Hickson turning heads early

07-08 Basketball Alums General23

J.J. Hickson got off to a quick start last night in his first summer league game:

LAS VEGAS –Cleveland Cavaliers assistant John Kuester was on a roll Monday, thinking up new ways to praise rookie J.J. Hickson.

“We’re talking about an N.C. State guy, and I’m still saying nice things,” former Tar Heel Kuester joked. “He’s that great a kid.”

And seemingly that good a prospect. Hickson looked spectacular during a 97-94 summer-league loss to the New York Knicks, with 26 points and nine rebounds.

He made 11 of 15 shots from the field and generated seven trips to the foul line. If that’s indicative of his scoring at the next level, he’ll be a steal by the Cavaliers with the 18th overall pick.

Some NC State fans were upset by a recent interview where J.J. Hickson almost seemed to avoid giving any credit for his success to Coach Sidney Lowe or his time spent at NC State, but Lowe did get a mention from his former player in this interview:

While the moves were home-grown – Hickson had the basics of low-post scoring in high school – he found it invaluable that N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe spent a decade in the NBA.

“Everything he said was coming from the NBA perspective already,” Hickson said. “You wouldn’t believe all the things I knew just from being around him that season.”

Hopefully, Derrick Favors, John Wall, Ryan Kelly, Lorenzo Brown and Richard Howell, all key 2009 targets for Coach Lowe, are paying attention.

07-08 Basketball Alums General

23 Responses to Hickson turning heads early

  1. Sweet jumper 07/15/2008 at 12:48 PM #

    Give ’em hell J.J.

  2. vtpackfan 07/15/2008 at 12:56 PM #

    He and “LeBrons” could really make the Cav’s a legitimate force in the East for many years to come. It will be interesting to see how his D progresses since that seems to be a high important to their HC.

  3. BoKnowsNCS71 07/15/2008 at 1:03 PM #

    I like the props that JJ gave to Sid. Should entice other kids to come here.

  4. BoKnowsNCS71 07/15/2008 at 1:05 PM #

    Oh and if gets major time versus the Brandon Wright’s and JJ Reddicks — that is going be interesting

  5. EverettBeez 07/15/2008 at 2:01 PM #

    good for JJ – lets hope it carries over to the regular season – though I won’t be watching. I just can’t get an interest in the NBA till maybe the last week of the tourny, if then.
    I do wish him the best.
    It will be interesting to see how our ball team jells this winter with out him. Man, such high hopes when he came in . . . ah, the life of a wolfpacker.

  6. ltkurtz 07/15/2008 at 2:05 PM #

    Speaking of John Wall, I am not sure if anyone else saw this:

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/seth_davis/07/11/hoop.thoughts/index.html

    On page 3, Seth Davis (for what that is worth) says:

    “But when I asked Wall for his list on Tuesday night, the first three schools he rattled off were Memphis, Kentucky and Kansas.”

  7. BJD95 07/15/2008 at 2:07 PM #

    Yeah, but this guy TOTALLY shouldn’t have started for one of the worst 3 teams in the ACC. Heavy sarcasm intended.

  8. Rochester 07/15/2008 at 2:49 PM #

    No way I see Wall coming to State. If you were only planning to go to school for 1 year, wouldn’t you target a team that had a chance to be contending that year? A guy with a 4-year mindset can look at the Wolfpack and think, “I can be part of the turnaround here.” A guy with a 1-year mindset is not going to want to sign on for the trainwreck that is currently our beloved Wolfpack.

  9. Dr. BadgerPack 07/15/2008 at 3:45 PM #

    “Yeah, but this guy TOTALLY shouldn’t have started for one of the worst 3 teams in the ACC. Heavy sarcasm intended.”

    But what if somebody’s feeling get hurt?

  10. b 07/15/2008 at 4:21 PM #

    Far from surprising, anybody else want to blame JJ for last year’s fiasco at this point?

  11. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 07/15/2008 at 4:23 PM #

    “No way I see Wall coming to State. If you were only planning to go to school for 1 year, wouldn’t you target a team that had a chance to be contending that year?”

    This thread is about a player that only wanted to play for one year. State wasn’t a contender in anyone’s book when he decided to come to State.

    I would hope that Sid only wants players that want to stay for 3 or 4 years. The one or two year guys are a dead end.

  12. howlie 07/15/2008 at 4:37 PM #

    Nice comments by JJ.

    Just as expected by Ass. Tarheelian Kuester.

  13. Ismael 07/15/2008 at 6:04 PM #

    the guys last name is “Kuester” (kyee-ster)…i’ll just stop there… No i can’t, he’s a tarhole with the name of “ass”. No, he’s an ass with an “ass” name.

  14. john of sparta 07/15/2008 at 7:47 PM #

    he’s a $233K a year ass.

  15. Ed89 07/15/2008 at 8:09 PM #

    ^^^I would hope that Sid only wants players that want to stay for 3 or 4 years. The one or two year guys are a dead end.

    I’ll contend that you NEED a few one or two year players (mixed in with 4 year guys) to compete for ACC Championships, Elite Eights and Final Fours. You don’t really need to look at the teams and players in the last 4-5 years to rationalize it. Memphis would have never made it to the Final game w/o Rose — ditto, Ohio State with Oden and Conley the previous year. Just saying you’ve GOT to recruit 4 and 5 stars to compete with the best year in/year out. Some of those 4 stars will turn out to be first rounders, some won’t, but you gotta get good players to win.

  16. Rochester 07/15/2008 at 8:24 PM #

    t-t-t, the difference is, when JJ committed there was a lovefest going on. We were all totally excited that Wolfpack hoops was on the rise. There was every reason for him to expect that by the time he got to campus we’d be in the thick of the ACC chase. Do these rising HS seniors think we’re going to be contending in 2009-10? I seriously doubt it. And if by some miracle we bounce back with a great year this year, it will be too late for these recruits, who will be signing their LOIs in November.

  17. buttPACKer 07/15/2008 at 10:04 PM #

    in the several articles I read, all were very favorable toward Coach Lowe, and how he mentored JJ. I think it should turn some prospects’ heads.

  18. Rochester 07/16/2008 at 7:49 AM #

    Anyone know anything about a UCLA forward named Chace Stanback? He’s looking to transfer and is apparently considering NC State. I found this story on the Seattle Times site, totally by coincidence:

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2008053706_umen16.html

    He’s looking at the University of Washington, but it also said:

    “But Stanback also is considering several other schools, including North Carolina State (he has family in North Carolina), Georgia Tech and UNLV. She said a decision might not come for a month or so. Stanback was the California Division I player of the year while a senior at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles in 2006-07 and rated the No. 1 small forward on the West Coast by Scout.com.”

    Sounds like he could be a nice get.

  19. burnbarn 07/16/2008 at 8:55 AM #

    ^ I have heard that this is NOT going to happen for us.

    BTW, I saw the highlights of JJ’s game on WRAZ… he looked to have slimmed down a bit. He had a very impressive put back dunk over someone.

  20. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 07/16/2008 at 11:47 AM #

    “I’ll contend that you NEED a few one or two year players (mixed in with 4 year guys) to compete for ACC Championships, Elite Eights and Final Fours. You don’t really need to look at the teams and players in the last 4-5 years to rationalize it.”

    You may always have one of these guys on the team but I don’t see the need to make an effort to find them. If you have a strong program (not just a strong team or one coach) many guys like Hickson probably don’t get much QT until their Soph or Jr year.

    Great teams are not simply about great players.

  21. Ed89 07/16/2008 at 8:09 PM #

    ^^^Great teams are not simply about great players.

    THAT I agree with….the rest, not so much….

  22. partialqualifier 07/18/2008 at 11:03 AM #

    I have to admit to feeling a great deal of apathy about this Hickson thing. IMO he is not a State guy. Sure he came here for one year…but that no more classifies him to claim State as his school as all the freshamn that will flunk/drop out after this year. I honestly do not think a kid with 24 credits at a university can claim they actually went to college.

    And…no, I dont care that other schools have it. It’s nice to have JJ do well, but clearly it is not the same as Mario in the NFL or Phillip or many of the other greats.

    As to the argument of whether or not to get these guys…Build your program to NCAA-T level…then maybe go and get one of these guys to compliment a good, solid program…and hope that hangs a banner for you. Do not try and build a program around these guys…it will not work. You may have one good season, but then you’re back to square one.

  23. kyjelly 07/18/2008 at 11:13 AM #

    And after drafting JJ do you think they would say anything different????? Lets wait and see ,JJ was turning heads last year around this time as well.Soon he may be having them shake their heads as well.

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