Kevin Keatts needs to solidify his frontcourt for next season and that starts with the addition of Manny Bates. The 6’9 PF from Fayetteville, NC chose the Pack over Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown this morning.
Well, for one, he will be slotting in as a replacement to Abu, Yurtseven and Freeman. He will certainly be getting major minutes from day one. That means that the Wolfpack will really need a lot out of this kid. He sports a 7’1 wing span and a really good frame that he will surely grow into with a little work in the weight room. As far as skill set goes, Bates is a good athlete with good hands and decent footwork. He could use a little polish at the college level, but he will certainly be a high motor body for Keatts to depend on. He has good form and nice touch on his jumper and has really improved from 15 feet over the past year. He can finish in transition, runs the court well and crashes the boards looking for follow-dunks.
Areas for improvement would be adding muscle to his frame and polishing up his back to the basket footwork and post moves.
Overall, this is a big commitment for Kevin Keatts and NC State. One that will hopefully start some dominoes falling for the class of 2018.
In the meantime, Keatts has done a lot in a relatively short period of time. He’s brought in two grad transfers (Al Freeman and Sam Hunt), he’s inked two transfers who will play in 2018-19 (CJ Bryce and Devon Daniels) and he’s now added 3 proper recruits (Batts and Beverly for this year and now Bates for next year). That 7 high-quality players added since March 17th. Looks like it’s full speed ahead for Keatts’ remake of NC State basketball.
4-Star 2025 Small Forward Jackson Keith (6’5″/175) was also in attendance.
Keith is a consensus 4-star prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, with Rivals ranking him as the #53 overall player in the class. The Southern High (Durham, NC) standout is ranked as the #2 player in the state of North Carolina in the 2025 class by ESPN.
Keith holds offers from NC State, Wake Forest, Mississippi St., Illinois, SMU, Virginia Tech, LSU and others.
NC State (11-3) will host #7 UNC (11-3) tonight in PNC Arena, and they also will be hosting a couple of recruiting prospects.
4-Star 2025 Power Forward Sadiq White Jr. and 4-Star 2025 Point Guard Jordan Lowery both confirmed with me that they will be in attendance.
White, who plays for Myers Park (Charlotte) is the consensus #1 player in the state of North Carolina in the 2025 recruiting class, and he’s 4 spots away from being a 5-star prospect according to ON3. Lowery plays for Winston-Salem Christian School, and is ranked as the #7 overall player in the state of North Carolina in the 2025 recruiting class according to 247Sports.
White holds offers from NC State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, LSU, FSU, Illinois, Virginia Tech, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Georgetown, Ohio State and others. Lowery holds offers from NC State, TCU, Virginia Tech, SMU, Oklahoma St., Kansas St. St. Louis and others.
2026 Point Guard Kobe Edwards also told me he will be in attendance.
4-Star 2025 Point Guard Kayden Mingo (6’1″/160) stated that NC State is one of the schools most frequently reaching out to him, along with Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Cal and Old Dominion.
2025 4⭐️ Kayden Mingo continued his stockrising season tonight as #2 Long Island Lutheran (NY) took down #11 La Lumiere (IN).
Mingo finished with 20PTS, 7ASTS and 5REBS in the 82-65 win. He’s LuHi’s leading scorer on the season.
Despite the Wolfpack’s interest in Mingo, they haven’t offered him yet. Mingo currently holds offers from Cal, Penn State, Saint Louis, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
Rivals and ESPN both rank Mingo as a 4-Star prospect, with Rivals ranking him as the #70 overall player nationally in the 2025 recruiting class.
Mingo plays for Long Island Lutheran in New York, which is one of the top teams in the country. He is currently the Nike EYBL Scholastic’s leading scorer (20ppg).
NC State 2024 signee Paul McNeil Jr. showcased his talent at the 2023 John Wall Holiday Invitational at the end of the year. Below are highlights from his first two games.
In Richmond’s 77-62 win over Jordan in their first game of the invitational, McNeil had 27 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals.
In Game 2, McNeil had 24 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists in Richmond’s 53-56 loss to Northwood.
In Game 3, McNeil had 21 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in Richmond’s 68-84 loss to Cannon. I couldn’t find any highlights from this particular game.
Through 11 games this season, McNeil is averaging 29.6 points, 11.1 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game. He is shooting 52% from the field and 35% from three.