A display of ink on Brandon Costner’s right arm indicates some of the things he values most: pride, family and integrity.  And of the several mottos tattooed on his arm as motivational reminders, one seems particularly fitting for the men’s basketball team this season: “Defeat your enemies with success.” Perhaps more than any of his teammates, Costner has something to prove to his “enemies.” After a redshirt freshman year in which he led the team in scoring (16.8 points per game) and rebounding (7.3 per game), fans and media outlets alike expected Costner to pick up where he left off and emerge as one of the most dominant and versatile big men in the league in his redshirt sophomore season. Not only that, they expected him to lead State, as he did in the ACC Tournament in 2007, among the ACC’s elite.But something wasn’t right. Plagued with injuries and an altered role, Costner struggled. He averaged only 8.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per game as his team, predicted to finish third in the ACC, fell to dead last in the conference.With his drop in production, the media and even his fans began criticizing the New Jersey native. Though Costner said he is not one to pay attention to the message boards and the negative publicity towards him, it became hard to ignore.”I put myself in the position to be judged and for people to talk about me, and I gladly accept that because I love basketball and I love what I do,” Costner said. “But yes, people do say stuff that is unwarranted and that people don’t know about.”The most hurtful comments, Costner said, would be when strangers would question his work ethic and commitment to the program.”When people say that I’m lazy and I don’t care about this institution, N.C. State, and playing hard for our basketball team, that’s probably the most hurtful thing because I’m far from lazy,” Costner said. “Anybody that knows me around here [knows] I’m far from lazy and I care tremendously about this institution. I’m getting my degree from here. If I didn’t care about this place, I could have left two years ago. I came back and I wanted to be here.”His lack of production, however, seemed to be a result of nagging injuries that he attempted to play through. After sitting out his true freshman season with a stress fracture in his leg, he injured his knee in the summer of 2006 and never fully allowed it to recover. As a result, his conditioning and his performance faltered as he “played hurt all year.””He was hurt, and as a result gained some weight and tried to continue to do the things he felt he was capable of doing, and he wasn’t the same player,” coach Sidney Lowe said.The other factor working against Costner was the addition of another McDonald’s All-American, J.J. Hickson. As Hickson led the team in scoring and rebounding, reports of what Gavin Grant called “inside the team issues” began circulating from the locker room. Though Hickson’s play earned him a first-round NBA selection after one year, he may have been the factor that altered the team’s chemistry.”J.J. was a great player and we were lucky to have him for the time that we did, but last year we may have been a little one-dimensional and a little easy for people to figure out, as opposed to two years ago when everybody was moving the ball and there was lot more continuity to the offense,” Costner said.This season, the question lingering over Costner is whether or not he will be able to return to the success of his redshirt freshman year. The team’s success, at least in part, may revolve around Costner’s ability to stay healthy. Lowe, who named Costner one of three team captains, said he has been impressed with Costner’s work ethic — the work ethic that helped him lose 15 pounds of fat in the offseason.”I see someone who certainly took last year and he learned from it — not just the basketball side of it, but the physical side of it, the mental side of it…I saw a young man come back this summer ready to go, in great shape, but more than anything his mind was right,” Lowe said. “He knew that he had to get back into the shape he once was [in] and then to provide the leadership not just physically but mentally for this team.”According to senior center Ben McCauley, it won’t be long before fans see the dominant player they witnessed two seasons ago.”He’s back to the Brandon you saw his redshirt freshman year,” McCauley said. “He’s playing very well, playing smart and staying under control.”Costner, too, is confident he and the team will turn things around.”I’m not one to make excuses,” he said. “It is what it is. My performance, the team performance, is in the past. There is nowhere to go but up.”