Georgios Papagiannis is the mystery man of the 2015 class. Will he go pro? Will he go to college? A definite answer has yet to be given.
Papagiannis played his one season of high school basketball in the United States during his Junior season at Westtown School in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, Papagiannis signed a multi-year contract with Panathinaikos, one of the better professional teams in Greece.
With that being said, the 5-star (ESPN) Center in the 2015 class still has the ability to play college ball in the United States, despite playing professional ball last season.
Papagiannis was playing last season for Westtown School in Pennsylvania and he is already mentioned as a possible lottery pick in the 2016 NBA draft due to his combination of skills and height (2.17 m.). That’s why in his contract there’s also an opt out clause for the summers of 2015 and 2016. Since he is underage, he can keep his amateur status and try playing in the NCAA in the 2015-16 season. For the 2014-15 season he will have an amateur athlete license which will not belong to Panathinaikos BC, but to Panathinaikos amateur sport club, the entity from which every pro team emerged, according to Greek legislation. (Via EuroBasket)
NC State head coach Mark Gottfried is one of the few college coaches that has actually made the trip over to Greece to meet with Papagiannis.
According to our source, Papagiannis’ parents want him to go to college in the United States to gain more exposure. The source also says despite the long list of names attached to the Greek star, he has seemingly narrowed down his list to NC State and Oregon, and plans on visiting both of them in the near future. The NC State coaching staff feels like they are in good position to land Papagiannis, but we will have to see how this plays out.
Matthew is Co-Owner of Pack Insider. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, and is in charge of business strategy. He is an NC State alum who majored in business. Matthew is also the lead pastor of The Point Church in Cary, NC.
Happy to see a follow-up on this guy. I had heard nothing for weeks and wasn’t sure if he had decided to go pro or not. Btw, you say he is a 5-star; who has him ranked that highly? ESPN? Scout? PackInsider? 🙂
4-Star 2025 Small Forward Jackson Keith (6’5″/175) was also in attendance.
Keith is a consensus 4-star prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, with Rivals ranking him as the #53 overall player in the class. The Southern High (Durham, NC) standout is ranked as the #2 player in the state of North Carolina in the 2025 class by ESPN.
Keith holds offers from NC State, Wake Forest, Mississippi St., Illinois, SMU, Virginia Tech, LSU and others.
NC State (11-3) will host #7 UNC (11-3) tonight in PNC Arena, and they also will be hosting a couple of recruiting prospects.
4-Star 2025 Power Forward Sadiq White Jr. and 4-Star 2025 Point Guard Jordan Lowery both confirmed with me that they will be in attendance.
White, who plays for Myers Park (Charlotte) is the consensus #1 player in the state of North Carolina in the 2025 recruiting class, and he’s 4 spots away from being a 5-star prospect according to ON3. Lowery plays for Winston-Salem Christian School, and is ranked as the #7 overall player in the state of North Carolina in the 2025 recruiting class according to 247Sports.
White holds offers from NC State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, LSU, FSU, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Georgetown, Ohio State and others. Lowery holds offers from NC State, TCU, Virginia Tech, SMU, Oklahoma St., Kansas St. St. Louis and others.
2026 Point Guard Kobe Edwards also told me he will be in attendance.
4-Star 2025 Point Guard Kayden Mingo (6’1″/160) stated that NC State is one of the schools most frequently reaching out to him, along with Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Cal and Old Dominion.
2025 4⭐️ Kayden Mingo continued his stockrising season tonight as #2 Long Island Lutheran (NY) took down #11 La Lumiere (IN).
Mingo finished with 20PTS, 7ASTS and 5REBS in the 82-65 win. He’s LuHi’s leading scorer on the season.
Despite the Wolfpack’s interest in Mingo, they haven’t offered him yet. Mingo currently holds offers from Cal, Penn State, Saint Louis, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Rivals and ESPN both rank Mingo as a 4-Star prospect, with Rivals ranking him as the #70 overall player nationally in the 2025 recruiting class.
Mingo plays for Long Island Lutheran in New York, which is one of the top teams in the country. He is currently the Nike EYBL Scholastic’s leading scorer (20ppg).
NC State 2024 signee Paul McNeil Jr. showcased his talent at the 2023 John Wall Holiday Invitational at the end of the year. Below are highlights from his first two games.
In Richmond’s 77-62 win over Jordan in their first game of the invitational, McNeil had 27 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.
In Game 2, McNeil had 24 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists in Richmond’s 53-56 loss to Northwood.
In Game 3, McNeil had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in Richmond’s 68-84 loss to Cannon. I couldn’t find any highlights from this particular game.
Through 11 games this season, McNeil is averaging 29.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game. He is shooting 52% from the field and 35% from three.
Haha!
Crazy how big of a pickup this could potentially be. Maybe we could break the streak of bad white 7 footers that State has had.
PackBacker2011 ESPN does
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/189310/georgios-papagiannis
Happy to see a follow-up on this guy. I had heard nothing for weeks and wasn’t sure if he had decided to go pro or not. Btw, you say he is a 5-star; who has him ranked that highly? ESPN? Scout? PackInsider? 🙂