ROI REPORT: Did NC State get a good ‘return on investment’ from Terrance Arceneaux?

Over the next few days, we’ll be focusing in on the transfers that NC State brought in via NIL to see what the ‘Return on Investment’ was during the REGULAR SEASON. To do this, we will look at their stats from last year and compare them to this year, while overlaying perceived expectations and role adjustments.

Let’s look at Terrance Arceneaux.
TA was a depth piece for a Houston team that made it to the championship game last season.  The 6’6 (then) sophomore showed signs of a breakout midseason before seeing his minutes limited during the NCAA Tournament. He is 6’6, long, athletic, and from a winning program. Arceneaux was one of the first additions by Will Wade when he was hired (aside from his McNeese guys).

Expectations:

I believe the expectations were actually pretty high for Terrance Arceneaux when he signed with NC State last offseason. This is a kid who was logging 20+ minutes for Houston, who lost to Florida in the National Championship. He was a kid who Kelvin Sampson said was about a year away from breaking out offensively and put up 15 against a good BYU team.

I believe the staff saw a lot in Arceneaux and believed he’d likely be a day 1 starter for the Wolfpack. He would anchor their defense and take a step offensively. He’d bring the physicality and toughness that Houston was known for, but would slot into an offensive system that was more tailored to his skillset. Maximizing his value for his junior season.

Year-Over-Year Stats

Minutes Per Game
Last year at Houston: 20 🔴
This year at NC State: 16

Points Per Game
Last year at Houston: 6.5 🔴
This year at NC State: 4 

Assists Per Game
Last year at Houston: .7 🔴
This year at NC State: .5

Rebounds Per Game
Last year at Houston: 2.7
This year at NC State: 2.9 🟢

Steals Per Game
Last year at Houston: 0.9
This year at NC State: 1 🟢

Field Goal %
Last year at Houston: 44% 🔴
This year at NC State: 43%

3pt Field Goal % 
Last year at Houston: 34% 🔴
This year at NC State: 33%

Usage 
Last year at Houston: 17.7% 🔴
This year at NC State: 12.8%
(Not rated better or worse – subjective stat)

Outcome:

Arceneaux started out the season dealing with Achilles soreness and never really got things going. He eventually started to earn some minutes back midseason, but there wasn’t the jump that I believe the staff was expecting. In fact, Arceneaux was exactly the same player that he was the season prior. With other players stepping up, and NC State needing more consistent shooting, his minutes and usage were down, which caused his overall stats to regress a bit from the prior season.

To his credit, Arceneaux has been much better in ACC play then he was earlier in the season. His defensive metrics are tops on the team, but offensively, he just didn’t make that jump and that has put Will Wade in a strange spot. With Matt Able coming on offensively and providing decent defense, more physicality, and more upside, TA has kind of been lost in the shuffle. Playing him more gets you better defense, but lower offensive efficiency. He’s another one of these guys who is is specialized, and works well as a situational player. Houston seemed to know that, and NC State had to pay to find that out.

Like we continue to say, we don’t have the actual NIL payment numbers, but we do know NC State envisioned TA playing a bigger role than he ended up playing, which, for the sake of this ROI discussion, means no, we don’t believe they got the ROI they were hoping for from Arceneaux this regular season.