ACC Basketball News: NBA’s view of Hickson, Taylor King to Villanova, and Miami picks up PG from Villanova

07-08 Basketball General85

There are many State fans who have issues with Dave Glenn, however there isn’t any member of the media who has his resources and access in covering ACC sports. With several ACC players considering declaring for the NBA draft, he gathered some opinions from NBA officials on Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and JJ Hickson.

An NBA official on condition of anonymity had this to say about JJ Hickson:

This isn’t complicated at all. If you’re 6-9 and you can put the ball in the basket on a consistent basis against people your size, you’re on our radar. Does he have a long way to go? Yes. Does he have a lot to learn? Yes. Is he ready to play in the NBA today? No. But it’s no secret that a lot of teams in this league will take a chance on big guys with scoring ability, even if they have to wait a year or two for the payoff.

In other words, JJ Hickson is not coming back and he will make the 4th former NC State player currently in the NBA along with Damien Wilkins, Josh Powell, and Cedric Simmons. Interestingly enough, each of these players left NC State in their first two years on campus and only two (Simmons and now JJ) went/are going directly to the NBA. Of course, Wilkins transfered to Georgia to become a sixth man for his final two years and Josh Powell’s career led him to Europe. Both are having successful NBA careers at this point.

There are a couple of newsworthy items today regarding ACC hoops. It is transfer season and there is news today of Taylor King selecting Villanova as his destination after marginal success at Duke:

It took Taylor King a season to decide Duke wasn’t the right fit for him. It took him less than 72 hours to figure out what did fit.

King, who had planned to visit Gonzaga and Southern Cal at the end of the month, committed on Sunday to transfer to Villanova after a weekend visit. He will enroll in June…

“It just couldn’t be a better fit for me,” King said. “It wasn’t about getting it over with. I wanted it. This gives me the best opportunity to start right away.”

Additionally, Miami landed a point guard transfering from Villanova.

The last time the Miami Hurricanes accepted a backcourt transfer it worked out rather nicely. Jack McClinton went from Siena to All-ACC for Frank Haith’s Hurricanes. Now the staff is hoping to have hit pay dirt again. Malcolm Grant, a freshman for the Villanova Wildcats, announced his intentions to transfer. He’ll sit next year and have three seasons to play. A high-level recruit, Grant was certainly talented enough to play a role at Villanova but was simply victim to a numbers game in the backcourt.

As a freshman for the Wildcats, Grant logged 13 minutes a game. He scored 5.8 points a contest to go with 1.8 assists.

Grant was a 3-star PG ranked #23 at his position by www.scout.com.

07-08 Basketball General

85 Responses to ACC Basketball News: NBA’s view of Hickson, Taylor King to Villanova, and Miami picks up PG from Villanova

  1. Bynum State Fan 04/16/2008 at 9:48 AM #

    We need to try to get some transfers ourselves. We need some people who are long, athletic, gifted, and downright mean. Do any of you remember when Shackleford/Washburn played at NC State? Other teams and their players feared those guys. You knew that if they didn’t like the results on the court, they may pay you a visit “off the court”. Those mean instincts that they had enable them to dominate their competition. We need to be going after those type of guys. That is what will propel State back into the machine it once was. Sidney Lowe has the “street cred” to get these young ballers into our system. He is the man for the job here at NC State.

  2. Ismael 04/17/2008 at 11:15 AM #

    does anyone share my little-thought-thru notion (i think that’s called hare-brained) that the demise of this year’s team actually happened when we got destroyed by Michigan State?

  3. blackdom 04/17/2008 at 12:03 PM #

    Bynum State Fan: that “street cred” line is way out of hand and reeks of a racial slur………..Absurd and I have remarks censored here because I was negative sid but you allow this clown his forum.
    So what your are saying is we need more nasty “black” players? That would not go to class and take matters into their own hands if things don’t go their way on the court?

  4. smfrank 04/17/2008 at 1:27 PM #

    The good thing is, it won’t take long for transfers to get adjusted to the team concepts. The offense consists of dribbling around somewhere between the top of the key and half court for about 25 seconds and try not to get picked (Sidney is usually ok if you have a 67% rate at this part of the offense) With about 8 seconds left on the shot clock, pick up your dribble while being double teamed and make a pass to the wing (Coach says we’re gunning for a completed pass around 60% of the time, that would be like a 115 QB rating which is good). If you catch it, shoot a contested 3 or try to force a pass into a crowd of people.

    The defense is also simple. Jog around the court following your man You don’t have to know exactly where he is or or where the ball is, you just have to look active – its a ploy to confuse the offense. When your man gets the ball – stand up, reach out your hand and swipe. If he gets by you – start running down court, because your man is no where near you and you’ll be open on offense.

  5. Bynum State Fan 04/17/2008 at 3:28 PM #

    Black Dom, you injected Race, not me. It’s not about color my friend, but Attitude! Why do you always have to see things in the prism of race?

  6. Bynum State Fan 04/17/2008 at 4:32 PM #

    Plus, I think your name in itself is racist, Black Dominace?

  7. kyjelly 04/18/2008 at 9:18 AM #

    I get censored for what? Calling JJ a stiff? But bynum can do his bill oreilly deal and have his own forum

  8. Bynum State Fan 04/18/2008 at 10:19 AM #

    Who is Bill Oreilly? If he is a former State player, he was way before my time.

  9. Bynum State Fan 04/24/2008 at 3:01 PM #

    I wonder if UNC’s big 3 (if you can call them big) are testing the waters because they are not confident that Roy can help deliver a national championship to them while underachieving in big games. For example; the Kansas game where Roy secured a victory for Kansas before calling a timeout? And then, when Roy’s team (UNC) did get close, he took out starting point guard (Lawson) to secure the Kansas (Roy’s team)would pull ahead again & ensure defeat of UNC. Just curious if you guys think that may be the reason so many of UNC’ers are declaring or talking about declaring, to the point that even Danny Green is considering, and Alex Stepheson is talking about transfering like a Dukie just did a few weeks ago. I am a big fan of Triangle basketball. I think this might be the beginning of a downfall for UNC. We just have to be there to pick up our game & finally take their place in the heirarchy of the ACC. Hickson was on the right path by choosing State over all the other ACC schools he could have chosen. We need to somehow extend our recruiting perephria to include high school ballers such as David Thompson, Charles Shackleford, Chris Washburn. Those guys were tough & didn’t take no crap. Duke would have never got away with those fouls & clotheslines they did against us without some retribution. I think that Sidney is of that type framework and knows how to get that kind of elite athlete over here to NC State. Go Wolfpack!!

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    CoEFYW Really informative blog post.Thanks Again. Awesome.

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