ACC Basketball News: NBA’s view of Hickson, Taylor King to Villanova, and Miami picks up PG from Villanova

07-08 Basketball General85

There are many State fans who have issues with Dave Glenn, however there isn’t any member of the media who has his resources and access in covering ACC sports. With several ACC players considering declaring for the NBA draft, he gathered some opinions from NBA officials on Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and JJ Hickson.

An NBA official on condition of anonymity had this to say about JJ Hickson:

This isn’t complicated at all. If you’re 6-9 and you can put the ball in the basket on a consistent basis against people your size, you’re on our radar. Does he have a long way to go? Yes. Does he have a lot to learn? Yes. Is he ready to play in the NBA today? No. But it’s no secret that a lot of teams in this league will take a chance on big guys with scoring ability, even if they have to wait a year or two for the payoff.

In other words, JJ Hickson is not coming back and he will make the 4th former NC State player currently in the NBA along with Damien Wilkins, Josh Powell, and Cedric Simmons. Interestingly enough, each of these players left NC State in their first two years on campus and only two (Simmons and now JJ) went/are going directly to the NBA. Of course, Wilkins transfered to Georgia to become a sixth man for his final two years and Josh Powell’s career led him to Europe. Both are having successful NBA careers at this point.

There are a couple of newsworthy items today regarding ACC hoops. It is transfer season and there is news today of Taylor King selecting Villanova as his destination after marginal success at Duke:

It took Taylor King a season to decide Duke wasn’t the right fit for him. It took him less than 72 hours to figure out what did fit.

King, who had planned to visit Gonzaga and Southern Cal at the end of the month, committed on Sunday to transfer to Villanova after a weekend visit. He will enroll in June…

“It just couldn’t be a better fit for me,” King said. “It wasn’t about getting it over with. I wanted it. This gives me the best opportunity to start right away.”

Additionally, Miami landed a point guard transfering from Villanova.

The last time the Miami Hurricanes accepted a backcourt transfer it worked out rather nicely. Jack McClinton went from Siena to All-ACC for Frank Haith’s Hurricanes. Now the staff is hoping to have hit pay dirt again. Malcolm Grant, a freshman for the Villanova Wildcats, announced his intentions to transfer. He’ll sit next year and have three seasons to play. A high-level recruit, Grant was certainly talented enough to play a role at Villanova but was simply victim to a numbers game in the backcourt.

As a freshman for the Wildcats, Grant logged 13 minutes a game. He scored 5.8 points a contest to go with 1.8 assists.

Grant was a 3-star PG ranked #23 at his position by www.scout.com.

07-08 Basketball General

85 Responses to ACC Basketball News: NBA’s view of Hickson, Taylor King to Villanova, and Miami picks up PG from Villanova

  1. choppack1 04/15/2008 at 12:32 PM #

    ruffles – when Packman is “on” -he’s great. Unfortunately, he brings a lot of idiots on the show w/ him who add very little.

    Glenn’s show is probably one of the more cerebral I’ve listened to. (Once again, this is what makes his harping on UNC’s academic superiority so underhanded – he knows better.) We actually have a local guy in Winston that isn’t bad – Camel Philpot or something.

    I’ve got plenty of friends like Glenn. You like them, like talking sports w/ them, but you don’t want them dating your sister, or your daughter.

  2. packgrad93 04/15/2008 at 12:35 PM #

    It’ll be sad if we can’t get 2 top players that live in Raleigh (Wall & Kelly). Seems we won’t get either. 🙁
    They are the 2 positions we need the most help at too, PG & C.

  3. packgrad93 04/15/2008 at 12:38 PM #

    the ’09 class is VERY importiant. Need at least 1 big!

  4. Rochester 04/15/2008 at 12:39 PM #

    Providence just hired Keno Davis as their coach, so he’s probably off the board for a while. Their search dragged on, bordering on embarassment with all the public rejections. But somehow they still landed a good coach (Coach of the Year) with college experience. Hmmm …

  5. cnmoodster50 04/15/2008 at 12:52 PM #

    i’m a state fan and twice a state grad and i really like dave glenn. i met him at a state baseball game, but he seems to be a knowledgeable, level headed guy…he’s definitely no gregg doyel…

  6. packbackr04 04/15/2008 at 1:00 PM #

    Isnt Kelly listing Clemson as his top choice right now? and i think he dropped State off his list recently

  7. JeremyH 04/15/2008 at 1:19 PM #

    Wall’s decision is huge for the direction of our program. the last quote i saw from him seemed like he was making excuses for us, that hurting at the point guard position was the reason for our down season. I think he even made a comment that he’s hearing his decision will impact the coach’s future, and that he felt strange about it. I think we have some sort of edge because his family wants him to stay in Raleigh. I dunno, he may be waiting until the first half on next year to decide, to check if last year was a fluke.

  8. Ed89 04/15/2008 at 1:50 PM #

    State is off Kelly’s list on Scout, but that isn’t “gospel”. Sounds like he wants to go to a known academic school – Stanford, Vandy, etc. Can’t fault the guy for wanting to get out of town and go to a good school. Hell, I wouldn’t have wanted to go to college in my hometown – of course, my hometown was about 10,000 people. Wall may come to State, but he may see an opening at Memphis when Rose leaves – very similar type players from what I hear. If Favors doesn’t pick State, PG93 is correct, we NEED a “big” for 2009.

  9. choppack1 04/15/2008 at 1:52 PM #

    ACC-Big 10 challenge cancelled? Yep, that will happen if you have a “challenge” for 10 years and one conference never wins it. It was always amazing to me though. ACC wins challenge, other teams beat each other up – by the end of the year ESPN, Inc act like the challenge never happened…

  10. Rochester 04/15/2008 at 2:01 PM #

    Chop, it was only cancelled for us. The Challenge is still on for the rest of the conference. Maybe we can schedule NC Central that week.

  11. Noah 04/15/2008 at 2:08 PM #

    Wall’s latest says he’s leaning towards Memphis. Kelly is leaning towards UVa, I hear.

    Keno Davis is a fan-effing-tastic coach. People asked who we could have gotten had we run Lowe off after this year…we could have gotten Davis.

  12. Clarksa 04/15/2008 at 2:20 PM #

    “The infamous “where there is smoke there is fire” comment he supposedly made on the radio about the signing day surprise of AJ Davis signing with NC State.”

    He made the comment, I heard it…there is no supposedly to it.

  13. choppack1 04/15/2008 at 2:21 PM #

    Yea Rochester – I realize that now. It’s kind of like when in Europe in one of those soccer leagues. We should make a special patch for this year.

    Noah -if he’s just going to Providence, we’ll have our shot at him – just maybe not this year. If we part ways w/ Sidney, I still think the first call will be to Rick Barnes. The timing may be better this time around.

    Finally, there’s an executive (or maybe 2) that I want gone before any new significant personnel changes are made.

  14. packof81 04/15/2008 at 2:28 PM #

    NCSU is left out of the ACC-Big 10 challenge for finishing last in the league. What a distinction.

  15. packbackr04 04/15/2008 at 2:43 PM #

    We will need to play at least one game during the ACC-Big 10 challenge so that we can have a week off before opening the conference slate again this yr. way to go Quentin

  16. Dr. BadgerPack 04/15/2008 at 2:44 PM #

    Not playing in the ACC-Big 10 challenge probably isn’t a big deal if all you are doing is missing out on a “quality” game against the basement of the Big 10. I’d probably have flashbacks watching State play, say, Northwestern that would be disturbing.

    We’ve already added a road game at Florida for next year, which is a much better game than anything we’d get out of ACC-Big 10, and this game will probably end up on decent TV as opposed to ESPN-Unavailable, where the bottom-dweller ACC-Big 10 game usually ends up.

  17. kyjelly 04/15/2008 at 2:52 PM #

    Must we have to tow the company line here? Or are we censored?

  18. Howler 04/15/2008 at 4:13 PM #

    Finally, a good reason to ignore the ACC/Big Ten challenge. I haven’t checked the schedule, but I hope we play Davidson. If we lose, at least we get to see Stephen Curry play.

  19. Rochester 04/15/2008 at 5:05 PM #

    I wrote my letter to Chancellor Oblinger a couple weeks ago, saying I wasn’t happy with the loser status of our athletics department and Lee Fowler getting nominated for an Award of Excellence. I got a letter back in the mail today from the Chancellor. He didn’t say he would get right on it and ship Fowler off to Alaska or anything, but he did write a personalized letter back, for which I give him credit. Obviously he (or someone pretending to be him) took the time to read my letter.

    So anyone who was thinking of writing but didn’t because you figured it was just going to get pitched out, there is a good chance that he’ll read what you have to say. Be polite and you might even get a response, who knows. He’s not going to can Lee because of some letters, but with enough of a grassroots effort we can at least plant a seed in his mind that maybe someday will help things reach a tipping point. Hopefully before we endure another 8 years of Fowler.

  20. spudwebb 04/15/2008 at 5:07 PM #

    I’m not yet sold on Keno Davis. didn’t he have a senior laden team this year and couldn’t take them as far as they went last year? A lot of guys look great for one or two years, Matt Doherty was an absolute star before he got to UNC.

  21. BLUE SUCKS 04/15/2008 at 8:22 PM #

    SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC COMMENT:

    DG AS A GUEST COMMENTATOR, BEHIND-THE-SCENES GUY … SUPER
    DG AS A DAILY SHOW HOST … MEDIOCRE, AT BEST … BORDERLINE ANOYING

  22. turfpack 04/15/2008 at 8:35 PM #

    Vawolf82-Nail on head -You are correct sir-Pick up your check-On the money-Great comments about D.G.

    Rochester-I e-mailed Oblinger as well-didn’t recieve anything groundbreaking ethier,but atleast I got a response-THANKS FOR YOUR LETTER- NEED MORE PEOPLE TO VOICE THEIR OPNION WITH A E-MAIL OR LETTER.

  23. turfpack 04/15/2008 at 9:26 PM #

    Challenge-what challenge? You mean the little ten plays basketball
    Wait-When did this happen?? OH OH You mean the practice games the ACC plays against those middle of the country teams-RIGHT- I REMEBER – YOU HAVE TO WIN TO MAKE IT A CHALLENGE- RIGHT??????????????????????

  24. turfpack 04/15/2008 at 9:35 PM #

    By the way-Did you know that LEE sucks as the A.D.??
    O – OKAY.
    JUST WONDERING.

  25. dj9686 04/15/2008 at 10:30 PM #

    Wow, we are just getting to the topic of not being in the ACC/Big 10 challenge? We knew that since the season ended. As for Degand… I can’t remember which game it was early in the season. One of those that shouldn’t have been close but we finally got a rebound (Degand) to seal the win. Degand decided he was just going to hold it in the back court and run out the clock. Unfortunately there were 17 seconds left and he evidently wasn’t up on the 10 second rule. He was screwing around back there until someone on the sidelines told him to get his ass up court. His lack of court awareness and performance did nothing to impress me while he played. He didn’t shoot very well and had few assists. Javi has much more of an upside. Of course during the off season the players talked about how Farnold blew up court with his speed. Of course it was against State’s (non) defense and I could probably have done that with the effort they put out on most nights. We shouldn’t count on Degand saving us regardless of his knees’ condition.

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