Wolfpack Nation has been discussing bad news about the football program all week, so it’s time for bad news from the hardwood.
This week, sources have told SFN that Andrew Brackman recently informed Head Coach Sidney Lowe of Brackman’s intention not to play basketball this coming season. Additionally, Brackman has apparently not participated in basketball team meetings this week.
As you may recall, we’ve discussed this topic before after SFN shared the rumors that we were hearing on this in July.
We certainly hope and pray that this ultimately proves to be untrue…but, at this point things are not looking good on the Brackman front. Please note that we are not stating that Brackman will not end up playing basketball at NC State this year. We are stating that he has informed Coach Lowe of his current intention not to play. Coach Lowe has proven to be very flexible and innovative in his thinking related to the basketball program. So, we continue to hold out hope that some kind of compromise agreement can still be struck that gives Brackman what he needs while still helping NC State Basketball with a little support.
This would be tough, but not unexpected news for the Wolfpack’s challenging hardwood hopes this season. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi did not include NC State in his off-season “Bracketology” and Collegehoopsnet.com ranked NC State #107 in the country in rankings that INCLUDED Brackman’s presence on the team.
We are actually pleasantly surprised that it took this long for Brackman to make this (obviously) difficult decision. A lot of credit should go to Coach Lowe for his ability to ‘recruit’ Brack into considering the option this long. No word on the rumors that Brackman will remain on the Wolfpack’s Basketball roster for the year so that the basketball program can pay his scholarship in order to to keep a scholarship available for the baseball program.
SFN wishes Andrew Brackman all the luck in the world as he pursues his baseball career. We’d love to be wrong on this one, but we’re certainly not holding our collective breath (and you shouldn’t either).
The Greenville paper has a nice little fluff piece on Coach Lowe, if reading that makes you feel any better.
“It’s going to be a challenge for us this year. We might be a little short in numbers, but we’ll be big in heart. But while I say it might be tough, I believe in our kids and we’re going to go out there and surprise some people. We will not surprise ourselves, but we’ll surprise some people and we’re not going to be outworked.”
