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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Rowan, Yurtseven and Johnson deserve game balls. Dennis Smith,jr touched the ball 18 times in the last 5 minutes of the game which produced 2 turnovers, 2 foul shots (important) and 14 neutral exchanges. Said another way, his touches were net negative down the stretch. The offense runs better with Johnson running the show. DS,jr is too much dribble isolation.
It is also fairly difficult to dribble penetrate into a 3-2 zone, there are going to be many times when DSJR attacking the basket is the best option, but it was nice to see that we did not just settle for that on every single play.
We will be a better team next year if all we loose is DSJR.
Johnson is a quality player with great potential, and he had a great game last night, but from a plus/minus and win shares perspective (or any other measure that doesn’t involve an arm chair and a TV) there’s just no comparison between him and DSJ. We are almost unquestionably worse with DSJ on the bench.
Looks like you are in the minority concerning DSJR, YAK.
Thankfully internet commenters don’t make the decisions about playing time. You can count on our fan base to be self-defeating – it’s what we do best.
I don’t know what planet you came from. Our self-defeating attitude is based on what we have seen on the field and court. Lucky for me when I was in school, we were one of the dominant team in football, basketball, and baseball in the ACC. I am still waiting on a revival. You can just keep drinking the Kool-Aid.