We have been rolling out some of our exclusive interviews with Wolfpack assistant coaches on the front page and will continue our annual tradition of revealing the coaches’ thoughts on the redshirt and incoming freshman in the war room. Last week was running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Des Kitchings, this week we feature safeties coach and co-special teams coordinator Clayton White:
On redshirt freshman Kalen McCain: Kalen is a young guy who is still, as far as development, he’s behind those guys [the top four safeties] to be honest with you. But he brings stuff to the table. He’s another tall, long DB that we have. Kalen’s job this year is to provide us a nice reserve, and compete to be a solid reserve that we can trust to put out on the field in our base defense. What he brings is length, knowledge – he’s always in the right spot – and he can make plays on the football.
On redshirt freshman Dexter Wright: Dexter is a kid who is a mix between Hakim [Jones] and [Germaine] Pratt, as far as ability, size and speed. He’s very athletic. He flashes at times; he’s long and he’s smart. Dexter came from a high school where they taught him to back up knowing they were passing. That was all they did on defense so he had a learning curve. This spring was huge for him because he was able to sit in the meeting rooms with a different perspective. He had an idea of what we were talking about, now he can interact more and understand what’s going on. The more he learns, the better he’s going to get.
On incoming freshman Jarius Morehead: I’m excited about him. He’s going to play safety and it’s going to be very interesting. I worked with him in camp two years ago and I’ve seen him on film. He moves well, he has good size – he deceivingly has some size. You see him from afar and he doesn’t look that big, but you get up on him and he’s up there, he’s 6-1. He ‘s the mix of guys that I like to coach – he’s got the perfect height, perfect size. He’s not as big as Hakim, Pratt, Josh [Jones] and Dex [Wright], but he’s still a big safety. His athleticism is what’s going to really get him on the field. If we can’t keep him off the field, it’s because he’s so athletic. I think he has some learning to do, but he played a lot of positions in high school and that’s going to help him. I played cornerback [in high school] as well, and it helped me when I got here. He’s either going to be a long way from learning that stuff or he’s going to pick it up fast, one of the two. I’m excited to see him play and get him up here.
The next 30 days are going to be unusually busy if the NC State men’s basketball coaches get done what they are hoping for.
Fort Washington (Md.) National Christian Academy senior small forward Christian Matthews is on commitment watch any day now if he keeps his present timeline. Matthews didn’t have a firm update Friday.
He is essentially down to NC State and Georgia Tech as his top two, and already has gone on record with The Wolfpacker that NCSU is his clear favorite.
The natural scorer has been targeted by NC State since watching him in February. NCSU went to watch then senior point guard target Traci Carter, and he didn’t play well enough to get a Wolfpack offer, but Matthews did. The No. 90-ranked Carter subsequently signed with Marquette.
If Matthews picks NC State, he would give the Wolfpack six wings for the 2016-2017 season.
The next order of business is could six wings become seven? Obviously, it probably is unrealistic to keep seven wings happy if it happens, but Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons senior Maverick Rowan is too good to pass up. Rowan is in the “process” of getting his academics in order to make the move to the class of 2015. That plan has been in the works for quite some time when Louisville approached the family with the move this spring.
The former Pittsburgh commit can play both shooting guard or small forward and can develop into a knock down jump shooter. Rowan has averaged 19.2 points and shot 51.0 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from three-point land in 13 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League games this spring with Each 1 Teach 1.
Rowan hasn’t set up an official visit with NC State yet, but did indicate to The Wolfpacker that he views the Wolfpack as one of his top four options. Louisville and St. John’s already have received official visits, and at least publicly, he is also listing Wisconsin, UCLA and North Carolina. The Badgers could also easily be in that top four.
We’ve long said that Louisville, NC State and Wisconsin, have put in the work and could be sticking out. St. John’s is the relative newcomer to the situation, and at first some figured the Red Storm were a courtesy visit because Rowan’s father, Ron Rowan, played with new SJU coach Chris Mullin in the mid-1980s in Queens.
The third major move of the summer is class of 2015 center Georgios Papagiannis of Greece, who is currently playing in the FIBA U19 World Championships this weekend in his home country.
Papagiannis could be a professional or attend college, though there will be the usual compliance “scrubbing” that will go on with the NCAA that foreign players typically experience. His “representatives” will also play a key role. U.S. star high school players get exposure to NBA agents at a young age, and this is likely no different. NC State, Oregon, St. John’s and a few others have gotten the most play, but the key thing to remember in all of this is that Papagiannis has not gone on record himself about anything involving the process.
In an ideal situation, NC State will get Papagiannis in for an official visit at some point in July. If it happens during one of the three recruiting evaluation weekends, the coaches will have to adjust their schedules accordingly.
NC State fans apparently can watch Papagiannis vs. Korea at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, vs. Dominican Republic at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, and vs. Serbia at 8:30 p.m. Monday on this Web site: www.fiba.com/world/u19/2015.
The USA U19 team features four class of 2016 players, including NC State small forward target Josh Jackson of Detroit. The ACC is represented on the team by Louisville sophomore center Chinanu Onuaku and Virginia Tech sophomore wing Justin Bibbs.
Fayetteville (N.C.) Trinity Christian senior point guard Dennis Smith Jr. is making it a yearly tradition in spending time at NC State in late June. He stopped by for multiple days to play pickup with the Wolfpack players this past week, and he had come to NCSU’s team camp and spent time with the coaches in June 2014.
Smith has spent more time around NC State than any other college, and it’s clear that the Wolfpack lead for him, and likely for senior center Edrice Adebayo of Pinetown (N.C.) Northside High. Both are Rivals.com five-star prospects and top 10 players.
Publicly, neither Smith or Adebayo want to declare the Wolfpack their leader at this point, though the recruiting industry has done that for them. Privately, they probably know certain schools have either stopped recruiting them or won’t recruit them because the perception is out there about them ending up at NC State at some point. It will be interesting to see if they continue to try to fight that perception or embrace it. They’ll be going through rounds of interviews at their upcoming adidas events in Atlanta, Long Island, N.Y., and Las Vegas, in July.
Smith has also been talking to Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic senior shooting guard Markelle Fultz about playing together in college. The guess is the two got to know each other through adidas Nations camps. Fultz is currently ranked No. 24, but could be moving up into five-star range sooner rather than later. Whether Kentucky offers him a scholarship or not is one of the storylines for the July evaluation period. From a distance, it appears that UK has targeted Malik Monk of Bentonville (Ark.) High and Rawle Alkins of Middle Village (N.Y.) Christ the King at shooting guard.
One other update on Adebayo. The Charlotte Observer reported that Adebayo and Northside High have been invited to play in the inaugural Queen City Holiday Classic on Dec. 28-30 at Charlotte Vance High. That would mean Adebayo won’t be in the HighSchoolOT.com Holiday Invitational at Raleigh Broughton High.
It turns out Northside hasn’t completely agreed to be in the Queen City Holiday Classic yet, but the Holiday Invitational hasn’t been vigorously recruiting them either. We’ll see how this plays out.
Former NC State star combo guard Trevor Lacey going undrafted was not a surprise to the NBA Draft community. One connected draft source that saw him work out for an NBA team, predicted that a week ago. Not being a point guard and having trouble defensively were two things that hurt him in workouts. However, that same source predicted he’ll make north of $100,000 a year overseas.
The next major step for Lacey is to make an NBA summer league team for July. That is where his agent will be earning his money. A good showing in July will either help him get invited for training camp or net him a better deal overseas.
If he elects to go the NBDL route, he won’t get paid as much, but will be in a position to get called up at any moment. The same source said league veterans prefer playing in the NBDL because all they need is a 10-day contract, and that helps toward their future pension (once signed, a year is counted). He estimated that players who spend 10 years in the league get $195,000 for their pension.
On redshirt freshman Kalen McCain: Kalen is a young guy who is still, as far as development, he’s behind those guys [the top four safeties] to be honest with you. But he brings stuff to the table. He’s another tall, long DB that we have. Kalen’s job this year is to provide us a nice reserve, and compete to be a solid reserve that we can trust to put out on the field in our base defense. What he brings is length, knowledge – he’s always in the right spot – and he can make plays on the football.
On redshirt freshman Dexter Wright: Dexter is a kid who is a mix between Hakim [Jones] and [Germaine] Pratt, as far as ability, size and speed. He’s very athletic. He flashes at times; he’s long and he’s smart. Dexter came from a high school where they taught him to back up knowing they were passing. That was all they did on defense so he had a learning curve. This spring was huge for him because he was able to sit in the meeting rooms with a different perspective. He had an idea of what we were talking about, now he can interact more and understand what’s going on. The more he learns, the better he’s going to get.
On incoming freshman Jarius Morehead: I’m excited about him. He’s going to play safety and it’s going to be very interesting. I worked with him in camp two years ago and I’ve seen him on film. He moves well, he has good size – he deceivingly has some size. You see him from afar and he doesn’t look that big, but you get up on him and he’s up there, he’s 6-1. He ‘s the mix of guys that I like to coach – he’s got the perfect height, perfect size. He’s not as big as Hakim, Pratt, Josh [Jones] and Dex [Wright], but he’s still a big safety. His athleticism is what’s going to really get him on the field. If we can’t keep him off the field, it’s because he’s so athletic. I think he has some learning to do, but he played a lot of positions in high school and that’s going to help him. I played cornerback [in high school] as well, and it helped me when I got here. He’s either going to be a long way from learning that stuff or he’s going to pick it up fast, one of the two. I’m excited to see him play and get him up here.
***
The next 30 days are going to be unusually busy if the NC State men’s basketball coaches get done what they are hoping for.
Fort Washington (Md.) National Christian Academy senior small forward Christian Matthews is on commitment watch any day now if he keeps his present timeline. Matthews didn’t have a firm update Friday.
He is essentially down to NC State and Georgia Tech as his top two, and already has gone on record with The Wolfpacker that NCSU is his clear favorite.
The natural scorer has been targeted by NC State since watching him in February. NCSU went to watch then senior point guard target Traci Carter, and he didn’t play well enough to get a Wolfpack offer, but Matthews did. The No. 90-ranked Carter subsequently signed with Marquette.
If Matthews picks NC State, he would give the Wolfpack six wings for the 2016-2017 season.
The next order of business is could six wings become seven? Obviously, it probably is unrealistic to keep seven wings happy if it happens, but Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons senior Maverick Rowan is too good to pass up. Rowan is in the “process” of getting his academics in order to make the move to the class of 2015. That plan has been in the works for quite some time when Louisville approached the family with the move this spring.
The former Pittsburgh commit can play both shooting guard or small forward and can develop into a knock down jump shooter. Rowan has averaged 19.2 points and shot 51.0 percent from the field and 40.6 percent from three-point land in 13 Nike Elite Youth Basketball League games this spring with Each 1 Teach 1.
Rowan hasn’t set up an official visit with NC State yet, but did indicate to The Wolfpacker that he views the Wolfpack as one of his top four options. Louisville and St. John’s already have received official visits, and at least publicly, he is also listing Wisconsin, UCLA and North Carolina. The Badgers could also easily be in that top four.
We’ve long said that Louisville, NC State and Wisconsin, have put in the work and could be sticking out. St. John’s is the relative newcomer to the situation, and at first some figured the Red Storm were a courtesy visit because Rowan’s father, Ron Rowan, played with new SJU coach Chris Mullin in the mid-1980s in Queens.
The third major move of the summer is class of 2015 center Georgios Papagiannis of Greece, who is currently playing in the FIBA U19 World Championships this weekend in his home country.
Papagiannis could be a professional or attend college, though there will be the usual compliance “scrubbing” that will go on with the NCAA that foreign players typically experience. His “representatives” will also play a key role. U.S. star high school players get exposure to NBA agents at a young age, and this is likely no different. NC State, Oregon, St. John’s and a few others have gotten the most play, but the key thing to remember in all of this is that Papagiannis has not gone on record himself about anything involving the process.
In an ideal situation, NC State will get Papagiannis in for an official visit at some point in July. If it happens during one of the three recruiting evaluation weekends, the coaches will have to adjust their schedules accordingly.
NC State fans apparently can watch Papagiannis vs. Korea at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, vs. Dominican Republic at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, and vs. Serbia at 8:30 p.m. Monday on this Web site: www.fiba.com/world/u19/2015.
The USA U19 team features four class of 2016 players, including NC State small forward target Josh Jackson of Detroit. The ACC is represented on the team by Louisville sophomore center Chinanu Onuaku and Virginia Tech sophomore wing Justin Bibbs.
***
Fayetteville (N.C.) Trinity Christian senior point guard Dennis Smith Jr. is making it a yearly tradition in spending time at NC State in late June. He stopped by for multiple days to play pickup with the Wolfpack players this past week, and he had come to NCSU’s team camp and spent time with the coaches in June 2014.
Smith has spent more time around NC State than any other college, and it’s clear that the Wolfpack lead for him, and likely for senior center Edrice Adebayo of Pinetown (N.C.) Northside High. Both are Rivals.com five-star prospects and top 10 players.
Publicly, neither Smith or Adebayo want to declare the Wolfpack their leader at this point, though the recruiting industry has done that for them. Privately, they probably know certain schools have either stopped recruiting them or won’t recruit them because the perception is out there about them ending up at NC State at some point. It will be interesting to see if they continue to try to fight that perception or embrace it. They’ll be going through rounds of interviews at their upcoming adidas events in Atlanta, Long Island, N.Y., and Las Vegas, in July.
Smith has also been talking to Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic senior shooting guard Markelle Fultz about playing together in college. The guess is the two got to know each other through adidas Nations camps. Fultz is currently ranked No. 24, but could be moving up into five-star range sooner rather than later. Whether Kentucky offers him a scholarship or not is one of the storylines for the July evaluation period. From a distance, it appears that UK has targeted Malik Monk of Bentonville (Ark.) High and Rawle Alkins of Middle Village (N.Y.) Christ the King at shooting guard.
***
One other update on Adebayo. The Charlotte Observer reported that Adebayo and Northside High have been invited to play in the inaugural Queen City Holiday Classic on Dec. 28-30 at Charlotte Vance High. That would mean Adebayo won’t be in the HighSchoolOT.com Holiday Invitational at Raleigh Broughton High.
It turns out Northside hasn’t completely agreed to be in the Queen City Holiday Classic yet, but the Holiday Invitational hasn’t been vigorously recruiting them either. We’ll see how this plays out.
***
Former NC State star combo guard Trevor Lacey going undrafted was not a surprise to the NBA Draft community. One connected draft source that saw him work out for an NBA team, predicted that a week ago. Not being a point guard and having trouble defensively were two things that hurt him in workouts. However, that same source predicted he’ll make north of $100,000 a year overseas.
The next major step for Lacey is to make an NBA summer league team for July. That is where his agent will be earning his money. A good showing in July will either help him get invited for training camp or net him a better deal overseas.
If he elects to go the NBDL route, he won’t get paid as much, but will be in a position to get called up at any moment. The same source said league veterans prefer playing in the NBDL because all they need is a 10-day contract, and that helps toward their future pension (once signed, a year is counted). He estimated that players who spend 10 years in the league get $195,000 for their pension.
