Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James (6’5″/200) is a priority for NC State, according to a source.
News broke about James entering the Transfer Portal back on March 25th, and NC State was quick to reach out. Kevin Keatts and his staff recruited the former 4-star prospect out of high school heavily, but he ultimately chose the Cardinals.
After redshirting his first year in Louisville due to torn achilles, James has been a starter for the Cardinals the past two years.
This past year, James averaged 12.6 points per game (3rd on the team) and 5 rebounds. He’s extremely physical and aggressive, taking 47% of his field goal attempts at the rim (making 46%). As a result, he draws a lot of fouls, ranking 10th in the ACC in Fouls Drawn, and 4th in Free Throw Rate. James made opponents pay this year when they put him on the line, making 81.8% from the charity stripe, which ranked 15th in the ACC.
James shot the ball better as a Redshirt Freshman, than he did this past season. His Effective Field Goal Percentage in 2022-23 was 55.8%, which ranked 19th in the ACC, and his True Shooting Percentage of 59.6% ranked 14th.
He does have the ability to knock down a three, making 34.8% for his career.
NC State already hosted Indiana State Transfer Guard Ryan Conwell last week, and while the Wolfpack coaches like both players, from what I’m hearing, James would be their preference.
NC State hasn’t had James in for a visit, but that could happen soon.
James has 2 years of eligibility remaining.
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wolfpack74 wormncsu Two bad recruiting years in a row? Abu and Caleb, both top 50 and Cody, top 75 were not bad last year and Maverick and Shaun Kirk who Kentucky was after were not bad this year even though it was not as deep as the previous three years.
wormncsu Recruiting is not looking great for next year?? Did you not know we signed the #4 player in the nation next year? No wonder some say NCSU has the most delusional fan base in the country.
wormncsu Two bad recruiting years in a row is enough. I was thinking that we had made a turn for the best, but this was more crap tonight. Long season is right.
Usually I am an optimist when it comes to us in basketball under gott but this might be a very long year. Recruiting is not looking great for next year either.
Well, one kid was hot. It’s obvious that we need to recruit and get some big guys and some guys that can shot the 3. Other than that, we plainly sucked.
The problem with relying on the 3 is that you live or die by the 3. Herb’s teams often did this. Since we are thin at the guard spots and don’t guard the 3 well, pray to the basketball Gods that they aren’t hot tonight…