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’m OK with the effort; although we almost gave it back Sunday, we held on for the win against a decent team. Don’t like the term “must” game, but at this point in the program, Sidney needs to get past the sticking point and into the big dance to remain viable. Win tonight and @UNC saturday and we’re right back in this thing. Slip and lose these next two, the drum will start beating hard again. Split and steal a few road wins while defending the RBC floor and it’s possible too. Finally, this team always plays well in the… Read more »
I was a major supporter of Lowe when he was hired. Let’s be serious for a moment… coaches were not knocking down the door to get this job at the time. You can blame Fowler, our high academic standards, having to compete with unc/duke, etc. but the fact remains that no one wanted this job. So I appreciate what Lowe did by getting his degree and qualifying for the job. Having said that, we all know that Lowe was not our first choice… really closer to our last choice. And this is bigger than Lowe. This is about the future… Read more »
Oh yeah, Ryan you are the PG and the key to transition defense. Which means that you cannot get stuck under the basket on a missed shot. You need to be the first one down the court on D. Go Pack!!!
I start every season cautiously optimistic. Part of being a Pack basketball fan in the modern age. Then by this point in the season I have more realistic expectations. Taking any silliness out of the equation and looking at this team objectively, a series of road trips has to be concerning. On the one hand, we have a new lineup and are showing modest improvements on D (still not for 40 minutes). But the numbers are not encouraging. We do not play well on the road, Harrow is starting and getting more minutes but his shooting % has been awful,… Read more »
seems pretty evident which two guys need the ball late in a game with a lead.
TravelWolf Deathalo Rowan’s great but can definitely polish his game more. If he’s a 4 year player for us then I could see him breaking some records his senior year and being similar to Syracuse’s Trevor Cooney
Deathalo TravelWolf That would be amazing… I also think Rowan is an unbelievable surprise – I never thought he’d turn out to be this good until he was a senior. He’s was a major “steal” – and he left high school a year early! I’d actually like to see him in the high post – then the defense would have to play up, which opens the low post for easy passes to where our unrefined low post offensive players can dunk. Len Bias would have kicked ass in Gott’s system.
TravelWolf Shit I hope he becomes a Len Bias type player (minus the cocaine of course). It’s hard to see that right now, but could you imagine if he was even close to that level of player next year?
Abu reminds me of Len Bias. He had his b/o year in his sophomore year, I believe. He developed a reliable 17 ft shot and was basically unstoppable (except by cocaine). It seems like Abu has the shot, he just is hesitant to use it.
Sometimes I wonder if anyone proofreads these things at all…
Sorry about that! I try to catch errors before they go out!