Projected NC State Basketball Roster

09-10 Basketball Basketball Recruiting113

Since the news of Justin Gainey’s departure for Elon became public today, we thought we would also update from previous roster changes entry.

On paper, State’s starting lineup looks like: Javier Gonzalez at the point, Brown at the 2-guard, C.J. Williams at small forward, Howell at the 4 and Smith at center.

Off the bench State has guards Julius Mays, Farnold Degand and Wood. At forward, Dennis Horner and Johnny Thomas are the other returning scholarship players, plus Davis.

Additionally, Ken Tysiac has added a great blog entry about the Wolfpack’s prospects next year that can be seen here.

When you look at the roster the Wolfpack has returning, it’s impossible to deduce that the team will be better off without Costner and reserve guard Trevor Ferguson, who also is leaving.

[snip]

As a whole, this roster will not scare North Carolina when it gets off the bus next season at the Smith Center. Against the rest of the ACC, N.C. State might hold up OK because there is a lot of backcourt talent leaving from the traditional middle-of-the-pack schools.

Toney Douglas, Tyrese Rice and Jack McClinton all were seniors, and Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez has already announced his intention to test the NBA waters.

But hoping the competition falls back to N.C. State’s level is not a where the Wolfpack hoped to be in Sidney Lowe’s fourth season.

Coach Sidney Lowe’s incoming recruiting class might turn out to be his best yet. But the members of his past classes will be sophomores and juniors next season comprising the bulk of N.C. State’s roster. Lowe’s initial difficulties gaining a foothold as a recruiter after coming to N.C. State from the NBA look like they will come home to roost next season.

Projected 2009-2010 NC State Basketball Roster

Senior Class
(1) Dennis Horner (F)
(2) Farnold Degand (PG)

Junior Class
(3) Javi Gonzalez (PG)
(4) Tracy Smith (4F)

Sophomore Class
(5) Johnny Thomas (Wing)
(6) Julius Mays (PG/SG)
(7) CJ Williams (Wing)

Freshman Class
(8) Scott Wood (Wing)
(9) Lorenzo Brown (PG/SG)
(10) Richard Howell (PF)
(11) Josh Davis (WF)
(12) Jordan Vandenberg (C)
(13) Hold for top player if we can get the commitment

2010 Commits
(12) Ryan Harrow (PG)
(13) CJ Leslie (hopeful)
(1) Departure of Dennis Horner if no other scholarships issued for 2009 class
(2) Departure of Farnold Degand if no other scholarships issued for 2009 class

2011 Commits
(1) Departure of Javi Gonzalez
(2) Departure of Tracy Smith

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09-10 Basketball Basketball Recruiting

113 Responses to Projected NC State Basketball Roster

  1. BJD95 04/30/2009 at 8:13 AM #

    Fair overall synopsis from Tysiac. It goes back to scholarship spacing and other recruiting mistakes early on in Lowe’s career.

  2. mafpack 04/30/2009 at 8:17 AM #

    Yup, was just going to say the same thing BJD. Though it is nice to see the talent level of the incoming players going up year over year. Just wish that this current incoming class and next years projected class (including CJ Leslie of course) could have started coming in two years ago. If only you could redshirt a coach, haha.

    It does feel like Sid is starting to get some traction bringing in above average recruiting classes though doesn’t it? Or am I just lying to myself in a vain attempt to feel better? 🙂

  3. RSP123 04/30/2009 at 8:22 AM #

    Obviously, this is all a mixed bag of “what ifs” or “who knows.” What I do know is that I, along with every other Pack fan, will be looking to see if this team is going to turn the corner and be competitive for 40 minutes and start winning games. As for the rest of the league being weaker, good. We are entitled to a positive break – don’t forget that we have also have played an unbalanced schedule in the conference. (Not an excuse, but just an observation) Hopefully, we will see overall improvement: upper echelon of conference and postseason play. Anything less, in my opinion, should bring a new direction in our storied and hopefully still relevant basketball program. Go Pack!

  4. Pack Leader 04/30/2009 at 8:23 AM #

    I agree pretty dead on by Tysiac. If we are lucky enough to have the elite go to the pros next year and can have an even talent level, then i think we can hang with 10 of the 12 teams in the ACC (excluding unx duke). Idk how i like having to start 2 freshman from day one, but hopefully they are as good as advertised and will surpass norm fresh expectations. I look for Wood to get more mins than some expect esp with the drive and kick out approach brown is known to do so well.
    this is a big if but
    IF sid can tread water and make it to 2010 i think thats going to have a chance to be our best squad in 10 years.
    PG-Harrow
    SG-Brown
    SF-Williams/Wood
    PF-Smith/Howell
    C-Cothron/Smith

    that gives us a very talent roster
    if we can turn that into success will be very interesting but we def have more depth and will not worry about lack of hustle with a younger spunkier team

  5. Bubba 04/30/2009 at 8:25 AM #

    Heard that Harrow will move into Scouts top 75, somewhere around 60 in its next release.Thats a huge jump and hopefully he cracks the Top 50 by summers end.

  6. sautz 04/30/2009 at 8:25 AM #

    I hate to say it, but I think we again have to WTNY to see if Lowe really is a good recruiter. He did well last summer in getting Howell, Woods, Brown, and Harrow, but since July (and the 2008-09 basketball season) he has brought in two not-highly-rated prospects and lost Leslie.
    It will be interesting to see if he can get some top 100 talent to join Harrow.
    He needs to get back to back great recruiting classes to start to get us out of this quagmire.

  7. Pack Leader 04/30/2009 at 8:38 AM #

    A good way to think of the departures vs new incoming talent head to head….

    Costner < Howell
    Fergie < Wood
    Fells < Brown
    Harris Vandenburg

    IMO 4 out of 5 players are improvements mentally and physically

  8. Thinkpack17 04/30/2009 at 8:39 AM #

    Here’s some vids of Josh’s Dunks from last night for Wolfpack Hoops:

    http://wolfpackhoops.blogspot.com/

    Here is an old dunk vid from Johnny’s Senior year.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke4xueN3GdY

    They are definately comparable. I think Josh has a bit more length than Johnny did at the time, I think that would still be the case. But it looks like Johnny owns the head-to-head bounce factor.

  9. packbackr04 04/30/2009 at 8:47 AM #

    one thing i havent heard mentioned is the sheer volume of this class when people tout it as a top 20 recruiting class. doesnt the number of players taken greatly improve the rank of the class? in other words, a school that takes 1 top 10 player in a recruiting class as their only recuit that year could have a top 20 class. the rout we took to get a top 20 class is to have 5 players coming in to get that rank

  10. Pack Leader 04/30/2009 at 8:48 AM #

    — correction

    Costner < Howell
    Fergie < Wood
    Fells < Brown

    Harris < Davis
    Vandenberg < McCaully

    4 out of 5 improvements

    SFN: Your conclusions may turn out to be accurate. But, it is hard to make such conclusions ESPECIALLY when you are evidently projecting freshmen to be better than juniors and seniors.

  11. BJD95 04/30/2009 at 8:48 AM #

    If the optimistic thoughts are true, then with a down ACC we should have no problem winning 9+ conference games and making the NCAAT. That’s the litmus test. No grading on a curve, it’s purely pass/fail.

  12. Thinkpack17 04/30/2009 at 8:50 AM #

    “one thing i havent heard mentioned is the sheer volume of this class when people tout it as a top 20 recruiting class.”

    They had us at #19 with just Brown, Howell and Wood. So I would assume we move up with the 7 footer.

  13. mafpack 04/30/2009 at 8:53 AM #

    The top 25 classes are based primarily on the number of ESPNU Top 100 players that you’re bringing in and their individual rankings inside the top 100. If you look here:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/classrankings?classyear=2009&classmonth=11&rank=19&viewmore=yes

    They pretty much go in order, from 5 top 100 players for UNC, down to 1 or 2 by the end (with exception of Texas A&M who has 3 top 100 players but all of whom are ranked 70 and below). Our #19 ranked recruiting class (on ESPN anyway) only includes the 3 players already committed in Brown, Howell and Wood when the rankings were published.

  14. Pack Leader 04/30/2009 at 8:55 AM #

    Also im hearing from some recruiting ppl that Harrow could crack the top 50 by the end of the summer if he continues to dominate national tourneys like hes doing. that would be awsome if he could get there because that would mean a Def Min 4 star maybe 5 star if his senior year is as good as his junior….

  15. highstick 04/30/2009 at 8:56 AM #

    Read the comments on Tysiac’s column. Poor Lee’s fans are now mad with him cause he failed to “lock down Sendek” and that’s why Lee will be the next to go!

    Maybe that’s the upcoming announcement:

    “Lee Fowler Resigns Under Pressure Because He Failed to Keep Sendek Happy”

  16. mafpack 04/30/2009 at 9:00 AM #

    Davis is still rated at an 82 by ESPN, which actually puts him at or above all but 1 of ECU’s recruits for next year. Dear God… did I really just give us a pat on the back for being better than EZU… crap we’re screwed. I kid, I kid.

  17. Thinkpack17 04/30/2009 at 9:01 AM #

    “Also im hearing from some recruiting ppl that Harrow could crack the top 50 by the end of the summer if he continues to dominate national tourneys like hes doing.”

    I am big on Harrow…big, big, big on Harrow. He needs to hit the books and weight room a bit, but I really like him. He’s talented, he wants to bring talent with him to State and Javi will be a Senior when he gets on campus. Javi is a pretty prideful guy…I think he will do everything it takes not to give up his job. Which is good for NC State basketball.

  18. Astral Rain 04/30/2009 at 9:03 AM #

    Congrats to Gainey for moving on up. That said, he may have a rough go of it there in that conf. Yesterday I was able to overhear the coach of HPU at lunch- he seemed pretty impressive- and apparently he’s used to dealing with an idiot AD as well.

  19. kyjelly 04/30/2009 at 9:52 AM #

    Well Sid does rule usually around here until the games start.
    More posts like the past 2 years counting on Javi to pull us through? I don’t know as bad as the league was last year and projects to be this year I hope I am wrong but we are short talent and coaching as well.

  20. Gene 04/30/2009 at 10:05 AM #

    Next year has to buy Lowe some time to work some “magic” for the 2010 and 2011 recruiting classes.

    A lot depends how much players improve during the off season, I think, more so than any impact the freshman will have.

    I’ve based a lot of hopes on NCSU squads getting better because I’d assume players will get better during to off-season, only to be bitterly disappointed by the product on the court.

    Javi, Mays, Degand, Smith and Williams really need to show some improvement. They showed flashes of being good players, but for the past many many years, very few NCSU players have been able to be good game in and game out.

    They are just good enough some games to tease us into thinking they will be better the next game or the next week or the next season only to fall back to earth and make some boneheaded mistakes.

    I’m not counting Horner and Thomas in the must improve catagory, because I think if Horner plays like he did last year that’s about the ceiling for him and I don’t know what Thomas can do, since he didn’t play much and if he’ll ever recover from his knee injury.

    We need Javi, Mays and Degand to give us competent, turn over free, play at the PG, as well as provide another offensive option other than Smith. Smith has to improve his defense and Williams to show he can be a starter in the ACC, on both offense and defense.

    Next year is going to be either farely satisfying, in terms of wins or be bitterly disappointing. I just don’t see a middle ground.

  21. JimValvano 04/30/2009 at 10:10 AM #

    Wait a second guys…I think calling the ACC down might be a bit of a reach. Let’s really take a look at it.

    UNC…Reloads. They have plenty more McDonald’s All-Americans where that came from. A lot of people are projecting them as Top 5 again next year.

    Duke…Minus Henderson, but still have the core that got them so highly ranked. Projected as a Top 10

    Clemson…Should be even better. Projected as a Top 15

    Wake…Loses Johnson, but if Teague returns…should be as good or better. If Teague comes back, will be projected Top 20.

    B.C. …Loses Rice, but return Reggie Jackson, Biko Paris, Joe Trapani, Rakim Sanders and Josh Southern. Currently projected by Andy Katz as Top 25.

    F.S.U. Douglass finally graduated, but much the same situation as at B.C. Without Douglass’ leadership and defense…they will fall off, but if they use Alabi properly they should be a tourney team again.

    Maryland…Vasquez isn’t hiring an agent yet, I think he’ll return. If he does, they should be able to revisit the tourney.

    That alone is 7 tournament teams…but let’s continue to talk about this down year the ACC is gonna have next year.

    Georgia Tech…Loses Gani Lawal, but replaces him with Derrick Favors. They have a Top 5 recruiting class coming in. They remind me a LOT of Wake this year. They could end up being a Top 10-15 team by year end with their incoming talent. 4-star PF Kammeon Holsey, 3-Star SF Brian Oliver, 4-Star SG Glen Rice (Yes that Glen Rice’s son), 4-Star PG Mfon Udofia, 3-Star C Daniel Miller, and the Nations Top Incoming Big Man 5-Star C Derrick Favors. That sounds dangerous.

    Virginia Tech…Loses Vassallo, but returns Jeff Allen (potential All Conference) and Malcolm Delaney (potential All Conference)…this combined with a coach who gets the most out of his players and the emergence of a guy like Dorenzo Hudson or one of the four 3-star freshman makes this team a viable candidate for a run at the NCAA’s.

    Damn, that’s 9 teams…I agree though…the ACC is gonna be DOWN next year. Let’s continue.

    Virginia…Returns everyone from last year’s team, except their coach. I look for them to be improved, but still a candidate to finish last in the league.

    Miami…The only team I look to be considerably down from the previous year’s squads. Jack McClinton meant a lot to the team, and while Freshmen Durand Scott and Garrius Adams will help fill the void…they are just Freshman and won’t be able to make up for the loss of a great one like McClinton.

    Then you’ve got us. We all know what we’ve got. What we’ve recruited. And now you all have an idea of what we’re up against. I personally think we’ll be improved as a team next year. Whether or not it shows up in the Win/Loss column is debatable. The addition of Wall to either Duke, Miami, or to our roster will greatly affect the potential of whichever team he chooses…so we’ll have to wait and see how those dominoes fall, but I think the ACC looks pretty damn good for next season. The league may not be as heavy at the top (At one time 3 of the top 4 teams in the nation), but overall it will be as strong as last year…if not stronger.

  22. jbpackfan 04/30/2009 at 10:14 AM #

    I’m not as concerned about the backcourt for next year as I have been Sid’s first 3. Javi was one of our best players the last half of the conference season. Brown is a clear talent upgrade at 2, but obviously untested at this level. I believe the biggest question is whether we will get consistent production from the 2 and 3 spots, which we have not had in Sid’s first 3 years.

  23. Pack Leader 04/30/2009 at 10:21 AM #

    Great Points Valvano…..

    A “Down Year” in the ACC is sure a hell of a lot better than a good year in any other confrence….

    Ofcorse now you bring these points up about the high level of competition still on these teams and it scares me about State next year…..

  24. smfrank 04/30/2009 at 10:27 AM #

    This team has potential. They will definately be lacking in size & experience. That said, we have a team of players who should all be out to prove something. Gavin, Ben, Costner, & Fells came out with that kind of attitude Sid’s first year and then the last 2 years played like they had already earned their spot in NCSU history. If these guys come out with lots of energy, activity and emotion – they can do very well. And most of this group seem to be high energy players. I still have a feeling we will suffer from scoring droughts, I just hope we don’t suffer from turnover frenzies or constant defensive lapses. Sid also needs to establish more consistent rotations and roles earlier in the season, before we reach the ACC schedule. While next year has some scary issues, it feels nice to have a “fresh” season to look foward to.

  25. Thinkpack17 04/30/2009 at 10:38 AM #

    JimValvano,

    Come on man! You can’t really think that the league will be better next year! Florida State with no Douglas? BC with no Rice? Maryland with no Vasquez? UNC with no Lawson? No Teague? You are saying IF these underclassmen come back, Let me tell you, Teague is a ghost…he’s outta there. So is Vasquez. The only person that may have a reason to come back is Henderson. I like that you have the balls to go against the grain on this, but no way.

    Honestly…the only teams that have a decent shot to be as good or better are us, Clemson, GT, Duke and Virginia. Other than that EVERY team will be less than what they were last year.

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