ESPN has just updated their rankings for the 2009 recruiting class as many of you have already mentioned in the comments. It looks like ESPN was impressed with Coach Lowe's late additions of Davis, Vandenberg and Painter as they bumped the Pack from the #19 slot up to #11. We are very proud of the job that our coaching staff has done with this years class. We have been stoked for quite awhile now, but is really exciting to see this class get the credit they really deserve. Here is ESPN's Top-25 Rankings of the 2009 Class:2009 Recruiting Class Rankings
1. Kentucky
2. UNC
3. Villanova
4. Texas
5. Kansas
6. Oklahoma
7. Georgia Tech
8. UCONN
9. Duke
10. Oklahoma St.
11. NC State
12. Indiana
13. UCLA
14. Marquette
15. Mississippi St.
16. Kansas St.
17. Louisville
18. Pittsburgh
19. Washington
20. Florida
21. Baylor
22. Minnesota
23. Illinois
24. Miami (FL)
25. Clemson
Here is what ESPN had to say about the Pack's '09 class:
"This talented group of freshmen brings plenty of skill, size and depth to the Wolfpack next season. Coach Sidney Lowe and his veteran staff have hit the recruiting trail hard and the fruits of their labor are paying off in a big way. Guards Lorenzo Brown (Roswell, Ga./Centennial) and Scott Wood (Marion, Ind.) both have great size, at 6-4 and 6-6, respectively. Brown is an extremely talented combo guard who can shoot with range to 20 feet, slash to the basket and find his teammates. He has all the tools and athleticism to be a great one but needs to be aggressive and assertive on every possession. Wood is an exceptional shooter with range to 25 feet. He moves well without the ball and gets open. He's good at reading screens and comes off them ready to shoot. Richard Howell (Marietta, Ga./Wheeler) is a highly skilled power forward who can create his offense from the high post with a jump shot or off the dribble drive. He also is an excellent passer for a four-man offense. He will add immediate help to the Wolfpack's frontcourt. The welcome addition of ESPNU 100 big man DeShawn Painter (Norfolk, Va./Hargrave Military Academy) is an excellent pickup for NC State; he is an active, athletic frontcourt player who can run the floor for transition baskets, finish around the basket and be a solid low-post defender. Jordan Vandenberg (Melbourne, Australia/Institute of Sport) is a legitimate 7-footer who plays the game like a European big man. He likes to step away from the basket and shoot jump shots out to 15 feet. He is considered a top-10 center and a top-30 prospect overall among Australia's 2009 prospects. He needs to become more assertive and bring a consistent effort when he arrives at NC State next season. Josh Davis (Raleigh, N.C./Athens Drive), a 6-6 SF, brings energy and effort and poses a matchup problem because he can go inside and post up or drive bigger guys to the basket."
A big 'thank you' goes out to ESPN for this good write-up and assessment of this special class.
comments
19 Responses to "Pack's '09 Class Moves To #11"I still think its ridiculous that Scott wood is not a top 100 player even though pretty much every scout in the nation raves about him and calls him "sleeper of the nation". Even ESPN talks about wood and brown making an impact in the backcourt right away!! If he was ranked where he should be state would have 4 top 100 players and would crack the top 10 nationally. Thats ok I love our class and like TOB says," Rankings and Stars dont mean a thing once you strap on the pads!!!!
I know we have talked about this before but can anyone truly justify Duke being in the top 10 with only 2 recruits, and more than likley 1 will only beable to log real mins as a freshman.
Great job by all of our coaches!! I look forward to seeing what we can do with this great group of players!
Many have knocked Sidney Lowe for offering Josh Davis a scholarship. Recruiting analyists don't know him (so has been said). Some say that he's a tweener, in other words, a guy whose too short to play with his back to the basket (like he did in High School) on the next level.
I want to say it here first. Don't sleep on Josh Davis! After what we have found out about Sid's talent evaluation skills, I'm going to bet that he has a plan in place to utilize Josh's skillset.
"(Josh Davis) Averaged 25.4 points and 8.3 rebounds as a senior ... Scored in double figures in 27 of the 28 games as a senior, and went over 30 points seven times and over 20 points 22 times ... Had a season high of 37 points ... Helped team to a 22-6 record and into the state playoffs ... Averaged 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists as a junior ... Named MVP of the 2009 North Carolina/South Carolina All-Star Basketball Classic in Myrtle Beach ... He scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds in his team’s 106-82 win, setting an all-time game record for most rebounds."-GoPack.com
I understand that he put these numbers up against other High Schools (except for the All-Star Game), but he nearly averaged a double-double! He is a relentless rebounder, and has a wingspan that is longer than his 6'6" frame. That suggests, to me, that he is either not done growing (another inch or two and all of that low post experience will surely come in handy, won't it?), or he will be deceptive in his ability to alter shots and create his own shots (Ref. Tracey Smith, Julius Hodge).
Josh Davis and Scott Wood are not coming in with all of the HS accolades that our other recruits have, but they both may turn out to be very good players for us, and turn this #11 ranking on it's ear when all is said and done. Oh, I almost forgot the other 'sleeper,' the 7-FOOT Aussie!
This class is going to be special. If Sid can start putting great recruiting classes together, back-to-back, he will bring back all those Championships with them! Go Pack!
It is interesting to click back a couple of month and see how quickly Kentucky climbed the latter after Cal arrived.
ppack3, I'm with you on Davis. I think that he will be a solid contributor. I don't care who he was playing against he still has damn good averages and he has played successfully against other quality players when he gets the chance. I think that a lot of scouts and what not missed out on him because he didn't really play any AAU ball which is where they get the majority of their information from. And he placed second place in that dunk competition so if nothing else we should see him throw down a few sweet jams during his time.
Pack Leader, it's the old Notre Dame rule, except in basketball, not football. If Duke looks a kid, his stock automatically goes up. Same for Carolina. Look at Ryan Kelly for instance from Ravenscroft. He barely sniffed the court his first year. I think you can make a very strong case that Duke has been living off of reputation for the last five years, and recruiting is the largest and most outward layer of smoke.
Calipari has done well recruiting-wise at UK, but no matter long it has been for them, it's still Kentucky, and they cherish their BB along with their great tradition.
I don't know if the other ^"Anonymous" above is implying that Calipari would have been able to do same thing at NCSU, or as quickly as he has at UK, but either way, the answer is no.
NC State got separated from it's BB heritage due to a decade of total denial that a tradition ever existed to begin with. Sure Calipari could have possibly changed that at NC State, but he wouldn't have been able to do it as quickly, or as easily as he has at Kentucky.
The University of Kentucky has never shyed away from or shunned it's great BB tradition.
NC State OTOH, well...
redfred
Redfred, I was having the same problem with my password and as someone pointed out, you put in your email address as your user name (counter intuitive... I know) and then enter your password.
As far as recruiting is concerned, this class is looking pretty darn good. It's exciting to see some high octane players coming and then almost even more so tantalizing to imagine what some these sleepers will do. I do sometimes wonder if the expectations dictated by how many stars one wears become overwhelming.
I will be especially curious to see if Lo Brown plays up some considerable minutes at point.
Off topic but I never understood these silly word verifications. First off, why not just make the word visibly understandable and secondly, why bother in the first place.
Brown/Howell/Wood/Painter, by all accounts, look to be very talented and athletic. They all have the potential to be future big-time ACC players. At least a couple should progress into all-ACC type guys.
And from what I've seen and heard of Davis, even if doesn't see the floor next year (and I think he will get some minutes here-and-there), he sounds like a great guy to have practicing with the team. Noone really knows what to expect of JV. But it can't hurt to have an athletic 7-footer available. In game-situations, or just in practice. I hope he'll develop into a solid center.
--Wolfpack Hoops, are you planning on changing your avatar?
jason
WPH, when a player commits to the wolfpack, I commit to supporting that player through thick and thin throughout their wolfpack careers. I remember Johnny Thomas had a pretty bad injury to his knee before his freshamn year began. Do you know if Johnny is back to 100%? I remember sidney used a medical hardship for big Lew which allowed him to stay in school on a scholarship but opened a bball scholly for the team (I think I got that right). Could you talk a little about Johnny's progress and could you talk about when, how, and why a coach might consider the medical hardship. I hope no one miss understands my question because I feel like Johnny can be a solid solid player with good athleticism and defense and I would much rather see him on the floor than get any 4 or 5 star recruit.
PPack3, I agree with what you're saying. Sidney is a great evaluator of talent. I remember the unc boards knocking us for ryan harrow when he first commited. Needless to say, they're not saying much now. Remember Ryan Kelly and John Wall were offered by Sidney long before other major programs came calling. Lets not forget CJ Williams. UNC told the CJ Williams camp not to commit until they had a chance to review his tape. I'm pretty sure CJ had his mind set by then and committed anyways. What I'm most impressed by is that these kids are in our very own state and Sidney spots the talent long before the powerhouse programs, Duke and UNC. Imagine what sidney will be able to accomplish once he starts getting some more W's and running a fast pace offense.
Morpheus - I forgot that Davis didn't play on the AAU circuit. That just (hopefully) goes to show what kind of talent can fly beneath the radar.
Afterglow - I was just thinking, the other day, about the word verification. I don't get why the words are hard to read, and are wavy. I also don't understand how they come up with so many combonations of letters that are almost words. I think I'm going to start my own dictionary of word varification words, and then they won't be able to use them anymore, and then they will have to quit subjecting us to all of this aggrivation!
Redfred - I totally agree with you about NCSU's separation from it's rich Basketball heritage.
I believe that it sll started with the administration's percieved favoritism towards Basketball players, under Valvano. They didn't want 'their' Universtiy to continue to be the marketing machine that Jimmy V had turned it into. Once 'Personal Fouls' was released, the media (among others locally) were all too happy to assist Valvano out the door.
Now, I think we all know that there was only one minor infraction found through the entire NCAA investigation, but you would think that we committed some atrocious violations, as an outsider, by the way it was played up locally and nationally. If one were to look closely, they would find that the lead investigator assigned to our case was extremely complimentary of Jim Valvano, and the manner in which he ran, not only the Basketball Program, but the entire Athletic Department during his reign as Head Coach/AD.
The administrators got what they wanted, which was less emphasis on athletics, and more on academia. They brought in Les to accomplish that, which he did. And, they were able to wriggle out of the spotlight that shone on their 'embarrassment.'
The interesting part of the story, to me, is that Duke and Carolina were all too happy to step into that spotlight, and turn their respective programs into the very same type of marketing venture, without the harrassment of their respective administrators.
It has been a long road back, and we still aren't there. But, I do believe that we are getting there. That is why I loved the hiring of Sidney Lowe. I know that he was not our first attempt at filling the position, but all things happen for a reason. Credit Coach Lowe for his love of the University. And you have to give some credit to Fowler for bringing in Sid and TOB under his watch, no matter how it came pass. And please, give credit to Tim Peeler for taking the time to work on the project to archive and restore some of the richest gems in college basketball history that were stuffed into closets in the basement of Reynolds Collosium!
Sid an TOB are teaching our players about our storied traditions and our unbelievable heritage, in ways that haven't been done in 20 years. I look forward to actually building tradition instead of simply looking backwards at it, as I have done for so long.
Thanks for putting up with my lengthy posts. I think I got it all out. And, Go State!
Josh Davis did play some AAU ball with the NC Gaters
WPH's, you are right about the AAU Gators. I had forgotten that about Josh. I would rank that as a 'little known fact?'
This quote is from a poster, on a different site, regarding the Easley situation. I don't mean to interject politics into WolfpackHoops. I do intend for this quote to support my previous post, and the circumstances by which our rich basketball heritage came under fire, and ultimately ended up in a basement, collecting dust.
"The book that gets written about this will be worse than “Personal Fouls”. How ironic that (now) many years ago a select few individuals thought that athletics were shaming NC State and took a stand to “put athletics in their place” and “restore integrity” to the university. And here we are all these years later, with our “integrity”.
I suppose they needed a fall guy then and now."
I hope this doesn't offend the readers or mediators of this great site. May God bless Jim Valvano. May he rest in peace. Go State.
I saw the same post, PPack3. It was very well-said. Now maybe the powers that be will finally figure out that there is no shame in pushing for excellence from our athletics teams.
I really think our administration is what has held us down for all these years. I'm hoping for a big-time shakeup, all the way to the top. I think it's time we replaced just about every one of the BOT, chancellor, all of them, so we can clean the slate and work on restoring some kind of good reputation.
Josh Davis is going to be a solid contributor to the Wolfpack family. Having coached Josh as well as against him, he has a can do attitude and willingness to learn. Josh has a tremendous work ethic and will do whatever is asked of him. He is very confident in his abilites but does not let that change his demeanor in the public eye. Although he has not gotten the credit that others have, he has used that as a motivation tool to make himself better.
While Josh's high school accolades at Athens Drive are well documented, he also had a great summer last year with the Gaters earning MVP honors from a team that finished 2nd in the NCAAU state tournamet and first in the Big Shots Atlantic Slam tournament. (That team also consisted of another Wolfpack recruit Reco McCarter and four other Division 1 signees)
I look forward to watching him develop as this opportunity could not have happened to a greater, most humble young man.
"I really think our administration is what has held us down for all these years."
Now, here is where my opinion differs from some people's. I think the administration got what they wanted. No more Jim Valvano. I think that losing 90% of our games held us down for all those years!
The BOT can strive for excellence all they want, but ultimately all they can effect are the facilities and the coaches that they hire. Sendek was not a terrible hire. People may not have liked his style, but you can't deny his effectiveness. He may not have hung championship banners, but he brought us light years from where we were with Les Robinson. The players graduated and we won a lot of games. Though, not as many as people would have liked. And, nobody fired Herb. He left of his own accord. Granted, the jackass that was screaming at him while he walked off the court after his last NCAA Tournament loss probably helped seal the deal.
Coach Amato was not a bad hire either. He demanded that the facilities be upgraded, as a condition by which he would accept the position. He injected life into a struggling program. He (and Philip, no matter who recruited him Amato had to retain him) put the Football Program on the national scene. Again, he may not have won a lot of Championships, but he won a lot of games.
TOB, no matter how he got here, is here. Believe it or not, he is the FIRST Head Football Coach at NC State that comes in with previous Div. I College Head Coaching experience! You heard that right. And if anyone can prove otherwise, I will humbly apologize. He is a PROVEN winner.
Kelly harper is a proven winner.
I guess my point is that we can bitch about the 'Powers That Be' all day long. But, they could care less about sports as long as the money keeps rolling in. As fans, we have been part of the problem in an indirect way, by virtue of our loyalty. That loyalty translated into complacency at times. But, thank God we continued to give our money, because once a program loses it's core followers it takes moving mountains to get them back. Our fans are still some of the best in the country. If we begin to win in both sports, Fowler won't be able to bungle a coaching search, the coaches will come knocking, just like TOB.
The only other thing that I would like to add is that it is NEVER a good thing for our University to have a scandal that starts from the top and works its way down, even if it does result in the dismissal of someone that we don't like. The whole thing (with Easley) is going to blacken our collective eye, once again, and paint this University in a bad light. All I ask is that incompetence be replaced by competence. Oh, yeah. and isn't there a hiring freeze, state wide, right now. If we fire someone, how are we going to hire a replacement?
Go Pack.
ppack3-Here's one to add to your list. hyratell.
Just curious, when does Coach Lowe get to start working with the new recruits?
Consomo, hyratell, busnoss. They are all going in. I just have to define them all. That's going to be the challenge. lol
Post a Comment