Advertisement
basketball Edit

Oral history intro on NC State's program-changing Class of 2001

NC State basketball legend Julius Hodge helped put the Wolfpack back on the map, along with his Class of 2001 recruiting classmates.
NC State basketball legend Julius Hodge helped put the Wolfpack back on the map, along with his Class of 2001 recruiting classmates. (The Associated Press)

We’ll cut right to the chase.

The Class of 2001 is known for numerous things in NC State’s basketball lore, and saving coach Herb Sendek’s job was No. 1.

Sendek and ace assistant coach Larry Harris helped land guard Julius Hodge of Bronx (N.Y.) St. Raymond’s, power forward Levi Watkins of Rockville (Md.) Montrose Christian, power forward Josh Powell of Riverdale (Ga.) High, center Jordan Collins of Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic and forward Ilian Evtimov of Kernersville (N.C.) Bishop McGuinness Catholic.

Rivals.com didn’t start rankings until 2002, but the Recruiting Services Consensus Index had Hodge at No. 7 overall nationally, Watkins at No. 60 and Powell at No. 65. The Wolfpack needed an infusion of talent, especially big men going into the 2001 class. Centers Ron Kelley and Cornelius Williams, and post players Damon Thornton and Kenny Inge were all seniors in 2000-2001.

The more urgent situation, the Wolfpack were fresh off of going 13-16 overall and 5-11 in the ACC in 2000-2001. Sendek hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in his first six years, which is an eternity in the college basketball world.

The stellar recruiting class helped NCSU go 23-11 overall, 9-7 in the ACC, which was good for fourth place and reach the NCAA Tournament. The group topped No. 10-seed Michigan State 69-58 in the first round of the Big Dance, before falling 77-74 against No. 2-seed Connecticut.

NC State was back to being relevant again in the ACC and Sendek was secure for his coaching future. He went on to reach the NCAA Tournament five straight years before leaving for Arizona State in 2006. The seniors who remained in the program — all but Powell — helped the Wolfpack reach the 2004 Sweet 16, breaking another long drought. The last NCSU squad to reach the Sweet 16 was 1989, and the program has reached the pinnacle three times since 1989.

The Wolfpack Central underwent extensive interviews with the five hoops signees, breaking down what they were thinking when they were 17 or 18 years old, when they realized the pressure to win to save Sendek’s job, the Princeton offense, at what point they knew they could have success, how close the class was with their unique personalities and experience of reaching the Sweet 16 after a revenge win over UConn, among other topics.

All five also have some role in basketball with Watkins an assistant coach at Ole Miss, and Hodge an assistant coach at Arkansas-Little Rock. Powell has been an NBA assistant coach and played in the Big 3 this past summer and hosted a basketball camp. Collins has coached overseas and was the coach for the Wolf Blood squad that played in The Basketball Tournament. Evtimov, whose family recently welcomed a baby in Bulgaria, could be opening up a basketball facility in the Triangle area.

The wide-ranging oral history will be in six parts over the next week or, with the first part on what the recruiting process was like for the quartet. The second part will entail when the players realized the importance of winning right away and saving Sendek’s job.

Related links: 1980-85 | 1986-90 | 1991-95 | 1996-00 | 2001-2005 | 2006-2010 | 2011-2015 | 2016-2020

Advertisement

What do you remember about Sendek and his assistant coaches in recruiting you?

Powell: “[Assistant] Coach [Larry] Harris and Coach [Sean] Miller had a lot to do with that [picking NC State]. The biggest factor for me was that once i saw all the people leaving at the bigs position, it was very unique. They literally had four seniors and all of them were bigs. That to me was the most intriguing. In my mind, I wanted an opportunity to play. When that happened, I knew my work ethic and I could take a starting job.

“I just remember Coach Harris. Just him and Sean, with Herb more on the backend. I don’t remember having too much interaction with Herb. I’m thinking about it now, but I just don’t remember during that process. I just remember seeing Coach Harris all the time and seeing Sean all the time. They just made it seem like family with how they were and how they spoke and their energy. It was just something I liked.”

Collins: “I remember there was a lot of mail coming to the house. My mom was like, ‘Why are all these colleges sending mail?’ She didn’t really care about anything about basketball. She was just tired of the mail that came to the house, just shoe boxes of mail. It started pretty early, pretty much in the eighth grade, once I moved to Maryland. I just had fun with it. I liked traveling around in AAU circuit and enjoyed being with my teammates in both AAU and DeMatha Catholic.

“He [Sendek] was just a quiet reserved guy. I didn’t know he was a yeller or how intense he was until I got to campus. He was a different guy.

“Coach Harris always had something good to say. Even in games where you didn’t perform properly, he’d want us to keep our heads up. Just the little stuff and he always generally gave up a good vibe in being a good person. Sometimes I’d see him once a week where he’d have breakfast with me and then drive to have lunch with Levi at his school. He was everywhere.”

Watkins: “Coach Herb Sendek was a young coach then, 38 at the time. He was 37 when I committed. I wanted to be with a younger coach. He came from the Rick Pitino tree and I knew how hard the Pitino program was and how hard Sendek was. Just the opportunity with so many frontcourt guys leaving with four or five seniors. That is what helped so many of us [in 2001 class].

“I knew about the history, but they would talk about David Thompson and I had never heard of the guy at 17 years old. After all the years [since], you get to know him and be around him, you saw how legendary he was. I knew the history once I really dived into it.

“Coach Harris was very aggressive. We still joke about to this day because he recruited me, Jordan, Josh and Julius. All four of us felt like he was in our gyms every day. I knew when he came to see Jordan, he’d come see me. Our schools were literally 15 miles apart. He was just relentless. I just saw him everywhere — every camp I was at, every AAU game I was at, at the high school, summer time, he was relentless. He out-recruited everybody else by far. He definitely stood out, just in how bad he wanted me. How much respect he had for my game. How far I could continue to grow from NC State and maybe going to the NBA.

“Coach Sendek was just a genius. He was very calculated with everything he did at that time. I just liked how prepared he was and how the workouts would translate to success in the games. They had all the skill workouts that they did. They had skill workouts the days that I was there [on the visit]. I saw a bunch of managers, bunch of pads and brooms, and a bunch of people, and all organized. I liked that part.

“The strength coach was big time, Charles Stevenson. He is still a great friend of mine now and I talk to him often. The guys got after it in the weight room as well. I got to see everything. The way they worked, not being too far away from home and I just loved the RBC Center at the time.

“I just remember they would talk about it [RBC Center] all the time and send me pictures and mail stuff. You could FedEx back then. I had a million FedEx things back in the day. I just remembered the first time I walked in and saw the arena, and I was just like ‘Wow.’ This thing here is just unbelievable. I didn’t even go there on the first day, so it was the second day [of visit]. That was another big piece in me picking NC State.”

Hodge: “I loved those guys, even to this day. Starting with Coach Harris, the advice he’s given me, I’ve been able to use in my every day life. It goes beyond sports with me. I was always a student of the game, so in terms of learning basketball, I always knew what to take from somebody, which was good. Coach Harris was a great player in his day at Pittsburgh. What he told me about life and working hard, I always did that. I was very easy to handle because they knew Hodge would work out and get better. He’s going to make his guys work out or they aren’t going to like him.

“What coach [Harris] told me in our talks and about life, I use it to this day with my kids. His son Simon Harris, is like a brother to me, who is now the [women’s] coach at East Tennessee State. I love him like I love my older brother.

“With coach [Sendek], in my recruitment, every game that summer leading into my senior year, he was at every single game. It just stood out and I knew when I was wanted. I knew Florida and [coach] Billy Donovan wanted me, right, even though he had Kwame Brown, David Lee and James White signed or committed. I knew who had committed and I know he wanted me.

“I know Syracuse really wanted me even though [coach Jim] Boeheim only went to two or three games of mine that summer. He was like, ‘Hey, you are a New York City kid, lets get it done.’ He didn’t have to go to every single game. I get it and I’m in the business [now], so I get it.”

Evtimov: “Herb Sendek and I dealt with Sean Miller, who was an assistant who recruited me before he left. Kenya Hunter was also part of that staff. I do remember him quite well.

“They were really straight up and straight forward. There was no guarantee of anything like minutes. Just nothing. They had a young class and were obviously under the gun. I didn’t really think about that since I didn’t really know that side of the business with coaches who recruit you. The next thing you know, they could be gone, whether their choice or not. I really liked Herb for some reason. I could identify myself in him. He was just a hard worker and I could see that from the meeting we had and visit we had.

“I liked the school a lot. It was close to Winston-Salem, where I went to high school and had some family there.”

What was your official visit like at NCSU?

Powell: “All of that seems like a blur. Who was my host? Julius and I came in at the same time, but I could be wrong, but I believe.”

Collins: “It was a football weekend, maybe early September, but I don’t remember who they played against. I had been by there at the Bob Gibbons Tournament a couple times. It was good to be around the players and how they interact with the coaches. I could see what type of personality the coaches had. I was around the fans a little bit more, and the regular students.”

Watkins: “I went on my visit to NC State and Damien Wilkins was my host. He also played for the same high school coach as me, and we worked out a lot throughout the summer. We even went on a Nike trip to Japan, and we were teammates, plus had Marvin Lewis. We had a bunch of Montrose Christian guys playing in that Nike deal.

“We went to Japan and Taiwan and I was very familiar with him [Wilkins]. He was an unbelievable host. The things that stood out to me was just how hard they were working. The first workout I saw, they were running on the track. It was raining outside and I was thinking there was no way they’d workout today. They did and got a big ‘ol umbrella for me and gave me a jacket. I was just watching these guys get after it and running around the track.

“We went to a football game and NC State played Georgia Tech. It was sold out and not an empty seat there. Koren Robinson had an unbelievable game. I don’t know how many touchdowns he had, but he was like Jerry Rice. I can’t remember if they won or not [Pack won 30-23 in overtime], but I just remember the crowd and I just remember Philip Rivers throwing it to Koren and him catching everything [eight receptions for 122 yards and three scores].

“Archie Miller was great on the visit and so was Scooter Sherrill. Just the energy of the fans and everywhere they went, everybody knew them. It was just special.

“The people were wonderful everywhere I went. In Maryland, you don’t really make eye contact and say hello all the time. In North Carolina, it was kind of weird for me because of the southern hospitality everywhere I went.”

Hodge: “My host was Damien Wilkins and after my visit I was like, ‘I want to play with that dude.’ He was a likable guy and knew everyone and was always smiling. To this day, he’s the same way. He’s just a great dude. I don’t know the stuff that happened [with his NC State departure]. He [Gerald Wilkins, his father] had a plan for his son and it worked. His son went to Georgia and had a really good career and ended up making a lot of money in the NBA, so it worked. I don’t think [Wilkins leaving] happens if I don’t decide to go to NC State. Coach had a plan and it ended up working.

“I went during the season where I went to the Red and White scrimmage game, probably right at the end of October. Coach [Sendek] was out there dancing or something. I was like, ‘This dude can’t dance out there for nothing.’ It was the first time I was ever there. I had played in the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions, but I don’t think I saw Raleigh.

“I remember being at the football game and there was a sign that said, ‘Jules, we want you’ which was something up in the corner of the football game. I was like, ‘OK, that’s pretty cool.’ Then the crowd starting chanting my name. The same happened at the Red and White game. I was like, ‘This is cool.’ It wasn’t about the facilities or the crowds of people coming up to me, as that was pretty standard even at that young age. It was about the guys on the team.

“I was there and it was [Anthony] Grundy’s birthday or it had just passed or coming up. At the time, and Herb would be pissed at me for telling the story, but they had something called ‘Birthdays.’ So whenever there was a birthday, the big guys on the team, who at that time and I didn’t play with them, but Ron Kelly, Damon Thornton, Kenny Inge and even Archie Miller and his little self would get in there and they’d hold the person down on whose birthday it was. They’d just spank his [butt] and they did that in front of me. They were like, ‘Hey rook, when you come here, we’ll do this [bleep] to you.’ I was like, ‘No, you are not and that won’t be happening.’

“When I first got there, and I don’t remember whose birthday was first, but it was one of the freshman, and we were like, ‘That [bleep] is done. We aren’t going to do that anymore. That stuff was done with us. You guys will not do that stuff to us and we’ll fight anyone who tries that, five-on-one. We were pretty big guys with Levi being chiseled, and you had Josh Powell and Jordan Collins was 6-10. Even Ilian was all muscle and 6-7 or 6-6. We stopped that right away and to me, it was funny.

“I could tell that the guys really liked being around each other. I knew I could come here, build this thing right and win. It wasn’t like that with every visit. I had some good visits and other visits I saw things and wish I didn’t. It was places I really liked and they had the wrong guys who they passed the student-athlete off to and show around campus or be around people. In my coaching career, I am extremely studious on who will we have this PSA [potential student athlete] around, which players? Will it be someone who is happy or pissed they aren’t playing? Will it be someone with good temperament or not? That can very easily turn off a PSA and have them not come to their University, if they are around the wrong guys.

“That goes to recruiting — don’t recruit the wrong guys. If someone is hard to get in touch with or they can show they are a bit of a bug in recruiting, you don’t want to have that around your team in coaching.”

Evtimov: “It was probably in April. Trey Guidry was my host and Archie Miller. Those were my hosts. My whole thing is that I wanted to play pickup. Everywhere I went, they’d be like ‘What do you want to do?’ I’d be, ‘I want to play pickup. I want to play basketball and see how good you guys are.’ I wanted to see if I could play with these guys and if it was realistic to come there. I realized that it was the ACC and the best conference in the U.S. arguably, at least to some people who think that. For me, I realized I could play with these guys. They might look big and strong on TV, but it is just one basketball and one hoop. At the end of the day, can you put the ball in the hoop. That is all that matters.

“[The commitment] happened after. I didn’t commit on the visit. I had told myself that I would not commit on the visit.”

What were the final colleges that you considered?

Hodge: “Syracuse, Maryland, NC State and Florida. A little background, the only reason NC State was on my list was because coach asked me my top 4-5 schools and I told him Syracuse, UNC — and I was a huge, huge Syracuse fan — and I always liked UNC. I liked Maryland because I always liked [coach] Gary Williams. I just think that dude was a superb coach and always liked him. They were good. Florida had just went to the title game [in 2000, losing to Michigan State]. They had a bunch of guys with Udonis Haslem, Brett Nelson and Mike Miller, so they were rolling.

“Then there was NC State, and I literally put them on my list with the only reason is I told coach [DeCesare] that the first four schools were all Nike. Gary DeCesare was the director of the ABCD basketball camp for adidas, and we were an adidas school [at St. Raymond’s] with so much adidas gear. He said to me, ‘Julius you have to add a school [from adidas]. You just have to, just one adidas school. It doesn’t matter which one, just pick a school. There has to be at least one adidas school or I’ll look bad.’

“I heard the rumors, like my brother having a job at adidas. My brother never worked a second at adidas. That the fix was in for adidas. You know why I ended up at NC State? I had a box of letters and coach wouldn’t give us any of our letters until after my junior year playing. Imagine that? Not getting offers or a single letter or any recognition from a college and not see it until the day after your junior year of basketball. Parents would go crazy now a days.

“He just gave me two huge boxes with letters filled up to the top. There was Kansas and Duke with handwritten letters and letters from everywhere. The first one I picked up was Yale and I go, ‘I think I want to go to Yale coach.’ He looks at me and goes ‘Julius, you need to look at the other letters.’ I said, ‘I can’t go wrong going to Yale.’ I was being really serious.

“I went through the letters, but I said, ‘Coach, I have an idea on where I want to go with these four schools.’ And he said, ‘Just pick one adidas school. You don’t have to go there. I know pretty much the schools you like, but just one adidas.’

“I put my hand inside the box of the letters and pick up an NC State letter. I opened it and I believe it was [assistant] coach Sean Miller and handwritten. He showed the arena and spoke about the impact I potentially could have. I had the opportunity to play there. I went through a couple of other letters and people were like ‘You could average 30 minutes a game’ or they were saying in the letters, ‘You could be our main guy.’ I knew college was a big step up and that I wasn’t going to be able to come in right away and be the main guy.

“I went back to the NC State letters and went through the box and picked up a couple more State letters, like Coach [Herb] Sendek and they were handwritten. I had letters from [assistant] coach Larry Harris that were handwritten. I was like, ‘You know what coach? This will be the reason NC State is on my list.’ It wasn’t because they were a hot program at the time. I didn’t even look up their record from the previous year until maybe a month or two that I made my decision. I just didn’t care. I believed in myself that I could go anywhere and change the tide. That is the true reason why NC State ended up on my list. I knew nothing about NC State. I didn’t even know the mascot.

“I knew once Matt Doherty got the head job at UNC, I wasn’t going to UNC. It wasn’t personal to him, and before we even spoke on the phone, I was just a young kid and thought the dude was mean as a coach. That is just the truth. I spoke to him on the phone and said, ‘I don’t know who the [heck] this Jackie Manuel kid is, but he’s got something coming for him.’ I was like, ‘I have no idea why you put something on this kid [Manuel].’ I knew it was going to be bad for them.”

Powell: “I saw Georgia Tech in some capacity. I saw UGA unofficially. I remember NC State was my first official visit and I didn’t waste time. I was like, ‘I think I am going to do this.’ I can’t remember exactly, but I liked that they were away from home. That was another thing too because I could get away but not be too far away. My mom could get on the road and it is an easy trip.”

Collins: “My final two were NC State and Virginia, and Notre Dame actually. I only visited NC State and just fell in love with it. Anthony Grundy was my tour guide and had a great time. The players were great. I knew the big guys were leaving like Ron Kelley and Damon Thornton and Cornelius Williams. Also Kenny Inge, so there was a void of big men, and being in the ACC, so I had a chance to play immediately.”

Watkins: “I’ll go back to the first time I actually saw an NC State game live. Being from Maryland, I went to the Terps’ games a lot and they recruited me very young. I just remember them [NCSU] coming into College Park and Cole Fieldhouse with the black uniforms. They didn’t play well that night. They were awful and got beat pretty bad.

“I was able to see all the frontcourt guys that they had. They had some very talented frontcourt guys with Damon Thornton, Kenny Inge, Cornelius Williams, just a bunch of young guys that I saw. I kind of remembered them when I started getting really serious about my recruitment.

“My stuff was all over the board before I went to Montrose Christian [in Rockville, Md.]. I told my high school coach [Stu Vetter] that I wasn’t going to any school that wasn’t in the ACC. I told my high school coach that and my list was cut down to nine already, right from the beginning.

“At the end, I had five official visits set up in a row, five weekends in a row. I really thought I was going to Wake Forest. Randolph Childress had played for my high school coach. I knew a lot about him. Tim Duncan is still my favorite player of all-time, so I watched the Terps, and every shot [Duncan] had at Wake Forest that was on TV. I actually went to Wake Forest for my first visit. They brought me in on a weekend where they were honoring all the guys that were retired, so Tim Duncan was actually there on my visit and I met. I met Muggsy Bogues, who is a Maryland legend [from Baltimore], and Rodney Rogers was there. They had a bunch there and Childress was there.

“Something didn’t quite hit me while I was there. It’s funny how it all worked out because [coach] Dave Odom was the coach at that time, and he actually left to go to South Carolina. My freshman year, I would have been playing for a new coach [Skip Prosser]. I didn’t know anything about him [Prosser].

“My visits were Wake Forest, then NC State, and then Georgia Tech, which was the same thing with Paul Hewitt just getting there. He came from Sienna and I didn’t know anything about him, but my high school teammate Marvin Lewis loved Georgia Tech and the education and the city of Atlanta. They had a similar situation where they lost a bunch of frontcourt players, who were seniors. I was high on them but didn’t know if I wanted to go that far away. Then I was going to Virginia and Florida State was my fifth visit. I knew I wasn’t going that far and I knew I wasn’t going to make it to five visits, so I had them fifth.

“Craig Dawson was my host at Wake Forest, and I just ran into him at the Independent schools events with a team camp. He’s coaching at Woodberry Forest [in Virginia]. I had a good visit but it just didn’t knock it out of the park. I knew I didn’t want to be too far from home.

“Maryland was loaded in the frontcourt with [Chris] Wilcox a year ahead of me and Lonnie Baxter was still there. They won the national championship my freshman year. I didn’t really want to go to Maryland, but I didn’t want to go too far. I knew how important basketball was in the state of North Carolina. I knew where I am from, Washington [in the NFL] and Washington Bullets of that time [now Wizards], those were the shows in town. Maryland basketball was important, but it wasn’t how it is like in North Carolina.”

Evtimov: “In the fall, Davidson was very aggressively recruiting me. They were my first option because Davidson was family and friends, and they also helped my brother [former UNC forward Vassil Evtimov] get to the U.S. We had some connections there and [Davidson coach] Bob McKillop was recruiting me really strongly for two or three years. I was going to make a commitment to Davidson.

“One night I picked up the call and let them know I was going there. I decided to ultimately wait until the spring. If they wanted me that bad, they would wait. Then I had my senior year and developed a lot physically that senior year.

“I had a good season and our state championship finals were at NC State — Reynolds Coliseum. That is where we got our state championship. Right after that, I played in an AAU tournament [Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions] that for juniors who were going to be seniors, but I could play because I had not signed yet. I played with a team from Virginia but don’t remember the name. All in all, we played the class that was following us like J.J. Redick, Shavlik Randolph, Shawon Robinson, Michael Thompson. They had a wing Matt Walsh going to Florida, and they had Eric Williams, so they had a crazy squad. I rememberer that night when we played them, and we lost by five or 10 points, but I gave them the business. I always did well in the Bob Gibbons Tournament, always.

“Furman had recruited me in the fall and then came back in the spring, and I really liked that school. There was a French player there, Karim Souchu, who I had been in really good contact with, even now. He has played 3-on-3 on the French national team and we are good friends. Even back then, he was my host. Furman was a great option for me, but I would have chosen Davidson over Furman. The key was would I choose mid-major or high-major college. The mid-major was Davidson and the high-major was NC State. UNC-Charlotte, I liked a lot, but they were in-between. Bobby Lutz was the coach and when he went to NC State, we reconnected. I had good memories of him at UNC-Charlotte and he was very kind to me.”

What proved to be the difference for NC State?

Powell: “It wasn’t that much, but the part that stood out to me was the family aspect. You can put those two together because if you look at the space I was in at that time, that was something that was important to me. I wanted to be around good people who cared and had my genuine best interests at heart. Everything else in my mind, and I still think to this day, you are going to get an education at everywhere, pretty much the same. Some places are stronger than others depending on what you are going there for. My thing was to take the game of basketball and make a career out of it. In my mind, where can I put myself in the best situation to do that. NC State has a strong business management program, so from an academic standpoint, they are pretty well known among my choices. I wasn’t really worried or concerned about that. I just wanted to go somewhere I could play and it just felt like family. That was really important to me.

“The things that I went through, nobody knew about that. When I was going into the recruitment part of it, I was looking at different things. Now a days, these college kids know so much about the schools and the players. I didn’t really that type of stuff when I was coming out. I just wanted to find a good school where I could start off getting some playing time. I knew from an academic standpoint, I would do business management. I had an uncle that I was working for and I learned how to run a business through him. He trusted me and gave me the keys and I knew how to get all the products set up and in the system and the computers. I was basically at 15 years old handling my business. I was just pretty simple.”

Collins: “The biggest reason was coach Herb Sendek and assistant coach Larry Harris. I had a great relationship with them. They had seen me several times and we always talked. They made me feel really, really comfortable of playing with Levi, Julius, Josh and Ilian, all those guys. I just really enjoyed my college career. I know I wasn’t as successful as some other guys, but I had to work harder to lose some weight for Herb’s system. I really enjoyed college.”

Watkins: “As soon as I got back home, I told my mom that is where I wanted to go. I knew right away. I probably waited a couple of more days, called the other three schools and told Wake Forest I wasn’t going there. It was probably one of the best decisions of my life.”

Hodge: “I knew that NC State and Herb Sendek specifically needed me. I just wanted to go where I was needed and make this easy.

“He was happy and elated [when Hodge committed]. I kind of gave him a hint while I visited. I kind of told him, ‘Coach, I am coming, relax,’ at the end of my visit. He was like, ‘Are you committed now.’ I said, ‘No, I am not, but I am telling you, this will get done.’”

Evtimov: “What happened with NC State is, I remember my high school coach coming to me in the quarterfinals of the championship of the regular season. He said NC State was going to come tomorrow to recruit you. They were going to come to check you out. Georgia Tech also called because they had an opening. NC State was really recruiting me and Georgia Tech was kind of last minute. My other choice that I was high on was UNC-Charlotte.

"I went there [NCSU] unofficially to visit and I played pickup there, and did well as well. Suddenly they went really, really hard. At the end of the day, I chose NC State because they were the highest ranked [profile] team and for one reason — I would always look back and be upset if I didn’t take my best shot at the highest level.

"At that moment, they weren’t sure if Damien Wilkins was going to come back or not. He was looking at the draft [and then transferred to Georgia]. I knew these guys needed a starting spot for the three/four and I knew we had a strong recruiting class coming in with Levi, who would be playing my position, and Josh Powell as a four/five, so not my position. It was a big risk, but I had a gut feeling and I took it.”

Follow on Twitter:

@NCStateRivals or @JaceyZembal

Subscribe for free on YouTube:

For Jacey Zembal or The Wolfpack Central

Like on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/TheWolfpackCentral

Advertisement