NC State has more football recruiting targets than basketball playing in the NCHSAA basketball state title games Saturday at the Dean E. Smith Center or Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill. The big one for hoops remains Kinston senior small forward Brandon Ingram, who Rivals.com ranks No. 19 overall in the class of 2015.
Ingram is down to NC State, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA, and officially visited all but the Wolfpack. He has unofficially visited both NC State and UNC in the upper teens or low 20s, and probably has cracked double figures with Duke.
NC State would rather be preparing for an ACC Tournament title game in Greensboro, but with the loss to Duke on Thursday night, the Wolfpack will be watching Ingram play in the 2A state title game at 2:30 p.m. at the Dean Dome. Kinston, who is going for its fourth-straight NCHSAA title and 11th overall, will play Denver (N.C.) East Lincoln High, which features three football/basketball standouts.
Quarterback/guard Chazz Surratt, a junior, is joined by his sophomore younger brother Sage Surratt, a shooting guard/wide receiver, and sophomore wing/wide receiver Cameron Dollar.
The other football duo of note Saturday includes Fayetteville (N.C.) Terry Sanford juniors Mark Gilbert and Isaiah Stallings, who both have NC State offers. Gilbert is a standout guard in hoops and a cornerback in football, while Stallings plays the wing and is a safety/outside linebacker type in football. Terry Sanford plays for the 3A state title at 7:30 p.m. against Gastonia Ashbrook, which has 6-foot-9 junior post player Isaiah Whaley. That game will take place at Carmichael Arena, with Garner (N.C.) High playing Charlotte Ardrey Kell at the Dean Dome.
Terry Sanford also features a pair of younger guards that could get looks in hoops - sophomore Telligence Johnson and freshman Malik Johnson. The Johnson brothers are cousins of Fayetteville E.E. Smith sophomore Jatrious Smith, a potential Wolfpack target, and High Point (N.C.) Wesleyan junior shooting guard Kwe Parker, who is on the disabled list for several more weeks after getting injured. At one point, some around Terry Sanford thought Telligence Johnson could be a no-brainer ACC football recruit one day, but he elected to not play the sport this past fall.
Also of note, three future NC State women's basketball players will be playing for state titles Saturday. Southeast Raleigh and senior guard signee Amber Richardson play Charlotte Myers Park and power forward signee Rydeiah "D.D." Rogers at 5 p.m. at the Dean Dome. Sophomore forward commit Kayla Jones and Williamston Rivers go against Winston-Salem Prep at Noon at Carmichael Arena.
***
The NCAA Tournament will take center stage but the next wave of talent will also be on display in some individual events. The Super 60 Showdown will take place March 21 at Knightdale (N.C.) High with the majority of the top 60 players in the state in attendance. The N.C. Top 80 Camp will take place a week later March 28, which Rick Lewis and Jamie Shaw put on.
The crazy weekend of the year will take place April 10-12, which is the start of the first spring evaluation period for college coaches, the Kay Yow Spring Game is April 11, and the Charlotte Rivals Camp for high school football prospects is April 12.
Two younger players that could be big names in the future that will be on display at the various basketball camps are Wilson (N.C.) Greenfield School freshman guard Coby White and Rocky Mount (N.C.) Prep freshman guard Keyshawn Bryant. Shaw picked the duo out as players who could be on the verge of blowing up.
A few others will surely emerge to, especially in the class of 2017 and 2018.
***
In the near future we will begin our popular weekly feature of The Wolfpacker top 25 (may be a larger number to start out). For newcomers to the board, it is when we rank prospects claiming an offer from NC State in order based on our (and ours only) opinion of the odds that the Wolfpack will end up landing them.
But we decided this War Room would be a good opportunity to debut a mini-top 25 of sorts, going over who would be the top 10 if we were to put out a list now.
1. Cornerback Joe Jay Smith, Bethlehem (Pa.) Catholic
Smith is a teammate of NCSU signee Freddie Simmons, a receiver, but that is not the reason why we would put Smith so high. It was clear in our conversation with Smith after his visit that he was very high on the Pack, and we also get the vibe that the Pack has a sincere interest in him. New receivers coach George McDonald apparently has a good relationship with Bethlehem Catholic, as well. Wake Forest has offered Smith recently and is probably the current top challenger.
2. Tight end Garrett Walston, Wilmington (N.C.) New Hanover High
Walston's family has a strong UNC background, so that is a factor here. Walston was supposedly at the UNC-Duke game, which would be his second visit to Chapel Hill in a month. Having noted all of that, the vibe we got was that among his favorites NCSU was leading Virginia Tech. Walston apparently is good friends with NCSU redshirt freshman defensive lineman Coult Culler and acquaintances with former NC State tight end George Bryan, both Wilmington-area natives. Walston nearly committed to NC State in January, and we believe NC State is still in a good position here.
3. Cornerback Tyric McCarter, New Bern (N.C.) High
When the first reports came out last fall that McCarter had an offer from NC State, we checked with sources and confirmed that was the case. Assuming that offer remains valid, NC State has to be sitting in a pretty good position with McCarter. Thus far they are his lone major offer.
4. Linebacker LaRonde Liverpool, Virginia Beach (Va.) Landstown High
The one caveat we have on Liverpool is we are still trying to gauge how actively NCSU is recruiting Liverpool. However, he reports offers from NC State and Virginia, and he did take an unofficial visit to Raleigh on Feb. 21. Liverpool told us that was the best visit that he personally had taken, and that included trips to Virginia for a game and Virginia Tech for a junior day. He was supposed to be at Clemson last weekend.
5. Tight end Robert Tucker, Atlanta B.E.S.T. Academy
We have been trying to reach Tucker for an interview, but NC State hosted Tucker for an unofficial visit Feb. 21. He reports a trio of ACC offers: NC State, Syracuse and Wake Forest, and he told the Georgia Tech Rivals.com affiliate Jackets Online that his two favorites are NC State and Wake Forest.
6. Running back Kennedy McKoy, Lexington (N.C.) North Davidson High
We get the vibe with McKoy, based on conversations in the past, is that he does not need to be sold on NC State. McKoy has long been NCSU-favoring on twitter and admitted last fall that the Wolfpack were his favorite. He also has offers from North Carolina and West Virginia (but, then again, who does not have a WVU offer?). The bigger sell on McKoy is probably convincing him to sign on after landing a stellar running back class in 2015. McKoy though has been among those at the top of NCSU's recruiting board at running back since last summer.
7. Linebacker Brock Miller, Fort Pierce (Fla.) John Carroll High
Miller has been busy this spring taking unofficial visits, including NC State on Feb. 20 when he was swinging the state and also taking trips to Duke and Wake Forest, the latter of whom had offered. Miller then made the lengthy drive to Kentucky, another school on his offer list. During his return home from that visit, Miller admitted to us that his top two were UK and NCSU, however we should warn that we got the vibe that Miller is intrigued by the SEC brand name.
8. Wide receiver Jailyn Ingram, Madison (Ga.) Morgan County High
Ingram is an intriguing prospect, and the bigger battle with him may be convincing him to play football in college. Ingram (6-6, 200 pounds) has offers from NC State and Georgia Tech for football. However, he is garnering even more attention on the hardwood, including an offer to play both sports at Tech. Georgia, Auburn, Mississippi State and Florida Atlantic have also reportedly offered Ingram for hoops only.
9. Cornerback Mark Gilbert, Fayetteville (N.C.) Terry Sanford High
Prior to a reported offer from Michigan, the sense we got was that Gilbert's top two were NC State and Duke with UNC looming in the mix if they joined his offer list and Pittsburgh, due to family history, a wild card. A U-M offer from Jim Harbaugh will get just about any prospect's attention, but when he was the coach at Stanford, Harbaugh had a reputation for being aggressive with offers. So take the Michigan offer with a tad bit of a grain of salt. We do know this, NC State really likes Gilbert quite a bit.
10. Running back Jordon Brown, Durham (N.C.) Southern High
We would not be surprised if Brown came down to an NCSU-UNC battle. In the Pack's corner is the fact that running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Des Kitchings is very well liked in the Durham prep scene and former teammate Maurice Trowell is a redshirt freshman receiver for the Pack. However, as mentioned with McKoy, part of the sell NCSU will have to make is convincing runners that it's not too crowded in the backfield after the 2015 class.
***
We should note that other players, including highly-recruited prospects like offensive tackles Josh Ball of Fredericksburg (Va.) Stafford Senior and Robert Kraeling of Bogart (Ga.) Prince Avenue Christian, receiver Diondre Overton of Greensboro (N.C.) Page High, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence of Wake Forest (N.C.) High are all prospects that we believe are very high on NC State.
The reason that they were not included on the top 10 is simply because of the high profile schools involved with them make them less certain at this stage (key words) of their respective recruitments.
***
Football recruiting will likely stay quiet for a little while, but the Pack is hoping to bring in a good group of visitors for a spring practice (perhaps scrimmage) on March 28.
This post was edited on 3/13 4:19 PM by Jacey Zembal
Ingram is down to NC State, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA, and officially visited all but the Wolfpack. He has unofficially visited both NC State and UNC in the upper teens or low 20s, and probably has cracked double figures with Duke.
NC State would rather be preparing for an ACC Tournament title game in Greensboro, but with the loss to Duke on Thursday night, the Wolfpack will be watching Ingram play in the 2A state title game at 2:30 p.m. at the Dean Dome. Kinston, who is going for its fourth-straight NCHSAA title and 11th overall, will play Denver (N.C.) East Lincoln High, which features three football/basketball standouts.
Quarterback/guard Chazz Surratt, a junior, is joined by his sophomore younger brother Sage Surratt, a shooting guard/wide receiver, and sophomore wing/wide receiver Cameron Dollar.
The other football duo of note Saturday includes Fayetteville (N.C.) Terry Sanford juniors Mark Gilbert and Isaiah Stallings, who both have NC State offers. Gilbert is a standout guard in hoops and a cornerback in football, while Stallings plays the wing and is a safety/outside linebacker type in football. Terry Sanford plays for the 3A state title at 7:30 p.m. against Gastonia Ashbrook, which has 6-foot-9 junior post player Isaiah Whaley. That game will take place at Carmichael Arena, with Garner (N.C.) High playing Charlotte Ardrey Kell at the Dean Dome.
Terry Sanford also features a pair of younger guards that could get looks in hoops - sophomore Telligence Johnson and freshman Malik Johnson. The Johnson brothers are cousins of Fayetteville E.E. Smith sophomore Jatrious Smith, a potential Wolfpack target, and High Point (N.C.) Wesleyan junior shooting guard Kwe Parker, who is on the disabled list for several more weeks after getting injured. At one point, some around Terry Sanford thought Telligence Johnson could be a no-brainer ACC football recruit one day, but he elected to not play the sport this past fall.
Also of note, three future NC State women's basketball players will be playing for state titles Saturday. Southeast Raleigh and senior guard signee Amber Richardson play Charlotte Myers Park and power forward signee Rydeiah "D.D." Rogers at 5 p.m. at the Dean Dome. Sophomore forward commit Kayla Jones and Williamston Rivers go against Winston-Salem Prep at Noon at Carmichael Arena.
***
The NCAA Tournament will take center stage but the next wave of talent will also be on display in some individual events. The Super 60 Showdown will take place March 21 at Knightdale (N.C.) High with the majority of the top 60 players in the state in attendance. The N.C. Top 80 Camp will take place a week later March 28, which Rick Lewis and Jamie Shaw put on.
The crazy weekend of the year will take place April 10-12, which is the start of the first spring evaluation period for college coaches, the Kay Yow Spring Game is April 11, and the Charlotte Rivals Camp for high school football prospects is April 12.
Two younger players that could be big names in the future that will be on display at the various basketball camps are Wilson (N.C.) Greenfield School freshman guard Coby White and Rocky Mount (N.C.) Prep freshman guard Keyshawn Bryant. Shaw picked the duo out as players who could be on the verge of blowing up.
A few others will surely emerge to, especially in the class of 2017 and 2018.
***
In the near future we will begin our popular weekly feature of The Wolfpacker top 25 (may be a larger number to start out). For newcomers to the board, it is when we rank prospects claiming an offer from NC State in order based on our (and ours only) opinion of the odds that the Wolfpack will end up landing them.
But we decided this War Room would be a good opportunity to debut a mini-top 25 of sorts, going over who would be the top 10 if we were to put out a list now.
1. Cornerback Joe Jay Smith, Bethlehem (Pa.) Catholic
Smith is a teammate of NCSU signee Freddie Simmons, a receiver, but that is not the reason why we would put Smith so high. It was clear in our conversation with Smith after his visit that he was very high on the Pack, and we also get the vibe that the Pack has a sincere interest in him. New receivers coach George McDonald apparently has a good relationship with Bethlehem Catholic, as well. Wake Forest has offered Smith recently and is probably the current top challenger.
2. Tight end Garrett Walston, Wilmington (N.C.) New Hanover High
Walston's family has a strong UNC background, so that is a factor here. Walston was supposedly at the UNC-Duke game, which would be his second visit to Chapel Hill in a month. Having noted all of that, the vibe we got was that among his favorites NCSU was leading Virginia Tech. Walston apparently is good friends with NCSU redshirt freshman defensive lineman Coult Culler and acquaintances with former NC State tight end George Bryan, both Wilmington-area natives. Walston nearly committed to NC State in January, and we believe NC State is still in a good position here.
3. Cornerback Tyric McCarter, New Bern (N.C.) High
When the first reports came out last fall that McCarter had an offer from NC State, we checked with sources and confirmed that was the case. Assuming that offer remains valid, NC State has to be sitting in a pretty good position with McCarter. Thus far they are his lone major offer.
4. Linebacker LaRonde Liverpool, Virginia Beach (Va.) Landstown High
The one caveat we have on Liverpool is we are still trying to gauge how actively NCSU is recruiting Liverpool. However, he reports offers from NC State and Virginia, and he did take an unofficial visit to Raleigh on Feb. 21. Liverpool told us that was the best visit that he personally had taken, and that included trips to Virginia for a game and Virginia Tech for a junior day. He was supposed to be at Clemson last weekend.
5. Tight end Robert Tucker, Atlanta B.E.S.T. Academy
We have been trying to reach Tucker for an interview, but NC State hosted Tucker for an unofficial visit Feb. 21. He reports a trio of ACC offers: NC State, Syracuse and Wake Forest, and he told the Georgia Tech Rivals.com affiliate Jackets Online that his two favorites are NC State and Wake Forest.
6. Running back Kennedy McKoy, Lexington (N.C.) North Davidson High
We get the vibe with McKoy, based on conversations in the past, is that he does not need to be sold on NC State. McKoy has long been NCSU-favoring on twitter and admitted last fall that the Wolfpack were his favorite. He also has offers from North Carolina and West Virginia (but, then again, who does not have a WVU offer?). The bigger sell on McKoy is probably convincing him to sign on after landing a stellar running back class in 2015. McKoy though has been among those at the top of NCSU's recruiting board at running back since last summer.
7. Linebacker Brock Miller, Fort Pierce (Fla.) John Carroll High
Miller has been busy this spring taking unofficial visits, including NC State on Feb. 20 when he was swinging the state and also taking trips to Duke and Wake Forest, the latter of whom had offered. Miller then made the lengthy drive to Kentucky, another school on his offer list. During his return home from that visit, Miller admitted to us that his top two were UK and NCSU, however we should warn that we got the vibe that Miller is intrigued by the SEC brand name.
8. Wide receiver Jailyn Ingram, Madison (Ga.) Morgan County High
Ingram is an intriguing prospect, and the bigger battle with him may be convincing him to play football in college. Ingram (6-6, 200 pounds) has offers from NC State and Georgia Tech for football. However, he is garnering even more attention on the hardwood, including an offer to play both sports at Tech. Georgia, Auburn, Mississippi State and Florida Atlantic have also reportedly offered Ingram for hoops only.
9. Cornerback Mark Gilbert, Fayetteville (N.C.) Terry Sanford High
Prior to a reported offer from Michigan, the sense we got was that Gilbert's top two were NC State and Duke with UNC looming in the mix if they joined his offer list and Pittsburgh, due to family history, a wild card. A U-M offer from Jim Harbaugh will get just about any prospect's attention, but when he was the coach at Stanford, Harbaugh had a reputation for being aggressive with offers. So take the Michigan offer with a tad bit of a grain of salt. We do know this, NC State really likes Gilbert quite a bit.
10. Running back Jordon Brown, Durham (N.C.) Southern High
We would not be surprised if Brown came down to an NCSU-UNC battle. In the Pack's corner is the fact that running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Des Kitchings is very well liked in the Durham prep scene and former teammate Maurice Trowell is a redshirt freshman receiver for the Pack. However, as mentioned with McKoy, part of the sell NCSU will have to make is convincing runners that it's not too crowded in the backfield after the 2015 class.
***
We should note that other players, including highly-recruited prospects like offensive tackles Josh Ball of Fredericksburg (Va.) Stafford Senior and Robert Kraeling of Bogart (Ga.) Prince Avenue Christian, receiver Diondre Overton of Greensboro (N.C.) Page High, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence of Wake Forest (N.C.) High are all prospects that we believe are very high on NC State.
The reason that they were not included on the top 10 is simply because of the high profile schools involved with them make them less certain at this stage (key words) of their respective recruitments.
***
Football recruiting will likely stay quiet for a little while, but the Pack is hoping to bring in a good group of visitors for a spring practice (perhaps scrimmage) on March 28.
This post was edited on 3/13 4:19 PM by Jacey Zembal
