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. Dan 10/10/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    Red, its better to have loved and lost than to not have loved at all.

    I’d rather lose in the spotlight than never ever see the light. Still, I have confidence in Sid. People just need to chill a bit and give the guy a couple years to show us what he can do on the recruiting trail. There is no need to be tearing our clothes yet.

    Whatever, CW does is going to work out for him. I dont blame that kid one bit whatever he does. But we’ll be fine too. It might take an extra year, but I’m not dying anytime soon.

  2. noah 10/10/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    2006-07 is this year.

    I’m talking about 07-08.

  3. Dan 10/10/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    ^ knock on wood

  4. RAWFS 10/10/2006 at 11:19 AM #

    I think we should archive some of these predictions. Just for informational purposes only. It does, however, worry me when Noah (whose opinion I greatly respect) is so negative. If you have read his posts through the past decade, it should worry you too.

  5. Girlfriend in a Coma 10/10/2006 at 11:23 AM #

    I’m trying to figure out what Wright’s recruitment has to do with the 2006-2007 season.

  6. packbackr04 10/10/2006 at 11:30 AM #

    GF^^ im just trying to figure out what happened over the past 24hrs. i went to bed thinking today was going to be a great day for wolfpack basketball and now i am too depressed to get any work done… please someone pinch me and tell me this has all been a bad dream. Is any of this info concrete? I mean what are the sources

  7. noah 10/10/2006 at 11:30 AM #

    “I’m trying to figure out what Wright’s recruitment has to do with the 2006-2007 season.”

    It means that whatever optimism you might muster this year by telling yourself, “We’ve got a great class coming in next year!” will be complete and total bull****.

    It means that not only is Lowe starting out behind the 8-ball, he doesn’t even have a pool cue.

  8. GAWolf 10/10/2006 at 11:39 AM #

    I would much rather go into an NCAA tournament with confidence every other year than back into one and wonder which of the first three rounds we’d shoot 10 percent from the field and get blown out every year. But that’s just me……

  9. Dan 10/10/2006 at 11:41 AM #

    More like Lee Fowler didnt hand him his cue until the other teams were already shooting at the 8 ball (or the 9 ball depending on if you rather play the weak game).

    Fire Lee Fowler.

    Oh yeah, I love Chuck. Thank God for him and Daniel Evans turning the season around and saving us from another Fowled up coaching search.

  10. primacyone 10/10/2006 at 11:44 AM #

    Noah – How about we wait till the end of the month before we go there?

    If Wright says no, I’ll have the same thoughts as I had a week ago which puts me in a much better place than I was a year ago.

    At his point, I don’t come anywhere close to buying your 07-08 worst team argument.

  11. class of 74 10/10/2006 at 11:47 AM #

    Noah,
    Since you brought it up. The 1981 GT team was not the worst in Cremins tenure. Try the ’97 version, they did not reach double digit wins for the season and that was Cremins’ worst both overall and ACC too! And on another thread you spoke of Spurrier’s recruiting prowess while at Duke which did not bearout to be true. So inspite of RAWFS’ endorsement of your past predictions I’ll remain skeptical on the predictions and observations.

  12. redfred2 10/10/2006 at 11:50 AM #

    ^theys some pitiful typing above

  13. packbackr04 10/10/2006 at 11:52 AM #

    how did this become a “how bad are we going to be” thread

  14. ncsuman 10/10/2006 at 11:57 AM #

    So what is the story on Hickson on Thursday? Us or Tennessee? Any ideas?

  15. nycfan 10/10/2006 at 11:59 AM #

    Some random thoughts …

    (1) Recruits often send out last minute signals that they are going to “surprise” everyone at their press conference — it sort of builds interest/buzz for their shining moment.

    BUT

    (2) OTOH, Scout.com and some other sites have a pretty good track record getting it right on the day of announcement. At that point, too many people know (often, but far from always, including the “losing” coaching staffs who start trying to blunt the disappointment as soon as they get the word).

    When I saw this morning that Georgetown seemed the be the choice, after all the good “vibes” favoring State since Friday, I thought about Lowe’s lack of experience as a college coach and recruiter and of the recruitment of Thad Young last year. You guys may not have followed that with any interest, but on his visit to UNC (and Young and his dad both later confirmed this in print), Young told Roy that he was committing to Carolina, but he wanted to take the rest of his visits before making the announcement. Roy said no, if you are committing, then you cancel your other visits and announce it now. Otherwise, it is not a commitment — he still wanted Young, no doubt, but would not accept a “commitment” on any terms but his own. The next weekend, Brandon Wright shocked the college basketball world (but not Roy) by publicly committing to UNC during his visit and the last scholarship was gone.

    Obviously, any coaching staff only has so much leverage with any recruit and you generally can’t afford to lose a kid by alienating him if he wants to have a press conference or whatever. But if it does turn out that Wright has chosen Georgetown, I wonder if State’s coaching staff took a “loose” commitment from Wright and left the door open for GTown to swoop in to make a final pitch? Just speculating, of course.

    As for the timing of making the announcement before Midnight Madness at GTown, this would give Wright 2 glorious moments — one the announcement itself today, at his school, with all his friends and classmates there to cheer him on, and second when he is introduced at GTown and feels the love from the hyped up crowd.

  16. primacyone 10/10/2006 at 11:59 AM #

    Red,

    That’s the first actual fact I’ve seen all day.

    It’s hard to type, talk on the phone, work, follow the boards, and think all at exactly the same time.

    Unless you’ve had a couple of beers of course, then on occasion you actually take time to proof what you’ve typed before you hit submit – which I did not do on this post since I’m saving up to around 3:30 in case I need something a little harder berfore partaking.

  17. noah 10/10/2006 at 11:59 AM #

    “And on another thread you spoke of Spurrier’s recruiting prowess while at Duke which did not bearout to be true”

    You mean the thread where you claimed Spurrier didn’t recruit Jon Jensen…but Steve Sloan did?? I mentioned specific people Spurrier brought in and you “proved” me wrong by making an unsubstantiated claim about unnamed players Steve Sloan brought in??

    The 1980-81 Georgia Tech team posted wins over:
    Flagler
    University of the South
    Presbyterian
    Newberry

    That’s it. Baptist beat them by 24 points. Troy State and W. Carolina beat them as well.

    I really don’t think a team that beat NC State, FSU, Georgia and UVa compares.

  18. nycfan 10/10/2006 at 12:00 PM #

    ncsuman — the rumor mill has Hickson leaning to Tennessee, but as you see with Wright, things can (appear to) change on a dime.

  19. westwolf 10/10/2006 at 12:00 PM #

    ^It’ll be us on Wednesday, but by Thursday it’ll be them.

  20. RAWFS 10/10/2006 at 12:11 PM #

    Here is the thought process of a 17 YO young man in his recruitment process:
    (with a nod to Deadspin)

    “Boobies, boobies, Wolfpack, boobies, mmmm, nice butt, butt, Hoyas, dayam, boobies, boobies, Wolfpack, Hoyas, dayam hot boobies…”

  21. class of 74 10/10/2006 at 12:11 PM #

    ^I did not say anything about Jensen that was your call. I said Spurrier won with basically Sloan’s recruits, which Spurrier himself said many times over both in the media and when I had the chance to play golf with him. And the
    records were virtually the same for the four years pre-Spurrier and post-Spurrier. You’d think those recruits of his would’ve made one heck of a difference, huh? I just said Duke’s record bearsout Spurrier’s prowess as a coach not as a recruiter and the records show this to be true! That’s all.

  22. noah 10/10/2006 at 12:17 PM #

    “I just said Duke’s record bearsout Spurrier’s prowess as a coach not as a recruiter and the records show this to be true! That’s all.”

    That argument falls apart pretty quickly when you look at Carolina after Mack Brown.

    Brown is probably the best recruiter in the nation. Carl Torbush took over his team that was full of NFL talent and drove it straight into the ground.

    So, I guess Brown left the cupboard bare. Bare…except for Julius Peppers, Ryan Sims, David Thorton, Darian Durant, Sam Aiken, Brandon Spoon, Michael Waddell…..

    No talent whatsoever…

  23. packbackr04 10/10/2006 at 12:26 PM #

    CHris Wirght… anyone…… im getting ready to lose it… are all the admin’s on this site keeping quiet until after the presser?

  24. ncsuman 10/10/2006 at 12:29 PM #

    Any ideas on where we can listen to the pc live?

  25. redfred2 10/10/2006 at 12:33 PM #

    Again, like I said in an earlier thread, if he comes it’s fabulous. He will have the opportunity to play and progress from day one with two NCAA championship point guards as his mentors. Lowe having the NBA background also to work with should be a plus. Or, with the other players we have already, he can ease into it more slowly if that suits him better. This is the ACC and going up against the best individual talent in the nation night after night. I do not know the specifics of each situation with Pitt, G’town, and us, but as far as THE PLACE/THE COMPETITION/THE CONFERENCE to play college basketball, we have it.

    I wasn’t expecting, excited, or even apprehensive before I saw a few positive posts about Wright a few days back. But the kid really doesn’t know what he’s missing out on if he decides to play elsewhere. There will be no excitement found anywhere like the RBC in Raleigh NC and a Chris Wright lead Wolfpack BBall team going up against the likes of UNC, Duke…

    All we can do is hope.

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