N&O: Hickson To Test NBA Waters

07-08 Basketball131

As we indicated just a couple of days ago…

RALEIGH — N.C. State freshman J.J. Hickson will enter his name in the NBA Draft but he will go through the process without hiring an agent, Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said Monday, leaving the door open for a possible return.”He’ll test the waters,” Lowe said. “He’ll get all the information he can and decide what’s the best thing. It may depend on where he’s going in the draft.”

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07-08 Basketball

131 Responses to N&O: Hickson To Test NBA Waters

  1. Astral Rain 03/18/2008 at 10:06 AM #

    I meant Lowe. Fowler’s a lost cause.

    Fowler I would never give the total coach- Jackass, screwup, or moron maybe- but not Coach.

  2. newt 03/18/2008 at 10:06 AM #

    That’s the right move for Hickson. I take comfort that so far common sense seems to be prevailing. I don’t think there’s any guarantee he’ll go or stay. It all depends on the level of interest from specific NBA teams and keeping the sharks away from him (i.e. agents).

    PS – What in the world? Adam Harrington was at NC State waaaaaaay back in 1998. Grant didn’t even come in until 2004, so not sure how one thinks that he would care about that guy. I think Justin Gainey is the only person associated with the program who actually played with AH. After all this time without chemistry problems, I’m amazed if the innuendo on here is true.

  3. Noah 03/18/2008 at 10:07 AM #

    I’m repeating myself, but remember Chip Diller? (Kevin Bacon in Animal House)

    Remain calm! ALL IS WELL!!!!

  4. BoKnowsNCS71 03/18/2008 at 10:10 AM #

    I think Monte came to bring in some experience as did some of the other hires.

    I heard this quote about the coach of that orange team who recently got his third team into the NCAAT. “He is a man who builds programs — not teams.”

    This is the type of criteria that any coach at State should be prepared to be graded on. Tom O’Brian has shown he can build football programs.

    Sadly, unless Sid can get this ship turned around in the next few years and get the crew rowing in beat rather than in circles — the only thing left will be to hire a program builder. And that could mean no good basketball at NCSU till about 2014 if we are lucky.

  5. Mr O 03/18/2008 at 10:18 AM #

    Essentially a “situation” happened this year between teammates that also happened years ago. When it happened years ago, essentially one of the people involved left the program(not sure if it was even an option to come back). While one might think in the end everyone can come together to try and win games, this is one of those “situations” that would be very difficult to get over especially when you consider who was involved and the role he played(or should have played) on this year’s team. It isn’t my place to say anything more than that.

  6. Sweet jumper 03/18/2008 at 10:23 AM #

    If you break a team rule, you don’t start in the ACC tournament. If you violate a teammate’s(s) trust, you are not disciplined and are allowed to keep playing your usual role. Something is wrong with this picture. Help me understand.

  7. newt 03/18/2008 at 10:24 AM #

    Ahhhhhh. So we’re not talking about AH but a similar situation. Chemistry must’ve sucked already for that to happen though.

  8. choppack1 03/18/2008 at 10:32 AM #

    Mr O – it’s also worth noting that the next 2 years, (if memory serves correct) – there wasn’t that big a difference in the product.

    Even though one player left, the next 2 years we still didn’t make the tourney. I think the next year started out very promising, but ended up in one of those Sendekian collapses – losing 7 of our last 8 games in the second half of the ACC season…taking us from a virtual lock for the NCAA tournament, to the NIT.

    The next year – was the Sendek’s horrid 5th year – aka – the worst basketball we’d seen since Les Robinson was on the sidelines until this year.

    What does this all mean? Chemistry problems for coaches are probably a lot like facilities. They make a great team good. (See Tim Duncan’s last year at Wake.) A good team mediocre. A mediocre team bad.

    In other words, if you’re thinking that next year by virtue of one of the offending parties being gone, things will be alot better, you may be too optimistic.

  9. tractor57 03/18/2008 at 10:37 AM #

    After watching good teams play in the ACC Tourney a few things were obvious.
    1) The Pack had little foot speed
    2) The Pack had no desire at the end of the season
    3) Team chemistry was a problem – I’m in the know as to the ins and outs but it was obvious when watching the play of the team
    4) Significant changes must be made to allow this team to improve
    5) I’m not the coach or the AD and I don’t have the inside knowledge to even speculate on the proper moves – I just know things must be changed to improve

  10. newt 03/18/2008 at 10:37 AM #

    Forgot to mention that some of you seem to be ignoring the fact that Donovan’s team lost 8 of 11.

  11. BoKnowsNCS71 03/18/2008 at 10:46 AM #

    Newt — heard that Donovan has banned that team from wearing any Gator gear and being in the faclility for a while. But your point is well taken. He built a great “team” and when they all graduated or went to the NBA — the backups were not there or are still early in the process of being developed into winners in a few years.

    I think when you look at “programs” you see stability. they have great years and good years but rarely bad years. There are always talented kids in the pipeline ready to replace the Seniors and Juniors. What I worry about is the bell curve program — up a year or so and then back down a few years. A graph of our w-L record might be interesting.

  12. Mr O 03/18/2008 at 10:46 AM #

    Choppack: Totally agree. In fact, “chemisty problems” always seemed to be a big issue during the Sendek era. Though those chemistry problems appeared from the outside to be more between the coach and players as opposed to be between players in later years.

    After Harrington left, Damien Wilkins, Marshall Williams and Cliff Crawford entered the program and then the “Wilkins Fiasco” happened. I still remember sitting in my car, pulled over on the side of the road listening to Gerald Wilkins go on and on about our basketball program and Herb Sendek after year 5. I remember thinking about what a circus our program had become.

    Then Sendek responded by not inviting Damien back to play basketball and things got immediately better. Until year 7 when J. Powell inexplicably wasn’t happy in the program and left for Europe. Year 8 everything seemed good, we went 11-5, but unfortunately had the collapse against Maryland in the ACC tournament and the collapse against Vandy in the NCAAs.

    Then you had the Julius Hodge issues his senior(still don’t know what really happened on the NYC trip) and Cam Bennerman issues the next year. Note that mentioning all of these issues is in no way saying who is to blame(the player or the coach). I am just simply pointing out that there always seemed to be problems that kept us from reaching our potential every year.

  13. Mr O 03/18/2008 at 10:59 AM #

    Graph(sort of) of ACC wins since Lee Fowler was AD:

    WWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWWW
    WWWWW
    WWWW

  14. highstick 03/18/2008 at 11:01 AM #

    Some of this junk goes back to even 1975. There were some “rumors” then too that there were some “differences between” certain players on that team too.

    If this is true, I’m really disappointed in our coaching staff. Either “get with it” or be gone! It also points out the weakness in our AD. If he’d had the leadership abilities that he should, he would have stepped in, but then again, he doesn’t!

    I’ve had a gut feeling that something like this was going on, but just never could figure out who all of the culprits were. It sure shows the immaturity of certain players though.

  15. Mr O 03/18/2008 at 11:03 AM #

    Correcting basketball graph from above. Forgot his first year.

    Basketball under Lee Fowler(ACC wins):
    WWWWW
    WWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWWW
    WWWWW
    WWWW
    Football under Lee Fowler:

    WWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWWWWW
    WWWWWWWW
    WWWWW
    WWWWWWW
    WWW
    WWWWW

  16. Bartonpackfan09 03/18/2008 at 11:06 AM #

    Well, I don’t know about the chemistry problems everybody wants to talk about, because I’m not an actual member of the team. I do think, and I’ll probably get angry hate speach for this, that we are better WITHOUT JJ. Here’s why.

    Two seasons ago, when we were happy with the teams play, even though we weren’t that much better than this year, we ran a lot of sets out of a double high post. The offesne would start with the ball going to McCauley or Costner on the left or right elbow, followed by a few cuts and a few screens at the top, very very similar to what Sendek ran.

    This year, there was a two fold problem with that situation. JJ was now a member of the team and couldn’t play that roll. He is not a shooter like Costner, nor a good passer like McCauley, illustrated by his unwillingness to pass out of a double team. This lead to the change in offense that has been noted above, dump it in to JJ and watch. The reason was that no one could do what they were able to do.

    Could we get a drive to the basket? No, because if you drove, there was JJ’s man in your face, there was no space down low to operate. Players like GG and Fells, with raw athletic ability couldn’t play the way they wanted to. Players like McCauley and Costner couldn’t play in the same roles that made them great last year.

    In the end, next year should be better without JJ. Lowe can run the offense that he wants. What is that you ask? Watch the Pistons. Lots of pick and rolls, and back screens for our good shooters, hopefully Gonzalez as he continues to grow and Costner as he is able to get back to playing the way he wants.

    I know some of you will disagree with me on these points, but if you think about it, we just might be better without JJ than with him.

  17. packbackr04 03/18/2008 at 11:34 AM #

    WE JUST NEED TO TOTALLY START OVER…. from the jerseys to the players. we need to just start from fround zero and get this thing together

  18. packgrad93 03/18/2008 at 11:38 AM #

    I’m suppotave of our current coach more than most on here. When Sid gets this program where he wants it, I’ll be waiting for this site to eat crow & admit Sid was a great hire & is a great coach.

    SFN: What are talking about? Who here has said Sid is not a great hire and great coach? PERFECT!! Again, you live in a made up world of what you wish were true as opposed to reality.

  19. choppack1 03/18/2008 at 11:50 AM #

    highstick – I think there’s some truth to that. When things go wrong, we want explanations. I’m sure that chemistry problems have reared themselves before – I day say that teams that have won national championships have had chemistry problems. I do think it makes a coaches job harder – but if you continually have them, maybe the coach has some issues.

    We’re only in year 2 of Sid, so we can’t call this a pattern. Then again, I’m not one to excuse this trainwreck of a season on “bad chemistry.” I mean, last year, we had “good chemistry” and won one more game and were blown out plenty.

  20. Rochester 03/18/2008 at 11:58 AM #

    The chemistry excuse only goes so far. We still didn’t play any defense. Didn’t have much of an offense. Didn’t box out for rebounds. Et cetera.

  21. kyjelly 03/18/2008 at 11:59 AM #

    Good move of course Flower as Sids adviser but if you do the math do 2 imcompetents Sid and Flower = Success? think not only 2years chopack1? show me some signs that I should be remotely optimistic?

  22. Ed89 03/18/2008 at 12:04 PM #

    GG, although he gives a good interview, and I think is a real good guy, is probably not who you’d pick as a “leader” if you were to start a team. He’s just not a high basketball IQ kind of guy. Personally, I think the team chemistry issue is blown way out of proportion. They just did not play well on the court together. I think some of BartonPackFan’s comments are closer to the truth. Anyway, if I were to completely guess on sides, do you remember when Gavin and JJ got their heads shaved??? Pretty cool, but they were the ONLY two. No need to read anything into that, but evidently they got along well together. Ultimately, yes Sid is learning on the job. I think this team will be alot better next year — with or without JJ. If he leaves, I personally wish him well, but if not, I think he’ll come back and be a lottery pick in next year’s draft. Either way though, NC State will be a better basketball team next year. I know, you can’t get worse than 12th, but I predict we show noticeable improvement and finish in the top half of the league.

  23. jmartineau 03/18/2008 at 12:05 PM #

    “Watch out about the rift. Depending on how things go, even though one person is gone, these things can fester since evidently sides were chosen and one of the remaining parties will still be here”

    1. I agree and this would only decreases the slim chance of JJ coming back.

    2. While I can appreciate the circumstances that led to the rift between the players, the coaches obviously weren’t able to deal with it effectively (it looked like they couldn’t deal with it at all). So now with one of the parties gone, I just don’t feel like things will get that much better that soon. Removing a tumor is a start, but now begins the true healing process. I hope someone outside the coaching staff steps into help here.

  24. BJD95 03/18/2008 at 12:06 PM #

    By no means are we saying that the chemistry/faction issue is or was the ONLY problem with the NC State basketball program.

  25. blackdom 03/18/2008 at 12:06 PM #

    Rochester: very very true it is all excuses and now he needs the AD to point the way for him? From the late late season revelation from Sid that it was the players fault it never ends .Only 2 years? I do not want to see what this guy can do with a few more years in charge here.

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