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.
Bowling Green Transfer Guard Marcus Hill (6’4″/185) confirmed with me that he is currently on a visit at NC State.
Hill averaged 20.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the Falcons this season. 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 #78 overall player in the Transfer Portal, and the #11 Shooting Guard.
According to a source, the NC State Coaching Staff is extremely high on Hill, and they are recruiting him as a Point Guard.
What did an ACC Title & Final Four mean to NC State Legend Dennis Smith Jr.? The man who won the ACC Rookie of the Year Award in 2017 gave me a statement.
It means a lot. It means a lot to the university, the state of North Carolina and a lot more to my dad, grandma, and myself. They have been NC State fans since forever, so their excitement level was though the roof when they saw BOTH of our basketball teams shining like that. It was a great feeling!
2017 was Smith Jr.’s only year of College ball, averaging 18.1 points, 6.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals. He earned 2nd Team All-ACC honors, and obviously, he earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team.
DSJ was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 9th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Smith Jr. just wrapped up his 7th season in the NBA. This was his 1st season with Brooklyn, playing in 56 games for the Nets. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, averaging 18.9 minutes per contest.
NC State’s DJ Horne played in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament this weekend, and he was named to the All-Tournament Team.
In 3 games, Horne averaged 14.3 points, shooting 41.5% from the field, and 30% from three.
Horne’s Portsmouth Partnership team made it to the finals, but lost to Jani-King 68-75.
The Portsmouth Invitational is an annual pre-draft camp that has been showcasing College Seniors to professional scouts since 1953.
Markell is still my favorite player on the team. He needs to improve his shooting and FT’s but his defense and ability to get the ball to his teammates in the right situation is way above what I would expect from a freshman. We haven’t had a pass first PG like Markell probably since Corchiani Sr. I bet he makes a huge jump from this season to next.
He will have to make a huge jump next year. We can’t seem to recruit anyone during the normal signing period in the Small Forward arena. Just lost O’Bannon to USC.
Out of state recruiting I believe will be helped by this team winning the big matchup’s and getting in top25. This team needs to win the big games and make some noise on the national level. We also need to send more guys like TJ to the pros. Once the program has a rep for putting kids in the NBA the big time recruits will take more notice. Until that time Gott has to win the local recruiting race.
Doesn’t matter how you start. matters how you finish and Gott has been finishing very well. But i don’t think anyone knows how close O’bannon was. He really just wasn’t comfortable leaving Cali. otherwise he’d be signing with us. that’s type of stuff is out of Gott’s control.
Really afraid to leave Cali? The kid played in Las Vegas, NV. The last time I looked Las Vegas was not officially part of Cali.
i meant the west coast in general regardless culture shock beat us out on this one.
That’s exactly what I said last year. We should stop wasting any time west of the Mississippi. I can’t remember the last recruit we got beyond Memphis, TN. Stay in the Southeast.
You have no idea how recruiting works do you? i guess a troll wouldn’t
Just exercising my first amendment rights, snowflake.
Ball movement definitely suffers when Yurt7 is on the bench and I don’t think we have an answer for that. There really are no other bigs on this team with Yurt7’s awareness, hands, and IQ.