Rumor Alert: Brackman To Give Up Basketball This Season

General NCS Basketball Non-Revenue68

We want to be extremely cautious about positioning this without any misunderstaning.

This entry is designed to share a RUMOR that SFN has NOT yet completely confirmed.

But, SFN has been informed by multiple sources in the last ten days that NC State’s Andrew Brackman will forego basketball this season to focus exclusively on his baseball career.

After picking up a lot of “smoke” related to the topic, we have chosen to share this rumor after hearing more substantial specifics regarding the situation from someone close to the baseball team over the weekend. Brackman wants/needs to focus 100% of his energy on the sport where he is most likely to play professionally – which is definitely baseball.

An annoucement is expected sometime this week, potentially in the next couple of days.

We HOPE that this information turns out to be untrue because the basketball team needs as many experienced bodies as they can gather for next season.

We will have more informatoin, opinion, and analysis on this as the week progresses.

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

General NCS Basketball Non-Revenue

68 Responses to Rumor Alert: Brackman To Give Up Basketball This Season

  1. choppack1 07/16/2006 at 9:35 PM #

    Oy veye. Next thing you know Grant wil be deported.

  2. NewBernWolf 07/16/2006 at 9:47 PM #

    Pretty disturbing info. Please stay with the team, Brackman!

  3. Micky McCarthy 07/16/2006 at 9:52 PM #

    Can anyone say 10-17?

  4. vtpackfan 07/16/2006 at 9:55 PM #

    This would come as a bad break for Sid and the his first go at the ACC. But this is SFN, and if this rumor became reality tommarrow then its still would not meet the let down of losing big Ced. He is still going to play for us on the diamond, and if that puts Avents squad in the best position at making a legit ACC run and helps put Brackman in the spotlight heading into the next draft then we’ll all rally behind his decision for sure. It also helps Sids recruiting plan for him to get this announcement now; planning for the ’07 and ’08 classes is the real blueprint for Sids version of the Pack, not his first campaign. Get in shape McAuley and Costner (what the hell happens when one fouls out, I don’t know but it kind of sounds Polish).

  5. tvp 07/16/2006 at 11:01 PM #

    Wouldn’t blame him at all if true.

    Hope not though – we’d be staring at
    Atsur
    Fells
    Grant
    Costner
    McCauley
    Bench of Horner, Ferguson, and Lewand…and that’s it.

  6. sf59 07/16/2006 at 11:16 PM #

    we are getting thin boys… wish we could have kept werner… dang we are thin

    we can sell pt to 07 and 08 at least

  7. wolfpacker420 07/17/2006 at 1:11 AM #

    maybe 14-13 and nit invite? what do you guys think?

  8. Kingfish76 07/17/2006 at 7:04 AM #

    We are so screwed!!!

  9. johnny 07/17/2006 at 8:09 AM #

    Sounds like we are in for a LONG season. I was hoping we could keep our string of 5 NCAA appearances going, but doesn’t look good. To bad Werner decided to go elsewhere as looks like PT would have been there for him at State.

  10. Wulfpack 07/17/2006 at 8:19 AM #

    If this goes down, you certainly have to respect Brackman’s decision. At the same time, he rarely showed me anything on the hardwood these past two years and I’d really like to see how he’d pan out under a new coach, new system, etc. I think most are in agreeance that we are going to take our lumps this season. But if this turns out to be true, it just paves the way for Sid to bring in yet another stud that much sooner.

  11. vtpackfan 07/17/2006 at 8:21 AM #

    ANOTHER RUMOR!!! Espn II coming in this college basketball season with follow up to “Knight School”. Season two could be called “Lowe Post”, and will follow closely rookie coach Sidney Lowe and staff as they daringly pick from the large student body at NC St. a team that vaguely matches up with ACC foes in the front court. Keep you posted.

  12. Tau837 07/17/2006 at 8:32 AM #

    “Brackman wants/needs to focus 100% of his energy on the sport where he is most likely to play professionally – which is definitely baseball.”

    I agree that this is the right move for Brackman, as much as I’d like him to stay with the basketball team. I also agreed that Simmons made the right choice for him, though it happened to be bad for the team.

    “he rarely showed me anything on the hardwood these past two years and I’d really like to see how he’d pan out under a new coach, new system, etc.”

    I was intrigued with his potential after his freshman season. But last offseason, I distinctly felt that he had to have a big sophomore year in basketball, one that might make him and others feel he could play in the NBA, or I expected this would happen. Obviously, his sophomore basketball season was disappointing, so I am not surprised by this news.

  13. Rick 07/17/2006 at 8:47 AM #

    I expected this. If his long term career is baseball and he was having trouble wiht injury because of over training, then it is hard to blame him.
    Frankly, I would not be surprised if the former regime knew this as well. This would have been an ugly year no matter who the coach was.

  14. vtpackfan 07/17/2006 at 9:15 AM #

    Potential for injury on the hardcourt is an easy way to explain this potential outcome. I would think that he has gotten some serious counsel from various sources that may have stressed other factors. One, IMO, would be that he needs drop into the off season work out routine that is most going to resemble what a parent club like the Royals or Pirates would expect of him. When he gets drafted, and I hope its very high, then he will not be able to use basketball as a way to strengthen his legs for the upcoming pitching season. He is obviously going to be a power pitcher, and thoughout his whole sporting career he has probably gotten a tremendous lift from the strength and endurance his legs have gotten from playing roundball. Its time to find another way.

  15. yannes 07/17/2006 at 9:23 AM #

    Recent rumor is that he will be practicing with the basketball team, but not playing. So he will be on the roster.

  16. BJD95 07/17/2006 at 9:35 AM #

    Those of you who remember me from message boards may recall that I have consistently stated my belief that he would only play 2 years of hoops, based on no insider knowledge whatsoever (to much grumbling that I didn’t know what I was talking about). But I do follow professional baseball, and I understand how the draft works. It is generally considered a black mark on your resume to play out your senior season in college. To maximize draft value, you want to go pro after your junior season. Given that, does it make any sense whatsoever to come into your pivotal junior season at the halfway point, still working yourself into game shape? Or would you logically rather give the pro scouts a full season to watch you pitch, without distractions? Especially after a subpar sophomore campaign, this is a no-brainer.

    The best we can hope for is that Lowe gives Brack more freedom than Sendek did, and he agrees to practice with the team and maybe get into a few games when his baseball schedule allows.

  17. choppack1 07/17/2006 at 9:44 AM #

    Selfishly – I want him to play basketball. A starting line up of Atsur, Fells, Grant, Costner and Brackman would be nothing to sneeze at. However, it’s easy to understand him focusing on baseball this year. If he’d had a similar year to his freshman year, he’d be an NBA draft prospect as well.

  18. BladenWolf 07/17/2006 at 10:04 AM #

    First off, I do not resent Brackman for focusing on what will be his ultimate professional career choice. I agree wholeheartedly with choppack1 that if he had produced in his sophomore year as he did his freshman year, he would be a high draft prospect in the NBA as well as MLB. I hope that with this focus comes some rewards for our baseball team, which is already pretty damn good. Let’s hope we can bring home the ACC title this year.

    Secondly, Brackman staying on the diamond translates into Bartosz Lewandowski seeing a lot more playing time on the hardwood.

    Here’s hoping that the 7′-2″ recruit can give us the minutes we need. Call me a skeptic, but I don’t see Costner nor McCauley getting it done for us.

    As John Fogerty would say… “Looks like we’re in for nasty weather…there’s a bad moon on the rise.”

  19. choppack1 07/17/2006 at 10:36 AM #

    “Here’s hoping that the 7′-2″ recruit can give us the minutes we need. ”

    If used correctly, I’d think he can. An intelligent big man, actually playing the role of a big man, can be effective. Heck, there were games when Steve Norton actually played decent for us in the middle. (They were few and far between, but they did happen.) If he can come in, rebound, block a few shots and just not get eaten up on the inside, I’ll be happy w/ his production.

  20. BladenWolf 07/17/2006 at 11:06 AM #

    I think (hope) Lewandowski can do this for us chopack1. If he can’t block a few shots at 7′-2″, then we’re in deep do do. If Brackman doesn’t play, we will need good ole Bartoz even more because McRoberts and Hasbro will eat Costner and McCauley alive in the paint IMHO.

  21. sautz 07/17/2006 at 11:31 AM #

    Have we nicknamed him “The Big Lewandowski” yet? Anyway, I hope we can levelset our expectations for this year and perhaps the coming years. I don’t want people going after Lowe too quickly if we pile up some losing seasons.

  22. nycfan 07/17/2006 at 11:57 AM #

    Brackman seems like a great kid and it sounds like this is a decision he has to make — especially now that he needs to overcome potential concerns about the injury(ies?) he suffered this past season. It’s too bad for him as a hoopster b/c I thought he showed signs of becoming an all-ACC caliber player — but usually right about the moment I thought that, he got pulled and never saw the floor again for a significant stretch of minutes during that game. Maybe he had conditioning issues, I dunno.

    In a weird way, the loss of Simmons probably made this an even more obvious choice for Brackman — if Ced came back, Brack would not have been looked to to carry the same load he was going to be asked to carry in Simmons’ absence. Given the stress injury and the importance of getting drafted this season in baseball, Brack probably cannot afford the wear on his body of an entire season of 35+ mpg post play.

    The loss (if true) makes it very unlikely that the Pack will challenge for the top 8 in the ACC, IMO. Outside of the starting line-up, depth was already a serious problem. If McCauley and the Big Lebowski have to play a lot of minutes, it seems unlikely that Lowe can really institute a fast-paced system this year — but this should also take some pressure off of Lowe in terms of expectations for his first year.

  23. redfred2 07/17/2006 at 12:46 PM #

    I don’t want people going after Lowe too quickly if we pile up some losing seasons.

    Agreed!

    This is rock bottom for Sidney Lowe and staff, a total rebuild with unexpected stumbling blocks still presenting themselves. Hopefully this is the end, for the immediate future anyway, and all the implications of everything that has occurred on a higher level and totally out of their control, have finally shaken down to their lowest common denominator. Lowe and staff were surely aware of Brackman’s thought’s long before now and hopefully no fan would be so ignorant as to hold Brackman’s decision against the them, definitely not Brackman either.

    As a freshman Brackman was confident and as aggressive on the court as the system would allow. I’d love to see that energy return and be unleashed under a different system for at least one more season. I don’t think there is a chance but I hope he will continue to play basketball for strictly selfish reasons.

  24. packpigskinfan23 07/17/2006 at 1:00 PM #

    “They were going over notes and texting like crazy, and Sid assured my brother we were gonna beet the heels this year!!! ”

    just how great would that be? Can’t get my hopes up though…. UNX is going to be TOUGH these next few years….

    Brackman’s abilities will be terribly missed. It definatly is the best decision for him though. I hate that, because I am not much of a baseball fan… BUT from the sounds of it the Wolfpack baseball team next year will not only be in the runs for the top of the ACC, but could very well have a chance and the national championship. I wonder if the new pitching coach that we have aquired might have had something to do with Brackman’s decision….

    One player I am really looking forward to seeing A LOT more of is Courtney Fells. I think he will fit in perfectly with Coach Lowe’s game plans… From what I saw last year, Sendek really got a good player out of him… It’s also a player that I would not have expected Sendek to recruit…

    anyways I have been visiting this site for the past few weeks and thought it was about time to post…

  25. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 07/17/2006 at 1:10 PM #

    He needs to do what is best for him not the team. Anyway we can squeeze another semester out of Roach?

1 2 3

Leave a Reply