NC State is one big man away from having their roster set. Who will they land and when will it happen?

Justin Gainey and NC State are pretty much set with their roster for this coming season.

They have Edmead, Whitty, and Jacari Brim at the point.

They have Christian Hammond and Darius Adams at the 2.

Paul McNeil Jr, RJ Keene, and Comeh Emuobor at the 3.

Robert Jurkovic, Eemeli Yalaho, and Mikey Wilkins at the 4.

They’re at least two deep at every position. Well, every position other than center.

At center, they have 6’10, 210lbs Kyle Evans.

Evans is a transfer from UC Irvine who led the nation in blocks per game last season, and while you can go ahead and pencil him in as a starter on this team, he’s going to need a backup.

Obviously, Jurkovic played backup center for his Slovenian team last season, and Yalaho and Wilkins could slot over in a pinch, but if NC State is really going to reach its potential this season, they’re going to need a monster in the middle.

They flirted with Emeka Opurum, the 7-footer from Auburn, and that looked like it was about to cross the finish line. Until it didn’t. And while we weren’t able to get the full story on that one, an agent not affiliated with Opurum, but familiar with the situation, mentioned that other schools were concerned about his injury history and eligibility issues. That said, NC State was pretty far down the line with him, so maybe there weren’t those concern for State? Honestly, I don’t know if the door is shut here or not, but Opurum hasn’t committed anywhere else, so I guess we’ll see. (Check out the Opurum video below)

Meanwhile, NC State hosted JUCO big man Shah Hall this past weekend, and man, this guy is a physical specimen.

The 6-foot-11, 240-pound big man who averaged 9 points and 8 boards per game (plus an elite 2.2 blocks per game) recently completed an Official Visit to Arkansas.

 

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Arkansas media were confident they’d land Hall, but he left campus without committing and came on a visit to NC State. Then just yesterday, reports started to surface that Ilia Frolov, a 6’11, 225lb center from Russia, was in the final stages of negotiations with Calipari and Arkansas.

Russian media outlet Sport-Express reports that Real Madrid’s center Ilia Frolov is in negotiations with Arkansas Razorbacks. I can confirm it — Frolov is on the verge of joining John Calipari’s squad for the next NCAA season.

— Artem Komarov (@art_basket) June 15, 2026

Now, NC State had reached out to Frolov as well, but we hadn’t heard much since then (last week), and it started to get hot and heavy with Arkansas. If the Razorbacks do end up landing Frolov, it’s unlikely they’d have room for Shah Hall, potentially putting NC State in the driver’s seat.

So as you can see, there are a lot of moving parts right now, but the picture might be clearing up here shortly.

Stay tuned.