I was pretty impressed with Degand also...pretty quick, good handles...and the longer he plays with the team, the more chemistry and the more he learns the other players' tendencies

11/16/2007 3:25:39 PM

i like degand's speed, but i really don't like the way he never passes to the trailing player when he's running full speed down the court with 2 defenders in front of him. he's gotten a couple trips to the line out of it, but i'd rather have the automatic basket we could score if he'd pass there.

he's definitely an improvement over our PG situation without atsur last year, and i think eventually it will be an improvement over the situation even with atsur. not because degand is better than atsur, but because his speed plays better to the overall athleticism of our team and our talented frontcourt.

javy looked like he could develop into a solid contributor at point as well once he's back to 100%.

11/16/2007 3:31:46 PM

Hickson is the at the top in College Hoops Net's "3 starts of the day":
http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/new/story/three_stars_day_november_16th41281

11/16/2007 3:34:07 PM

So can Degand shoot? Or score at all? This team doesn't really need much scoring from our back court, but our primary ball handler does need to be able hit a shot every now and again to keep the passing lanes clear.

11/16/2007 3:42:24 PM

only 3 players were in double figures last night...Hickson, Costner and I think maybe Fells, so Degand didn't show all his range last night cause he didn't really need to

but again I was more impressed with his athleticism...haven't had a PG as athletic since Cliff Crawford and it looks like Degand has a little better handles

11/16/2007 3:45:04 PM

degand doesn't seem to have much of an outside shot. i'd probably rate it a bit lower than gavin's at this point. with his speed he can create openings for himself to drive the lane, but i think he is still pretty raw at this point and will need sidney to help him develop that aspect of his game more. in the meantime he just needs to learn how to get the ball into JJ's hands when the paint is as crowded as it was sometimes last night.

11/16/2007 3:49:27 PM

degand missed a WIDE open 3 last night. I mean the closest guy to him was 8 ft away. He doesn't have a great shot. As long as he keeps the to's down and gets the ball to the other guys that ARE scoring threats, we will be fine.

11/16/2007 4:15:08 PM

heh, javi airballed a pretty open 3

they're both going to be pass first guys.

11/16/2007 4:19:28 PM

granted he was a good 3-6 feet away from the arc

i think he just wanted to get on the board in the FG category, only one foul shot made at that point, i think for the rest of the night too

11/16/2007 4:21:30 PM

"My passion is just to get better every day," Hickson said. "That's what I look forward to when I get out of bed, is getting better at basketball. I just want to win some games and restore the school to what it used to be."

11/17/2007 12:07:26 PM

its ok if degand doesn't shoot, but we still need to get dribble penetration out of him. Otherwise, people will just play him for the pass always.

11/17/2007 12:51:42 PM

Scott Williams went 12-12 FG in 1989 I think.

11/17/2007 12:51:46 PM

yea he was definetly balling, i'm very happy about his being on our team.

11/17/2007 2:32:22 PM

i dont think you can fault javi for that airball though. he was clearly favoring his good hand the whole night. i figured that he wasn't shooting because the one hand was still bothering him to an extent.

11/17/2007 2:53:05 PM

hurricane hickson bout to hit new orleans

11/18/2007 4:43:46 PM

and we know what hurricanes do to new orleans...

11/18/2007 4:46:50 PM

Goddam I am a machine.

Scott Williams did go 12-12 FG in the '89-'90 season.

I can't remember what I ate for lunch but I recall a fucking article I read in the Observer 17 years ago.

11/18/2007 6:59:01 PM

ytmnd

11/18/2007 6:59:39 PM

from ESPN's "Who's NEXT?" issue

Quote :

"College Basketball J.J. Hickson (NC State), DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M) OK, so J.J. Hickson and DeAndre Jordan aren't named Rose, Mayo, Love, Beasley or Gordon, but by the end of the season, or certainly in June, you might begin to recognize their names. Hickson's power game in the post at NC State and Jordan's defensive prowess at Texas A&M aren't going unnoticed by NBA scouts. These two freshman big men may just slide under the radar long enough to steal headlines in this class if they decide to enter the draft. -- Andy Katz "

12/5/2007 4:20:01 PM

kinda funny that ESPN had that poll of who was gonna be the best freshman, and in typical TWW fashion we skewed the poll, and then they straight up removed Hickson from the list...when he had one of the best 1st game performances in college basketball history

12/5/2007 4:21:53 PM

U r the man!!

12/29/2007 4:29:46 PM

RI

DIC

U

LOUS!!!!!

12/29/2007 4:31:45 PM

Against WCU:
33 points in 33 minutes.
10-11 shooting.
13-16 FTs.
13 rebounds.
3 blocks.
2 steals.
1 asst.
3 TOs.
0 fouls.

12/29/2007 4:32:34 PM

the most impressive stats to me

33 points in 33 min.
rebound total

and most importantly, 3 blocks to 0 fouls...thats great. limit the TOs and he's set.

12/29/2007 4:42:42 PM

Enjoy your one year here

12/29/2007 4:44:10 PM

he will be here atleast 2 yrs

12/29/2007 4:45:08 PM

he's nowhere on nbadraft.net or draftexpress.com at least right now... that all could change if he has big games in the acc tourney and (hopefully) ncaa tourney.

i'd sure be happy if he stayed another year or even two...

12/29/2007 6:01:28 PM

please stay 2 years J.J. wait for Julius Mays to get here. if you stay 3 years maybe you could convince John Wall to come in and he would surely make you an even better player. you could go down as an ACC legend, win an ACC Championship, perhaps dare I say a National Championship, and depending on your development you may win ACC POY and National POY and have a red jersey in the RBC Center with your name on it.

[Edited on December 29, 2007 at 6:18 PM. Reason : ]

12/29/2007 6:17:16 PM

He's only flying under the national radar because he's playing on a shitty team.

ACC performance or pre-draft workouts can change all that overnight.

Seriously hope he stays, though. On top of that, Costner won't be going pro after this year barring some kind of miraculous change during ACC play. I'd like to see Mays get to play with both of them next year.

12/29/2007 6:17:37 PM

we are going to be soo shitty without him and a few other players next year

12/29/2007 6:19:29 PM

by a few other players do you mean Grant, b/c he's the only senior.

JJ if you stay Sid will raise his hands in the air and wave em like he just don't care.

12/29/2007 6:22:30 PM

Quote :

"He's only flying under the national radar because he's playing on a shitty team."

Doesn't seem to hurt Michael Beasley. Then again, he had ten times the hype coming out of HS.

12/29/2007 6:35:07 PM

and beasely is a better player, anyway.

12/29/2007 6:48:43 PM

Quote :

"Costner won't be going pro after this year barring some kind of miraculous change during ACC play."

it's not as if we've never seen this before.

12/29/2007 7:05:03 PM

Before tonight's game JJ was 2nd in the nation in shooting percentage.

Quote :

"Player Team PTS PPG FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% Korvotney Barber Auburn 133 14.8 58 80 .725 17 43 .395 J.J. Hickson North Carolina State 181 16.5 65 94 .691 51 74 .689 "

Now he's up to .714.

Not too shabby.

[Edited on December 29, 2007 at 7:33 PM. Reason : useless info]

12/29/2007 7:32:23 PM

Quote :

"it's not as if we've never seen this before."

I don't know...last year, Costner was showing vast improvement by the Alabama game (wasn't that before Christmas?)

Even today he didn't look right. Only has two more tune-up games before we're in the meat of the schedule.

12/29/2007 9:09:22 PM

well now you're splitting hairs. the alabama game was sometime over xmas break, so we're talking two weeks difference at most.

12/29/2007 9:29:07 PM

well, if you go back and check the stats, he was shooting great percentages even in late November

12/29/2007 9:39:32 PM

Marques Johnson has already shown he is more effective at PG than Javi - am I seeing this right? He is not lights out but I think he has more upside right now. Javi is just a true freshman also.

12/29/2007 10:30:20 PM

i do believe this is a jj hickson thread

12/29/2007 10:32:37 PM

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/ncaa/12/30/bc.bkc.auburn.barberinj.ap/index.html

Korvotney Barber (the guy ahead of Hickson in FG %) broke his hand.

12/30/2007 11:28:12 PM

damn so now his FG% will be that high all year

12/30/2007 11:30:10 PM

yea, but it prob wont count since he may not acquire enough shots to qualify for that stat

12/30/2007 11:49:22 PM

Hickson is GONE after this year, anybody that debates that has no clue how the world operates. I like how this "nbadraftexpress" is what's keeping spirits high that he'll be around for another season. Whatever helps you sleep at night, but Hickson's presence next season will be on a terrible NBA team.

12/31/2007 11:46:48 AM

He'll be here 2 years at least.

He won't dominate the ACC like W&M and WCU.

12/31/2007 1:12:51 PM

no one knows what the hell he's going to do at this point. If he continues to light it up in conference play, there's a greater chance that he's gone after this year.

If his production diminishes during ACC play, we'll see him again next year.

12/31/2007 1:20:33 PM

I actually know what he's going to do. He and I talk on a daily basis. He's staying till NCSU wins a NC. Which will be next year.

12/31/2007 1:28:47 PM

can't argue with that

[/thread]

12/31/2007 1:30:28 PM

Quote :

"He'll be here 2 years at least. He won't dominate the ACC like W&M and WCU."

Since when did the NBA draft on skill and not potential, did you miss the last decade where there were always 2 high schoolers in the top ten? Did Kwame brown, Eddy Curry or Tyson Chandler dominate the ACC or any other Div I conference while in high school to impress scouts? For every Kobe, there's a Kwame and a Telfair, and then ten others we don't know about. Hickson is gone, our best bet is to make a serious run in the NCAA, and have him get injrued in our last game preventing him from working out at the draft camps lowering his status out of the lottery.

[Edited on December 31, 2007 at 1:33 PM. Reason : .]

12/31/2007 1:32:38 PM

to say he is gone right now is a bit of a stretch, he has several holes in his game.

Have yet to see him take an opponent 8-10 feet from the basket and shoot

he cant guard his own shadow in the post. I have never seen a starting center consistently finish with 0 or 1 fouls like he does


Yes, Hickson is extremely good, but I can think of 10-12 freshman who are having just as good if not better seasons than him to go with the amount of upperclassmen who enter the draft each season

12/31/2007 1:40:12 PM