Yesterday we learned that Jamelle McMillan is not going to play basketball at NC State. SFN shared some thoughts and analysis in this entry that we hope that you didn’t miss.
Something that we tried to politely dance around was the ‘priority’ that the new NC State staff put on McMillan’s recruitment. We commented that it “never seemed as though Coach Lowe wanted to make the full court press on Jamelle; almost wanting JM to go ahead and commit somewhere else so that we didn’t have to tell him that we didn’t want him.”
In support of that theory, Scout.com shared the following information in one of their reports yesterday:
McMillan said that he had only heard from new N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe once in the past month – a text message since he returned from Las Vegas at the end of July. “I saw Sidney Lowe a couple of times in July, but I haven’t talked to him in a month,â€? McMillan said.
Now the public attention on NC State’s guard recruitment will shift exclusively to Chris Wright. There is no doubt that Sidney Lowe has put the majority of his eggs in Wright’s basket creating a high risk/high reward proposition for the point guard position of the program.
Wright is featured in the following piece on college basketball recruiting in Washington, DC at Sports Illustrated’s new College Basketball Blog. (Link to entry)
The following are couple of additional comments that were made by our readers on theoriginal Jamelle McMillan entry that we felt were worth highlighting:
I don’t know why everyone is getting so worked up over Jamelle going to ASU. Jamelle himself said that he was a solid player but not a program changer and that fans shouldn’t expect him to be or they would be disappointed. The last thing Jamelle would have wanted to do is come into a program where his father is an all-time legend with overblown expectations.
I am sure Sid, Nate, and Jamelle talked about that and all wanted what was best or better for Jamelle. Jamelle is closer in height and skill set to his father when Nate came out of high school—and even the great Jimmy V didn’t take future great Nate then, only after Nate grew into a much oversized pg for the era and major matchup problem.
It is pretty obvious that Sid felt that Degand offered a lot of what Jamelle does, so Sid has chosen to invest all of his energies in higher rated Chris Wright in addition to trying to build relationships with future pg’s in 2008 and beyond while Jamelle gets to go somewhere where he will have an opportunity to shine (hopefully) without the intensity and scrutiny of the sometimes overly rabid NCSU basketball fanbase.
Sid is shooting for the fences, and it is a high risk but potentially high return endeavor. If Sid misses out on the big names in 2007 and 2008, we will be hating basketball life. BUT, honestly, I can’t see that I will hate basketball life any worse than I have watching Herb Sendek send his “almost goodâ€? teams on the floor to build nice records against weak teams early in the year….lose UGLY early season non-conference games against other mediocre teams…look confused as hell at every timeout, press, and end game situation…give us a little hope and then blow it in the most excruciating fashion (the Maryland technical game and/or last second shot games, the Wake Forest home debacles vs Josh Howard once with a foul and then Chris Paul with a last second shot after a nut punch, or the Duke ACCT Final meltdown) OR simply get blown out (UNC last year, Duke in an ACCT Final, etc.)…
I mean, seriously, the 1997 ACCT Final run and the NCAA win over UConn were about all that was enjoyable in a decade’s worth of Herb Sendek ball with a lot of gaps and disappointments in between. So, if Sid wants to shoot for the fences, I’m with him whether he whiffs or not. The only way to evoke real change is to take the chance and accept the risk. We had 6 years of suck under Les, 5 years of suck under Herb, and 5 years of “almost pretty good� under Herb—none of it was all that enjoyable. So, if Sid hits it big, GREAT!! If Sid fails, well, I am not sure I will notice the difference between suck and “almost pretty good� this time around.
Hell, beating Southwest Missouri State or whoever the hell it was back in the 1997 NIT of Herb year 1 was a lot more enjoyable than getting blown out by Texas in the NCAA’s last year in Herb year 10 (especially with Gavin and Courtney on the bench after they brought us back once already). After 10 years you should have more to hang your hat on, so, if we have to blow the program up and start over, so be it—it wasn’t all that to begin with…
“The reason most fans wanted him to come to NCSU was to see his name in the rafters, next to his dads. Outside of the sentimental value, it held for fans, we’re not losing out on a program changing guard.�
That is the reason most Pack fans wanted him here. I wanted him here a lot more when I read that he was a lockdown defender and that he locked down UNC-Ch’s top rated PG. I wanted him here because he was a decent student and he would have added depth.
Don’t get me wrong, if I had to choose between as basketball players, I’d go after Wright. However, I would consider Wright far from a lock at this point. It would also be nice if this was a sign that Fells, Ferguson and Degand have made Sid feel like all he needs is this one guard.
