Friedlander on the Graham situation

General23

After the craziness of yesterday’s events around the re-commitment and re-de-commitment of high school basketball star, Torian Graham, I found this articles by ACC beat writer, Brett Fridelander worth sharing.

I’ve spent most of the day trying to make heads or tails out of prep basketball star Torian Graham’s on-again, off-again commitment to N.C. State, and I’ve narrowed the possible scenarios to three options:

No. 1 is that Graham is an incredibly indecisive kid who loves attention but is too immature to make an important decision and stick with it.

No. 2 is that he’s being influenced by family member or some other outside handlers who are pressuring him not to go to State, no matter how badly he wants to go there.

No. 3 is that he’s dealing with academic issues that could potentially affect his freshman eligibility, and he’s considering a reclassification to the Class of 2013.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

General

23 Responses to Friedlander on the Graham situation

  1. jake 12/23/2011 at 1:19 PM #

    Please do us all a favor and delete this article and the link to that ignorant Friedlander artice. He has no clue. Crap like this doesn’t help our situation with TG.

  2. TLeo 12/23/2011 at 1:29 PM #

    Those seem like 3 reasonable possibilities. If it’s academics those issues might be fixable but if this kid is just playing games for attention, or letting someone close to him talk him out of what he wants to do, that person could cause problems down the road if he did come to State. In those two cases he could be more trouble in the future than he is worth so it might be better to just forget him..

  3. Packfan28 12/23/2011 at 2:00 PM #

    Unbelievable. Friedlander obviously doesn’t know anything about TG, makes the recommendation to avoid him, and them people agree with him. This is just crazy.

  4. fullmoon1 12/23/2011 at 2:05 PM #

    We are all just trying to make sense of it. Realisticly speaking sometimes these flip flops can be red flags to say the least. Hopefully it will all work out for the best for both parties.

  5. StateFans 12/23/2011 at 2:45 PM #

    Packfan28,

    What are you talking about regarding the ‘agreeing’ with Friedlander?

    I simply think that the 3 potential ‘reasons’ for the flip-flopping are interesting to consider. Are you saying that you don’t agree that those 3 items are not worth considering?

    Do you have any other insights to share for some rational explanations for such irrational behavior?

  6. StateFans 12/23/2011 at 2:47 PM #

    So, it will now be the FANS fault if Graham doesn’t re-re-commit?

    Got it.

  7. LKNpackfan 12/23/2011 at 3:09 PM #

    I think we can put speculation to bed since PackInsider covered this this morning. The issue appears to be that enrollment qualifications are still pending. He wants to re-commit but did so prematurely.

  8. StateFoxer 12/23/2011 at 3:24 PM #

    I didn’t like the article either.

    I thought it was starting to come out that it was an academic issue from all the school transfers. Which, to me, indicates that Graham didn’t really waffle he just hit an unexpected hiccup. So for Friedlander to write an article questioning Graham’s maturity, implying he’s a head case, and saying State should avoid him seems lazy. He even goes so far as to say we should avoid him even if he goes to prep school to qualify ala Lorenzo Brown.

    And I think it came off as insensitive considering this is a kid who has already had a lot of hardship in his life. He appeared genuinely excited about committing to NC State and just had what should have been an exciting day for him turn into a public critique of his family, friends, character, and academics.

  9. wbnation 12/23/2011 at 3:49 PM #

    can’t you verbally commit even if your transcripts are pending? Guys verbally commit all time from 8th graders to Sophomores in high school. I can see how this would make a difference on signing your LOI but seems to me that Graham could verbal anytime he wants. Why then the sudden back track from all sources? I think this may be academic related but there is also somehthing else going on that has caused pause to even verbally commit.

  10. graywolf 12/23/2011 at 4:09 PM #

    I wish the best for the young man and I do hope he makes a sound and wise decision regarding where he will play basketball next year. I hope he makes the right decision for himself and his family. I also hope he makes a decision and stick with it and is not this confused in the future.

  11. Packfan28 12/23/2011 at 4:35 PM #

    StateFans, I was referring to the previous poster who said “so it might be better to just forget him”. Friedlander clearly wrote this conjecture before it became known today the reason was due to an issue with qualifying.

    Just read Graywolf’s post. Hoping he makes a decision and sticks with it implies he changed his mind and de-committed, which is not the case. Media puts things out there, and some readers, rather than understanding the writer is just guessing, assume it to be fact because it it is in writing.

    Friedlander’s comment about better to walk away is simply unprofessional.

    The fans opinion of him will have nothing to do with whether or not he commits to the Pack again. He wants to play for us, and if he can get his academics together by the spring, he will play for us.

  12. sautz 12/23/2011 at 6:12 PM #

    “can’t you verbally commit even if your transcripts are pending? Guys verbally commit all time from 8th graders to Sophomores in high school. I can see how this would make a difference on signing your LOI but seems to me that Graham could verbal anytime he wants.”

    I don’t quite understand either. My guess is that he moved from school to school and his classes don’t add up. Hypothetically, say he needs 2 maths and a foreign language to be admitted to NC State, but he only has room for 1 more class in the spring along with his other required classes.
    Could he still sign an LOI knowing he’ll be courses short and could take them in the spring? I don’t know.

  13. john of sparta 12/23/2011 at 7:19 PM #

    it’s that old ACC grades/classes thing.

  14. baxter 12/23/2011 at 7:38 PM #

    Its either 2 or 3. It isn’t number one. Word was they wanted him to wait till after the NE game to make it public, thinking they could make sure everything was straight on our side. Things got out, it backfired.

    Look for us to still try and get Jefferson and a center in the fold, but don’t be surprised if they did, they would still look for Torian to commit. IF he does have to reclassify or prep, it might work better given our scholarship situation.

  15. runwiththepack 12/23/2011 at 7:55 PM #

    I say “ya gotta love a guy who luvs The Pack”, which is apparently the case with Graham. Whatever happens, it has been nice seeing NCSU involved in a great kid/ballplayer like him. We can only wish him well and cross our fingers in the hopes that he will make his way to west Raleigh someday.

    He has already added considerably to the excitement of the clearly well-under way revival of NCSU basketball. His undeniably genuine interest in us has already earned my well wishes.

    Good luck, young man, and please try to find your way to Raleigh for your college days.

  16. MeadowWolf 12/23/2011 at 8:09 PM #

    @Baxter…”Things got out, it backfired”…things didn’t just get out, he tweeted and youtube’d it himself.

  17. baxter 12/23/2011 at 10:09 PM #

    Meadow, the story was out before he even tweeted and released the youtube. One of Scout’s guys was breaking it the night before

  18. baxter 12/23/2011 at 10:20 PM #

    Packinsider does a great job breaking this down:

    http://packinsider.com/2011/12/the-truth-behind-the-torian-graham-saga/

  19. Greywolf 12/24/2011 at 10:32 AM #

    With Gott’s knowledge and experience I think I’ll leave the deciding on Graham up to him.

  20. Alpha Wolf 12/24/2011 at 11:02 AM #

    Sometimes we adults forget the maturity level and wisdom of a 17-18 year old kid is, well, the maturity level of a 17-18 year old kid.

  21. WolftownVA81 12/24/2011 at 2:58 PM #

    The Packinsider story did a good job of laying out the situation. I understand the University couldn’t comment but it seems like TG could have put out something that said due to an admissions issue that was discovered late in the process he would have to officially decommit pending it’s resolution but he still hoped to wear the Wolfpack uniform. That would have put much of the negative comments and speculation to bed. Hope it all works out him. Seems like a good kid.

  22. WolftownVA81 12/24/2011 at 3:00 PM #

    As far Friedlander goes, face, meet egg. He should be issuing a public appology, in my opinion.

  23. ancsu87 12/25/2011 at 5:02 PM #

    Jake +1

    Don’t treat him like he is a real sports writer.

Leave a Reply