Jamelle McMillan to Sun Devils

Basketball Recruiting General75

Jamelle McMillan, the son of former NC State Basketball player Nate McMillan, announced today that he is planning to spend his college career playing basketball for former NC State Head Coach Herb Sendek at Arizona State University.

The whole trip overall was enjoyable, but there was one part of the visit that certainly sealed the deal. “The main thing was the closing speech by Coach Sendek at the end of the visit,� described McMillan. “You could feel how honest and dedicated he was with my recruitment. Coach Phelps, Coach Miller all gave their input and made me feel like I was better than anybody in the whole wide world. They showed all summer long how much the wanted me, but this visit really showed me how much of a great situation Arizona State will be for me.�

We’ve got a lot of thoughts on this, so let’s hit a blend of what we have been told and how we are analyzing this.

* We have been told that NC State’s coaching staff believes that IF State lands Chris Wright then the Pack wouldn’t necessarily want/need Jamelle McMillan.

* The problem with all of this is timing. Jamelle obviously is more eager to make a commitment than Wright and wants to get the process behind him. There is no doubt that Coach Sendek and the ASU staff have been selling this point and pushing Jamelle to go ahead and commit. Shrewd move.

* Outwardly, it never seemed as though Coach Lowe wanted to make the full court press on Jamelle, almost wanting him to go ahead and go somewhere else so that we didn’t have to tell him that we didn’t want him.

* Wolfpack fans now have to hope that Chris Wright appreciates the message that Coach Lowe and staff are sending to him that he is THE GUY. State has definitely put all of our eggs in one basket related to the point guard position now.

* As Wolfpackers , we definitely struggle with ^this strategy because we’ve never really seen a recruiting “strategy” pan out for us under Coach Sendek. We are being asked to ante back up with our “blind faith” (or is it “hope”) that our strategy to delay pursuing McMillan until after we learn about Chris Wright will work out well for us. To us, all eggs in one basket = Mustafa Shakur.

* Analyzing the situation strictly by the numbers – it appears that Fernold Degand ultimately took what would have been the scholarship designated for the Larry Davis/Jamelle McMillan role of a combo guard that can serve multiple roles in the backcourt. Degand would have had A LOT more value to the roster if he could have played THIS SEASON. Having to sit out for a year means that State basically ended up with Degand instead of Jamelle. Without DeGand we could have taken both Jamelle AND Wright in next year’s class.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

Basketball Recruiting General

75 Responses to Jamelle McMillan to Sun Devils

  1. thebigwood 08/15/2006 at 7:43 AM #

    ^so true. I was so sick of hearing that (and saying that to my tarheel buddies). Good luck to him, but I am so glad Herb is gone.

  2. vtpackfan 08/15/2006 at 7:51 AM #

    I guess congrats to Herb and Jamelle? I’ll admit I was really pulling for this one. With all the talk of favoritism and not having a conflict of interest, let me hear it a few years from now. We need to catch a break for this team to get some real quality depth, and Jamelle is a lock down defender on the perimenter. Is Fells, Ferguson, Degand (or Wright) going to stop dribble penetration and get a hand in the shooters face. We’ll find out. Dissapointed but glad to move on to the new season of the “Price is Wright”. The fact that his teamate in Prep school is 6’11” and one of the top rated centers for ’08 should make this a do or die situation.

  3. vtpackfan 08/15/2006 at 8:04 AM #

    ^^^^”I am sincere when I say that I don’t really care if Sendek, currently plying his trade on the Sun Devil label now, wins the national championship next year.”

    I know State will not win a National Championship in Mens Basketball (or any other team sport for that matter) next year, so go on world, let Herb win one. That would be so great for America to get a chance to have Herb Sendek come into your living room after Arizona State shocks Northern Iowa in Double OT to win the title for Herb. Everyone will finally see that Herb had it all along, he just needed a pg and schedule with long streaks of easy games. Than that will be done and over with and we can go back to watching good ol’ college basketball the way it was meant to be played. With heart, sweet, and determination on Tobacco Road. Yee’haaw! Go Pack! Sun Devils, I liked them better when they were shaving points.

  4. RamblinRed 08/15/2006 at 8:36 AM #

    While G’town may be “out of scholarships” that is a mere technicality. They have offered Wright and are his current leader with Pitt running second (NC ST appears to be third right now).

    G’town is expecting early departures so they plan to give out 1 to 2 more scholatships this fall. Just remember, just because you don’t currently have a scholarship for someone doesn’t mean you can’t offer a ‘ship to a rising recruit. As long as you only have 13 on scholarship when they matriculate is all that matters.

    Schools routinely oversign whne coaching staffs feel the openings will be there. To say Wright doesn’t have an offer because G’town is currently at its 13 limit for 2007 is both naive and wrong.

    RamblinRed

  5. yannes 08/15/2006 at 8:46 AM #

    Jamelle is a West coaster with friends playing in the PAC-10. His favorite coach came to his side of the country so this was a no-brainer for him.

  6. Dan 08/15/2006 at 8:56 AM #

    SFN: If your reading comprehension skills were up to par, you’d see that they are clearly saying they are still offering, which means the ‘ship will be there. I imagine that Patrick Ewing Jr would have no problem paying for his schooling on his own if JT III needed the scholarship. G’town fits exactly what Wright was looking for when he committed to NC State, except for the fact that the system is actually run the way it is advertised at G’Town.

  7. BoKnowsNCS71 08/15/2006 at 9:41 AM #

    This should be titled “the Seduction of Jamelle McMIllan” — because in a few years he going to realize all he got was screwed.

    And I agree – let’s forget about Sendek. Please.

  8. Rick 08/15/2006 at 9:57 AM #

    “For all the complaining and commenting here, it would be nice if someone who criticized Sendek actually understood why he wasnt more successfull at NC State. Namely, the lack of a PG in trying to run a half court set.”

    Yeah that is the only reason.
    You accuse others of a lack of basketball knowledge while making a statement like this?
    At least I know to completely ignore anything you post now because it is tainted with a lust for the weave and heave offense that led us to one sweet 16 in ten years.

  9. packbackr04 08/15/2006 at 10:07 AM #

    doesnt wright have a visit planned soon? And have we heard anything from Sid’s camp regarding recruiting?

  10. Girlfriend in a Coma 08/15/2006 at 10:24 AM #

    What role will Jamelle have in Herb’s offense? Will he be the one with the bucket of confetti?

  11. nycfan 08/15/2006 at 11:11 AM #

    packbackr — coaches can’t really comment on recruiting except in general terms and can’t comment on specific recruits until they sign an LOI.

    But it is interesting (odd?) that it appears that Lowe is not engaging the local media almost at all at this point and is keeping tight control over any information leaking out about his program. A recent WSJ article about State’s recruiting that I linked in the Telep’s Top 100 Thread {here -> http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2006/08/10/teleps-top-100/#comments }, noted that Lowe had not been available to the media and that Lee Fowler was interviewed for the article for comments on incoming freshmen, which is pretty strange.

    Bottom line on McMillan is that Jamelle was not really pursued by Lowe for whatever reason — we can speculate a whole range of reasons, of course, but, in the end, Lowe seemed content to offer a sort of courtesy contact and move on, presumably with the knowledge that meant he would lose any shot at landing McMillan.

  12. ldr of pk 75 08/15/2006 at 11:33 AM #

    Girlfriend In A Coma, that was good. You know the last 10 years of Herb sort of reminded me of the fallteam for the Globetrotters, wasn’t it the Washington Generals? We need to forget Herb, pull together, and give Sydney a chance and some support. Gosh, just an uptempo gamestyle will be an improvement, and one which the young uns out there just might say “hey look what they’re doing at State”. Lets move forward.

  13. packbackr04 08/15/2006 at 11:35 AM #

    well i hope sid has an ace up his sleeve, because putting all of our pt grd hopes in wright seems like a long shot, i mean it sounds like the kid wants to go to goergetown and is just holding off until he knows if he can get a scholly.
    does anyone want to take an over under of 15 wins this year?

  14. ShootingGuard 08/15/2006 at 11:44 AM #

    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 good” teams out on the floor to…build up nice records on weak teams early…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…

  15. 4NCSU 08/15/2006 at 1:04 PM #

    Amen, ShootingGuard! Preach, brother! Herb had three ACC Tournament final finishes, one ACC regular season second place finish, and then the Sweet 16 finish in one year. All in a decade. Ten chances to do something exciting and memorable. It didn’t happen. Not surprised it didn’t actually.

    I have to agree much with your first post on this thread, Redfred. Basketball was like “mechanical” over the last ten years. That’s the perfect word to describe it.

    I won’t say that Herb did terrible here. But you would think after his first five years, that somewhere, in years six through ten, there would have been at least one ACC title. Didn’t happen. I give Herb a little bit of credit for five NCAAs. To me, just in my small opinion, it shows that his program was “pretty good.” It showed some consistency, too. But to get embarassed at home by a UNC team with some puppy dogs on it by 24 points late in the season in man’s tenth year at the helm . . . If that didn’t make people think that this man, Sendek, will never do anything significant, then we had just a bunch of mindless zombies as fans.

    I think Herb will have ASU in the NCAAs by his third or fourth year. People will be praising and glorifying him for turning around a dead program. But the PAC 10 has who? UCLA and Arizona? And the NCAAs have what? 64 teams? It won’t be that hard for a decent, not great, but decent coach to come in and have moderate success at ASU. If Herb wins the national title, I don’t care. If he does poorly, I don’t care.

    I want Lowe to do well. But he doesn’t, I think I can live with him better than Herb Sendek. I don’t think he’ll be a robot like Sendek was. He’ll be somebody that actually cares more (not saying Sendek cared none, but he didn’t care a lot) about losing than the previous coach did. You have to connect with the fans. If you don’t, over 4-6 years, your support will gradually go down.

    I’m glad Sid is shooting high. If he misses out, he just does. He’s gotta hit a triple or a HR by ’08 for him to gain some solid support from Wolfpackers. Otherwise, his support could get shaky down the road.

    I support Sid. If Jamelle wants to play in a slow, boring offense for a coach who, while good, never has won a conference title, had many transfers, and struggled to put players in the NBA, then fine. We have to “not get worked up” about what happens at ASU. Just ignore the situation. Don’t talk about it. Give our full attention to Sid’s leadership. Frankly, I’ll be glad when it gets to the point that you rarely see Herb Sendek’s name anymore on any kind of website related to NC State and he’s nothing more than a distant memory.

  16. choppack1 08/15/2006 at 1:09 PM #

    SG – I lived through the Les years and Sendek’s first 5 years – let’s just say, I don’t want to watch 2 more consecutive years of that AGAIN. In college basketball, there is nothing more pathetic than not even having to watch selection Sunday – or watching it just to do some prep for your upcoming pool.

    I’m sorry – but I don’t want to hit rock bottum again – and quite frankly, I don’t think it’s going happen and I don’t think it’s necessary. Like I said, I trust that Sidney knows what he is doing – but this was eye-catching. It appears that McMillan wasn’t a priority – my only concern is if we don’t get Wright – who do we bring in?

  17. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 08/15/2006 at 1:47 PM #

    Jamelle is a west coast kid it would of made very little sense for him to come to Raleigh.

  18. BJD95 08/15/2006 at 1:53 PM #

    Best wishes to the kid. I certainly hope we get Wright – seems like an “all or nothing” proposition at this point.

  19. packbackr04 08/15/2006 at 2:14 PM #

    is there a contingency plan at pg right now if we miss out on wright? which i have said many times, i think will be the case. And i dont want to be pessimistic, just realistic

  20. redfred2 08/15/2006 at 2:15 PM #

    ShootingGuard & 4NCSU

    Good posts!!! and both very long, just like I like to do ’em.

    One thing we’ve all lost touch with and don’t the ability to factor in anymore is player development. That will be big again along the pride in playing for the university, having Sidney Lowe as head coach will ensure that both of those things are top priorities again. That may not put us back on the map or win us any championships in the short term, but those forgotten factors will carry us much closer to our goals in the long run.

    I want every four and five star recruit to be courted properly, but if we fall short on a few, the two and three stars can be elevated with time. That’s something we’re definitely not use to around here. It will start happening again, all it takes is a good basketball coach.

  21. GoldenChain 08/15/2006 at 2:35 PM #

    I think that JM should have spoken to D Wilkens or A Harrington.

  22. class of 74 08/15/2006 at 3:19 PM #

    In 1979 Sid Lowe was not considered one of the top guards in the country but it’s funny how well he turned out for us now isn’t it? The sky is not falling with McMillan’s decision nor is it the end of the world if Wright chooses a school in the Big East. The sooner all vestiges of the prior coach are gone the better off our program will be IMHO.

  23. Gene 08/15/2006 at 3:27 PM #

    Read somewhere Jamelle’s been coming to Raleigh every summer, since he was born to visit family. Since he could dribble a ball, he was going to NCSU basketball camps. Most of those camps were run by Herb Sendek. The two of them have a long relationship.

    Plus, there is a certain amount of freedom you will have, if you’re in a town, where you don’t have any family.

    Raleigh was nothing new for him. I could see him pass it up, just because he knew he’d be going their during the summertime anyway.

    As per his skills, he was a good defender, but needed to work on his shooting ability.

    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.

  24. Gene 08/15/2006 at 3:32 PM #

    Like I said, I trust that Sidney knows what he is doing – but this was eye-catching. It appears that McMillan wasn’t a priority – my only concern is if we don’t get Wright – who do we bring in?

    We knew Lowe & Co. had a lot of work to make up, with regards to the 2007 recruiting class. The fact he’s gotten into Chris Wrights good graces, and Wright’s visiting us, is a positive sign.

    If we don’t land Wright, we go in with Degand as our PG.

    At least we don’t have a total void in the PG position for 2007.

    There’s no reason to panic, especially since the schedule hasn’t been released yet 🙂

1 2 3

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. The ACC Basketblog - 08/15/2006

    The Daily Roundup: Nate’s son says no to Pack

    “StateFansNation brings you the scoop on Nate McMillan’s son shunning the Pack to play for Herb . That’s not really all that surprising considering……”

Leave a Reply