Crittenton Will Stay in NBA Draft

07-08 Basketball General54

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“I’d like to announce that I will remain in the 2007 NBA draft and forgo my college eligibility,” Crittenton, an Atlanta native, said in a statement. “I’ve met with my family, as well as Coach (Paul) Hewitt, and everyone has given me their support and blessing. I see this as an opportunity, and I plan to put my best foot forward and give it my all. I’d like to thank all of my coaches, teammates and fans for a great time at Georgia Tech.”

Crittenton is the seventh Tech underclassmen to enter the NBA draft and the first since junior Jarrett Jack did it in 2005. NBADraft.net projects him as the No. 15 pick, to the Detroit Pistons. Tech freshman forward and co-scoring leader Thaddeus Young has not yet announced whether he’ll keep his name in the draft. Young is projected by many as a lottery pick.

Dave Glenn listed the Pack at #4 in his early ACC rankings, 2 slots behind the Bees. Predicted #3 Duke also failed to land Patrick Patterson, as we discussed earlier this week. Would it be fair, or at least plausible, that recent events bump the Pack to #3, or even #2? I still urge caution and restraint, but my optimism continues to rise.

No dominant PGs in the upper echelon other than at UNC. No frontcourts within the upper tier appear even competitive with ours, except at UNC. On paper, it doesn’t look easy for non-UNC foes to exploit our possible weaknesses or defend against our strongest facet. After all, basketball is very much a game of matchups. I like how our roster matches up against the top half of the 2007-08 ACC.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball General

54 Responses to Crittenton Will Stay in NBA Draft

  1. Rochester 05/26/2007 at 3:59 PM #

    I was in the camp of people saying that folks should stop pestering Brackman about his decision because it was hard enough to make it without everyone constantly cajoling him to change his mind. To say his baseball stock would be exactly the same if he had played basketball is pure speculation. It might very well be. But it was his personal decision.

    Would I have loved it if he had played hoops? Yeah, we sure could have used him. But it’s his life. My whole point was that people should respect the decision he made, even if they were disappointed by it.

    As for where he’ll go in the baseball draft, Baseball America has him as the No. 7 prospect talent-wise and is projecting him to go No. 11 to the Mariners. That’s in their Draft Preview issue that just came out. His bonus demands and agent could cause him to slide, because he does have basketball as a bargaining chip.

  2. brickman 05/26/2007 at 4:49 PM #

    redfred .in the long run it will pay off with the playing time costner and big bad bengot to play this year

  3. mafpack 05/26/2007 at 8:27 PM #

    Redfred

    I think what you’re not getting (or maybe you are, who knows?) is that Brackman and Coach A both felt that his time spent playing basketball was actively harming his ability to play baseball at the level that he’s aiming for. His physical conditioning, the overlapping schedules and the divided attention in preperation to play a sport at its highest levels, all took a hit during his first two season… the effects were only starting to show during his sophmore year.

    Combined with his much higher potential for injury (ie his hip injury in the 05-06 season), I don’t see how he couldn’t make the decision to go for one or the other (granted I would have loved for him to stay with b-ball and go pro, but the money is obviously better in MLB). Besides the fact that pushing a student athelete with absolutely zero break time (physically and mentally) is seriously asking for trouble.

    Anyways, brickman does have a point, even though we would have loved to have brackman in the rotation (giving Costner and Ben some needed rest), the extra time spent on the court definitly hardened both men into battle tested veterans in a very short period of time.

  4. redfred2 05/26/2007 at 10:18 PM #

    “To say his baseball stock would be exactly the same if he had played basketball is pure speculation.”

    Speculation? Who me?

    Sorry, but excuse me, I think that’s exactly where ALL OF YOU GUYS got it backwards. It was all you guys, and Coach A, doing the speculating, and in a totally negative light.

    All I heard was that…I was being selfish, “He’s going to get hurt, he’ll ruin his chances to play MLB, he’s crazy to play basketball with all of that money waiting out there from baseball,” and on and on… It was as if everyone wanted to invent a version of baseball’s own “boy in a bubble”.

    But on the hand, what I was saying was…keep doing what you are doing young man, enjoy your ability to excel in two sports on the collegiate level, you have special gift that’s a rare occurence these days. Don’t close any doors or give anything up right now, especially if a major factor is your recently uninspired experiences on the basketball court. Just keep your options open, give it one more chance, keep trying, and see where your abilities and your all of your options will take you. Also, enjoy the admiration from ALL of the fans and thoroughly enjoy the ride while you’re young. Major league baseball and the NBA both, will still be there when your great experiences in college are over.

    Again, as far the speculation goes, I don’t see my viewpoint as negative, or selfish. A young and promising two sport athlete named Andrew Brackman, put all of eggs in one basket well before it was ever even necessary for him to so. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t think that the factors that led him to up give on basketball were what he should have based that decision on, or quite fair to the kid himself. I hated to see him give it without knowing for himself, NOT ME. Let’s just hope it all works out for him in baseball now.

  5. Luke12321 05/26/2007 at 10:54 PM #

    Don’t know if this is the right thread but word is Kentucky has offered Larry Harris a job. Don’t know exactly what spot on the staff but more $$ ofcourse. Have to see how much truth this really holds….. I would not be shocked if he left though. If it all does go through, wonder who Sid will bring in for an assistant? Harris has been a big factor in our recruits recently…

  6. choppack1 05/26/2007 at 10:58 PM #

    rf – Sorry – but Brack’s choice was perfectly rational – especially given his hip injury last year.

    Regarding Harris – this offer tells you how well respected he is in the coaching community. Hopefully, he stays.

    It will be interesting to see if Singletary comes back too. If he doesn’t – the Cavs could be very bad next year. As for GaTech, it appears Hewitt can really draw in the talent. They’ve lost Crittendon, but have another PG coming in – they’ll once again be athletic and talented….but I expect a disciplined can give them lots of fits.

  7. noah 05/27/2007 at 9:24 AM #

    Who is Tyree Graham and when did he commit to NC State?

    http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/581635.html

  9. redfred2 05/27/2007 at 11:28 AM #

    …”especially given his hip injury last year.”

    Chop, if you say so. I don’t know why but I see attitudes like yours as comparable to someone who raises milk fed cows for veal. IT”S ALL ABOUT THE BIG $$$BUCKS$$$ and nothing else!!! If something goes wrong there, maybe he escapes from his dark four by four cubicle and gets too much exercise, or too much sunlight, then that EXPENSIVE and totally specialized PIECE OF BEEF just isn’t too much good for anything.

    Oh well, hopefully in the pros and later on in his life, Andrew Brackman will be able to recoup some of the fun and enjoyment that he is passing by as young man right now. I don’t see that happening too often with folks in my day to day, but maybe he’s lucky.

  10. choppack1 05/27/2007 at 12:41 PM #

    rf – I think you’re off base. In the interviews I read w/ Brack, it was always obvious and he was honest in that baseball was his first love and most favorite sport out of the two – and I think you need to keep that in mind.

    I know how he feels – in the past 10 years, I’ve given up basketball (after a scare where I thought I’d broken my ankle) and I’ve gone from really working hard on my golf game, to focusing on other events.

    He did both events for 2 years. He did them very well. However, we have no idea the physical and mental toil that doing both sports all the while trying to stay academically eligible took on him.

    You really don’t know what enjoyment he is or is not getting. To him, it may be as simple as not going to a party he’d rather not attend. If he really loves the game, respects and enjoys his teammates, and his coaches – then I agree with you. We simply don’t know if that’s the case.

  11. xphoenix87 05/27/2007 at 2:23 PM #

    Just cause it pertains to the discussion, this is Keith Law’s analysis of Brackman’s draft prospects.

    “Andrew Brackman, right-handed pitcher, North Carolina State: My top prospect coming out of last summer, Brackman has scuffled badly this spring, altering his delivery to a cross-body motion that has robbed him of his command and that seems like an injury waiting to happen. He missed his last start due to “fatigue.” When right, Brackman is an easy 91-97 with a good downhill plane and a very clean delivery, but for a team to pay him the bonus for which he’ll likely ask (especially as a former two-sport guy, which gives him some special privileges come contract time), they’ll have to remember what he was in 2006 on Cape Cod, not what he was in the spring of 2007 at school.”

  12. redfred2 05/27/2007 at 8:52 PM #

    Chop, Brackman’s decision was an apples to oranges comparison. It was only pitifully lackluster coaching and a lackluster Wolfpack basketball program that gave the baseball coaches an opening and made a baseball career seem to make so much more sense. I will continue to say that if the circumstances were more positive within the basketball program back then, that AB would still be playing basketball and no one would be advising him to give it up, not the fans, not his coaches, and not his parents, nobody. It was easy choice back then, that is the unfortunate part for Andrew Brackman, because it never should have been.

  13. choppack1 05/27/2007 at 8:57 PM #

    rf – Do you know Brackman? Do you know him or someone close to him or are you just making assumptions?

  14. redfred2 05/27/2007 at 9:33 PM #

    Looking at it from a distance, and taking everything into account that I am aware of about it, these are purely my own evalutions of the situation. But I don’t think I am assuming anything.

  15. choppack1 05/27/2007 at 11:06 PM #

    What are you aware of?

  16. TNCSU 05/27/2007 at 11:17 PM #

    Where’s the official word that Larry Harris was offered a job with Kentucky??? What would be the ties to Gillespie???

  17. redfred2 05/28/2007 at 9:31 AM #

    chop, I am not privy to any info more than the regular media or what others are posting here, and on other sites. I don’t think I’m really saying anything that plain ol’ common sense wouldn’t lead anyone to believe if they took a step back and really analyzed the circumstances at the time of Andrew Brackman’s decision.

  18. Rochester 05/28/2007 at 9:46 AM #

    Having a conversation with you is like a Martian talking to a Fungo.

    –Crash Davis, Bull Durham

  19. noah 05/28/2007 at 10:06 AM #

    Andrew Brackman is a Scott Boras client. That ought to change the way you view him.

    And two-sport stars like Brackman are rare only because people recognize that playing two sports hinders your development in both sports. I can name 10 guys right off the top of my head who, in the last few years, were big-time prospects in two sports and opted to let one go in order to be the best one-sport player that they could be…

    Baseball gives you a shot at a 20-year career. Top picks get immediate financial freedom with a signing bonus and there aren’t any career-ending injuries.

    6-10 pitchers with dominanting stuff (when it can be thrown for a strike) are pretty rare. 6-10 forwards with average athleticism and skills? Oh, there are plenty of those guys.

    Brackman’s decision is like a guy giving up all the parties of a senior year in order to stay in and study to get in to law or med school. C’mon…it’s the last time in your life you can spend the night drinking cheap beer and partying with immoral 21 year girls!

    Would anyone say the guy who studies is “selfish?”

  20. redfred2 05/28/2007 at 11:53 AM #

    noah,

    All true, and I hope so for Brackman’s sake, but back at the time I still say it was too early to make the determination to eliminate basketball. My point is, and what I think someone eluded to in an earlier thread, is that AB’s MLB potential was looking better back he was still playing basketball. He had an out, and anyone could say that he wasn’t concentrating fully on that particular sport, so of course when he reached the majors with the proper coaching involved, his pitching skills would skyrocket. But instead, now that he made a decision and is placing his all of focus on that single sport, his value has slipped somewhat. Who knows if it won’t slip even more? Whatever the contributing factors in regards to that slippage, it maybe just a mental glitch on Brackman’s part, or possibly due somewhat to coaching right now, but his stock has taken a noticeable dive.

    I disagree on your assessment of the NBA (at the moment). They do have a glut of outrageously athletic individuals playing right now, but talented basketball players with the right attitudes and mental capacities for the game as it should be played??? I don’t think so. Players with those abilities are making a very strong push right now and finally leading the league back in a direction where skill is at a premium. Thank God!!! Anyone who says that a kid like Andrew Brackman didn’t have a place there, and anyone who is foolishly basing their opinions purely on watching his play on the basketball court at NC State, under the shackled and totally limiting system that he was playing under at the time, is not being fair or taking an honest look at the overall situation as it was at the time.

  21. PackGirl 05/28/2007 at 5:51 PM #

    I don’t know Brackman personally but he has always been one of my favorites so I have followed his interviews and everything written in the media about him pretty closely. I wish I had the links to prove it but I remember reading numerous articles last fall and even one or 2 earlier this year about how much he loved basketball and how difficult it was for him to give it up. I was also at the UNC game this year, which happened to be the game where the baseball team received an award at half-time. I watched Brackman leaving the court and he just kept standing on the sidelines, looking back as the team came back out on court. The look on his face said it all. Can you imagine how it must have killed him to miss that game!?

  22. PackGirl 05/28/2007 at 6:04 PM #

    I just found this from the May 17 Winston-Salem journal. It explains how not playing basketball actually hurt him (although indirectly):

    His decision to skip the hoops backfired in one sense. Even after committing to baseball, he continued a weight-lifting regimen that was originally intended to bulk him up for basketball.

    He senses now that he bulked up too much, got too big, and it may have led to some mechanical problems and a bout with “dead arm” this spring when the innings started piling up.

    There was a stretch during which he lost an estimated five or six miles an hour off his fastball, a significant drop in velocity.

    In recent weeks, Brackman has stopped lifting.

    It all happened innocently, Brackman said – a byproduct of having more time on his hands last winter since he didn’t play basketball.

    “I don’t like sitting around watching baseball or basketball on TV,” he said. “I like to be moving. I get up at night, and I go to the weight room, and it kind of got out of hand because I spent an hour, an hour and a half, and I got a little too big. Basically our trainer locked me out of the weight room for the rest of the year. So now I do a lot more running.”

  23. redfred2 05/28/2007 at 9:29 PM #

    “I wish I had the links to prove it but I remember reading numerous articles last fall and even one or 2 earlier this year about how much he loved basketball and how difficult it was for him to give it up.”

    Ah but, IF?

    IF only he had been playing a brand of basketball that he along with his fellow teammates could have fully embraced, getting closer and growing and evolving together as a team, how hard would it have been give up basketball back then? Or, IF that had actually been the case back then would giving it up ever even been considered? I say that it wouldn’t have.

  24. Rick 05/29/2007 at 7:40 AM #

    “chop, I am not privy to any info more than the regular media or what others are posting here, and on other sites.”

    And yet you spout off here like you are his father.

  25. noah 05/29/2007 at 8:32 AM #

    “but talented basketball players with the right attitudes and mental capacities for the game as it should be played???”

    Brackman is a pretty good college basketball player. Nothing great. Never all-conference. Just a nice college player.

    He has the potential to be a dominanting pitcher.

    Again…..Scott Boras client.

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