N.C. State might be looking up at Duke and North Carolina in the ACC standings, but the Blue Devils and Tar Heels are chasing the Wolfpack on the recruiting trail. At least when it comes to McDonald's All-Americans.
Three N.C. State basketball recruits have been selected to play in the 35th McDonald's All-American boys basketball game in Chicago on March 28.
The Wolfpack recruits are Rodney Purvis, a guard from Raleigh's Upper Room Academy; Tyler Lewis, a guard who played at Forsyth Country Day in 2010-11 before arriving at Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill this season; and T.J. Warren, a forward who played at Durham Riverside and Raleigh Word of God before going to Brewster Academy for this season.
Duke recruit Rasheed Sulaimon, a guard from Houston, was also selected for the game. So, too, was North Carolina recruit Marcus Paige, a guard from Marion, Iowa.
N.C. State has never had more than two McDonald's All-Americans in one recruiting class, and the most recent time the Wolfpack had that many was in 1987, when both Chris Corchiani and Rodney Monroe were McDonald's All-Americans.
The Wolfpack also signed a pair of McDonald's All-Americans in 1979, when Sidney Lowe and Dereck Whittenburg played in the all-star game.
In addition to Wolfpack sophomore C.J. Leslie, 11 former N.C. State players were McDonald's All-Americans. Some of those include J.J. Hickson (2007), Brandon Costner (2005), Julius Hodge (2001) and Chris Washburn (1984).
Purvis learned that he had been chosen for the McDonald's game when it was announced on television Thursday night.
"We just celebrated," he said. "If you know the history of this game, you really appreciate what an honor it is to be chosen."
Staff writer Tim Stevens contributed to this report.
