I haven’t followed basketball or football recruiting with any real attention for quite a few years now. The slow death of my overall enthusiasm for NC State Basketball over the last decade combined with the exhaustion of the incessant spin from Herb Sendek’s basketball staff that almost every player the staff signed was a “diamond in the rough who is really going to suprise” completely killed my interest in the topic.
My disillusionment with recruiting (as it related to Sendek) started very early in Herb’s tenure in Raleigh when his first true recruiting class – ranked the #9 recruiting class in the country and 2nd in the ACC (with three top 60 players) never played in a single NCAA Tournament. Then I watched State’s HORRIBLE 2000-01 season unfold with the #9 class in the country playing as SENIORS on a squad supplemented by three highly ranked classes that included the #7 ranked recruiting class in the country (Gibbons).
To be fair, I don’t know what played a greater role in my dis-interested in recruiting — was it:
(a) the Groundhog Day-like selling of “the next great steal” or
(b) the relative underachievement of the more highly ranked recruits that Sendek landed. (Each of whom, of course, were supposedly much better than their rankings and were “steals” in their own right).
With all due respect to Anthony Grundy, Ilian Evtimov and Cornelius Williams…the ‘leaks’ of the last decade that every Rouldra Thomas, Dom Mejia, Mike O’Donnell, Justin Flatt, Trey Guidry, Adam Simons, Mike Bell and (insert name here) was going to be a huge surprise was just exhausting. The status quo lovers listened and believed all the while as NC State led the Atlantic Coast Conference in transfers and premature defections. These ‘secret weapons’ made zero impact on our program other than to kill our graduation rate and put us behind in the initial APR rankings released by the NCAA. (Trevor Ferguson and Dennis Horner are now on deck as the final two Sendek-recruited ‘sleepers’ that were sold to the world as ‘steals’.)
Additionally, a majority of the highly rated names that State did manage to sign in the last decade never really lived up to their high school rankings. Take a look at some of the following and tell me if their college performance matched their rankings (rankings primarily from Prepstars pulled from previous editions of ‘The Wolfpacker’):
Damon Thornton – Top 65, Prepstars
Archie Miller – #39 nationally, Prepstars; #36 nationally, Francis
Ron Kelley – #45 nationally, Prepstars; #47 nationally Recruiter’s Handbook, Gibbons
Kenny Inge – #57 nationally, Prepstars
Adam Harrington – #20 ranked recruit by Prepstars & Parade A-A
Keith Bean – #38 ranked recruit by Prepstars
Damien Wilkins – #10 nationally, Gibbons; McDonald’s AA
Marshall Williams – #32 nationally, Prepstars; Parade all-american
Clifford Crawford – #57 nationally, Prepstars
Scooter Sherrill – Top 25; McDonald’s AA
Marcus Melvin – Top 75 Prepstars
Michael Bell – Top 100 Prepstars
Julius Hodge – #7 nationally, Prepstars; McDonald’s AA
Levi Watkins – Top 40 nationally, Prepstars; Parade AA (same team as Rashad McCants)
Josh Powell – Top 80 nationally, Prepstars
Now that Sidney Lowe has been hired as NC State’s Basketball Coach, I have a renewed interest in following the recruiting game a little bit. The blog will definitely NOT go overboard with recruiting coverage…but we won’t totally ignore it, either.
Barring any unforseen defection and assuming that Andrew Brackman leaves the program to play baseball after next season, Coach Lowe/NC State should have five scholarships available to award in the 2007 recruiting class. Johnny Thomas, a swing forward from Greensboro, has already committed to one of those spots (Link to Thomas’ commitment as well as projected roster spacing)
Scout.com has released their updated rankings of the Top 100 high school basketball players in the Class of 2007. (Link) . The rankings will most definitely change as these players showcase their skills on the summer camp circuit that begins tomorrow and throughout their senior year in high school.
For those that care about rankings, Johnny Thomas was not included in Scout’s Top 100; he was listed as the #29 swing forward in the country. You need to realize that NC State’s coaches believe Thomas is the best player in the State of North Carolina next year and made a conscious decision to pursue Thomas over more highly rated recruits at the same position like Eric Wallace (to UVa) and Evan Thomas (to Ohio State). A word of caution if you follow the rankings — Thomas he turned down an invitation to the prominent ABCD Camp this summer where he would have had the opportunity to raise his personal ranking because his AAU Team has a tournament scheduled during the camp and he did not want to fall short of his team responsibilities.
Ignoring any swing forwards that may still be listing the Pack as option (because of the Johnny Thomas commitment), the following are the (currently) most highly rated names the Wolfpack is known to be pursuing for the final 3 or 4 scholarships in the 2007 class:
Chris Wright, PG, #18
JJ Hickson, PF, #24
Julian Vaughn, PF/C, #34
Dorenzo Hudson, SG, #48
Jamelle McMillan, PG/SG, #98
Quick Bytes:
* Some people close to the program have hinted that State may choose to use only four scholarships in next year’s class in order to have at least two scholarships for the 2008 class.
* Despite this^ conjecture, I would expect Coach Lowe to use his full allotment of five scholarships if State was in a position to land fantastic recruits a position of particular need – like in the paint. For example, I wouldn’t be suprised if the Pack took both Julian Vaughn and JJ Hickson if the program could be so lucky as to receive commitments from them both.
* Despite a lower ranking, Jamelle McMillan (Nate’s son) is somewhat of a key recruit because of his versatility to play both the point or the shooting guard position.
* With the presence of Courtney Fells on the roster for three more years, shooting guard is the least of State’s priorities in 2007. This need would be further decreased with a commitment from McMillan.
* The recent commitment of Farnold Degand will end up being fantastic insurance if State fails to land both Chris Wright and Jamelle McMillan…OR Degand may ultimately create a logjam at the guard position in 2008 – 2010 if State does land both of these guard prospects who could play the point.
* Degand’s presence would be PERFECT if the NCAA would allow him to play this season as opposed to mandating that he sit out of a year because of the transfer.
* We can dream about a “Fab Five” class of Thomas, Wright, McMillan Vaughn, and Hickson can’t we?
