Recruiting Rolling; Lowe Adds 2012 Prospect (Updated 2:10pm)

Basketball Recruiting General Sidney Lowe63

In a recent radio show, Sidney Lowe used the plural word “commits” when mentioning players he couldn’t mention publicly. Some people thought it might have been a mistake and that there was only one NC State commitment he couldn’t mention – 2010 recruit Luke Cothron who didn’t sign a National Letter of Intent last week. We are hearing that is not the case and there may be another LOI soon on the way to Raleigh for the 2010 class.

Additionally, Joseph Uchebo, a class of 2012 prospect, has made a verbal pledge to play basketball at NC State.

Uchebo, who is from Nigeria and attended Mount Zion Academy in Durham, N.C., last year, attended NC State’s Red Rally at Reynolds on Oct. 16. The promising big man transferred to Oak Ridge and new coach Stan Kowalewski, the former Greensboro Northern Guilford High coach. Kowalewski informed the Greensboro News-Record that Uchebo would be attending NC State, which the The Wolfpacker has confirmed.

“Joseph met with NC State coach Sidney Lowe and assistant coach Monte Towe on Monday, and they offered a scholarship, and he made the call for them,” Kowalewski said.

The N&O has now filed an update that can be seen here.

Joseph Uchebo, a 7-foot, 240-pound center who’s originally from Nigeria, has made an early commitment to N.C. State.

Uchebo is a sophomore at Oak Ridge (N.C.) Military Academy and played last season at Mount Zion Academy in Durham. Oak Ridge coach Stan Kowalewski said Uchebo run the floor well, has good passing ability and vision, and can score from 18 feet.

“He’s very aggressive going after the basketball coming off the rim,” Kowalewski said, “but he’s not just a back-to-the-basket big man.”

Link to The Wolfpacker.

Please click on over to our message boards for more information and discussion.

Basketball Recruiting General Sidney Lowe

63 Responses to Recruiting Rolling; Lowe Adds 2012 Prospect (Updated 2:10pm)

  1. VaWolf82 11/20/2009 at 1:40 PM #

    How do you feel the about recruiting results by the staff right now? Not before, not in the future, right now?

    I haven’t kept up with the detailed rankings, but I think that Sidney is looking at two top-20 classes back to back. That’s good recruiting. What you fail to admit is that recruiting is only one part of the big picture.

    Your question is a symptom of a consistent problem with State fans. They choose a limited data set and only want to discuss what happens in that particular slice….ignoring everything else that is available. I really don’t enjoy endless speculation about future glories that we will see when _____ finally arrives.

    For State fans, “next year” never seems to actually ever get here. As I fully expected, the posters that kept saying that we needed to wait for the 2009 freshmen have now moved their timeline to 2010. I have no doubt that if the 2010/11 season doesn’t live up to their predictions, the date for future glory will slide to the next year for one reason or another.

  2. VaWolf82 11/20/2009 at 1:46 PM #

    2010 may be the only top-20 class. I just looked at scout.com and the 2009 class was ranked 14th with Lorenzo Brown. Rivals has the 2009 class ranked at #52, which I assume is ranked without Brown.

  3. waxhaw 11/20/2009 at 1:55 PM #

    That’s the point I was trying to make.

    We haven’t had a string of top 10 or 15 classes. Herb didn’t do it and neither has Sidney (YET). However, the 2010 class is probably going to be top 5. That is possibly a reason to WTNY.

    I agree that there are tons of people who say WTNY every year and it gets old. However, they’ve been saying it about top 25 classes with 1 marquee player. This class has the potential to be difference maker. This could be our best class ever.

    That is until…..one doesn’t sign, one doesn’t make it, one is injured and the last one turns out to not be as good as advertised.

  4. primacyone 11/20/2009 at 2:07 PM #

    VAWolf82 Said: “That’s good recruiting”

    Thanks for letting us know exactly where you stand – we may not win another game all season, but dang, where doing some “good recruiting”!

  5. bradleyb123 11/20/2009 at 2:48 PM #

    I’m going to defend VaWolf for a minute (usually we buck heads on Sidney Lowe). If we have a horrible coach, then good or great recruiting will only take us so far. I get that. I believe VaWolf is already convinced that Sid is a horrible coach. That is where we differ. I believe the jury is still out on Sidney and I’m willing to give him a little longer to prove himself. It took a while, but we are just now getting the kind of recruits we’ve been dreaming about, and that Sid deserves his chance with them. This is not a perpetual WTNY thing, at least not for me. I’m not saying wait until the 2012 recruits get here. It starts this year (for me). I want to see improvement in a lot of areas — effort, chemistry, rebounding, etc. I don’t expect a team full of freshmen to win 30 games for us. But I need to see fundamental improvement this year. Next year, I want that to continue, and I also want the win total to improve. I’m not giving Sidney a blank check like VaWolf probably thinks. I’m just willing to forgive the last three years for a few reasons: (1) He had mostly Herb’s players until now, and I’m not convinced they were on the same page as Sidney, and (2) The recruiting is phenomenal. No matter who is coach, we need this caliber of players in order to win. As VaWolf said, that is only half the equation (which I assume is his way of saying kudos to Sidney on the recruiting). At least we now have that half of the equation now. Hat’s off to Sidney for that much. Now let’s see what happens with them.

  6. bradleyb123 11/20/2009 at 2:50 PM #

    ^^^ “Thanks for letting us know exactly where you stand – we may not win another game all season, but dang, where doing some “good recruiting”!”

    That’s not at all where VaWolf stands. (Here I go, defending him again!) It was like pulling teeth to get him to concede that Sid is doing something (anything!) good. His position is that we need more than that. We also need good coaching.

  7. VaWolf82 11/20/2009 at 3:09 PM #

    I believe VaWolf is already convinced that Sid is a horrible coach.

    I’ve never said that either. But even if that is what I thought, there is insufficient evidence to prove me wrong.

    It was like pulling teeth to get him to concede that Sid is doing something (anything!) good. His position is that we need more than that. We also need good coaching

    I didn’t mean to be difficult, it’s just that some are not looking at the complete picture. They insist on only looking at one year’s recruiting RANKING (since the ’09 freshman class doesn’t appear to be highly ranked).

    State needs a complete team and a good coach to be successful. So far, the recruiting hasn’t fielded a competitive team. The verdict is still out on this year’s team, but the prospects don’t look good to me.

  8. inhoc... 11/20/2009 at 4:15 PM #

    perdon my ignorance, but what does WTNY mean?

  9. inhoc... 11/20/2009 at 4:17 PM #

    ha…it HAS to mean Wait til next year with the context isee it being used.

  10. Thinkpack17 11/20/2009 at 4:42 PM #

    FWIW the boys are on and they are looking good against the Zips…for the most part.

  11. Wulfpack 11/20/2009 at 5:37 PM #

    Looking (sounding) good.

  12. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 11/20/2009 at 6:27 PM #

    A Win- I didn’t listen to the game but either Akron had a horrible offensive day or State played some defense. At this point good D is all I expect.

    Early top commit is fine even if he doesn’t stay in the long run. As other have said it will get other kids to look at State. Duke and UNC can’t take everyone from Sid. At this point I would be happy if State can top Wake’s program over the next 2-3 seasons.

    As with most State fans I am an eternal optimist and think that every year will be our year but nearly every year for about the last 18 years it doesn’t take long for my hopes to be crushed.

    Go Pack, I will enjoy the team being undefeated for as long as it last.

    Has NC State won any tournament either in or post season since Valvano?

  13. waxhaw 11/20/2009 at 10:05 PM #

    Do you count the BCA (Black Coaches Association) as a tournament?

    I know Gary Hahn does. “Winning championships never gets old folks.”

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