NC State Basketball
Numbers say Terquavion Smith could become the best freshman scorer in the past 20 years for State
So far, this season hasn’t gone the way most NC State fans had expected.
A big part of that is because they lost the guy they were building their team around, Manny Bates. However, there have been some bright spots and reasons to believe the future remains bright.
One of those bright spots has been freshman Terquavion Smith.
Smith has grabbed a starting role and hasn’t looked back. The former 4-star prospect is averaging 13.8 ppg, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists. He’s shooting a respectable 39% (good for 2nd amongst NC State guards) from the field and 34% from long range.
He’s been so impressive that we started to wonder. Is he the best freshman scorer NC State has had over the past 20 years?
We knew there would be some competition. For instance, Dennis Smith Jr. put up massive numbers in his first (and only) season at NC State. But with the latest ruling on the Adidas recruiting violation case against Gottfried and the University, all of his records are officially wiped from the books.
So what would we find if we dug into the past 20 years? We knew JJ Hickson had a big freshman year, but what did he average again? What about Brandon Costner? Didn’t he put up huge numbers as a freshman? Or what about Julius Hodge. How did his numbers stack up in year one?
So we began the process of going through every roster for the past 20 years, figuring out who the freshman were, and then seeing what their scoring average was at the end of the season.
Here is what we found.
During the 2007-2008 season, JJ Hickson averaged 14.8ppg. With Smith taken out, this is the highest scoring average for an NC State freshman over the past 20 years.
There was also the 2006-2007 season, where redshirt freshman Brandon Costner averaged 16.8ppg. However, that was his second season at NC State. He played 5 games as a true freshman before a stress fracture ended his season. That year he was playing just 13 minutes per game and averaging 2.8ppg.
As for Julius Hodge, he averaged 10.7 ppg during his freshman season.
There were a few others we had overlooked in our initial brainstorm. For instance, Maverick Rowan dropped 12.9 ppg as a freshman during the 2015-16 season, TJ Warren finished with 12.9 ppg as a freshman during the 2012-13 season, and CJ Leslie scored 11 ppg during his first year in 2010-11.
That’s it for the double-digit freshman scorers over the past 20 years. And Smith still has a majority of his season left to play.
Now, Smith could start to drop off as ACC play starts up, but it’s not likely as he’s been a big producer in almost all of the Pack’s games vs. quality opponents. He finished with 14 vs. Miami, 21 vs. #1 Purdue, 17 vs. Louisville.
In fact, your argument would be better for him actually increasing his production as the year goes on. Over the past 6 games, Smith is averaging 18.6ppg and has looked a lot more aggressive over that span.
If Smith keeps up that pace, he will easily surpass JJ Hickson’s 14.8ppg and could approach (and pass) Brandon Costner’s 16.8 ppg he put up during his redshirt freshman season.
Even if he doesn’t eclipse Costner, he’d still be in NC State’s record book as the best TRUE freshman scorer over the past 20 years.
Note that both Dennis Smith Jr and JJ Hickson were both 5-star prospects and both one-and-done lottery picks, putting Terquavion in elite company for true freshmen scorers at NC State. (Brandon Costner was also a 5 star.)
Smith has a ways to go, but if you’re looking at the numbers, it’s easy to see that this kid is a very rare talent and an elite building block for Keatts and the future of his program.
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.
Rodney Monroe, 1991 ACC POY, started ZERO games as a freshman but averaged 11ppg
His FG% was 45% and FT% 83% for his career! Terq must take better shots.
or else he’s a lock for most shots taken by a freshman.
Keatts always says, your not too worried about a guy who scores 20 points if he takes 25 shots to get it.
I think you could go back further and would find that Terq stands up well much further than 20 years. Way back, the freshmen didn’t play varsity ball, so Thompson, Burleson and the great historic players aren’t in contention. So you’re probably only going back about 50 years – freshmen became eligible in ’72. Just spot checking some scorers I remember, Monroe was only 11 ppg, Shackelford got 10, Washburn got 10, Fuller, Bailey, Whittenburg, Feggins, Lowe, Gugliotta, Thomson, Corchiani were all under 10 as freshmen. Our guy is special. Give him another year and he’ll be a better all… Read more »
Just remembered Hawkeye Whitney, a scoring machine in the late 70s for Sloan. Averaged 14.6 ppg.