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Mark Gottfried has made a solid addition to his 2014 recruiting class with the addition of Abdul Malik Abu: North Carolina State landed a big commitme
[See the full post at: Abu To Play Hoops At NC State]Surprised at the list of suitors. No major hoops powerhouses like KU, UK, the blues, etc on his list. You’d expect to see several of the name brands from the northeast.
Nice to pick up what appears to be a talented big who is unlikely to immediately jump to the NBA, but curious about what the lack of major offers is telling us. Nobody flies under the radar anymore.Keep it up, Gott!!
Redcanine, I saw your 3:22 pm post yesterday and scared my dog when I screamed yes. Abu is for real. Excellent acquisition Mr. Gott and company.
I must say, Gottfried can certainly recruit. His classes so far (first number = overall rank, second number = position rank):
2011 – TF PG Alex Johnson (?,?), SG Jaqawn Raymond (NR, 82), PF Tyler Harris (139,22), PF Thomas DeThaey (NR,NR)
2012 – PG Tyler Lewis (49,4), SG Rodney Purvis (17,6), SF T.J. Warren (23,6), TF SG Ralston Turner (119,25)
2013 – PG Cat Barber (22, 5), C Beejay Anya (59,5), C Kyle Washington (99,13), TF SG Trevor Lacey (38,11), PF Lennard Freeman (NR,NR), JC SG Desmond Lee (NR,NR)
2014 – SF Caleb Martin (45,13), SF Cody Martin (107,27), PF Abdul-Malik Abu (47,10)
Note: all positions and rankings from Verbal Commits.
Given Gottfried took over in April, 2011, it’s no surprise that class was weak and all three players other than senior transfer Alex Johnson later transferred out of the program. But, as of right now, in the 3 classes Gottfried fully recruited since taking over, he has signed 10 players who were in the top 25 at their position, including 6 players who were top 10 at their position. With several offers still outstanding for the class of 2014.
He’s not recruiting on par with UNC or Duke, but his recruiting is a lot better and more consistent than State has had since Valvano.
I’d love to see someone with access to better data than me post a detailed comparison of Gott’s recruiting at State vs. past N.C. State coaches and Gott’s recruiting at State vs. the national field (i.e., where does he rank?).
Personally, I see little/no value in ranking coaches based on something as subjective as recruiting rankings. I much prefer the objective measure of results. This means that Gott has matched Herb, is ahead of Lowe & Robinson, and behind everyone else back to at least Case.
Since someone mentioned it, I like how that Verbal Commits site measures talent. They use a composite of 3 major recruiting sites (ESPN, Rivals, Scout) and rates players by the average of the three. From that, there is a team average.
NCSU is the 5th most talented team in the ACC coming into the ’13-14 season, behind DU, UNX, Syr, and Mary…
I really don’t know what this has to do with Abu…sorry for rambling.
One thing that is going to be interesting is how the NC State fanbase handles Abu’s faith — he’s Muslim and he’s not casual about his beliefs. I’ve read multiple accounts that say he’s a better player than his rankings but is rated lower because he strictly observed Ramadan and fasted until sunset the entire month of the holiday this summer.
Me, I know many Muslims and can certainly discern between them and Islamists as easily as I can Christians and Eric Rudolph. Guys like him and the ones terrorists in the Middle East use religion as an excuse for their actions while what they do runs contrary to the mainstreams of their respective faiths.
If he coached like he did at the end of his first year all of the time, we’d be fine. If he loses his team the way he did last year, he’s in trouble. Debbie won’t have Lee’s patience, not by a mile.
I hope Abu grows some more hes undersized like Howell. To play good defense we need comparable height to the elite programs.
If we keep reeling in recruits and they translate to wins, I’ll go Allah Akbar all day long.
Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. Mao Zedong
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