Thomas Picks Pack!

Basketball Recruiting General NCS Basketball57

Head Basketball Coach Sidney Lowe has landed his first commitment of the 2007 recruiting class in Johnny Thomas. (N&O Link)

The 6-foot-5 Thomas was impressive last month in the annual Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions and has a strong basketball resume. He averaged 17.8 points per game last season while leading Greensboro Day to the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association championship. In a regular-season matchup, Greensboro Day defeated eventual state 3-A champion Greensboro Dudley by 18 points. In May, he led the North Carolina Gaters to the AAU U-17 state title.

Thomas’ recruiting was led by assistant coach, Pete Strickland. The Wolfpack beat out scholarship offers from Virginia Tech and Miami (Fla.) and interest from Wake Forest for Thomas. State coaches believe that they ‘got in on the ground floor’ with Thomas, and that his skills and performance was going to continue to generate interest from a growing list of schools. This decision became more plausible last week when Eric Wallace chose Virginia and it became more obvious that State was focusing all of our efforts on Thomas.

Thomas size and game is compared by some to a blend of Cameron Bennerman and PJ Tucker.

Greensboro’s News & Record says that “Thomas could have waited” in their article on the news.

The athletic 6-foot-5 wing was a rising star on the AAU circuit. More offers could very well have been on the way.

“I could have waited for all these other colleges,” Thomas said, “but when it came down to it I already knew where I wanted to go years before.”

“They put all their focus on me,” Thomas said. “I liked all the coaches, all the energy they brought to my recruitment.”

Inlcuding Thomas, State has five scholarships for the 2007 class.

Projected 2007-2008 NC State Basketball Roster

Senior Class
(1) Gavin Grant (G/F)

Junior Class
(2) Courtney Fells (SG)
(3) Ben McCauley (F/C)

Sophomore Class
(4) Brandon Costner (hopefully gets redshirt) (3F/4F)
(5) Trevor Ferguson (SG)
(6) Dennis Horner (F)
(7) Fernold Degand (PG)
(8) Bartosz Lewandowski (C)

Freshman Class
(9) Johnny Thomas (G/F)
(10) N/A
(11) N/A
(12) N/A
(13) N/A

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

Basketball Recruiting General NCS Basketball

57 Responses to Thomas Picks Pack!

  1. choppack1 06/26/2006 at 4:45 PM #

    “I sent the N&O link to my UNX brother-in-law. I love being on offense again.”

    “I might hold off on that there, Clark.”

  2. duckmanjw 06/26/2006 at 4:48 PM #

    Wright has NOT “moved on�

    From a May 15th article

    “I was upset at first,� he said about Coach Sendek’s decision to leave N.C. State. But I knew he made the best decision for him at the time for him and his family. It’s something that you just have to live with and take it. There’s not to much more you can do. I’m just moving on and hopefully the best situation for myself will come around.�

    Sounds as if he’s moving on!

  3. choppack1 06/26/2006 at 4:59 PM #

    duck – Others have heard that we are once again involved in his recruitment. I would trust that more than an article. He has decommitted and he even has a favorite that is not us, but we are recruiting him again and based what I can gather from folks whom I respect – he’s listening again.

  4. sf59 06/26/2006 at 5:29 PM #

    Duck,
    Great article from like 3 years ago… things have changed since mid May. Since then we have a head coach who has made Wright priority 1-a in this class. Harris and Lowe are on Wright like stank on poop.

    As far a Mac, please. Sid (Nate’s best firend) is heading up his rectuitment… that should tell you right there that we are going after him and he is a priority. And Mac has been quoted as saying “Its not about me wanting to go to State, it s about if they want me”… um we want him.

    Lets get you up to speed Duck:

    Thomas- Comit
    MAc-will comit… whenver he visits probably in Aug.

    Wright- priority 1-a, we have made up a lot of ground on GT and he is listening
    Hickson-priority 1-b, we are strong with Uconn at the top
    Vaughn- if Duke and UNC do not offer we will have a good shot

    Hudson- is likely to move to the 08 class bc of grades… he should not be a prioity at this point unless there is a turn around in the class room.

    new name will pop up unless Sid hit a homer during his 1st class

    Thats should help ya.

  5. sf59 06/26/2006 at 5:30 PM #

    oh yeah, teh staff is hi on blair too

  6. yannes 06/26/2006 at 7:23 PM #

    sf59:
    I’m pretty sure that Vaughn is listed as having “No Interest” in us. That may be old, but I think that it stems from us losing Herb and from going after JJ Hickson strong. Even if we are on Vaughn’s radar, I don’t think that we are very high.

    If I had to guess today our 2007 class will probably be something like Thomas, J-Mac, PG (possibly Wright), PF (possibly Hickson), PF/C

  7. sf59 06/26/2006 at 8:34 PM #

    ^^^ you are right, the info you have on Vaughn is old. Unc will likely not offer, but Duke is still somewhat interested and slow playing him. If they fall through State and GT will have great shots. He is quoted lately that he is still open to NC State after the coaching change. And he has been hearing from our staff. WE actually have a better shot with the new staff. Plus Hickson and Vaughn have very differant games and could coexist.

  8. bTHEredterror 06/26/2006 at 10:56 PM #

    Duck-Maybe Wright meant move on as in, don’t dwell on the negative and keep your options open.

  9. wallacepark 06/27/2006 at 1:55 AM #

    Wright dropped NC STATE to 2nd to last on his list and put us at Low interest in Pack pride after sendek left. But a few weeks after Low took over at State he listed us as medium interest and put us 4th on his list. We might not get him but that means he is at least listening to to us and hasn’t moved on. The fact that we haven’t offered to McMillan yet makes me hopefull that our staff thinks we can land Wright. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that we get one of them.

  10. class of 74 06/27/2006 at 6:32 AM #

    Hey duck I heard John Kerry was ahead of Bush in the polls in 2004.

  11. duckmanjw 06/27/2006 at 8:31 AM #

    Regardless of talent, do you think we should go chasing after him? He kicked us aside like a cheap hooker when Herb left!!

    I just think we are wasting our time blowing up this kids ego by chasing him.

    You guys can give me a hard time all you want, but I’m not looking at this from a crazed fan perspective, but reality.

    Much like with Davis, our best bet is to go after someone else and tell Wright that we don’t care to boost his ego.

  12. choppack1 06/27/2006 at 8:45 AM #

    duck – Wright is a highly ranked high school player, w/ very solid grades. I don’t see a lot of evidence that he is a Gilchrist type who will hurt team chemistry. His reaction is typical and expected – his commitment was never binding in any way. Unlike Davis, he is certainly willing to at least listen.

  13. vtpackfan 06/27/2006 at 8:52 AM #

    Wait a second Duckman. The coach will do the right thing, and after this summers education in recruiting he will learn how to deal with finer points of dealing with the ego’s, grades, extra baggage, and so on. Then that will translate into something better the following year. That is what SL has come to NC State to do. He will improve his performance and excell in his vocation while he participates in it the same while. This is no different then anywhere else he has been before. We need to take heed in some of lessons given to fans following their college BB team that post entries do end up getting back to the folks its written about. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be passionate and that we need to compromise our thoughts or opinions, just that we have an opportunity to sit back and watch how Lowe builds on this strong start and trust that he’s got some big surprises in store for us early.

  14. duckmanjw 06/27/2006 at 9:23 AM #

    VT,

    I’m not blaming Lowe here, but with all the options out there still, I just don’t think we should put tons of effort into landing a kid who has already proven that is willing to change on a dime.

    What happens if he agrees to re-commit but then hauls a better offer later or if we sign another quality guard? Does he drop us again?

  15. vtpackfan 06/27/2006 at 9:48 AM #

    Those are the type of questions that Lowe and his staff have to consider. I’m not targeting your logic at all. I was all about dropping Davis publicly when it was obvious that he didn’t even want to live up to a commitment and meet Lowe face to face before washing his hands of us. But now that this staff seems to be really hitting a stride I am content with allowing the learning curve to be as much a solid recruit as any ***** guy out there. If Lowe is going to have any chance of making consitent tilte runs in the ACC he and his staff have to lay it out on the line out on the recruiting trail and then reevaluate their reasoning each and every time until something sticks. Scout.com and Rivals.com don’t mean schtick to me unless the Pack have got there confidence back in terms of knowing who has what it takes and who doesn’t.

  16. vtpackfan 06/27/2006 at 9:53 AM #

    Anyone know if the Freeman playing at De Matha, a solid commit to Hoyas, is related to the Freeman who starred for G’town a few years back. It could be the first big time test on how our De Matha ties work out in terms of recruiting.

  17. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 06/27/2006 at 10:29 AM #

    Keep up the text messaging Sid!

  18. sf59 06/27/2006 at 11:01 AM #

    wright chnaged “on a dime”… yeah after the staff left.get teal. glad you are not heading up the recruitment Duck or we would be forgoing talents like Wright (WHO WE DO HAVE A SOLID CHANCE WITH) and instead focusing on guys like Hudson who will not make the grade any time soon…. wow, great strategy. I tried to get you up to speed but oh well..

    I am not sure why you are so down on Wright and our decision to persue him. Compare him to how Davis handled the same situation and you will see a marked difference.

  19. tractor57 06/27/2006 at 11:17 AM #

    You really can’t blame the recruits for having second thoughts. There is a big difference in how David dealt with the situation as compared to Wright.
    In the long run not having Davis is probably a good thing and we shall see how the Wright saga turns out.
    I’m very optimistic about the new staff and the way they have dealt with their “opportunities”.
    I see good things ahead. I hope we meet ASU in the tourney one day and kick some desert *

  20. vtpackfan 06/27/2006 at 1:22 PM #

    “You really can’t blame the recruits for having second thougts”
    How could we ever blame them unless we’ve been in the shoes of a young man who everyone is fighting over to get you on their side. I sure haven’t. Even now I have trouble getting employers to fight over me. Thats why it’s so important to treat the recuitment angle with some TLC. When you walk on ice you look sort of foolish with your cautious steps, but if it means not breaking your ass then its worth it every time. Present and future recruits will read message boards and shrewd ones will find the quality sites like this one. So don’t take any bold steps by judging the character of a kid and risk breaking all our asses unless your just trolling.

  21. tractor57 06/27/2006 at 1:36 PM #

    exac tly

  22. duckmanjw 06/27/2006 at 2:42 PM #

    “glad you are not heading up the recruitment Duck or we would be forgoing talents like Wright (WHO WE DO HAVE A SOLID CHANCE WITH) and instead focusing on guys like Hudson who will not make the grade any time soon…. wow, great strategy. I tried to get you up to speed but oh well..”

    SF,

    Then maybe you should call Dan Stack over at Depaul because in his article about Wright from today it doesn’t even list us as a possibility anymore.

    “Chris Wright is ranked 17th amongst the Scout.com Class of 2007 prospects. Besides DePaul and Georgetown, Wright has a lengthy list of suitors including Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, Villanova, Virginia and Wake Forest.”

  23. sf59 06/27/2006 at 4:26 PM #

    umm maybe you should talk to Hueland Pickett who had something very differant to say regarding Wright just 2 hours ago.

    nice referecend article… where in it does wright HIMSELF say he is not intereseted in state… thats the cluseless writer from Depaul that infers that as evidenced by his list

    i will take hue’s word over some Depaul writer anyday day of the week and 2x on Sunday… he is tight with the Wrights and Chris’ father, tighter than any lame o article you can reference.

    i am trying to help you out here but keep on reading the day old news by guys that have no insight… again glad you are not heading up any recruitng for us… any more lame articles you would like dismissed?

  24. Gene 06/27/2006 at 6:25 PM #

    Thomas is a good start to the recruiting situation. Get another PG for ’07 along with two PF/C’s. That would be a solid class.

    I’m not sure if McMillan would want the scrutiny of playing for one of his fathers friends (could be awkward) and/or having all his relatives, who live in Raleigh, watching his every move.

    On the other hand he’s spends his summers in Raleigh, has family here and might be happy to play for his “hometown”.

    Even if it’s not McMillan or Wright, we do need a PG for ’07.

  25. Gene 06/27/2006 at 6:28 PM #

    Fogot to add, we need bigmen, in a bad way for ’07. Interesting SFN is assuming Brackman will be baseball only for ’07-’08. Lewandowski’s a project and we should expect no more from him than we say from Adam Simmons. If he’s at all productive, it’ll be a bonus, but we shouldn’t be holding our breath waiting for him to step up.

1 2 3

Leave a Reply