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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Preseason rankings are pretty useless anyways. There needs to be games played for rankings to mean anything. Anyhow, the last time State was highly ranked in the preseason it did not work out too well.
Honestly, I like this scenario. In 2012-13, I think the national hype hindered our players. In my experience, State functions better as the underdog. Doubt and criticism will benefit this group much more so than undeserved praise at this point. After last season’s disappointing finish, this team already has something to prove. This just adds fuel to the fire.
Not even sure why it is a debate to ESPN whether or not we are a top 25 team, when they assume our point guard is going to go in the lottery and we had Malik Abu finish as well as he did. Even if Yurtseven sits for some games, we’ll be very good with Terry Henderson back and Torin Dorn (the rookie of the year for his conference) joining us. We are so disrespected this year and I don’t know why.