Report: CJ Leslie to return for junior season!!!
We’ve been hinting for the last week or so that our ‘gut’ was leading us to believe that CJ Leslie was going to return to NC State for his junior season. Although we don’t seem to have public comment from CJ, Pack Pride just tweeted the following:
Unlike their Scout.com brethren at Inside Carolina, Pack Pride actually has a fantastic track record of restraint and not mis-reporting things. Through the years they have chosen to wait until they had the appropriate ‘green light’ from the NC State administration &/or their sources. So, I don’t have a problem sharing this report since it is consistent with what we’ve been hearing and also is consistent with some inside rumors we’ve heard over the last 12-18 hours.
…more to come…and, maybe even more good news to come in #WolfpackNation.
58 Responses to “Report: CJ Leslie to return for junior season!!!”
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Fabulous news. It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had a season where I looked at the schedule and didn’t see at least a half dozen games where I figured we were going to get our asses kicked just based on the talent gap. Now we will be as talented as any team in the country.
By the way, CJ’s return means Rodney Purvis is going to wear 0 next year.
Absolutely awesome news! Any word on how this affects Amile Jefferson’s decision? Can someone get Chuck Amato on the phone with him?
This is good, right?
WRAL is reporting this now, too. So it is either fully confirmed, or they, too, trust PackPride.
Either way, WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!
GO PACK!!!!
http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/story/10996054
I haven’t read the articles, but I am very interested in knowing what resulted in the timing of this. What pushed him to make the decision, or if the decision was already made a while back, what pushed him to wait until now to announce it? And why today?
Can’t help but wonder if Kentucky’s entire starting lineup entering the draft was the final straw for him.
“Chad Ford
(1:22 PM)
If he keeps up the learning curve, could be a lottery pick. Especially when it looks like NC State could win the ACC next year and be a Top 5 team. Having a big stage will really help with the exposure. He has the length and athletic ability to be a lottery pick. If he keeps improving his game, good chance it happens. I think it was a smart decision by Leslie.”
^so he’s is def gonna wear 0?
Does anyone know where to get replica jerseys/jerseys made. I wanna get one of purvis.
Awesome news. There is some major pressure for us to succeed next year now.
“If everyone would refresh SFN instead of Twitter we could get enough page views to reduce the advertisements that everyone dislikes so much.”
I think we know who was behind the conspiracy of CJ waiting so long to announce. SFN trying to get page views
.
Does anyone “in the know” have an inside track on whether or not this helps us get Amile Jefferson? Or does this hurt our chances? I’m getting greedy — let’s get ‘em ALL!
If it’s a choice between CJL and AJ, we have the best result right now. I hope it’s not the case and that Jefferson is making his decision independent of Leslie. I know, keep dreaming.
I feel like this is a storybook, and next year is the thrilling climax. We have had the worrisome beginning (coaching search); the great love story (Wolfpack Nation and Gott); the dark moments threatening our resolve (referees and losing the media-hyped “three game stretch”) the redemption (Calvin’s season and our tournament run).
Next year we add some new characters, keep the best of the old characters, and dazzle. Can’t wait.
Article from Sporting News…
http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2012-04-18/cj-leslies-return-makes-nc-state-an-acc-favorite
The best part is in the comments section next to the Tarheel foot icon reading “y’all in business now.”
Yes we are.
Lorenzo Brown
Scott Wood
Rodney Purvis
Richard Howell
CJ Leslie
To be honest, I don’t see a better starting five in the ACC (and it’s probably one of the best in the country). Leslie is the most athletic returning player, and front-runner for ACC POY. Richard Howell is the best returning rebounder in the ACC. I predict he will be a double double machine next year. He also seemed to be hitting that 15 foot jumper more effectively down the stretch. Scott Wood is the best returning shooter in the ACC (and has probably logged more minutes than anybody returning in the conference). Lorenzo Brown becomes the best point guard with Kendall Marshall out of the picture.
Purvis’ performance in these high school all-star games has impressed me. His body control is truly Dwayne Wade-esque. He doesn’t come in with too much pressure either given that we have 4 double figure scorers returning. We just need him to play his game. He can concentrate on slashing to the basket and either scoring or letting the bigs clean up his misses.
Quite frankly, who’s going to stop this team from getting to the rim next year?
great news – really excited about the potential next year!
All things good for Wolfpack fans and athletics continue to happen ever since Lee Fowler was given the firing he so richly deserved!
Am I the ONLY one that is reading something into the last line????
…more to come…and, maybe even more good news to come in #WolfpackNation
We know Andrew Young went Texas A&M so I only know of one more piee of goods news that could be coming that would belong being mentioned in the same article……
Separately anyone think the six announcements from Kentucky played a role at all? I know most of them were expected but I have to wonder about the timing
Championship!
Yay! Thank you CJ!
chilly water Says:
April 18th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
^so he’s is def gonna wear 0?
According to Rodney he’s going to wear 0 next year. It has become available, and 5 is sort of already spoken for, so I say that is a safe bet.
this was the big, very big. If Jefferson now commits elsewhere we will know he was waiting on Calvin. I am still holding out hope for AJ.
I just keep singing “damn it feels good to be a gangsta” in my head. Life is good guys, life is good
Phi Slamma Jamma: CJ Leslie, Lorenzo Brown, Richard Howell, Rodney Purvis. Will Amile Jefferson be a member of that fraternity? Guess I’m just naturally nasty but let’s get all in the blues faces let em eat some jam.
I wanna go to Chapel Hill and Durham favored for once in a long long long time
This is really good news. How long has it been since NC State was a possible preseason ACC # 1 team…..I was a young man and that was a long time ago.
Greywolf, i believe our boys pledged the fraternity Phi Packa Attacka.