Jahlil Okafor And Tommy Hamilton Land ACC Scholarship Offers

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

December 18, 2011

8:30 P.M. CST

Any way you slice it, the trip that Whitney Young High School in Chicago made to North Carolina this weekend has to be deemed a success.  Team-wise, Whitney Young defeated Millbrook High School 51-35 at the Clash At Capel in Fayetteville last night. 

From an individual player standpoint, it was also a big weekend for two of Whitney Young's prized front court prospects--6'10 2014 center Jahlil Okafor and 6'9 2013 power forward Tommy Hamilton.  That is because both Okafor and Hamilton received scholarship offers courtesy of North Carolina State University and head coach Mark Gottfried.

NC State's offers to Okafor and Hamilton were extended today while both players were on the Raleigh campus for unofficial visits.  Okafor's offer from the Wolfpack is his second to date from an ACC school, the first coming courtesy of Duke.  He is also drawing interest from Florida State.

Hamilton, meanwhile, now has his first offer from an ACC program.  His other reported offers are Illinois, Michigan State, Arizona and Northwestern.  It is also believed that Hamilton may hold an offer from a Big East program that he has already visited.  However, no one in Hamilton's camp has confirmed that offer.

There is no question that under Gottfried, the Wolfpack are trying to make Chicago a top recruiting priority.  In fact, Okafor and Hamilton are not the only thoroughbreds out of the Windy City that the NC State staff is zeroing in on.  Assistant coach Orlando Early was recently at Simeon Career Academy for the purpose of watching 6'8 2013 forward Jabari Parker, who just happens to be the #1 player in the nation regardless of class.  NC State has also offered Parker's teammate and the #2 ranked player in Illinois from the 2013 class--6'2 2-guard Kendrick Nunn.

At the present time Hamilton is still sidelined due to a torn patella tendon.  While he was initially expected to miss six weeks, it now looks like Hamilton could be out for a longer period of time than that (possibly the entire season) pending the outcome of surgery this Friday.  Whitney Young will now prepare for what should be an epic battle, as they will face Simeon at the University Of Illinois-Chicago's Pavilion on Thursday, December 22. 

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