On a Roll – Pack picks up Howell (N&O Link Added)

Basketball Recruiting NCS Basketball43

It is reported that the Pack picks up 6’7″ PF Richard Howell. Second verbal in as many days. Here’s an important nugget from the N&O write-up:

J.J. Hickson, who was N.C. State’s leading scorer and rebounder as a freshman last season before leaving for the NBA, also played at Wheeler. “It didn’t hurt that J.J. went there [to N.C. State] and had a very successful season,” Wheeler coach Doug Lipscomb said.

About Rick

1992 and 2002 graduate from NCSU. Born and raised an NCSU fan. I remember the good ol' days and they weren't in the last 20 years.

Basketball Recruiting NCS Basketball

43 Responses to On a Roll – Pack picks up Howell (N&O Link Added)

  1. CharlotteWolf 07/28/2008 at 3:07 PM #

    Nice work Sidney!

  2. DAMangum 07/28/2008 at 3:11 PM #

    Just like I said yesterday! Screw Wall and his ego, get us a big body and we will be fine! Great job Sidney and GO PACK!

  3. Rick 07/28/2008 at 3:13 PM #

    Link to read something about him. I have not seen him play. Maybe he will be at the Glaxo tournament. I have heard Lorenzo Brown.

    http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/tracker/player?recruitId=42857&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fplayer%3frecruitId%3d42857

  4. Daily Update 07/28/2008 at 3:15 PM #

    Wow. So we take Kelly, Favors or Wall and it will be one of the best classes in the last decade potentially.

  5. Trip 07/28/2008 at 3:16 PM #

    Sidney is destroying Georgia and taking everything from it.

  6. howlie 07/28/2008 at 3:20 PM #

    I asked yesterday why LoBro’s commit–for whom was his commitment meant to ‘trigger’ ?

    So with Favors as card number two today, is this a ‘play’ to ‘force the hand’ of the final commitment?

    Are we done?

  7. Trip 07/28/2008 at 3:20 PM #

    Watched a couple of videos on him… the kids a pretty dang good rebounder. He fought for some tough offensive rebounds that he was able to put back in. Looks like he’s got some dribbling skills as well, as he brought it up the floor once or twice. I’m starting to feel this dirty nasty feeling again… optimism? I think I need to stop.

  8. jbpackfan 07/28/2008 at 3:21 PM #

    Who on staff has all these GA connections? The staff is really killing it there.

  9. Girlfriend in a Coma 07/28/2008 at 3:24 PM #

    ^ Harris.

  10. tvp1 07/28/2008 at 3:26 PM #

    Harris could be an absolutely worthless coach (not saying this is true) and he’d still be worth whatever we are paying him and more – dude can recruit like no one’s business.

  11. BJD95 07/28/2008 at 3:28 PM #

    Harris’ job is to recruit, not coach. Any coaching he does is merely incidental.

    Larry Harris is good at his job.

  12. primacyone 07/28/2008 at 3:30 PM #

    Dang it. I can hardly wait for the 2011 season.

    That team should get us back to where we were 18 years ago.

  13. BJD95 07/28/2008 at 3:37 PM #

    If we get Favors (or Costner comes back) and if Degand is healthy, I could start getting optimistic about 2009-10:

    PG – Degand
    SG – Brown
    SF – CJ or Wood
    PF – Smith/Costner
    C – Favors/Smith

    Primary bench players – Mays, Wood or CJ, Howell, Horner.

    Even without Favors, there is solid potential to at least not suck.

  14. howlie 07/28/2008 at 3:48 PM #

    “Larry Harris is good at his job.”

    Ditto

  15. packbackr04 07/28/2008 at 3:51 PM #

    this is shaping up nicely. Sid needs to use this year as a total renovation. start from scratch. run the offense you want to run and dont make any excuses about how youre not running it b/c the players cant execute it. just do it. no more excuses or deflecting blame. play only the players who are giving 100% effort all the time.

    Now, if we could only dump Q, we would be good to go. Will Friday be his last day?

  16. happypackdad 07/28/2008 at 3:56 PM #

    We’d take Kelly & Favors & Wall, but I think Favors is our best hope of the 3.

  17. JeremyH 07/28/2008 at 4:07 PM #

    what are the odds like for favors or kelly, both are 5 stars that have unc on their list…

  18. ncsufan23 07/28/2008 at 4:10 PM #

    i would rather have kelly just cause favors would probably leave after one year and kelly would probably stay for two or three. I don’t want to get a lot of one-and-done people because then sidney has to get a stellar class every year just to compete.

  19. GAWolf 07/28/2008 at 4:15 PM #

    I can’t tell you how many people I’ve run into in the last 2 months who have had various interaction with Simon Harris. EVERY ONE of them spoke on and on about what an outstanding kid he is. I think that probably speaks volumes about his father as well.

  20. Trip 07/28/2008 at 4:31 PM #

    I’ve met Simon Harris. He’s an OUTSTANDING kid. Easily the friendliest athlete I have met while attending NC State.

  21. ChiefJoJo 07/28/2008 at 4:38 PM #

    Wow! Sid/Coach Harris have been getting after it. We now have an official GA pipeline I think. 🙂

    FWIW, I saw Howell play when Wheeler matched up against Word of God (CJ Leslie, Wall) last season at Reynolds. I didn’t come away that impressed with Howell among all the other HS stars on the court, though it was just one game. He’s got a college body (~225), and is a good athlete, but had loads of trouble getting his shot off vs CJ’s length. He could muscle CJ but got his shot blocked several times. I didn’t see Howell do much from the medium range either. Now, his role clearly was limited by Wheeler’s other talented players (Dequan Jones absolutely posterized Wall on a breakaway), or it could have been a down night for him. Either way, he will need to get used to playing more vs longer players.

    So, are we now full for the 2009 class?

  22. burnbarn 07/28/2008 at 5:26 PM #

    ^ Howell has been fighting a long term back and knee injury. Howell said he is feeling much better these days and his production is improving.

    I think we have one more ship for 09.. there is speculation about Costner leaving after this season and MAYBE Thomas not ever being able to play.

  23. hball57 07/28/2008 at 5:31 PM #

    Probably not…

    Brandon Costner is on pace to graduate in spring of 2009, so he might leave. Rumors have questions about Johnny Thomas’ injury. And I’m sire we will find a space for Wall, Kelly and/or Favors.

  24. b 07/28/2008 at 5:50 PM #

    First, don’t mistake this, I know Coach Harris is a valuable recruiter. But the only player of note we got from Georgia prior to Sid was Josh Powell. I think the connection to Marrieta Wheeler is actually Shareef Abdul Raheim via Sidney Lowe, its how we landed JJ and likely has a fair amount to do with how we landed Howell.

    My guess is JJ is speaking well of Sid and NC State to friends as well as the media. Maybe just maybe his year here wasn’t so useless after all, Howell sounds like a solid 4 year player, and he wouldn’t have come here if JJ suggested he not.

  25. ClassOf95 07/28/2008 at 6:11 PM #

    This is great news but you can just call me “Debbie Downer” because none of this guarantees wins for the Pack. JJ was a great recruit too and all we got was last place. Somebody has to coach these guys and turn them from great high school players into winning college players and so far, I have seen nothing that convinces me that Lowe and staff are the ones to do it. Don’t mistake this for me wanting him gone as I am hopeful that things turn around and I’m willing to give him years to do it but following last year’s terrible disappointment, I am not getting my hopes up. Too many years (decades) of heartbreak have finally taken there toll on my spirits.

1 2

Leave a Reply