Purvis Picks Pack

Today was a huge day for NC State basketball.

Rodney Purvis who is a 5 star guard and a consensus top 20 player in the 2012 basketball class committed to NC State today.  

This commit does several things for the pack going forward.

• First of all, it helps legitimize Mark Gottfried as a coach.  There are two main aspects to coaching college basketball in respect to on-court results, game-day strategy and recruiting.  Some coaches excel in one of those two, some in none, and very few in both.  Gottfried today showed that he can go up against Duke and UCONN and win a recruit.  One thing that many writers questioned could be done at State.  I mean they are in the backyard of UNC and Duke.  (Lets forget that UNC and Duke recruits on a national stage and sometimes inter-national stage.)  With Purvis at State it dispels that notion and sends waves in the recruiting business to pay attention to NC State.
• Secondly, it helps unites a fan base.  A fan base which was torn after the firing of previous head coach Sidney Lowe.  Many fans wanted someone else, whether it was Rick Barnes, Shaka Smart, or Sean Miller.  Gottfried is beginning to assure NC State fans that he is NC State's A+ hire and will be in Raleigh for longer than 5 years.  There is still more work to be done on this front as many State fans want to see results on the court before they are sold.
• Third, it legitimize Mark Gottfried and his staff as a recruiter.  Recruits often want to see other highly talented recruits on the roster before they commit.  Good players want to win and with other talented players in the fold it reassures them that they can win.  So with Purvis with the Pack that will make it easier to land guys like TJ Warren and Brice Johnson.  Also this will help with the 2013 class, bigs want to play with good guards who can ge them the ball.  State now has two high major guards in the 2012 class who can score and pass.
• There was similar excitement for a one Ryan Harrow, who was a five-star PG in the 2010 class that committed to state.  Ryan did not make the impact in his freshman year that many State fans had hoped for.  The main reason was because college is a much bigger and more physical game than high school basketball.  Ryan being 5'10 160 lbs could not hold up well driving to the hoop against th
  e big men in college and the fact that most of his game was predicated off of his driving ability that didn't bode well for Mr. Harrow.  Purvis is 6'4 185 and has the frame to get bigger will fair better driving to the hoop in college.  
• The guard position was going to be very thin in 2012.  Purvis will likely start at the 2 guard position for state, unless Jaquawn Raymond was vastly undersold, and will add much needed depth at the position.  We all remember Sidney Lowe's first year at State, if he had any depth on that roster State may have another ACC tournament banner hanging in the RBC today.

Nothing is a sure thing in the recruiting business until a player signs their National Letter of Intent which binds the player to that school.  Purvis says he will do that during the November signing date.  I feel that he and Tyler lewis will be joined by TJ Warren a five-star small forward and Brice Johnson a 4 star power forward in November, giving the NC State Wolfpack a strong chance at having the #1 class for 2012.  This will allow the coaches to focus solely on the 2013 class and bringing some more big men to Raleigh.  If Mark Gottfried can prove to be a formidable coach on the court and produce results, this could be the start of a beautiful era of NC State basketball.