Crittenton Will Stay in NBA Draft

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“I’d like to announce that I will remain in the 2007 NBA draft and forgo my college eligibility,” Crittenton, an Atlanta native, said in a statement. “I’ve met with my family, as well as Coach (Paul) Hewitt, and everyone has given me their support and blessing. I see this as an opportunity, and I plan to put my best foot forward and give it my all. I’d like to thank all of my coaches, teammates and fans for a great time at Georgia Tech.”

Crittenton is the seventh Tech underclassmen to enter the NBA draft and the first since junior Jarrett Jack did it in 2005. NBADraft.net projects him as the No. 15 pick, to the Detroit Pistons. Tech freshman forward and co-scoring leader Thaddeus Young has not yet announced whether he’ll keep his name in the draft. Young is projected by many as a lottery pick.

Dave Glenn listed the Pack at #4 in his early ACC rankings, 2 slots behind the Bees. Predicted #3 Duke also failed to land Patrick Patterson, as we discussed earlier this week. Would it be fair, or at least plausible, that recent events bump the Pack to #3, or even #2? I still urge caution and restraint, but my optimism continues to rise.

No dominant PGs in the upper echelon other than at UNC. No frontcourts within the upper tier appear even competitive with ours, except at UNC. On paper, it doesn’t look easy for non-UNC foes to exploit our possible weaknesses or defend against our strongest facet. After all, basketball is very much a game of matchups. I like how our roster matches up against the top half of the 2007-08 ACC.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball General

54 Responses to Crittenton Will Stay in NBA Draft

  1. ncsubch2000 05/25/2007 at 12:02 PM #

    I think UNC, us, Duke as 1-3. I would argue that our frontcourt is stronger than UNCs (especially if we get T. Smith). Their backcourt is stronger at the beginning of the season, mostly due to Lawson (i’m not sold on Ellington). If Degand/Javi/Johnson (combined) produce good point guard play, maybe we even push UNC (not saying that they will finish behind us, just that we will keep them honest). Are my glasses tinted too red?–I am very excited about this team.

  2. ncsu96 05/25/2007 at 12:09 PM #

    there’s no more ‘if’, t. smith is confirmed.
    it all depends on Javi/Degand/Johnson…not having to play Crittenton will certainly help. Is Ellington the only (good) pg left in the acc?

  3. beowolf 05/25/2007 at 12:15 PM #

    Does that mean Smith will enroll now? This was the big question mark I had before allowing myself to get too excited about next season.

  4. BJD95 05/25/2007 at 12:18 PM #

    ^^ I think you mean Lawson. Singletary may still return to UVA – but if he doesn’t, then the answer to your question is “yes.”

  5. ncsubch2000 05/25/2007 at 12:27 PM #

    ^^Pack Pride is now reporting that Smith is fully qualified–I hadn’t yet read that at the time of my first post.

  6. ncsu96 05/25/2007 at 12:42 PM #

    yup, meant lawson of course… thanks, bj.
    With Crittendon and potentially Singletary gone, it will make life much easier for our new pg.

    Did anyone see this…. http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/579472.html

    End of article, top sophomore playing at TOC from LA is going to unofficial visit the Pack… Sweet!

  7. haze 05/25/2007 at 12:59 PM #

    ^ To wit, note the PP thread on Larry Harris, assuming you have premium.

    We’re looking very strong. Need to “Keep it together. Keep it together. Keep it together.”

  8. PamlicoPack 05/25/2007 at 1:02 PM #

    it just dawned on me…I’m thinking about our PG situation all wrong. You can’t just look at the fact we will be relying on three guys, none of whom has played a minute in the ACC (bad). You also have to look at the fact that none of our rivals save the Heels are really vastly better at that position. Should be fascinating to watch in November and December and early January as the “cream” of the ACC’s new batch of pgs rise to the top. I know MJ isn’t available until mid December when fall semester ends, but when is our first “indicator” game for the other two guys against a top notch opponent (I will NOT see scoring 14 and dishing out 9 assists against, say, Mississippi Valley State or St. Olaf’s as any sort of indication that our PG savior has arrived…)

  9. PackHooligan 05/25/2007 at 1:10 PM #

    I think improving our defense will put us in the upper echelon. We can’t play D like we did last season and expect to compete for a top 3 spot. I am hoping that a lot of the lapses on D were due to a) inexperience and b) lack of depth. Neither of those should be a big problem next season.

  10. packbackr04 05/25/2007 at 1:19 PM #

    IS it just me or is this the first time in a long time any of yall have been excited about basketball at NC State. I mean we could be really good next year. Smith appears to be all set w/ wualifying and i hear javi is not too concerned about his eleigibilty. we wont have to say “wait till next year” for a long time. Watch out heels and dookies. the pack is back

  11. RickJ 05/25/2007 at 1:26 PM #

    This is a definite blow to Ga. Tech but they have a pretty highly rated PG coming in – Maurice Miller from Memphis. He had offers from UCONN & Tennessee among others. I would hate to see our optimism if we had signed this guy.

    We took it in the teeth last off-season losing Davis, Werner, Brackman & Simmons on top of the seniors. I still don’t know how we won 20 games, especially with what happened with Astur. I’m not going to feel sorry for any other teams losing players this year.

    I just don’t know what we have in Degand, Johnson & Gonzales although it is comforting to know we have Towe & Lowe to bring them along. I am hoping we do well all season long but sometime in mid-February one of these guys break’s out and we go to another level down the stretch.

  12. BJD95 05/25/2007 at 1:40 PM #

    FWIW, the “news” re Smith is on PP front page, so it’s not premium content. Let’s just make sure not to broadcast the “premium” contents of the full article.

  13. redfred2 05/25/2007 at 2:00 PM #

    pb 04

    E X C I T E D ! ! ! is much too mild a word.

    What I am excited about more than anything though, regardless of where we end up at season’s end, is seeing a kid like Horner develop confidence and realize that he does have the tools and can absolutely play on this level. There is nothing is better than seeing a kid make a play like you’ve never seen from him before and saying “Whoa, where in the hell did that sh*t come from?”

    Y’all can all jump me if want to, but Andrew Brackman, you should have stuck with basketball young man.

  14. lush 05/25/2007 at 2:08 PM #

    i dont think that there is any question that we will be preseason #2 in the ACC.

  15. PackGirl 05/25/2007 at 2:29 PM #

    ^^My thoughts exactly on Brackman – although I was harshly criticized for even suggesting that not playing basketball was not the only reasonable choice for him last fall. It nearly killed him not to play and doesn’t seemed to have helped him any baseball-wise. Maybe the conditioning he received from playing basketball was helping him more than people realized. Sometimes it is just best to do what you really want to do and ignore the “experts”. I’m not saying his decision not to play was a bad choice, just that the alternative was reasonable also.

  16. roon7723 05/25/2007 at 4:56 PM #

    for anyone wanting to watch the TOC tonight (without makin the trip) and see CJ Williams play. the bob gibbons website says they will have streaming video starting at 6:30 tonight (when CJ’s team plays).

    http://www.bobgibbons.net/index.php?/weblog/article/2007_toc_live_video_stream/

  17. mafpack 05/25/2007 at 5:07 PM #

    As a note on Brackman – his conditioning for basketball actually hurt his b-ball abilities and projections. In the end, he gained to much mass to play with the ACC bigs in basketball and lost a good deal of the torque needed to be a top end pitcher.

    Thus the reason coach A locked him out of the weight room for the past few months (and most of last season) and is forcing him to run more and focus on strengthening his core.

    I just hope he can get back to his pure form again and continue to improve – would make him a high end pick for sure.

  18. Luke12321 05/25/2007 at 5:44 PM #

    He plays of CP3 team, correct? Anyone know what # he is and what time he will be playing? thanks

  19. roon7723 05/25/2007 at 5:46 PM #

    not sure what number but he’ll be playing at 6:30.

  20. PackGirl 05/25/2007 at 5:50 PM #

    By conditioning, I didn’t mean weight training or bulking up. That turned out to be a negative for both basketball and baseball. Seems he got some bad advice in that realm also.

  21. McPete 05/25/2007 at 9:46 PM #

    Feel free to divulge any and all pertinent Wolfpack info available on the PP premium boards. You could not get in any legal trouble, considering you’d experience no financial gain from ‘spilling the beans’. Besides, if the info is that good, it might pursuade some of us uninformed pack fans to purchase the services.

    I have wondered for the past couple of weeks if Brackman might still be interested in playing for the pack in basketball next season. You’d have to get the scoup from baseball insiders about his draft status, but right now it’s falling like the f’ing Hindenburg. And considering that the word is his soon-to-be agent Scott Boras is gonna posture for lots of money, he might not get drafted in the first round anymore. and, (this part is not my argument, but John Manual’s of Baseball America) it’s possible BBall becomes a bargaining tool to get Brackman more money. He could make an NBA roster IMHO (see Randolf, McRoberts).

  22. redfred2 05/25/2007 at 11:03 PM #

    PackGirl

    Meee too!!! I was getting hammered into the ground everytime I said anything about Brackman making a mistake by not continuing to play basketball also. He played both baseball and basketball as a freshman and soph, and his stock in baseball was still very much intact. I certainly hope he recaptures his magic on the mound and goes on to glory in the big leagues, but he changed his whole routine before he ever even reached the bigs.

    I just wonder what the folks who jumped on our backs for wanting AB to continue playing basketball, will have to say if his decision to drop a sport he definitely had talent in, to focus solely on one where his fortunes continue on a downward slide. I say that Brackman did have NBA potential at one time, and that addition of Sidney Lowe as his head coach would have done nothing but furthered his game and enhanced his ability to make a name for himself among the NBA scouting crews.

    But, what can you say?

  23. brickman 05/26/2007 at 6:43 AM #

    redfred. if you like chicken better than pizza . you are going to stop eating pizza so you can eat more chicken . and it dose not take a cave man to figure that out!!!!!!!!!

  24. Sw0rdf1sh 05/26/2007 at 7:30 AM #

    I’m trying to focus on basketball but it is a tough job with pigskin season on the horizon.

    Did anyone see this pile of poo from some idgit writing in FL that got his trash submitted on ESPN.com?

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2862583

    What junk.

  25. redfred2 05/26/2007 at 10:03 AM #

    brickman

    I like chicken pizza.

    What the people who jump all over PackGirl and myself are forgetting IS that…Andrew Brackman played the game of basketball like a man possessed and with the passion of a kid who loved mixing it up and being out there on the court. He apparently loved the challenge, especially the thought of going head to head with more highly touted opposition. With his personality he was destined to become a team leader and role model for the younger players coming in.

    But, that fired died because the type of basketball he enjoyed playing just wasn’t in the equation in Raleigh. Before a brand new head coach had the opportunity to show him that the game is still fun and that he could still be a huge factor in the ACC and beyond, he was convinced by others that basketball at NC State was dead end street for him. Again, no one can blame him, he was just following general consensus in Wolfpack land. That is UNTIL, someone finally heard Sidney Lowe say, “Hey LEE, OVER HERE, I’m right here, I want the damn job!!!”

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