It didn't take Sidney Lowe very long to make an impact on the 'Pack. Last year, his undermanned squad rode his red coattails to the ACC tourney championship game and a moderate run in the NIT. But he'd already made the signature move of his early tenure well before that happened when he signed J.J. Hickson. Hickson was a McD's and a consensus top 10 member of the class of 2007, and is the most important NCSU recruit since Julius Hodge. He showed what all the hype was about tonight against William & Mary (Box Score). On a night when no one else on the team shot well, Hickson couldn't miss. He went 12-12 from the floor and 7-10 from the line (ok, so he did miss a few free throws), putting up 31 of State's 67 points. For good measure, he tossed in 7 rebounds, including 5 on the offensive glass. Last season, NC State had 10 games where, as a team, they had 5 or fewer offensive rebounds - Hickson did that all by himself in his first game on campus.
I know it's a low-level opponent, but this has to be one of the most impressive debut games in ACC history. With Hickson's help, the Pack should stay up toward the top of the ACC all season long.
Top 20 Freshman Scoring Debuts Since 2003-4
| JJ Hickson | 31 |
| Shamari Spears | 23 |
| Rakim Sanders | 22 |
| Luol Deng | 21 |
| Gary Forbes | 21 |
| Tyler Hansbrough | 21 |
| Deron Washington | 20 |
| Taylor King | 20 |
| Jeff Allen | 19 |
| Biko Paris | 19 |
| Brian Zoubek | 18 |
| Javaris Crittenton | 17 |
| Ralph Mims | 17 |
| Mamadi Diane | 17 |
| Danny Green | 17 |
| James Johnson | 17 |
| Nolan Smith | 16 |
| Kyle Singler | 15 |
| Thaddeus Young | 15 |
| Laurynas Mikalauskas | 14 |
