Julius Randle: “NC State was my best visit so far.”

USA Today is running an ongoing column where they allow 2013 mega-recruit, Julius Randle, to blog about his senior season and his recruitment. In his most recent post he recaps his visit to NC State, where he got to see his good friend Rodney Purvis, hang out with the Gameday crew from ESPN and see the Wolfpack wax the Tarheels. Here are some blurbs from the article…

That next morning Coach Early came by and picked me up and took me over to see College GameDay.

When I walked in the whole student section went just crazy. I mean, it was really loud. I’m not the kind of guy that cares too much for attention, so I was really caught off guard by it. It was the loudest chant I’ve ever heard. The chant during the game wasn’t too loud because I think the fans were worn out from the chant from earlier.

I didn’t know what to do. I was so shocked at how loud it was so Coach (Mark) Gottfried pushed my hand up and helped me wave to the crowd. It was pretty funny.

I had a good time at College GameDay. I met Jalen Rose and all of them. So that was cool.

We went and had lunch after that and of course the coaches gave my mom some red velvet cake. Every coach knows that’s her favorite, so I thought it was cool that they had a different red velvet cake every day that she was there.

That night we went to the arena and I was chilling with Cat Barber before the game, so that was cool too. That game was so live though. They kinda scared me a little bit at the end because UNC was coming back, but my prediction ended up being right.

It was so loud in there. After the game we went to Cookout and hung out. There were a lot of fans out so it was pretty live all night. We had a good time.

And then there’s this….

 

That next morning we had breakfast with the coaches and I talked more one-on-one with Coach Gottfried a little. I like him even more after this visit. He’s a really genuine person. The whole team really seems like a family. They’re all like brothers and that’s something I really liked about them.

I think the biggest thing I learned over the weekend was that if I came there they wouldn’t have to change anything about their system for me. It just fits me. Other coaches talk about what they’ll change for me, but with State they don’t have to do that. That’s big.

All in all, I’d have to say that this was my best visit so far. I had a ball at Kentucky, and yeah they had Drake and everything, but this visit just had a lot more going on.

State definitely set the bar high on the visits.

My next two visits are to Texas and Kansas, so I’m really looking forward to those. Kansas will have College GameDay there too, so I know that will be crazy.