Marques Johnson to transfer; 2009 scholarship opens up

08-09 Basketball General75

According to sources close to the situation, NC State junior guard Marques Johnson has decided to transfer to another program.

More analysis later…

Projected 2008-2009 NC State Basketball Roster

Senior Class
(1) Courtney Fells (Wing)
(2) Ben McCauley (F/C)

Junior Class
(3) Brandon Costner (F)
(4) Trevor Ferguson (G)
(5) Dennis Horner (F)
(6) Farnold Degand (PG)

Sophomore Class
(7) Javi Gonzalez (PG)
(8) Tracy Smith (4F)

Freshman Class
(9) Johnny Thomas (Wing)
(10) Julius Mays (PG/SG)
(11) CJ Williams (Wing)

HS Sr Commits
(12) Scott Wood (SG)
(13) Richard Howell (4F)
(1) Lorenzo Brown (SG, PG, Wing) (Courtney Fells Scholarship)
(2) Open – [Post player/center along the lines of Derrick Favors or potentially Keith DeWitt] (Ben McCauley’s Scholarship)
(*) Potential open for John Wall if needed

HS Junior Commitments
(3) CJ Leslie (F)
(4) Ryan Harrow (PG)
(5) Open
(6) Open

08-09 Basketball General

75 Responses to Marques Johnson to transfer; 2009 scholarship opens up

  1. SaccoV 08/13/2008 at 12:07 PM #

    Agree 100% on the comparison between MJ and Crawford, Choppack1. I was hoping that Marques would hang around enough to become a player the team could rely on as a solid (but not spectacular) point guard who could play good defense and initiate the offensive set. I also saw lots of Crawford in MJ, and I hope that wherever he plays (GSU or what not) does him a good turn. Good luck, MJ!!

  2. Noah 08/13/2008 at 12:41 PM #

    Sucks about Clem Johnson as he was probably going to see a lot of time on special teams returning kicks as well.

    Baker worries me. Terrell Manning worries me.

  3. choppack1 08/13/2008 at 12:44 PM #

    Noah – I wasn’t counting on Manning after he blew out that knew last year. (Wasn’t he the one who had that problem?)

    If that was him, it’s a lot to ask of a true freshman. Hard enough to contribute if you’re totally healthy as a true frosh.

  4. Noah 08/13/2008 at 12:53 PM #

    Terrell Manning is positively going to redshirt this year. But his long term prognosis is what I’m worried about.

    I’ve also heard bad things about Baker. I hope they are untrue.

  5. Rick 08/13/2008 at 1:10 PM #

    “I’ve also heard bad things about Baker. I hope they are untrue.”

    Are you going to elaborate?

  6. b 08/13/2008 at 1:35 PM #

    They made it sound like it was just clearing out scar tissue in Baker’s repaired knee, is there some nerve damage as well? Good thing Underwood is turning out pretty well….

    MJ wasn’t going to be a world beater, but I was kind of hoping he could be one of those Quentin Williams stories. A guy who is undertalented, but works hard to improve and turns out serviceable. I hope he succeeds at GSU.

  7. RBCRowdy 08/13/2008 at 1:43 PM #

    ^^^Speaking of torn knees, Jim Rome is talking about UF having 5 torn ACLs so far in camp. All I have to say is welcome to my world Florida, it sucks having snipers at camp doesnt it!!!!

  8. phillypacker 08/13/2008 at 1:49 PM #

    packalum44, thanks for the prognostication. sorry to see that our chances at dewitt and adams are so poor. any further word on noel johnson anyone?

  9. pakfanistan 08/13/2008 at 1:51 PM #

    phillypacker, I wouldn’t put too much stock in those percentages…

    “These figures/illustrations are purely speculative and based none whatsoever on insider knowledge…”

  10. RBCRowdy 08/13/2008 at 1:54 PM #

    Back to topic, can someone elaborate on the Coster/Europe and Fergie/Graduation statement concerning scholarships.

  11. pakfanistan 08/13/2008 at 1:58 PM #

    Costner is on track to graduate this year so there’s speculation he’d take a paycheck rather than underwater basket weaving to keep playing.

    Ferguson, I don’t know.

  12. Noah 08/13/2008 at 1:59 PM #

    All threads are about football.

    The Baker tidbit I heard this summer was that the knee injury was extremely bad, more severe than we initially thought, and that it would be the kind of thing that lingered.

    When I asked about it, I was told not to worry. Just like I was told not to worry about Manning. But Manning is still walking around with a limp and Baker is getting his knee worked on and won’t be participating in fall camp.

    So…I worry.

  13. yannes 08/13/2008 at 2:02 PM #

    “Johnson was put in a horrible situation last year. He wasn’t a PG and it wasn’t his fault that we needed him to play PG. It was almost impossible for him to succeed last year.”

    I’m pretty sure that Johnson was recruited as a PG and wanted to play PG for us. With Degand’s return, the improvement of Gonzalez over the season, and Mays coming in, he must have just seen the writing on the wall.

    Clearly, he was too slow for the system that Lowe wants to run. He also wasn’t good enough at running sets to make up for his lack of speed and athleticism.

  14. pakfanistan 08/13/2008 at 2:20 PM #

    Speaking of catastrophic knee injuries, any work on Johnny Thomas?

    I was really looking forward to seeing that kid play 🙁

  15. happypackdad 08/13/2008 at 3:02 PM #

    Favors – better than 15%, in great shape
    Wall – who knows
    Dewitt – no offer yet
    Adams – offered, in good shape
    Noel Johnson – contacted us
    Sherrill – bk-up option IMO

    will sign 2 more IMO for a 5-man class

  16. wufpup76 08/13/2008 at 3:27 PM #

    Good luck Marques and God bless … Thanks for working hard and trying your best

    I really hope he can shine at Ga. State, regardless of what position he plays

  17. Noah 08/13/2008 at 3:31 PM #

    The last thing I heard on Johnny Thomas was not good. “Might be a career ender” was the phrase…but that was a few months ago.

  18. robopack 08/13/2008 at 4:07 PM #

    Sid talked a lot about how much he liked johnny t last Wen. night at the caravan meeting. The way he talked we will see him play. When I don’t know. That was a ? I wanted to ask but didn’t get a chance. Sid says we’re going to love him; that doesn’t sound career ending so maybe theres a good chance of recovery.

  19. b 08/13/2008 at 4:39 PM #

    The thing about Johnny Thomas’ predicament is that it was a degenerative condition. Even though he had the one knee repaired, could the other be vulnerable to injury?

  20. packpigskinfan23 08/13/2008 at 4:52 PM #

    I have been waiting for this bad news concerning Baker. I see him just about everyday on campus, and he limps like crazy still.

  21. b 08/13/2008 at 5:07 PM #

    I know I’m not supposed to set a link to Troyel Doyel, but it is in the blog file on ESPN if you are curious. Basically more of the same.

    Dinich cited an article by Troyel, in which she mentioned that he asked Paul Johnson what happened with NC State at the kickoff meeting. He feels we hired the “wrong guy”, “the football version of Sendek”, “a guy we couldn’t embrace”. Well, I for one, don’t care if he is Attila the Hun if he wins games and graduates players. I never enjoyed hugging other men anyway…..

    The problem with that analogy is that we have nowhere near the same expectations (or historical success) with our football program as we do for our hoops program. If O’brien has similar success to Sendek, it would be a drastic improvement considering our history. We kind of liked dry, serious Dick Sheridan, I guess we didn’t “know ourselves” too well back then. And while I would have loved to have Paul Johnson, sometimes “knowing yourself” means knowing you need a drastic change. Not just in offensive schemes, but in personality and approach.

  22. aPACKadeez 08/13/2008 at 5:37 PM #

    Thank goodness! I can’t wait to use this scholarship on Favors (we can all wish can’t we?), Dewitt or Adams! Marques NEVER deserved the initials MJ (although it is much easier to type) and should never have those initials again. He is horrible and I’ve never been more nervous than when one of our guys got the ball. If you can’t get the ball past half court, and you look like a walrus shooting the three ball, you probably shoudln’t be a point guard. Javi is 50 trillion times better than him, he was a frosh trying to learn the ropes, and I wish that we would be easier on Javi. I think he was phenomenal last year, and will get even better, and be a top tier guard in the ACC. Our team just got better with the departure of Marques, and GA State just got worse.

  23. Noah 08/13/2008 at 5:58 PM #

    I said, when he was hired, that if TOB was the football version of Herb Sendek, we’d name the stadium after him when he retired.

  24. redfred2 08/13/2008 at 6:23 PM #

    Um, while we might end up naming the stadium after TOB some day, I don’t really think FB season will ever be long enough in order to schedule that many cupcakes.

  25. Primewolf 08/13/2008 at 6:55 PM #

    Best wishes to MJ.

    I think we will take a 5 man class. If we get Favors, we will sign another touted recruit. It will be a killer class.

    If we don’t get Favors, it will still be a very strong class.

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