BASKETBALL UPDATE: Edmead as advertised, Jurkovic has a chance to start, schedule addition and another big on the way?

It’s been a minute since we’ve checked in with the basketball team, but now that the portal movement has nearly slowed to a halt, we’ll share what we’re hearing.

PG Preston Edmead as advertised

We’re hearing great feedback about the Preston Edmead workouts this summer. I think, if we’re honest, this one was an area where we were mostly confident, but the fact that he was coming from Hofstra, didn’t have physical attributes that jumped off the paper, and slotted into starting at such a premium position, you had to be a little tentative with the hype.

Well, we’ve been told that Edmead, so far, has been better than expected (and they were expecting a lot). Obviously, you’re going to see him in a lot of ball screen situations since he was one of the better shooters nationally off the bounce. In his workouts, he’s being put in positions they expect him in, and he’s been showing himself to be quite the shotmaker.

Edmead is slippery, stays low, and, due to his shooting ability, forces defenders to stay up on him. This allows him to be, despite his size, a very good paint touch PG. He’ll get in there for sure, but I’m interested to see how he does once he’s in there. The staff isn’t going to be too keen on floaters or pull-ups (low percentage shots), and he doesn’t have the size to challenge ACC-level bigs at the rim, so he’ll need to showcase his ability to create defensive rotation and find the open shooter once he gets deep.

Jurkovic could compete for the starting 4 spot

For a while there it was a pretty forgone conclusion that Eemeli Yalaho was going to be your starting 4 man, and while there is zero doubt he ends up playing major minutes for this team in the front court, there is some chatter that the staff really loves what Robert Jurkovic (the 23-year-old Slovenian big that NC State landed last month) brings to the table. That makes me think we’ll have a battle for that 4 spot.

That might be news to some, I’m not sure, but when you saw the tape on Jurkovic, you probably wondered the same thing. He’s a good shooter, but he’s also pretty athletic and is pretty much a grown man at this point, seeing as he’s 23.

This wouldn’t change much because again, both are playing major roles this season, but we’ve been discussing the roster as if Yalaho was a locked-in starter. Full transparency, I have no intel to say he’s not, but I did hear that there is a lot of excitement around the Slovenian big man, and I’m going to predict that leads to a battle for the starting role.

6’11 JUCO big was on campus this weekend

On Friday we confirmed that Shelton State Community College center Shah Hall was taking an Official Visit to Raleigh this weekend.

The 6-foot-11, 240-pound big man recently completed an Official Visit to Arkansas and is one of the more intriguing available frontcourt prospects still on the market, but there is competition. The pickings are getting slim, and there isn’t a decent team out there that wouldn’t want a legitimate 6’11 kid on their roster.

Hall scored 10 points and nabbed 8 boards per game while shooting over 65% from the floor. He’s bouncy, he’s built, and he’s looking for a situation where he can come in and play big minutes immediately.

He signed an NLI with UAB, but recently got his release. Calipari and Arkansas quickly jumped into the mix, but he left that visit without committing. No word yet on how his NC State visit went. We’ll have an update soon.

Big addition to the schedule coming?

I think this one is all but set, but we don’t want to spill the beans before the ink is dry. We’ve heard there’s an addition to the schedule that’ll likely make the fan base pretty happy. Neutral location. We’ll share the details when the timing is right, but just wanted to give you a heads up that there is something fun in the works.