NC State Basketball
BeeJay Anya: The Enforcer
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!
View this post on Instagram
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.
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Wolfer96 Is it true that the conference will make more money the more teams that we have in the NCAA tourney? I hate to say it, but the game appeared to be fix in favor of the Pack. Just an opinion, no whining.
Wolfer96 PackInsider Staff I also think that having half of the old big east in our conference now makes a difference. It’s not just Puke and the Holes anymore.
shaverlb73 Wolfer96 We need to get Stone and Newman. Gott needs to offer Stone a scholarship and see if both will come here together. Newman has made it public that he wants to play with Stone in college. Give it a try Gott.
PackInsider Staff Wolfer96 Proof positive is when King Karl gets suspended and other refs at an NC State game have KH written on their shoes. I don’t need to see more than that to know there was bias. These ACC refs made it personal and could not be relied upon to be impartial. I still cringe every time I think about the ACC tourney a few years ago when the same block/charge call went for unc and against State costing us the game. That’s 2 possessions in a tight game so YES bad calls can determine the outcome of a close… Read more »
Wolfer96 Yes huge difference. We will have an article on reffing at some point here when it’s relevant. Not sure if it was Karl Hess’ firing (making refs realize they’re not invincible) or just an overall sweeping change). I’m not sure, but it’s different. I think there is a lot less bias and a lot less put on tendencies. This means Duke and UNC are getting reffed like every other team in the league. If you have paid attention in the past the difference bw UNC and Duke and the rest of the ACC were their huge, game changing runs.… Read more »
Wolfer96 Once Kyle gets it all together, he will be a nightmare for other teams to guard, which will make us even better.
Wolfer96 I noticed that too. I’m so used to seeing someone drive in, not score, and the whistle blow, that it took me awhile to adjust to us making defensive stops. If Duke’s Okafur is going to be allowed to aggressively back his defender under the goal every time (like he did to Meeks) for an easy shot, then the defense should be allowed some freedom of their own to protect the rim. I’m all for it.
Does anyone else notice the difference is refereeing this season? Particularly the 2nd half of the season. The ACC is much more physical than years past. Like last night for instance, unc got away with tons of holding, hand checking, and bumping. But it was on both sides. Anya on several occasions brought his arms down on a block instead of having his arms straight up and did not get called for a foul. In seasons past, those would have been whistled every time. We also body checked several unc players as they drove to the basket and no whistle.… Read more »