It is almost May of 2014…so, we are three years removed from the very first time that Torian Graham’s name ever hit StateFansNation in May of 2011 with this entry.
Since then, Graham de-committed and re-committed so many times that nobody can genuinely keep count. You think I’m joking? It wasn’t a joke when we had to run an entry titled “Torian Graham decommits a few hours after re-committing. I need COMMITTING!!”
Today, Torian Graham’s name re-emerged in the news as he has signed with the Houston Cougars led by new Head Basketball coach, Kelvin Sampson. This is one of those strange Wolfpack ironies that sees two ‘almost’ Wolfpackers coming together at a different institution. Old school Wolfpackers will remember that Kelvin Sampson, originally from North Carolina, was Athletics Director Todd Turner’s first choice to replace Les Robinson at NC State in 1996. Neither Torian or Kelvin wanted to be in Raleigh, so now they get to showcase their talents at a school that sells 3,100 tickets per game in a crappy arena their few apathetic fans call ‘The Tomb’ because of their poor attendance (click here).
Days after losing its two top scorers to transfers, Houston scored a commitment from a former top 100 recruit on Sunday morning.
Torian Graham, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from the Class of 2012 who spent the past two seasons at Chipola Junior College (Fla.), announced via Twitter that he had signed with Houston.
Graham had twice committed and decommitted from NC State. After not being cleared by the NCAA in October of 2012, he enrolled at Chipola. He averaged 12.9 points per game, only appearing in 15 games this past season. He played on a team with future UConn guard Sam Cassell Jr. and power forward Cinmeon Bowers, who commited to Auburn last Sunday.
Houston hired Kelvin Sampson as the program’s new head coach on April 2. Within weeks, TaShawn Thomas and Danuel House, who led the Cougars in both scoring and rebounding, requested releases from their scholarships. While adding a shooting guard won’t help the lost production on the frontline, it does give Houston a gifted scorer and a second member of its incoming class along with Yates High (Texas) forward J.C. Washington.
