Dennis Smith Jr.: Top Commit in Decades

So, just how big of a deal is Dennis Smith Jr.’s commitment to NC State?

He is a 5-star recruit, and NC State has had 10 other 5-star players commit to play for them over the past 15 recruiting classes (that’s as far back as the Scout and Rivals databases go).

Smith is a Top-10 recruit, and only one of the Wolfpack’s 5-star recruits of the past 15 years was a Top-10 recruit, and his name was J.J. Hickson.  Hickson was the #10 ranked player in the 2007.

DSJ is a Top-5 recruit, and you have to go back to the pre-Rivals and pre-Scout days to find the last NC State Top-5 commit.  In 2001, Julius Hodge committed to run with the Wolfpack, and he was the #5 ranked player according to ESPN.  In 1999, Bob Gibbons ranked Damien Wilkins as the #1 overall player in the class, but because Bob was so off with his prediction, I’d prefer to go with the #7 ranking he received from another recruiting service.  Rodney Monroe and Chris Corchiani were both McDonald’s All-Americans in 1987, but I don’t think they were Top-5 recruits.

You have to go all the way back to NC State’s 1984 recruiting class to find a recruit that was a higher ranked commit than Dennis Smith Jr.  Chris Washburn was one of the Top 3 players in the 1984 recruiting class, alongside Danny Manning and John Williams.

So how big of a deal is Dennis Smith Jr.’s commitment to NC State?  He’s the biggest Wolfpack commitment in over 30 years.

5-star NC State Commitments of the past 15 years

1. Dennis Smith Jr. – 4 (E) / 7 (247)
2. J.J. Hickson – 10 (R)/ 11 (247)/ 14 (E)
3. C.J. Leslie – 11 (14)
4. Rodney Purvis – 18 (12)
5. Cedric Simmons – 24 (17)
6. T.J. Warren – 27 (17)
7. Ryan Harrow – 25 (19)
8. Brandon Costner – 20 (30)
9. Cat Barber – 21 (27)
10. Courtney Fells – 30 (24)
11. Lorenzo Brown – 28 (37)