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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Offense looking like its coming together (still need work). We still have to work on perimeter defense before conference play.
I can’t wait for the Miami game. Enough of these cream puffs, I want to see what this full complement of players can do against a good team.
not to disappoint you but.. our RPI is 30… MIami’s is 96. that’s worse than TSU’s
Yeah but they are a well coached team and they are an ACC team. RPI’s don’t really mean anything this early. For instance, 8-3 Florida who lost to FSU is ranked #4 in RPI and 12-0 UCLA who beat Kentucky at Kentucky is #15.
we are 10 to 12 games in so it’s fair to say that the RPI while not a infallible measure is beginning to be more and more accurate and 30 and 96 is a huge jump TSU who when we played them was 56. They are 63 now and Miami is 76 which closes the Gap substantially. i believe that we will see that type of game when we play Miami.
9 assists by Smith is the stat line that I am most impressed by. The ball movement was much better. We were swinging the ball from one side of the court to the other, then going into the post and looking for the open man. I much prefer the Dennis that gets his guys involved and looks less to shoot. When he did shoot he mostly had his feet set and shoulders squared. Shooting off a pass a few times.
Just caught the game on stream and right off I am impressed by Yurt7’s ability to catch, pass, shoot, and really drive the offense from the high post and low post areas. This kid will help everyone’s 3 point shooting % with his passing and decision making from the post. The offense is no longer perimeter dominated, it’s much better balanced. This is what I was wanting to see all season.
Hey we outrebounded someone!