

They’ve encouraged Monroe, who finished second to Duke’s Danny Ferry in the league scoring race last year and was on the All-ACC team, to stay at N.C. State, rather than passing up his senior year to go to the NBA, where he would be a certain first-round draft choice.

“They’re great,” said Monroe. “My mom definitely wants me to stay. My father pretty much wants me to stay. I think he’s 70-30 (in favor of him staying). My heart’s pretty much made up to stay. I’m on track to graduate in four years. I’m enjoying it right now. It’s fun.”

It hasn’t been that way all season. The Wolfpack has been plagued by a cloud of suspicion dating back to last January when the dust cover of “Personal Fouls,” a book written by Peter Golenbock, dropped a host of allegations of NCAA violations at the feet of Valvano, including those of cash payments and grade fixing.

None of those allegations have been proved, but N.C. State was barred from this year’s NCAA tournament and placed on probation for two years for other violations, including the sale of sneakers by former players.

Monroe said part of his desire to stay is to ride out the rough times. Monroe said the team has decided that since it cannot compete beyond March’s ACC tournament, that the players will revise their goals and concentrate on making each game count.

“I’m very much willing to stick it out,” said Monroe. “It’s been difficult since last January. It was very difficult when they announced (the sanctions), but it could have been worse.

“We’ve all put an emphasis on game-by-game, rather than gearing up for the postseason. But we want to win the ACC tournament. I haven’t won it yet and that’s what I’m shooting for.”