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.
NC State has reached out to Utah Transfer Guard Deivon Smith (6’0″/173).
Utah guard Deivon Smith tells @LeagueRDY he’s hearing from these schools since hitting the portal:
Kentucky
Villanova
Florida
Creighton
St. John’s
Miami
Wake Forest
NC State
Kansas State
Washington
Louisville
VCUIn his first season with the Utes, Smith averaged 13.3PPG,… pic.twitter.com/jvJI7Yahfw
— 24/7 High School Hoops (@247HSHoops) April 20, 2024
Smith filled up the stat sheet every game this year, averaging 13.3 points, 7.1 assists and 6.3 rebounds, shooting 46.7% from the field and 40.8% from three for Utah. He earned All-Pac 12 Honorable Mention this season. Smith had 8 double-doubles and 1 triple-double this year.
Wherever Smith lands, this will be his 4th college. He started at Mississippi St., starting in 8 of the 33 games he played in, averaging 22.5 minutes per game. Smith went on to spend his next two seasons at Georgia Tech. Year 1 in Atlanta, Smith started in 5 of the 24 games he played in, averaging 19.7 minutes per game. In Year 2, he carved out more of a role, starting in 13 of the 24 games he played in for the Yellow Jackets, averaging a career high 24.8 minutes per game.
At Utah this year, Smith broke out and had a career year in every possible way.
NC State is familiar with Smith, offering him back when he was a 4-Star prospect out of Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia. Rivals ranked Smith as the #53 overall player nationally in the 2020 recruiting class. ESPN ranked him as the #5 player in the state of Georgia. 247Sports ranked him as the #11 Point Guard in his class.
Gott was taking the high road until that interview recently where he was in disbelief that he was fired. We gave that idiot a chance when no one else would and made him the highest paid employee in the state and this is how he thanks us? Back to back losing seasons and he’s in disbelief? Unbelievable.
Next season’s roster will be interesting to see. Obviously we will have a few leave early, at least one graduate, and possibly transfers. I wouldn’t be mad if we were able to start with this lineup next season: Markell, Maverick, Kirk, Kapita, Freeman. With CorchJr, Newman, Hicks, Yurt7 coming off the bench.
What about Dorn?
Not sure he’s coming back. But then he already transferred once so likely won’t want to sit out another year. Just didn’t like the decision making from him this season. Not sure if it was just how he plays or poor coaching? New coach will have to figure out who he wants and doesn’t want coming back.
One guy goes 5-15 and the other 3-12. Guess it was a poor attempt at raising their draft stock. Maybe distributing the ball and trying to play the right way would have been more beneficial?
I’m old but I play better defense than DSJ. Glad he is gone.
I still struggle with that. I’ve seen him early in the season play high level defense. So I know he is capable. It could be that at a certain point he knew the team wasn’t going anywhere so he packed it in. In his defense there’s no need to injure yourself and ruin your draft stock if the team isn’t very good.
The very reason State should stay away from one and dones.
I think the right coach could integrate a one and done into a veteran lineup but on a poorly coached team like this it was always going to end this way.
This is unrelated but we are already out of the ACC tourney. Why oh why did Debbie allow him to stay the rest of the season? What did that accomplish? I mean I was reading a couple of days ago about Terry H. just ignoring Gott during a timeout and Gott standing in disbelief. He lost this team half way into the season, what kind of moron would allow him to finish as coach after firing him?
Why worry about the OSU position? I mean it will open up at some point in the future. If that job is so attractive wouldn’t Archie take it later on down the road? Whomever becomes the coach at State that guy needs to be fully invested. We need someone with Jimmy V’s passion for this job again.
Bruce Pearl.
Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a really good coach and on the passion front there are few who can match him. But do we really want a coach that likes to party with college kids with his shirt off? That’s just asking for trouble.
You want kids to play hard for you? Join them, he did.
🙂