NC State Basketball Update: On Leslie, Howell, Brown, Oriakhi and Jefferson

Amile Jefferson Update (4.2.12): Well, the McDonald’s All-American game came and went and Amile Jefferson still hasn’t made his final decision on were he’ll attend college. It’s been over 2 months since it was reported that he was ready to make his decision and yet, he hasn’t. Many believe it’s between NC State, Duke and Villanova. Jefferson has had his time to weigh the pros and cons, so what is he waiting for? Well, according to those we’ve talked to, it seems Jefferson is waiting to see who is staying and who is going to the NBA draft. There’s no other explanation as to why the talented senior has yet to make his decision. Those around the NC State program continue to feel optimistic from their conversations with Amile, but this is recruiting and they know anything can happen. Duke’s Mason Plumlee is testing the draft waters and NC State’s Calvin Leslie will be deciding by today if he’ll be doing that as well. Those players have until April 10th to make the decision on whether they’ll come back to school or not. At that point, we feel as if Amile Jefferson will be ready to make his decision.

Calvin Leslie’s Future: We all know that Calvin Leslie is sitting down with his family and Coach Gottfried to decide whether or not he’ll be entering the NBA draft this season, however, we’ve now been told that it’s not even a guarantee that he’ll put his name in to test the waters. Honestly, I thought that was a given, but we were told yesterday that the decision has not been made. The deadline is April 3rd to get your paperwork into the NBA and let them know you’re testing the waters. If that happens players will get feedback from about 20 different pro scouts/GMs and others around NBA programs to let them know their draft status, where they think they’ll land, and give honest feedback about their skill set.

“I’m not sure (Calvin) will even do it. It’s a lot of paperwork for only a real small amount of time.” the source close to Leslie told us. “Since it moved the date back to April 10th they really took away a lot of evaluation time and you can only do this one time, so I don’t know if it’s even going to happen.”

Leslie and his parents will have to have their paperwork done by today and declare by tomorrow if they’re going to make this move, so we’ll have an idea on what Leslie future will hold sooner rather than later.

If Leslie does declare then he will be looking for a guarantee from a team in the first round (he is currently being listed as a high 2nd round pick in most NBA Mock Drafts.) Without that, he’d surely return to NC State. We’ll have a lot more about Leslie in the coming days.

Richard Howell Coming Back: There was a lot of rumors flying around about Howell deciding not to return to NC State and start his career in Europe due to financial concerns. We had attempted to get to the bottom of it, but kept coming up with nothing. This weekend we finally got the chance to talke to Richard and asked him about the rumor. He told us that he really wasn’t sure how that rumor got out and asked where it was being spread. When we told him it was on message boards and we were getting questions through email he informed us that it crossed his mind briefly but he was definitely not seriously considering it. He assured us that he was, in fact, coming back to NC State for his senior season.

Lorenzo Brown Coming Back, Too: We thought we cleared up the rumor that Brown was considering entering the draft and leaving for the NBA, however we’ve continued to receive messages questioning our information. We spoke to a source close to Brown who after speaking with him, told us that he was coming back, no question about it. Brown is not a 1st round draft pick at this point and should not waste his one opportunity to test the waters, however, that is not out of the question (although, it’s very unlikely). If Brown decides to test the waters we are told that it would not effect his decision and he will be back at NC State next season. Brown wants to be a high first round pick and while he’s on the right track, he’s simply not there  yet.

Alex Oriakhi Has Not Trimmed His List: On Saturday we introduced you to Alex Oriakhi, a UConn senior who has been granted his release and can play next season due to NCAA rules. We told you that NC State is one of the schools that was on his list and had made contact with him. We then read this tweet:

 @AdamZagoria: Former UConn forward Alex Oriakhi is considering visiting Carolina, Duke, Washington & Gonzaga, source tells @SNYtv

We don’t know how accurate this is or where this information came from, but we were told that Oriakhi has not yet decided on his visits and has not yet trimmed his list. Who is right and who is wrong? We don’t know but it would be surprising if the Wolfpack staff could pull this off with such a crowded front court (especially if Leslie stays.) We’ll say it again…all indications are that Oriakhi is very intrigued by UNC but he has a lot of connections to Washington who also has a starting slot in the post up for grabs. We’ll see how this pans out over the next week or so.