1. Taking
Ricardo “R.J.” Greer Jr. early as a prep recruit bucks the mantra of what coach
Kevin Keatts has been talking about in recruiting.
Keatts has often said he wanted to phase out prep recruits unless they were no-brainers, in favor of taking four-year college transfers.
To land Greer this early in the process is a culmination of a few things, led by it being the first prep recruit assistant coach
Kareem Richardson has signed while at NCSU.
a.) NC State needs bodies in 2025-26 with now at least seven scholarships available, and that includes two incredibly unreliable players in junior
M.J. Rice and freshman
Treymane Parker, who both essentially missed a season with the Wolfpack already for very different reasons. NC State will never plan a roster relying on Rice/Parker, but will instead make sure they are covered at their positions, and that is where Greer comes in.
b.) Greer doesn’t fit the mold of nearly any guard that Keatts has signed. He’s a terrific catch-and-shoot or pull-up and shoot outside shooter, with a nice basketball IQ. Maybe the last guy who fit those traits is when NC State brought home
Thomas Allen from Nebraska, who had signed with former coach
Mark Gottfried, but landed at NU following the Keatts hire.
Greer is about two inches taller than Allen and a little slicker than the former Garner (N.C.) High scoring machine, but similar styles. Another shooter that arrived under Keatts was Sam Hunt, who carved out a off the bench role and shot 41.8 percent from three-point land in 2017-18.
c.) Most of NC State’s guards under Keatts have been ball dominant and create their own shots.
Casey Morsell spotted up and and had teammates give him a steady stream of open jumpers. Greer doesn’t have the muscular football frame that Morsell has, which helped Morsell drive to the rim more and take on challenging defensive assignments, but he can make those spot up jumpers.
The key for Greer is what style of play will NC State feature, and will he have players who create shots. Usually the best things a shooter can have is to have a point guard that collapses the defense and kicks it out, or a big man that gets double teamed and defenses don’t rotate quick enough to the shooter. Regardless, NC State’s fast pace of play should open things up for Greer and other shooters, particularly McNeil, who is just ahead in his development than Greer.
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2. The biggest piece of Greer’s evaluation came last July at the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta, Ga. NC State watched him and offered, and quickly got him on campus last September.
To understand the setting of the NBA Academy Games, it is foreign born players — Greer was born in France — who get thrown together on a squad and they just make it work. Greer played for NBA Global Academy Select Blue, and had some players who ended up joining the class of 2023 like
Matar Diop at power forward, who was a freshman at Nebraska, and transferred out this spring.
Greer played in six games last year, July 5-9. Greer went 16 of 47 on two-pointers for 34 percent, but was 19 of 51 on three-pointers for 37.3 percent. He doesn’t get to the line much, going 2 of 3, and was just 4 of 15 on layup attempts. He had 10 assists and nine turnovers. What was impressive is on guarded three-point attempts, he went 10 of 22, and he was 15 of 38 on catch and shoot jumpers.
Greer’s only chance to play in front of college coaches this summer was going to be a return to the NBA Academy Games on July 10-14 at Atlanta Holy Innocents Episcopal School.
The local player comp to Greer was actually just inserted four spots behind him in the Rivals150. Greer dropped 13 slots to No. 135 and hasn’t played since the high school season. At No. 139,
Ryan Crotty, who is originally from Holly Springs (N.C.) High, but now goes to Crozet (Va.) Miller School outside of Charlottesville, Va. As a reclassed class of 2025 prospect with Boo Williams 17s, he’s torched the nets this spring on three-pointers.
It’s doubtful if Crotty got looked at much by NC State, but his jumper has led to high major offers from Virginia Tech, Iowa, Butler, DePaul, Miami, Mississippi State, West Virginia, Clemson and Oklahoma State thus far.
Greer is not much different from Crotty, but the lack of time playing in front of college coaches, or perhaps a misguided notion he would play at Dayton where his father Ricardo Greer Sr. is an assistant coach, slowed down his recruitment to a crawl. So, NC State really didn’t have any competition for him at the moment, and instead of gambling on his one planned event in July — the NBA Academy Games in Atlanta area — he grabbed the NC State offer.
Odds are good that Greer won’t be needed to play heavy minutes as a freshman. If the roster can hold together just a little, the various wings would likely be Paul McNeil, Mike James and Dennis Parker in 2025-26, or Parker could end up being a small-ball four.
3. Rankings can sometimes fool people and if NC State can somehow close the NIL gap on BYU or whoever else jumps in on
Kanon Catchings, he’d be a prime example of that. Catchings had committed to Purdue as far back as Sept. 2, 2022, an eternity in recruiting for a class of 2024 member.
Catchings is originally from Brownsburg (Ind.) High and ended up going to Overtime Elite in Atlanta this past year. The hope was being from home would help him grow up and mature and instead, it likely exacerbated things. Overtime Elite simply isn’t for everyone and it could have played a role in the breakup with Purdue, which is fresh off finishing in second place.
Catchings is ranked No. 31 by Rivals.com in the class of 2025, and that is due to his length, athleticism and he has a nice jumper. For instance, he is ranked 18 spots higher than incoming freshman wing
Paul McNeil of Rockingham (N.C.) Richmond Senior High. They didn’t play each other, but both Catchings and McNeil were at the John Wall Holiday Invitational at Raleigh Broughton this past December.
If you took a poll of college coaches who evaluated both players, I’d feel confident that McNeil would be the selection of who is ready to contribute as a college freshman. He isn’t as long as Catchings and he isn’t as athletic as him, but he understands the emotional aspects of carrying his prep team, heck his entire town, on his shoulders the last two years. Call it intangibles, but they do mean something at least in the beginning. Could Catchings find the magic cure of maturity over the next four years and show why he’s a top 31 player? Definitely possible.
Where Catchings always got people’s attention with is his family. It starts with his grandfather
Harvey Catchings, who was a 6-9 post player who played in the NBA from 1974-85. Never a star, but a quality backup who played in 725 career games, often on winning teams with the Philadelphia 76ers or Milwaukee Bucks. The family ended up settling in the far western suburbs of Chicago.
Catchings’ aunt is a legendary player in
Tamika Catchings. She played at Tennessee and one of the first calls after decommitting from the Boilermakers were the Volunteers, who declined to recruit him. Tamika averaged 16.6 points and 7.9 rebounds per game at UT, and then played in the WNBA from 2002-16 with similar numbers. She has four gold medals from playing in the Olympics.
Catchings’ mother,
Tauja Catchings, was an accomplished player in her own right at Illinois, but it was hard to be in Tamika’s shadow. Tauja averaged 12.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in 122 games at Illinois (1996-00) and played overseas.
Tauja and Tamika’s brother,
Kenyon Catchings, signed with Northern Illinois, but had a medical condition that led to not playing in college. His son,
Kale Catchings, just played at Harvard and Duke. Kale would Kanon’s cousin.
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