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!
