Bowling Green Transfer Guard Marcus Hill (6’4″/185) has committed to NC State!
Hill took an Official Visit to NC State this past weekend.
This past season, Hill averaged 20.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the Falcons. He earned 1st Team All-MAC honors. Even though he was only at Bowling Green one season, he had one of the best seasons in school history, scoring 698 points, which ranks 5th all-time in program history for a single season.
For his first two years of collegiate ball, Hill played for Southern Union State College (JUCO) in Alabama. In 2022-23, Hill earned 3rd Team NJCAA All-American honors, and ranked as the #32 overall Junior College prospect.
247Sports ranks Hill as a 4-Star Transfer Prospect, and the #81 overall player in the Transfer Portal, and the #11 Shooting Guard.
Even though 247Sports and ON3 consider Hill a Shooting Guard, NC State is recruiting him as a Point Guard.
Hill is the 4th player to transfer to NC State this offseason, joining Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield & Mike James, and Georgetown’s Dontrez Styles.
With the addition of Hill, NC State now has 1 scholarship remaining for next season.
NC State Forward Mohamed Diarra will not be returning to NC State for his final season of eligibility. Rather, he will give 100% of his focus to pursuing his professional career.
Diarra is declaring for the NBA Draft, and will explore that possibility as far as it goes, but the likelihood of him playing professionally in his home country of France are high.
Diarra was a significant player for NC State all season long, averaging 6.3 points and 7.8 rebounds (team high), but his impact in March was tremendous, recording 10+ rebounds in 7 of the Wolfpack’s 10 postseason games, and five of those performances were double-doubles.
Wolfpack fans will always remember the grit and mental toughness that Diarra put on display in the NCAA Tournament, playing game-after-game while fasting for Ramadan.
The Wolfpack’s frontcourt just got a little bit thinner. In the past two weeks, NC State has lost Diarra and Ernest Ross. Ben Middlebrooks is returning, and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield transferred in from Louisville. Dontrez Styles transferred in from Georgetown, and while he is more of a Small Forward, in certain lineups, he could play the Small 4 position. With all that being said, I fully expect NC State to try to find another post player in the Transfer Portal with Diarra’s exodus now official.
With Diarra not returning in 2024, NC State now has 2 scholarships available for next season.
Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James (6’5″/200) has announced his commitment to NC State!
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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.
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.
He does have the ability to knock down a three, making 34.8% for his career.
James has 2 years of eligibility remaining. With James’ commitment, NC State currently has 1 scholarship available for next season.
I have had an epiphany, we should get the head coach of LSU (after he is fired) to be our bigs recruiter. He can’t coach, but he sure can get the big guys.
TravelWolf Even Herb could win against the 200+ RPI teams that we have played so far.
PackJunky How can this be a rebuilding year, when you can’t recruit the area that you need. We have one recruit (torn ACL), lost Bam Bam, and can’t improve the bigs we have. Time to get someone that can recruit bigs and teach them how to play. Gott seems to be a likeable guy but I think he has peaked. The ACC has improved a lot more than we have. Long season in ACC ahead.
Rowan’s saving our asses… Our big problem is offensively in the post. We just don’t have ANY inside threat yet. None of our big recruits had developed offensive skills in high school (except for Kyle), and unfortunately that’s still the case. Abu shows promise, so hopefully he’ll be able to capitalize on his 15-17 ft jumper at some point. When ACC season starts, we are going to be having big problems b/c our guards won’t be able to get by the competition as easily as we did against Bucknell, etc. IMHO, Cat also is having trouble being a point guard.… Read more »
He has far too many High School All Americans and ESPN 150 players on this team to not be winning ball games. Rowan, both Martins, Abu, Anya and Cat were all top 150 and State has been beat twice this year by teams who had no 4 stars in W&M and only a handful in ASU. This is a direct testament to Gottfrieds coaching. He needs to earn his damn money and coach the kids, not just recruit them
Well said… I have my doubts about this year’s team, and concerns about Gott’s ceiling, but they need our support and there is a lot of basketball yet to be played….