NC State Basketball
Wolferetti: Want to stream tonight’s NC State basketball game? It’s gonna cost ya $30 bucks, peasant.
NC State takes on Central Connecticut tonight. The only problem is, it’s only streaming in one place, and it’s on an app nobody has.
The ever-popular FloSports (sarcasm) has full rights to the first round of the Hall of Fame Showcase that NC State is participating in. Tonight the Pack will take on Central Connecticut and if you want to watch, you’ll have only one option. Download the app, pay $30 and stream the game. (Make sure you cancel before the month is up, because, you guessed it, it’s a subscription.)
You know what. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of this awful streaming landscape where I have to download apps, put in passwords, and download new services just to watch my favorite team play. And just when you think you’ve got it figured out, you come to a game like this.
Some random casino, in the middle of nowhere, creates a basketball tournament and then inks some strange deal where some obscure streaming service that you’ve never heard of has full rights. Forcing fans to download it and subscribe to it, likely hoping they forget to cancel after the games are over.
This is where we are as a society? We’ve got the world’s knowledge stored in a supercomputer in our pockets, we’ve got some robot sending pictures from Mars back to earth in high-res (somehow), and we’re curing diseases today that were deadly just 20 years ago. With all of our advancements, you’d think the world would be becoming a more simple, easy-to-navigate place where everyone is happy and gets along.
Turns out, you’d be wrong. Welcome to the nightmare where despite all the knowledge in the world, truth has become subjective, everyone is always mad at one another, my internet barely reaches my upstairs bedroom, and I am over here paying $30 bucks to watch NC State play a bunch of scrubs on a Tuesday night in November.
This is getting out of hand, but you know what, my bitter a@$ is going to pay that $30 because I love NC State and I wouldn’t miss a game for nothin’. And you know what, most of you are going to do the same. And FloSports entire business model of corning the market on niche games, charging a ton per month (knowing everyone will cancel) will pay off and allow them to keep operating. Heck, it may even encourage other services to take the same route! And the demise of live sports and the steaming landscape will continue until one day Amazon or Google decide to swallow up everyone and create competing all-encompassing streaming bundles, which will take us back to the early 2000s when your options were Time Warner or Direct TV and we were bitching about not having enough choices.
With that said. Here is how to subscribe to FloSports and how to cancel.
1. Click here and subscribe
2. Next, DON’T BE FOOLED!! CHOOSE the $29.99 plan if you plan to cancel after NC State plays.
They try to show you a lower monthly price for the YEARLY subscription, but you’ll get hit with the $210 yearly fee, so be careful.
3) After the tournament is over, if you don’t want it anymore, here is how you cancel.
Bowling Green Transfer Guard Marcus Hill (6’4″/185) has committed to NC State!
Hill took an Official Visit to NC State this past weekend.
This past season, Hill averaged 20.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the Falcons. 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 #81 overall player in the Transfer Portal, and the #11 Shooting Guard.
Even though 247Sports and ON3 consider Hill a Shooting Guard, NC State is recruiting him as a Point Guard.
Hill is the 4th player to transfer to NC State this offseason, joining Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield & Mike James, and Georgetown’s Dontrez Styles.
With the addition of Hill, NC State now has 1 scholarship remaining for next season.
NC State Forward Mohamed Diarra will not be returning to NC State for his final season of eligibility. Rather, he will give 100% of his focus to pursuing his professional career.
Diarra is declaring for the NBA Draft, and will explore that possibility as far as it goes, but the likelihood of him playing professionally in his home country of France are high.
Diarra was a significant player for NC State all season long, averaging 6.3 points and 7.8 rebounds (team high), but his impact in March was tremendous, recording 10+ rebounds in 7 of the Wolfpack’s 10 postseason games, and five of those performances were double-doubles.
Wolfpack fans will always remember the grit and mental toughness that Diarra put on display in the NCAA Tournament, playing game-after-game while fasting for Ramadan.
The Wolfpack’s frontcourt just got a little bit thinner. In the past two weeks, NC State has lost Diarra and Ernest Ross. Ben Middlebrooks is returning, and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield transferred in from Louisville. Dontrez Styles transferred in from Georgetown, and while he is more of a Small Forward, in certain lineups, he could play the Small 4 position. With all that being said, I fully expect NC State to try to find another post player in the Transfer Portal with Diarra’s exodus now official.
With Diarra not returning in 2024, NC State now has 2 scholarships available for next season.
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.
