If you’ve paid close attention over the past few season, Sidney Lowe doesn’t just hand out early scholarship offers to anybody. Over the past two years he’s extended just a handful of offers to players prior to to their junior seasons, one of which is Ryan Harrow. Harrow was offered, and accepted a chance to play basketball in Raleigh before the summer of his junior season. That was the summer that the basketball world found out just how good Harrow is. If Lowe would have waited there would have been no guarantee that Harrow would be on State’s campus today.

The same thing happened when Lowe recently offered Joseph Uchebo, a center from Africa who saw his stock rise to new levels this past season. The bad news for all those coaches watching his stock rise? Uchebo had already committed to NC State, a move loyalty played a big factor in. There is no doubt that an early offer is important in landing some of the nations top players, however, it is also very risky. How high is a young players ceiling, will this player reach his potential? All questions a coach must ask himself before offering one of his programs cherished scholarships.

Just this past summer Lowe was at it once again when he offered 2012 point guard Tyler Lewis. Lewis was a 5’10 point guard with flashy handles, great court vision, but lacked the pure speed and athleticism many thought he’d need to reach the elite level. Lowe didn’t have those questions, seeing Lewis as a high IQ player who did have the athleticism and the talent to become elite. Since the offer, Lewis had grown a few inches and looks to be around 6 foot. He’s filled out, gotten stronger and is now…get this…dunking.

Over the summer Lewis has earned his keep with the college coaches and the offers are now starting to pile in, which doesn’t come as a surprise to Sidney Lowe who was one of the first ones aboard the Tyler Lewis bandwagon.

It was thought that the Pack would be heavy in the market for a point guard in 2011, it seems as if it’s not as high a priority as expected. With Harrow surely back for a second season he’ll be the point man, but SG Lorenzo Brown won’t have trouble spelling Harrow for short spurts either. Brown played point nearly his entire high school career, so it looks like 2012 may be the year of the point guard, and Tyler Lewis is at the top of that list.

Lewis hold offers from big time programs such as NC State, Baylor, Iowa State and Miami.