We HOPE last week was also great for basketball (Updated 9:10 am)

Basketball Recruiting General NCS Basketball149

Where is Jerry Stackhouse, Jeff McInnis and Ray Allen when you need them?

SFN hated for the sun to go down on Friday night because it meant that the previous 24 hours had to end! In addition to the great day for the Wolfpack football program on Thursday/Friday, NC State/Sidney Lowe’s basketball recruiting put together a fantastic 24 hours and gathered an awful lot of momentum. Unfortunately, as any NC State fan knows…old “Uncle Mo” never seems to stick around for very long in Raleigh and you have to enjoy him while he is around.

First, we have heard that one of the top prospects of the class of 2008 – CJ Williams of Fayetteville – was in attendance in Carter-Finley on Thursday night. The Wolfpack has targeted the well balanced (academic/athletic/character) Williams and some believe he is a candidate for a very early commitment to the Wolfpack. In addition to Williams, SFN heard that (commit) Johnny Thomas and (prospect) Tracy Smith may have also taken unofficial visits for the game on Thursday night. We do not know if all three players attended together.

On Thursday/Friday, Chris Wright announced his intention to hold a press conference (today) to announce his final choice of college. As horrible as the story is — it seems that Wright was set to announce for NC State. (More detail later) But, last night something turned on a dime and suddenly the mood in Raleigh is not nearly as ecstatic. Regardless of where Wright chooses to attend college, at least the “Chris Wright saga” will come to a close today.

If Wright does NOT announce for the Pack, then we would expect that Rashad Green‘s commitment to State will become publicly firm soon after. (Link to Green’s profile) The Pack needs another young body in the backcourt to tandem with Courtney Fells who will be starting for the next three years.

Make no mistake that Wright’s presence was going to be key to quickly elevating NC State’s basketball program in the next two to three years. However, this potential scenario is EXACTLY why Coach Lowe and staff accepted the transfer of Iowa State guard, Fernold Degand. (See this link). Recruiting experts do not posit Degand as a Chris Wright, but Degand is an improving point guard with three years of eligibility in the program after he sits out this season. After Engin Atsur exhausts his eligibility this season, a nucleus of Fells-Degand-Green may have to suffice for a year or two until Coach Lowe has time to get positioned for top talent of his own choosing.

Also last Friday, JJ Hickson announced that he was cancelling his previously scheduled official visit to Florida and had eliminated the Gators from consideration – leaving only NC State and Tennessee. Although college recruiters did not view Wright and Hickson as a ‘package deal’, the two have developed a relationship and some close to the Wolfpack program previously believed that if Wright would commit to the Pack that Hickson may not be far behind. Hickson will announce his college choice this Thursday – just two days after Wright. Who knows what to think in light of some of the changes to Chris Wright’s status over the last 18 hours? The bad news is that the folks in Tennessee are starting to sound confident about their position with Hickson.

If the Pack does ultimately whiff on a commitment from Hickson, then expect to start hearing names like Joseph Katuka and Mike Scott as key Wolfpack targets for 2007.

IF Sidney Lowe is able to add commitments from both Chris Wright and JJ Hickson to Johnny Thomas, then (in our humble opinion) the Wolfpack would be in a position to be MUCH more selective with our final scholarship of the the 2007 class.

For example, highly recruited forward Tracy Smith will probably wait until spring to commit due to his current academic standing. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to have a scholarship available for Smith…and, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have SO MUCH talent committed in a class of Wright/Hickson/Thomas that waiting for Smith or other prospects in the spring would not be excessively risky. Additionally, the Wolfpack may have reason to feel very good about 2008 prospect CJ Williams and may therefore prefer to have some additional scholarships available for the class of 2008.

IF NC State does NOT land Wright & Hickson, then a potential commitment from Tracy Smith will actually become even more important to the program in the spring. As painful as (potentially) losing Wright and Hickson at the last hour would be, a future commitment from Smith would insure NC State’s frontcourt the presence of at least TWO Top 50 forwards – Brandon Costner & Smith – for three of the next four years.

Lastly, ESPN’s Andy Katz tried to weigh in with some comments about Andrew Brackman’s status saying that “NC State is still unsure about Brackman’s status”. We won’t argue with the wording of Katz’s headline since it is technically true that NC State continues to hold hope that Andrew Brackman will play basketball this season despite the fact that he has notified coach Lowe of his intentions not to play and despite the fact that he has not been participating in basketball events. We ask for you to click here for our best worded comments and update on the topic.

9:05am Note: We have just checked out some of the implosion that is happening at other NC State websites on the internet as this story gradually breaks. We want to politely let everyone know that this blog is not intended to be used for useless commentary or childish comments. Thanks!

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Basketball Recruiting General NCS Basketball

149 Responses to We HOPE last week was also great for basketball (Updated 9:10 am)

  1. GAWolf 10/10/2006 at 9:44 AM #

    If any of these guys don’t come here, it’s not because of the fans. I’m confident the atmosphere in the Carter Thursday night was enough show Wolfpack fans are as rabid as any out there. I wish all of these kids the best, and I hope that includes me getting to cheer them on for years to come.

    Are yall saying that if Wright goes to DC, JJ will follow? There’s no chance he’s going to Tennessee with Hickson is there?

  2. JimValvano 10/10/2006 at 9:48 AM #

    Chris Wright hasn’t even taken his official visit to Georgetown yet. They are/were supposed to be hosting him for Midnight Madness which I believe is this weekend.
    I don’t want to get everybody’s hopes up…let alone mine, but doesn’t it seem to work in our favor that he is announcing before he makes an official visit to our main competitor?
    It does seem however that http://www.scout.com thinks he’s going to Georgetown.

  3. primacyone 10/10/2006 at 9:52 AM #

    Wierd. The posters at the Georgetown boards don’t seem to be less confident than we are that he is going to GT.

    Josh Barr, the “Recruting Insider” at the Washington Post, seems to think it is Georgetown but writes it like it is a total guess on his part. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/recruitinginsider/

    I just hope Chris didn’t have an english paper due today. This is crazy.

  4. primacyone 10/10/2006 at 9:53 AM #

    Correction – The posters at Georgetown boards seem to be less confindent . . . .

    Please correct.

  5. RAWFS 10/10/2006 at 10:02 AM #

    Guys, take a deep breath and wait until the PC.

    SFN is doing the best that they can to follow this story, but it probably has more twists and turns left than a ten car pileup at Talladega.

  6. packbackr04 10/10/2006 at 10:10 AM #

    what i want know is what happened last night that changed his mind? I mean what could have happened in one day that lead to his changing his mind. this is tough to stomach

  7. waxhaw 10/10/2006 at 10:12 AM #

    Either way, I hope people don’t shoot the messengers. I’m glad to know what people are hearing. If we waited until things were “done”, there would be no need for recruiting sites.

  8. ncsuman 10/10/2006 at 10:14 AM #

    Will there be any scoop after the press conference?

  9. Dan 10/10/2006 at 10:17 AM #

    Scout.com is reporting Wright is going to G’Town.

  10. VaWolf82 10/10/2006 at 10:17 AM #

    I’m going back to my “Wake me when someone signs� mode.

    This is the position I’ve taken for the last several years. When following a highly recruited kid, the scenario will ultimately play out one of several ways:

    1) He doesn’t come to State.
    2) He comes to State but doesn’t live up to his hype.
    3) He comes to State and produces on the field/court.

    I don’t get excited until I see #3.

  11. Dan 10/10/2006 at 10:23 AM #

    Dont jump off any cliffs today guys. The class to watch for is next year when Lowe isnt hampered by playing catch up.

    Everyone breathe.

    I still do not understand giving Green a scholarship though. The last position we need to be offer scholarships to is SG. Especially if its not a blue chipper. I wish he’d save it for ’08. PF maybe. Not SG. We have Fells and Johnny Thomas.

  12. GAWolf 10/10/2006 at 10:30 AM #

    I’ve totally figured this thing out. Georgetown clearly sent some nice looking Capitol Hill “pages” to Wright’s house last night. We should counter with real prostitutes.

  13. Dan 10/10/2006 at 10:32 AM #

    GA, we cant. Rashad McCants is a Tar Heel.

  14. redfred2 10/10/2006 at 10:33 AM #

    Dan

    Good words!!!

  15. partialqualifier 10/10/2006 at 10:33 AM #

    Haha! You think we all would have learned our lesson after the Calipari/Lavin/Beilin…etc disaster from a few months ago. But no….we are all such suckers! Internet blogging is cool because it gives all of us a chance to rant and rave about our beloved NC State, but at the end of the day most of the “insider info” turns out to be bogus. Not all…but most. The problem is that it is a snapshot of current events that usually disregards past events. For example….since Herb left NC State has NEVER led for Wright…so I for one was extrememly skeptical when rumors started flying that he had decided for the Pack. Maybe we all should be a little more skeptical when we hear “insider” information.

    And another thing….these kids love the publicity. They are 18 years old. Hell when we were 18 we would have loved that everyone in the world wanted to know where we were going to college! Some kids are firm…some are wishy-washy. When you’re talking about a kid like Wright….who is very wishy-washy you have to wait until the last minute to make a call.

    Finally, Wright’s a great basketball player but I get a little uncomfortable with the attention these guys get. I hope like hell he comes to State…I mean who better to teach a kid how to play guard than Sidney Lowe & Monty Towe? But there are other players. With or without him NC State will be fine.

  16. cfpack03 10/10/2006 at 10:36 AM #

    Maybe he’s just taking the easy way out. He stays home where his friends and family are, and he doesn’t have to face comparisions with the great PGs of the ACC, (even though he was excited about this aspect 6 months ago).
    Regardless, the sun will rise tomorrow

  17. noah 10/10/2006 at 10:38 AM #

    Next year’s squad ought to seriously challenge th 1981 Ga. Tech team as the worst team in the history of the ACC.

  18. packbackr04 10/10/2006 at 10:40 AM #

    SFN… what are the other NC state sites that are imploding?? being that i only come here, i dont know what sites you speak of? I would like to see what they are saying?

  19. class of 74 10/10/2006 at 10:40 AM #

    ^That’s right. Sidney and staff will still be here and in time we will have a good program regardless.

  20. class of 74 10/10/2006 at 10:42 AM #

    noah,
    you are nuts. no comparison at all.

  21. packbackr04 10/10/2006 at 10:50 AM #

    i hope some inforamtion comes out soon. WHat could have caused this paradigm shift in his thinking… I need a drink already, is redfred out there? i know he feels my pain.

  22. noah 10/10/2006 at 10:58 AM #

    “you are nuts. no comparison at all.”

    Yeah, you’re probably right. I was being overly optimistic. That 1981 squad won four whole games. At this point, I’ll take one win.

    maybe we can schedule an exhibition game with a local junior high JV squad and petition to allow the NCAA to let us count it as an official victory (provided we got lucky and eeked it out).

  23. class of 74 10/10/2006 at 11:01 AM #

    ^Thanks for the confirmation of my opinion.

  24. Rochester 10/10/2006 at 11:12 AM #

    Enough with the Chicken Little prophesies about the 2006-07 season. I realize we’re not going to be favored to win the conference, but if Ced Simmons had come back we’d be viewed as almost a lock for a return to the NCAA tourney. How do you go from that to being the worst team in ACC history just because one guy is gone? I realize he would have been the star of the team, but we still have some quality players left.

    Atsur, Fells, Grant and Costner could play (not necessarily start) for any team in the league. We have no depth and a hole in the center. Obviously we’d like that not to be the case, but stop droning on about the doom and gloom. It’s not only tiresome, it’s ludicrous.

  25. redfred2 10/10/2006 at 11:14 AM #

    noah

    You’re right, they will be some other team who actually deserves to playing in the NCAA tourney instead of the Pack for a few years. We won’t have every sport commentator on the planet guessing if we’ll even make it past the first round, and we won’t be getting our asses totally spanked and sent home with our tails between our legs probably ever again.

    Sounds like we have really lost out here. It’s dreadful.

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