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NC State picked up the first commitment to its 2017 basketball class on Sunday night. In-state combo guard Thomas Allen, who was in Raleigh for a visit this week, announced his pledge to Mark Gottfried and the Wolfpack on Twitter.
I'm Staying Home. Raleigh #WPN pic.twitter.com/bD7aufoW92
— CallMeTom! (@TGABFY) October 2, 2016
Allen is a consensus four-star prospect in the ‘17 class from Garner, though he’ll be playing this season at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. (T.J. Warren is also a Brewster alum.) As our own Newclass explained earlier in the week, Allen moved up his visit to NC State, and that’s often a good sign. It certainly was here.
The opportunity to stay close to home helped seal the deal for Allen, who also was being recruited by Texas A&M, Nebraska, St. Louis, Illinois, Xavier, Cincinnati, and Virginia Tech, among others.
He’s listed at 6’2 and 180 pounds by 247Sports and is ranked 134th overall in the 247 Composite. (The Composite is an average of the various major recruiting services.)
This is Newclass’ quick assessment of him from earlier this week:
Allen is a 6'1" combo guard wired to score. A dead-eye shooter with "sneaky" athleticism, he can score in bunches. He's a liability on defense right now but he's mainly on the floor to score and distribute. He can play off ball as well as he is a knock down catch and shoot player.