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.
NC State Basketball
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We’re deep this year – how come we never press? We’ve got more shooters than ever – how come we never go small? I”m behind this team and Gott through the end of the season, but the kids need to get more dialed in and we need to start doing some things to make our opponents uncomfortable.
Well said..
Gott’s certainly frustrated, but they don’t seem to be doing anything different. It’s just more of the same and a hope that the kids start doing it better. If we just keep putting Abu in the high post he’ll become a better passer. If we just keep playing straight man they’ll start defending better. Square pegs and a round hole.
If that was improvement, maybe we should schedule some high schools around Raleigh. We might show much greater improvement then. Just try something different, I would start with defense or is that a bad word for Gott.
Are you trying to make us look even worse!!! lol
Last night didn’t look like much improvement to me. Continued lackadaisical passing, especially in the second half, leading to crushing turnovers. The team is playing with very little focus, and there doesn’t seem to be much creativity in solving the problems. Road wins are always hard to come by, but this BC team is not very good and we should not have lost.
Coaching…… Point Blank Period.. Move Butch Pierre to the head coach he has experience. Im sure he cant do any worse that Mark