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.
Poised to make a run. Yeah, after visiting Taco Bell too many times. Over hype as always from PackInsider Staff.
Too many ppl talk about this team being young? Problem with this team is that there are upperclassmen but they didn’t improve. That will pretty much kill any team when 3-4 year guys aren’t playing any better than year 1-2.
#1 in particular was a glaring problem for me. As talented as DSJ is… he seems to enjoy killing about 10-15 seconds of clock just dribbling the ball. Lack of ball movement definitely hurt the offense. Kapita hurt himself early in the season by picking up quick fouls. But that doesn’t explain why he was basically relegated to the bench in so many games this season?
I have my doubts but by deep run if you mean losing in the 2nd round then I may buy that swamp land. There were numerous occasions during the year where the team’s offense worked better with Markel at the point. Dennis “Dribble,Dribble” Smith took the motion out of the team like Kyle Washington did when he played. Insert Lennard Freeman and you have a sweet 16 team. Too little too late.
Yeah but that’s all on coaching. Kyle W. is playing pretty well now that he’s actually being coached. I’m sure dribble loving DSJ could also have improved under better coaching. It’s almost like Gott didn’t know what to do so he put it in DSJ’s hands and hoped he would just take over.
Yes – Washington is another black mark on Gottfried’s record. Reduced his minutes and ran him out of town instead of coaching him up and recognizing his talent. He should have been a perfect high post player. Now he’s a star at Cincinnati. I like Freeman but I don’t believe he would have had a magical impact on this team – same big man coaching problems apply to him.
Add the Martin twins to that list.
I would think coach knows better. He was the point guard on a team that made several consecutive deep runs in the NCAA tournament. Some of this could be the player not wanting to be coached? Look how good Lorenzo Brown did, and he was not a “true” point guard.
Remember Zo was there during the Lutz era. I don’t think coach Lutz is getting enough credit for what he did behind the scenes. The last 2 seasons were Gott’s worst and that coincides with Lutz changing titles and this season with him leaving. One could surmise that it was Lutz working with Zo, CJL, Howell and company. Maybe the story will come out one day from one of the players.
Nothing would make me happier, but that was pretty exhausted Georgia Tech team we barely beat the other night with us having a much deeper bench. Granted, it was on the road and Gottfried made some changes I think he had been scared to make earlier. Here’s hoping your right.
Hope you are right