Head Coach Sidney Lowe and N.C. State received a basketball commitment from 6-foot-1 point guard Julius Mays, a highly rated junior from Marion, Ind.
Mays, who was being recruited by several Big Ten schools, informed Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe and his staff Thursday he planned to play for the Pack. Mays won’t be the first point guard to come to NCSU from Marion. Wolfpack assistant coach Monte Towe, the star point guard on the 1974 NCAA champions, also is from Marion.
Mays is about to begin his junior season, so it is hard to know very much about him as most basketball recruiting rankings don’t really start to take form until the junior year. Mays averaged 17 points a game as a sophomore in a strong Indiana High School Basketball program. He is expected to be listed as one of the dozen best high school basketball players in the talent-rich state. SFN’s ‘choppack’ was kind enough to share some information/comments about Mays in about the 8th or 9th comment included below this entry.
With transfer Farnold Degand also on the Wolfpack’s roster, the Pack now projects two have athletic ‘combo’ guards that can fill time it either position in the backcourt if needed. We think that Mays is projected to ultimately be a pure point guard; he is currently listed at six feet one inches and 170 pounds and is projected to grow some more.
The following is a projected roster for the Wolfpack’s Basketball program in the coming years. Below the roster are comments and analysis. For the sake of discussion, we are taking the liberty to project some commitments as placeholders for scholarships. The positions listed beside the players are their natural positions; certain players could fill in at other positions if needed.
Projected 2007-2008 NC State Basketball Roster
Senior Class
(1) Gavin Grant (2G/3F)
Junior Class
(2) Courtney Fells (2G)
(3) Ben McCauley (4F/5C)
Sophomore Class
(4) Brandon Costner (3F/4F)
(5) Trevor Ferguson (2G)
(6) Dennis Horner (4F/3F)
(7) Farnold Degand (1PG)
(8) Bartosz Lewandowski (5C)
Freshman Class
(9) Johnny Thomas (3F)
(10) JJ Hickson (5C/4F)
(11) Open (SFN: Projected Tracy Smith (4F))
HS Senior Commits
(12) Julius Mays (PG)
(13) Open (SFN: Projected CJ Williams (3F))
(1) Gavin Grant’s old scholarships Open (SFN: Projected Top 100 Post player)
* 4-star power forward and one of the country’s Top 50 recruits – Tracy Smith – has announced that he has academically qualified with strong SAT scores. Smith is thought to be a heavy lean to the Wolfpack and we therefore have projected him into State’s 11th scholarship.
* Many rumors have swirled on the internet that a very highly ranked potential “mystery recruit” for the Wolfpack in the class of 2007. We have not shared any comments about this recruit(s). What we will share is that IF the Wolfpack can land either (or both) of the two potential (longshot) names that we have heard, then we fully expect the Pack to allocate scholarships to these players. This is a slam dunk decision.
* We think that the NC State coaching staff believes that Farnold Degand will be more than serviceable to run the point next season in light of the amount of versatile offensive talent that the Pack will be able to put on the floor in names like- Fells, Grant, Costner, Hickson, McCauley, Horner, (hopefully) Smith.
* Based on (1) Farnold Degand’s presence/ability to handle the ball next year after Engin Atsur leaves, (2) the in-roads that Coach Lowe is making with prospects in the class of 2008 and (3) the commitment from Julius Mays…we project that the Wolfpack will try to sign Tracy Smith with the third scholarship in the class of 2007 and then close the book on the class (unless we land a Top 30 “Mystery Recruit”).
* Chris Warren, a 5-11, 165-pound point guard in the class of 2007 visited NC State recently. Warren was an option that the staff was considering for future point guard needs and ultimately chose to pass. (With Mays commitment, that becomes more clear). Warren is one of those situations where so many people on the internet prove that they simply don’t listen. We say posts on some message boards asking why State had ‘rescinded’ Warren’s offer…and proclamations that State should jump all over the short point guard with a valuable scholarship. Not that it will make one ounce of difference, but people who don’t know what they are talking about should not speak.
* As we hypothetically look to the future recognizing that many of these comments are speculative, the primary gap that may otentially arise in the future of the program (’09, ’10. ’11) is a little bit of a deficiency in pure outside shooting. If recruiting efforts ulitimately comprised a roster similar to what we have projected, the one future need that State may need in the class of ’08 or ’09 is a stud shooting guard; we’re talking more of a Rodney Monroe shooter than a Gavin Grant ‘versatile’. We have all the faith in the world that Courtney Fells is going to be a monster at the 2G in the coming years, but the need for appropriate talent behind Fells in future recruiting classes is something on which we will keep our eye.
