1. Could NC State end up with two Parker’s in the class of 2023.
NC State already has landed senior forward Dennis Parker of Richmond (Va.) John Marshall, who is expected to sign in the spring, but the Wolfpack will likely put on a hard push to wrap up Treymane Parker in the next two weeks.
Treymane Parker is from Fayetteville, N.C., and his half-brother is Kwe Parker, who played at Tennessee, junior college and North Carolina A&T. His cousins are Jatrious Smith, Malik Johnson and Telligence Johnson, who were all from Fayetteville, with Smith a top 100 talent at one point in the class of 2018.
I have long called Parker the “In light of an emergency, break glass” recruit, and that time is close to arriving for NC State basketball recruiting. If NC State can’t pull away top 60 senior point guard Ty-Laur Johnson from Memphis and coach Penny Hardaway, Parker could be the alternative and he unofficially visited Monday.
For his first two years of high school, plus traveling team ball, Parker was a well-hidden secret because he couldn’t find a home. He just bounced around. The talent was obvious and even as early as his freshman year at Cape Fear, it was clear he was a Kevin Keatts kind of guard.
The publicity part got taken care of last year. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound Parker attended Vertical Academy in the Charlotte area last year, where he played with Instagram star Mikey Williams, when Williams felt like playing. They had several games on TV and ESPN-plus, and then Parker played for Boo Williams traveling team in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League. Coaches were able to evaluate him thoroughly.
Now, Parker is attending Overtime Elite in Atlanta, which has changed to a model where players can get NIL money but not be a professional. Parker has kept his college options open.
The knock with Parker has always been, ‘Will he qualify academically?” His last “regular” high school was at Fayetteville Cape Fear High freshman year. However, qualifying for college has radically changed in the post-COVID era, so some sources are optimistic.
The high-flying Parker has become a social media sensation himself with 342,000 followers on Instagram. The hype hasn’t led to many offers on the recruiting trail or helped with his rankings — Kansas State and Mississippi State are his main two offers. NC State should be joining them.
Rivals.com currently has him unranked and the No. 34 point guard in the country.
Parker on the court is finally getting coached at Overtime Elite. He’s a stone-cold one-on-one player, who can shoot a team into a game or out of it. He’s more than capable of dropping five three-pointers and score 20-plus points, but also go 4 of 15 from the field and 1 of 5 on three-pointers.
2. The saga of Manhattan transfer Jose Perez was short but exciting.
Perez hit the transfer market after Manhattan surprisingly fired coach Steve Masiello on Oct. 25.
Perez and NC State had two qualities working together. Perez was essentially going to go where Masiello wanted him to go, and Masiello and NCSU coach Kevin Keatts are part of the Rick Pitino family tree.
Masiello left Louisville for Manhattan on April 11, 2011. The Cardinals hired Keatts on April 28, 2011, so they didn’t coach together in college.
The other factor in NC State’s favor was his girlfriend went to Duke. What didn’t work out in NC State’s favor is that Perez never checked out the Wolfpack during that rushed time period. Whatever momentum NC State had proved fleeting, as West Virginia got the blessing of Masiello, and Perez got a nifty NIL deal, which he might need in case he ends up as a walk-on. WVU has 15 players for 13 slots at the moment.
On the court, the words that described Perez were “old man’s game or crafty,” but also mixed in were descriptions such as volume shooter, limited athlete and not a good three-pointer shooter. He averaged 19.8 points per game and he often liked to get the ball in the mid-range and bully players before he got his shot off. That has worked at Gardner-Webb and Manhattan, but didn’t at all at Marquette during his ill-fated season there.
3. The field for the Holiday Invitational recently came out and it should be stacked again.
The event is also expected to return to Raleigh Broughton High once again around Christmas time. The top three teams in North Carolina will be playing — Raleigh Word of God, Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy and Winston-Salem (N.C.) Christian.
Word of God has sophomore guards Trevor Best and Zion Collins for NC State to monitor, Combine Academy has junior wing Rakease Passmore and W-S Christian features junior power forward Kany Tchanda.
Salisbury (N.C.) High and junior wing Jayden Harris will be a major draw for college coaches, including NC State’s staff.
Finally, with Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep junior small forward Paul McNeil also in attendance, that’s a strong trio of Wolfpack targets with McNeil, Passmore and Harris.
Concord (N.C.) Cannon School was also invited, and feature junior combo guard Austin Swartz and sophomore guard Isaiah Henry.
Sophomore stretch four Colt Langdon of Raleigh Millbrook is another potential key Wolfpack target.
On the girls size, Bethel (N.C.) North Pitt junior point guard sensation Zamareya Jones and Huntersville (N.C.) 1 of 1 Prep junior center Ella Hobbs are in the field.
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