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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Wolfpack Steve Wolfer96 wolfpack74 STFU. I have been a fan for almost 50 years, so I don’t need anyone telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. For UNC, I believe they have won many more games than we have, fair weather or not.
Wolfer96 wolfpack74 you guys both need to buy tar heel tickets, they have thousands of fair weather fans, real wolfpack fan’s stick with the team win or lose, heartbreak after heartbreak.
PackJunky Didn’t we recruit for that team, two five stars and a four? Yes IMO, Painter was a big loss. They still didn’t play as a team and looked as if they didn’t care one way or another.
If Rowan can knock down shots at a higher percentage than last year, then there will be a spot on the floor for him for a good amount of minutes. Hes got a quick release and a good pump fake and he should be able to take some better looks this year. Also, I’m not sure if its true or not but did he not grow another inch or so? If so, that ontop of a year of college conditioning should offset at least some of his defensive woo’s. Enough to make him good? No, but enough to make him… Read more »
One word… depth. The reason that 2013 team didn’t meet expectations was bc of a lack of depth. If we had Painter for front court depth, it would’ve gotten us to a S16 IMO. It was basically the same core guys that did it the year before.
wolfpack74 Wolfer96 You know as State fans we have to be bipolar. You know I’m not a huge fan of Gottfried but this is by far the best recruiting class he has ever assembled and possibly one of the top 3 classes in Wolfpack history. We’ve been missing 3 things for the longest time: 1. a great PG 2. a great center 3. depth For this 1st time in I don’t know how long we potentially have all 3. Even the worst coach can win with this group. By the way, for the 1st time in 2 decades I stopped watching… Read more »
Wolfer96 You sound pretty fired up about this team. I on the other hand will wait and see if they can qualify, pass NCAA inspection, and mess together. I also remember the big letdown when the guys didn’t play together in 2013, so I will wait. Remember Gott is good at recruiting but not so much at game time coaching. Maybe the new coaches can help.
Very reasonable assessment. I think the defense and offensive efficiency might be the things that might give Dorn the edge, but I don’t know. I really haven’t seen or heard anything about what kind of defender he is. I do know he reportedly was tearing it up in practice last year. The good thing is they practiced with and against each other last year, so the staff already has plenty of comparative data points to help them make the best decisions
Personally I would not be so quick to relegate Maverick as a bench guy. I think last season was not the best situation for him. He was a freshman on a sub-par team. That meant that he wasn’t always getting clean looks and there was really no one on State’s roster that demanded a double team. And there was a lot of pressure for him to score as a freshman and I don’t think he was ready for that level of pressure. With Dennis running point and with a bevy of talent that could force teams to employ help defense,… Read more »