Wolfpack adds another Top 75 power forward

Basketball Recruiting45

Pack Pride is reporting that NC State has landed a verbal commitment from 6-foot-8 power forward, Luke Cothron. (Link)

Cothron selected the Wolfpack over Tennessee, Alabama, and UCONN among others. He is rated a four-star prospect and the No. 13 power forward in the country by Scout.com. Cothron is generally regarded as a top 60 prospect in the 2010 class.

In 2010 Cothron will join a roster that includes Tracey Smith, DeShawn Painter and Richard Howell.

Wolfpack Hoops has more, but be warned that those guys go a little overboard with the importance of the commitment, and recruiting in general. But, they do address one of the major questions that Cothron’s commitment raised for me:

We are hearing that even with the addition of big Luke, they are still actively recruiting local star CJ Leslie, who has shown an extreme increase in versatility this summer. Leslie is starting to show the ability to dominate from the wing and college coaches are starting to see the option of recruiting him as a small forward instead of a power forward. His recruitment will more than likely continue until the very end, but the talk that the Pack is still working on him is good news for State fans.

The N&O blogged on this on Friday.

N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe and assistant Monte Towe lured Luke Cothron with their plan to restore Wolfpack basketball to prominence.

Cothron, a highly recruited senior forward from Red Springs (N.C.) Flora MacDonald Academy, liked what he heard and committed to N.C. State on Friday morning.

He is 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds and also considered Alabama, Connecticut, Florida State and Tennessee.

“Those guys were all in there, but in the end, the common component they didn’t have was Coach Lowe,” Flora MacDonald coach Derrick Bond said. “Just his pitch, his history with North Carolina State, Coach Towe’s history and how they talked about the past and the Pack pride and the history and championships they were accustomed to, and just getting it back to that, they did a great job of selling Luke.”

Cothron, who’s originally from Huntsville, Ala., averaged 27 points, 18 rebounds and four blocked shots per game as a junior. He is rated the 57th-best prospect overall in the Class of 2010 by scout.com.

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) Richard Howell (PF)
(10) Josh Davis (WF)
(11) Jordan Vandenberg (C)
(12) DeShawn Painter (PF/C)

2010 Commits
(13) Lorenzo Brown (PG/SG)
(1) Departure of Dennis Horner – Ryan Harrow (PG)
(2) Departure of Farnold Degand – Luke Cothron (PF)

2011 Commits
(3) Departure of Javi Gonzalez
(4) Departure of Tracy Smith

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Basketball Recruiting

45 Responses to Wolfpack adds another Top 75 power forward

  1. Thinkpack17 10/09/2009 at 11:12 AM #

    “Quantity is not a substitute for quality.”

    I agree. So hook CJ…he’s quality.

  2. Sw0rdf1sh 10/09/2009 at 11:12 AM #

    Also, I would guess the next piece in the Sid Lowe puzzle would be looking at that PG for the 2011 squad.

  3. Tiew 10/09/2009 at 11:26 AM #

    This makes me realize more how much I’m influenced by a perception of momentum. A couple of days ago the last thing to happen with the program was Brown not qualifying and that put my in a mood to expect more bad things to happen. Now that the most recent news is Cothron committing I have more of an expectation that good things will happen.

    An extra good player in the recruiting class seems like it would make Harrow and Brown less likely to back out even if we have a bad season. Also, I’m impressed at Lowe’s ability to get commitments like this even when we aren’t actually doing that well.

    Obviously, it won’t matter unless they actually get here, but this news does help me be in a better mood.

  4. choppack1 10/09/2009 at 11:37 AM #

    “But until and unless there is a reason to be pessimistic about recruits qualifying, why be pessimistic about it?”

    This kind of thing happens when people have a memory. If you keep on saying, “This won’t hurt” and it does, I’m going to stop believing it won’t hurt. And when your top recruit, seemingly out of the blue, fails to qualify (which is a rarity for a quality ACC basketball player this day and age)…then, some of us lose a lot of faith.I’d also advise folks to read NYC’s post on the forums if you want to know why I’m concerned. It doesn’t mean that I think there’s a strong possibility – it’s just that there’s a little bit of lost credibility right now.

    Just FYI – I’m on the record as stating that if these kids DO all show up, I’m all for giving Sid a shot to coach them.

  5. Texpack 10/09/2009 at 11:53 AM #

    I hope this helps the program in the long run. I’m just tired of sucking in basketball. I’m surprised/disappointed that Sidney hasn’t been successful up to this point. I guess his lack of coaching experience at the college level was a bigger thing to overcome than I thought it would be. I’m really torn between giving him time to let these recruits show up on campus and moving on to the next coach. If I had a molecule of confidence in Fowler to find a better coach I think I’d be ready to move on.

  6. ktpritch 10/09/2009 at 1:42 PM #

    Sounds like good news…

    On CJ, I saw him play in the Durham league this summer and he was a beast. There were stretches where he was doing it all (rebound, bring the ball up, score…). Good to hear we are still in the running for him.

  7. ryebread 10/09/2009 at 1:54 PM #

    From what I’ve seen of Powell, he’s got the body to be a banger. When I watched him play (admittedly only once), he looked like a potential force under the basket. I’ve read reviews that suggest that he’s more of a PF and has an outside game. I guess it is wait and see.

    Ideally, we should add a nasty inside player with every class. If we do this and pair it with decent guard play, we’ll win a lot of games.

  8. packalum44 10/09/2009 at 1:59 PM #

    “So your answer to our PG woes”
    Not once did I say we needed another PG. Rather, I said we need a ball handler. Never did I specify we needed a 1.

    “combo guard”
    The real meaning of this is a 2 who can play the 1 when there is no PG. He’s a SG who can dribble. Wish we had another one.

    “imply he made no improvement between his freshman year and sophomore year”
    This implication was bred from your interpretation which seems to be clouded by prior assumptions and biases. What I implied in a not so ambiguous and sarcastic manner was that Javi and Mays suck. Mays is better than Javi but will never be more than a role player…if he is ever coached to understand his role. Even with their improvement, in which you so adamantly vociferate, they routinely were stripped of the ball and were the worst PGs in the ACC. They LITERALLY could not dribble the ball up the court. So yes, they did improve, meaning they turned the ball over 8 times a game instead of 10. I can’t wait till they get it down to 6! Did I mention I never said we needed another PG?

    “Have you counted the big men on UNC’s roster this year?”
    I know they have TOO many big men and that Roy wishes he had more guards. Duke has a similar problem mitigated somewhat by Andre Dawkins enrolling a year early. Do you not remember that State’s front-court was ranked by some as the best in the country 2 years ago? Think we finished…well… last that year.

    Over the last decade, it is commonly accepted that college basketball has become more of a guards’ game. While these things are cyclical, at the moment, guards are coveted and placed at a premium. I’ll give one example and leave it at that: watch the Villanova and Duke game from the tourney last year.

    However, one constant that NEVER changes is that BALANCED teams are always preferred. Since you bring up UNC, 2009 is a prime example.

    So to sum up the point that I thought was evident in 2 sentences, I hope we recruit another ball handler so as to keep our talent balanced. For the record, this commitment is great news!!!

  9. bradleyb123 10/09/2009 at 2:44 PM #

    ^^^ “This kind of thing happens when people have a memory. If you keep on saying, “This won’t hurt” and it does, I’m going to stop believing it won’t hurt.”

    Good, it’s just a case of a State fan being leery because we’ve been burned before. I was afraid you had heard something and we had something to be genuinely concerned about.

    Why not just enjoy this good news for at least a day? Especially when we really have nothing to fear yet, as far as we know, knock on wood!

    ^^^ “Just FYI – I’m on the record as stating that if these kids DO all show up, I’m all for giving Sid a shot to coach them.”

    Glad to hear it. When a coach pulls two solid recruiting classes like this, you almost HAVE to let him have a fair shot at coaching them. I would bet good money that there are some people here that would still let Sidney go anyway, and risk losing our 2010 recruiting class.

    I notice there is a certain “Wolf from VA” that is noticeably absent from this blog today. Could be a coincidence….. I suppose……

  10. Tiew 10/09/2009 at 3:02 PM #

    I only started following NCSU athletics pretty recently. How does this class compare to some of Herb’s better classes?

  11. rtpack24 10/09/2009 at 3:11 PM #

    Luke has not taken the ACT or SAT. Do not know why but I am sure he is scheduled to take them soon. His GPA is over 3.0. Getting an early committment on this kid shows a good recruiting job by our staff. Hopefully they will be able to coach up the players we have for this year.

  12. Thinkpack17 10/09/2009 at 3:36 PM #

    Packalum…I don’t know where you learned debate, I hope it wasn’t at State (no poem intended).

    I responded to a poster suggesting that we forego CJ’s recruitment and get another PG by saying:

    “I don’t why someone would suggest we need another PG…we’ll have a traffic jam at that slot next year.”

    You pointed to that statement with an arrow and said:

    “^ We had 3 PGs on the roster last year…how’d that work out?”

    This statement combined with the fact that you went on to point out that Lo Brown was technically a 2 guard led me to believe you thought we needed another point guard. But I guess you just wanted to catch us all up on some Lo Brown trivia. Well Done.

    You Continued:

    ““combo guard”
    The real meaning of this is a 2 who can play the 1 when there is no PG. He’s a SG who can dribble. Wish we had another one.”

    Uh… Again, I guess you are just catching everyone up on what a combo guard is. Thanks.

    So you are in fact saying we need a player who can help us get the ball over half court because you believe two years from now the combination of a Sr. Javi/Jr. Mays/So. Scott Wood/Lo Brown/Ryan Harrow will not be enough to get the job done. I hate to tell you buddy, but at this point there are not many people in the 2010 class that will surely help that situation. If you believe they won’t be enough…we’re just boned. There’s nothing we can do. Short of getting on Brandon Knight’s list, and then somehow signing him…we’re short. Or maybe getting “The Professor” from Rucker park. Or…Or…

    Like I said my my first post, we could get an “athletic, versatile 3 man.” Jesus dude…pay attention.

    “So yes, they did improve, meaning they turned the ball over 8 times a game instead of 10.”

    I may have believed that if you said it about Costner…he’s had some big turnover games. But please tell me a game when Javi or Mays had 8-10 turnovers. Again hyperbole. I can tell you a game when Javi didn’t suck…at UNC. Mays didn’t suck when he hit the game winner or in the ACC tourny. Give me just one game where they had 8-10 turnovers.

  13. travelwolf 10/09/2009 at 3:48 PM #

    I can’t wait for the fall of 2010 b/c then we get to see how well Sid does with a good PG. That’s the one element that’s been missing in his teams (except for the year we had Atsur – and when Atsur was playing, we did very well). One would think that PG would flock to NCSU considering how good of a college PG Sid was. I can’t stress this point enough – and I don’t see it mentioned on the blogs. PG PG PG…

  14. old13 10/09/2009 at 3:55 PM #

    I may have it all wrong, but is there room on the 2010-2011 roster for CJL, assuming that all the current 2010 recruits qualify? I thought that 13 on scholarship was the limit. (12 now on the roster; lose 2 after this season; gain 3 current 2010 commits = 13. CJL would be 14)

  15. Thinkpack17 10/09/2009 at 4:09 PM #

    Old13,

    That’s why we are thinking JT may be moving on to bigger things after this season…if we can score another big recruit.

    BTW Mays and Javi played in 22 games this year. Javi averaged 2.8 TOs, Mays averaged 1.6.

    Just sayin.

  16. old13 10/09/2009 at 4:14 PM #

    ^ Gottcha! And thanks!

  17. b 10/09/2009 at 9:22 PM #

    “(4) Departure of Tracy Smith”

    That’s the most likely scenario as I see it too wolfonthehill. I don’t much like the thought of it either

  18. BSIE80 10/09/2009 at 11:54 PM #

    We are getting big. We should not have an issue with rebounding.
    Carolina has a bunch of bigs, so now we should be able to match them in 2010.

    The game is still a pg/sg game. So to be a good team we will still need excellent guard play.

    Sid- good job

  19. nycfan 10/10/2009 at 8:50 AM #

    IIRC, when some one checked State’s record with/without Atsur in ’07 the difference in record for State between having Atsur play or not actually turned out to be virtually zero, BUT there was no doubt to anyone watching that the team looked a lot better when he played.

    That said, due to circumstances beyond his control and some recruiting missteps (offering Javi instead of Warren), Lowe hasn’t had a quality PG in his tenure and this league is brutal to teams without PG play. This season, however, the position appears to be headed for a dip prior to PG recruiting kicking in around the league for next season, which might help State a ton this year.

  20. ncsu0812 10/10/2009 at 11:01 AM #

    Duke vs. State is ESPN’s “worst game of the week.” Yeah, I’m sure UNC vs. Ga Southern will be one for the ages.

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