Recruit #1 (only recruit this year): Robert Smith

Smith was a good 500 miles away in CT, but there were very few scholarships to go around in the northeast this year, so I hoped that getting on him early and getting him to very solid in Word on the Street would scare off the others and it worked.  Since we're preparing to make a deep run next year (we'll return everybody next year, I'll get to that in the next post), I figured bringing in a JUCO to give me 3 good bigs for next year was the proper move (especially since the bigs who would have been backups suck).  Smith will be the starting PF this year and may or may not come off the bench next year depending on his IQ and LP development.  I think he's the piece that brings us up to a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 team next year.  We will be very very good.

Here's the team for this upcoming year without Smith.  Zapf will be a very solid PG, nothing special but just a guy who can go out there and pass the ball to the open players and play some D.  Jaggers should really blossom this year into a star, he's going to be an absolute beast.  Crain is a great athlete and defender and a guy that could step up his scoring load this year, I think he could also "break out" this season.  Smith will be the PF and Warman will be the C.  Warman is going to be so good if he stays next year.  Muraski (our only senior) will be RS'd this year so as to give us three really strong bigs next year.  I'm also hoping Regnier develops fast this year into a decent backup PG.

Will Muraski take the RS??

His WE will go down to 1 but he's maxed out (except for BH, but I'm not too concerned about that) so it doesn't really matter if he likes it or not.

As expected, we lost nobody this year.  All 12 players will return for this following season, all of them being upperclassmen.  I'm not sure how this 0-0-6-6 class structure will affect me in the future (probably badly, I think I'm going to try to change it), but I did it so I could try to make a big run this year.  I've never been past the sweet 16 in D1 and I have a sad feeling it won't happen this year.  While we do have a lot of upperclassmen and some talent, that talent is all in the starting line-up.  Besides Muraski, we really don't have anybody coming off the bench I'll be confident.  I foresee lots of slow-down and normal tempo this year.  
     Looking on the bright side, I feel like we have an incredible starting line-up.  Warman will be our Center (he'll be an all-ACC performer), Robert Smith will be the PF, Crain will be the SF, Jaggers will be the SG (and potentially 1st-team all-ACC, he lead the league in scoring as a sophomore), and Zapf will be the PG.  Zapf is our weak-link, but with the other 4 guys on the floor that can really score, all I need him to do is be athletic, play D, and not turn the ball over.  If Zapf has a good season, NC State will end up doing pretty well.

How do you feel about your season so far?

Disappointing end to the season, we got knocked out in the second round, as a 9 seed it's hard to expect more, though. Jaggers and Warman were huge disappointments, severely underperforming, Smith was a good player for us this year, he got drafted in the late 2nd round. Harrison transferred so now we have only 5 returning guys and a boatload of $$ to fill those spots. I'll update this tomorrow with whatever signings I have.

Recruit #1: Jonathan Hall

He has high-high potential in speed, defense, LP, and BH, low-high in passing.  He'll be a good distributor with high 90s in speed and BH and low 90s in passing.  The high-highs in defense and LP will determine to what level he gets to; if he ends up at 75 defense and 40 LP, he'll be good, if he gets to 90 def and 70 LP, he'll be exactly what we need.

Recruit #2: Dave Glanz

We jumped on him the 1st cycle, just like Duke, so I didn't pursue him, but neither did Duke, so while they got into their battles for other centers, I knocked them off Glanz.  He's got high-high potential in LP, I think he'll end up being a very good big man for us.  

Recruit #3: Darrell Johnson

I picked up Johnson because he'll be an excellent defender and rebounder as well as a good passer.  I thought my team was very good last year, but the lack of passing hurt us.  This recruiting session, I decided we wouldn't have that problem again and a center with 60+ passing goes a long way towards fixing that problem.  He will never be a scorer, but having a role player like this is of the greatest importance for winning teams.

Recruit #4: John Conner

I had to spend quite a bit to win him away from Auburn, but I think he'll be worth it.  Just like my other guard signing in this class, he can't shoot.  He will be very fast, very good at defense, a very good passer (high-high), and he'll be able to score inside (LP is high-high).  If the LPs from these two guards both get into the 70-80 range, this will get very interesting.  I do have to pick up a shooter in my next class.   

Recruit #5: Jimmy Christian

I took Christian from sim-controlled Oklahoma and I'm very happy  did.  He has high-high potential in LP, which means he'll be an excellent scorer.  He'll start off at SF, but I'm not sure where he'll finish.  Depending on who I bring in with my next class and the development of Darrell Johnson, he may end up at PF.

Recruit #6: Neil Kelley

I took Kelley purely based on upside.  He'll never be more than a role player with his low-high potential in ath, so I wouldn't be totally upset if he decided to go JUCO, especially since I didn't spend a whole lot on him.  

I have no doubt that this is my best class ever at NC State.  They'll be great defensively, great at passing, and will very athletic.  These are also, by far, the highest ranked guys I've ever brought in.  It had a lot to do with the UNC-Duke battles and no openings for South Carolina, but I'll take it!

If there was ever such a thing as a productive 9-18 year, this was it.  We started 4 freshmen along with superstar senior Andrew Jaggers (averaged 33 ppg, shot a low %, but with 4 frosh, he was really our only option).  We had some great improvement from our freshmen, especially Christian.