Basketball recruiting for this year’s class is complete and first year Head Coach, Sidney Lowe has an awful lot of which to be proud!! Coach Lowe made the best of his opportunity to make a big impact as early as he could last summer.
After inheriting a program that was in such disarray that Lee Fowler found it necessary to sign the new coach to an (uncustomary) SIX YEAR deal last year, Sidney bested expectations on the court during his first season and has continued his momentum off the court in recruiting.
(Sidebar: After six years of listening to “Coach” Fowler extol the strength of NC State’s program under Herb Sendek, I never understood the ‘logic’ and lack of consistency that the program was in such bad shape that Fowler needed to go outside of his box and give Lowe an extra year on his first contract. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about the maneuver as it relates to Sidney – just flabbergasted at the hypocrisy of Fowler’s actions when measured against his words).
This year’s recruiting class started coming together when Johnny Thomas committed to the Wolfpack in early June of last year. The class kept picking up steam and then picked up momentum from there.
If you do not include point guard Farnold Degand or combo guard Marques Johnson who is transferring from Tennessee, the Wolfpack signed four players in this year’s class.
* JJ Hickson, C/PF, Scout – 5-star, #13 rank; Rivals – 5-star, #10 rank
* Tracy Smith, F, Scout – 4-star, #70 rank; Rivals – 4-star, #46 rank
* Javi Gonzalez, PG, Scout – 3-star, Top 150 rank; Rivals – 3-star, Top 150 rank
* Johnny Thomas, SF, Scout – 3-star, Top 150 rank; Rivals – 3-star, Top 150 rank
Not including the transfers, Coach Lowe’s first recruiting haul was ranked:
* 16th in the country CollegeHoopsUpdate.com. (Link to rankings)
* 16th by Scout.com (Link to rankings )
* 18th by Rivals.com (Link to rankings) (We particularly liked the Rivals article because of its format and easy access to past recruiting rankings.
The ACC Perspective
As always, the first place to turn for broad and deep analysis of the conference is Dave Glenn.
Glenn’s ACCSports.com has a detailed breakdown of both 2007 signees and a look ahead to 2008 recruits at this link.
The Fayetteville Observer highlighted the recruiting classes of the entire conference in this article that uses the Prepstars recruiting service for its basis.
Duke signed three of the top 20 basketball prospects in the Class of 2007, getting signatures from Kyle Singler, Taylor King and Nolan Smith in the fall. The only other top-20 player headed to the ACC is J.J. Hickson, who signed with N.C. State.
ACC schools are bringing in eight of the top 50 high school hoops players in the nation as ranked by prepstars.com. In addition to the three future Blue Devils, N.C. State and Florida State signed two apiece, while Georgia Tech got one.
Of the 43 high school players who signed with ACC schools, 20 are ranked in the top 100. One of those, however, Augustus Gilchrist, has said he will not attend Virginia Tech because of last month’s campus shootings.
None of Clemson’s three signees is rated in the top 100. All of the other ACC schools, with the exception of North Carolina, added at least one top-100 prospect.
Carolina did not sign anybody. In fact, the Tar Heels did not recruit anyone in the 2007 class after making the nation’s No. 1 haul last year. UNC’s 2006 group included six of the top 100 high school players.
Virginia Tech has the largest 2007 ACC class with six signees. Maryland has five.
The rankings are summarized below:
(1) Duke
(2) Georgia Tech
(3) N.C. State
(4) Florida State
(5) Virginia Tech
(6) Wake Forest
(7) Maryland
(8) Virginia
(9) Boston College
(10) Miami
(11) Clemson
(12) North Carolina
Related, Dave Sez has done a nice analysis on the talent entering the ACC this year.
NC State’s Future
We’ve been keeping a running list of the Wolfpack’s projected roster for the past year as we have been following recruiting. With the news that Tracy Smith has not only signed but is projected to academically qualify to play next season (and should be enrolling at State this summer), then it becomes more clear that someone on NC State’s current roster will not be returning to the program next season.
Early rumblings from Raleigh seem to indicate that Bartosz Lewandowski may be having some health issues that will preclude him from participating in college athletics in the future. We do not know who true this is and will be looking into it further; we will exclude Lewandowski for the purposes of the following projections. Also unknown for the purposes of the following projections is the classification of Marques Johnson next year. Will he be a freshman or a sophomore?
Senior Class
(1) Gavin Grant (2G/3F)
Junior Class
(2) Courtney Fells (2G)
(3) Ben McCauley (4F/5C)
Sophomore Class
(4) Brandon Costner (3F/4F)
(5) Trevor Ferguson (2G/PG)
(6) Dennis Horner (3F)
(7) Farnold Degand (1PG)
Freshman Class
(8) Johnny Thomas (3F)
(9) JJ Hickson (5C/4F)
(10) Tracy Smith (4F/3F)
(11) Marques Johnson (2G) (eligible after first semester)
(12) Javi Gonzalez (1PG)
HS Senior Commits
(13) Julius Mays (PG)
(1) CJ Williams (3F/2G) [Gavin Grant’s old scholarship]
More from Dave Glenn:
N.C. State is in the unusual position, even at this early stage, of having filled all of its open roster spots with commitments from members of the Class of 2008. These high school juniors won’t be in college until the 2008-09 season, remember, but Lowe already has secured pledges from Indiana guard Julius Mays and in-state (Fayetteville Jack Britt) swingman C.J. Williams. Unless a current team member leaves the program prematurely, the Wolfpack has no more available scholarships for high school juniors.
Given the nature (transfers, early NBA entries, etc.) of modern college basketball, of course, the Wolfpack is continuing to stay in contact with a variety of 2008 prospects, even without an open scholarship.
Updated – July 30, 2007
Link to WS Journal
There are four incoming freshmen to go with two players who transferred in last year and will be eligible in the coming season. The four freshmen alone – center J.J. Hickson, forwards Tracy Smith and Johnny Thomas, and guard Javier Gonzalez – gave State the No. 14 class in the nation, according to PrepStars, and the No. 2 class in the ACC behind Duke. Scout.com rated the class No. 17 in the nation and No. 2 in the ACC.
