N.C. State compliance director Carrie Doyle was in New York to testify in federal court on Tuesday.
The N&O is reporting that she was being asked about NC State’s involvement in a $40,000 payment made to the Dennis Smith Jr’s father in which she responded that she had ‘No knowledge.’
This is obviously good news for Wolfpack fans. It’s what was expected and what fans hoped was the truth. In fact, it corroborates exactly what Chancellor Woodson said in his initial statement.
Doyle was reportedly also asked a few ‘hypothetical questions’ which she answered exactly as expected.
The first was about the steps she would have taken had the university been aware.
“If we had found out about it before we had issued the financial aid and it was determined to be valid and true information, we would never have provided the athletics scholarship,” Doyle said. “If we found out about it after the aid had already been disbursed, we would not award future aid.” (N&O)
And then when asked about what would have happened to Gottfried had the payment been uncovered.
“(Gottfried) would have been fired.” she said (N&O)
In the N&O report, there were also questions about Smith’s trainer, Sean Farmer and Erik Leak, a former NC State football player that the school disassociated themselves with years ago.
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.
Prior to this season, the record for most games started in a single season in NC State history was 37, with three Wolfpack players doing so: Lorenzo Brown, Richard Howell, CJ Williams.
Morsell now sits atop the list, and a fellow teammate, DJ Burns ranks second, with 40 games started this season.
Styles was the 2nd leading scorer for Georgetown this season, averaging 12.8 points per game, while grabbing 5.8 boards. He shot 36.8% from three.
Originally, Sytles was a consensus 4-Star prospect in UNC’s 2021 recruiting class. 247Sports ranked him as the #62 overall player nationally, and the #2 player in the state of North Carolina, playing for Kinston High School.
After two seasons with the Tar Heels, Styles entered the Portal, and took an Official Visit to NC State and Georgetown, and ultimately chose the Hoyas.
ON3 ranks Styles as the #104 overall player in the Portal.
With his final year of eligibility, Styles’ made the right choice this time.
NC State now has 2 scholarships remaining after Styles’ commitment.