JJ Hickson’s monster dunk viewable in the highlights at this link was ESPN Sportscenter’s top play of last night. NC State did not get a mention during the Sportscenter broadcast that I saw but we are mentioned in the highlight reel linked above.
This serves as a pretty good follow-up to this entry from Wednesday.
The 2008-2009 NBA season tipped-off with three games last night that each had a very prominent NC State-related storyline when:
(1) JJ Hickson began his NBA career with the Cleveland Cavaliers who lost to the defending NBA Champion Boston Celtics.
(2) Hickson wasn’t the only former NC State big man to take the court last night. The three recent former Wolfpack big men who have been first round draft picks - Hickson, Cedric Simmons and Josh Powell - combined for a grand total of 2 minutes and 43 seconds of playing time last night. Thes three players stayed in college a combined five years.
J.J. Hickson got off to a quick start last night in his first summer league game:
LAS VEGAS –Cleveland Cavaliers assistant John Kuester was on a roll Monday, thinking up new ways to praise rookie J.J. Hickson.
“We’re talking about an N.C. State guy, and I’m still saying nice things,” former Tar Heel Kuester joked. “He’s that great a kid.”
And seemingly that good a prospect. Hickson looked spectacular during a 97-94 summer-league loss to the New York Knicks, with 26 points and nine rebounds.
An awesome analysis of 2008’s One-And-Doners can be seen by clicking here to one of the best college basketball blogs in the country.
I can’t copy and paste their comments, but they have some interesting things to say about NC State and how JJ Hickson was definitely ‘not worth it’. It really is an interesting piece.
You can surf to “Rush the Court” and a host of other blogs and resources by spending some time looking at our blogroll on the right hand side of our front page.
Sid was right - JJ went in the 11-20 window. Here’s Chad Ford’s analysis:
I’m surprised they passed on local hero Kosta Koufos of Ohio State. But I do like Hickson, who’s a sleeper. He’s strong and athletic and he can score in multiple ways. He was 12-for-12 from the field in his first college game.
It’s more than a little bit surreal that the only ACC player selected in the first round was a freshman from the last place team. The next ACC player selected was Sean Singletary (from the 10th place team) way down at #42. Maybe it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that the ACC didn’t fare very well in the NCAAT last year.
Inside Carolina is reporting that Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green will all return to Chapel Hill for the 2008-2009 college basketball season, virtually guaranteeing that the Tarheels will hold the #1 preseason ranking as the heavy favorite to win the 2009 National Championship.
Lawson, Ellington and Green had become the targets of significant criticism brought about by UNC-CH fans, students and internet community members. The situation between Tarheel faithful and the players got so nasty that CBS Sportsline actually elevated the fans’ criticisms in a national article discussing the situation and criticizing the Tarheel faithful.
Here’s your linkage. Just in case you were harboring any miniscule hopes for Hickson’s return (which SFN certainly never encouraged) - you can let them go now.
May 1, 2008
The writing may be the wall for JJ Hickson. As NC State fans people who genuinely want to see JJ Hickson maximize his earnings and succeed for years to come; we can only hope that the young man is mature enough to ‘read the wall’ objectively ans execute the kind of decision-making-skills needed to insure a bright future for the young man.
Before the recent onslaught of announcements by dozens of highly rated underclassment, Hickson was projected by many to be a second round draft choice in this summer’s NBA Draft. The impact of all of these underclassment has certainly not helped Hickson’s cause.
As we indicated just a couple of days ago…
RALEIGH — N.C. State freshman J.J. Hickson will enter his name in the NBA Draft but he will go through the process without hiring an agent, Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said Monday, leaving the door open for a possible return.”He’ll test the waters,” Lowe said. “He’ll get all the information he can and decide what’s the best thing. It may depend on where he’s going in the draft.”
Here’s the full article. Key excerpt:
“Coach is a great man,” Hickson said. “When I came to this program, it was more like he cared about J.J. as the person rather than J.J. the basketball player. I think he does have my best interests at heart. If me and my family feel like it’s comfortable and I should go to a team that needs me, then make the decision.”
Lowe, who coached 15 NBA seasons before coming to N.C. State, said he will wish Hickson well if he decides to leave.
NBADraft.net does a good job projecting who will leave early and where they will go in the NBA Draft. The site is pretty good on not putting underclassmen on the board until they have heard some kind of news. We aren’t posting this to say it is “official”; we are posting because this is the first credible late-season projection we have seen related to Hickson and the draft since ESPN called Hickson a “first round lock” a little less than two months ago.
Would N.C. State freshman J.J. Hickson turn professional after one season?Perhaps. On Tuesday, in one-on-one interview with WRAL, he addressed whether he’d consider the NBA after this season.
“Being a competitor, the next level is the NBA. That’s what I’m trying to get to,” Hickson said. “If the opportunity is there, I’ll look at it then and sit down with my parents and my coaching staff.
“If it’s not there, I wouldn’t mind coming back to school and doing another year or however many it takes.”
J. J. Hickson, F, North Carolina State
Hickson is an athletic big man with an NBA frame and the ability to score from 15 feet and in. He’s shown good ability as a shot-blocker and a rebounder and has been shooting with extreme efficiency from the field.
Although scouts say he’s raw and could use another year in school, the combination of length, athleticism and efficency is usually a potent one come draft time. His stock is harder to judge because of his rawness, but most scouts have him going somewhere in the mid-first round.
Larry Hunter’s return to Raleigh was SIGNIFICANTLY closer than the score indicates.
JJ Hickson shot 10 of 11 from the floor en route to scoring 33 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and blocking 3 shots to lead NC State to a come from behind victory over another directional school in the state of North Carolina. Additionally - Brandon Costner played much better than he has recently; Javi Gonzalez might as well be invisible and was overshadowed by the defensive and play making efforts of Marques Johnson. FWIW, Johnson played 23 minutes and Gonzalez logged 17.
