Bowling Green small forward Marcus Hill is expected to visit. He can score really well at the MAC level, but isn’t overly athletic and shot 28.9 percent on 3-pointers. Before that he played junior college basketball. Because he has always scored, the concept is that he’ll make up for what he lacks by just finding ways to score. Probably more three than two, but can play both.

I personally don’t see him starting over Jayden Taylor or Dontrez Styles, and he might want starter minutes as a senior. He’d push Paul McNeil to being a deep reserve which is another byproduct that makes recruiting him interesting, and end any concept of Dennis Parker at the three.

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Maryam Dauda, redshirt sophomore from Arkansas is said to be entering the portal.​

HONORS

– McDonald’s All-American | 2021
– Jordan Brand Classic | 2021
– Naismith High School Player of the Year Semifinalist | 2021

AS A REDSHIRT SOPHOMORE (2023-24)
Started in all 33 games … Led the team in field goal percentage (.455), blocks (74) and offensive rebounds (79) … Broke a 37-year school record in single-game blocks with 10 at Alabama, which was the second most by an NCAA player this season … Finished the season with 17 double-digit scoring games, five double-digit rebound games, three double-doubles and 10 3+ block contests.

When is Wilson getting picked? I know he had some injuries but starting to get surprised. They are picking lbers that ran a 4.6.

NC State lands wing Marcus Hill​

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NC State might be down to one scholarship left, but the addition of Hill might scare off someone as the Wolfpack have a lot of wings now.

Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com does a deep dive on how football players will be graduating less and less in the transfer era, partly because the credits don't always transfer over from school-to-school.

As college football transfer portal becomes more chaotic, focus on educational values continues to dwindle​

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NC State loses PF Mohamed Diarra to professional hoops​

Good article about Chancellor Woodson in a national publication.


https://www.chronicle.com/article/t...l_Academe-Today_date_20240424&cid=at&sra=true

Jacey any chance we get involved for Derrick Harmon? Looks like a good one. Besides, I like the last name😉

Looks like six of the ladies - including Deja Kelly have entered the transfer portal. Coach Banghard has her work cut out for her to rebuild her team.

She’ll need to recruit well in order to fill that huge arena of theirs…

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Former UNC, Georgetown forward Dontrez Styles picks NC State​

NC State signee Paul McNeil finishes in Rivals' top 50​

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North Carolina State:
Transferring: L.J. Thomas (Austin Peay); Kam Woods (Robert Morris); Ernest Ross; M.J. Rice.
Turning pro: Mohamed Diarra.
New transfers: Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Louisville); Dontrez Styles (Georgetown); Michael James (Louisville); Marcus Hill (Bowling Green).
Signing class

Boston College:
Transferring: Jaeden Zackery (Clemson), Claudell Harris (Mississippi State); Prince Aligbe (Seton Hall); Mason Madsen (Utah); Armani Mighty (Central Michigan); Devin McGlockton (Vanderbilt).
Turning pro: None
New transfers: Chad Venning (St. Bonaventure); Josh Beadle (Clemson); Dion Brown (Maryland-Baltimore County); Roger McFarlane (Southeastern Louisiana).
Signing class

California:
Transferring: Jalen Celestine (Baylor); ND Okafor (Washington State); Monty Bowser (Northern Arizona); Grant Newell (North Texas); Rodney Brown Jr. (Virginia Tech); Devin Askew (Long Beach State).
Turning pro: Jaylon Tyson.
New transfers: Lee Dort (Vanderbilt); B.J. Omot (North Dakota); DJ Campbell (Western Carolina); Andrej Stojakovic (Stanford); Rytis Petraitis (Air Force); Mady Sissoko (Michigan State); Josh Ola-Joseph (Minnesota); Christian Tucker (Texas-San Antonio); Jovan Blacksher (Grand Canyon); Spencer Mahoney (Washington State).
Signing class

Clemson:
Transferring: Josh Beadle (Boston College), Jack Clark (VCU); RJ Godfrey (Georgia); Alex Hemenway (Vanderbilt).
Turning pro: P.J. Hall.
New transfers: Jaeden Zackery (Boston College); Viktor Lahkin (Cincinnati); Christian Reeves (Duke); Myles Foster (Illinois State).
Signing class

Duke:
Transferring: Christian Reeves (Clemson); Mark Mitchell (Missouri); Jaylen Blakes (Stanford); Jaden Schutt (Virginia Tech); Jeremy Roach (Baylor); T.J. Power (Virginia); Sean Stewart (Ohio State).
Turning pro: Jared McCain; Kyle Filipowski.
New transfers: Maliq Brown (Syracuse); Mason Gillis (Purdue); Sion James (Tulane).
Signing class

Florida State:
Transferring: Primo Spears (Texas-San Antonio); De’Ante Green (South Florida); Baba Miller (Florida Atlantic); Tom House (Furman); Cam Corhen (Pittsburgh); Cam'Ron Fletcher (Xavier); Jalen Warley (Virginia).
Turning pro: None.
New transfers: Jerry Deng (Hampton); Justin Thomas (Texas-San Antonio); Bostyn Holt (South Dakota).
Signing class

Georgia Tech:
Transferring: Ebenezer Dowuona (James Madison); Amaree Abram (Louisiana Tech), Tyzhaun Claude (North Carolina); Ibrahima Sacko (New Mexico); Miles Kelly (Auburn).
Turning pro: None.
New transfers: Javian McCollum (Oklahoma); Luke O'Brien (Colorado).
Signing class

Louisville:
Transferring: Skyy Clark (UCLA); Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (NC State); Tre White (Illinois), Kaleb Glenn (Florida Atlantic); Koron Davis; Danilo Jovanovich (Wisconsin-Milwaukee); Dennis Evans (Grand Canyon); Emmanuel Okorafor (Seton Hall); Michael James (NC State); J.J. Traynor (DePaul); Curtis Williams (Georgetown); Ty-Laur Johnson (Wake Forest); Hercy Miller (Southern Utah).
Turning pro: None
New transfers: James Scott (College of Charleston); Reyne Smith (College of Charleston); Terrence Edwards Jr. (James Madison); J’Vonne Hadley (Colorado); Aly Khalifa (BYU); Koren Johnson (Washington); Aboubacar Traore (Long Beach State); Chucky Hepburn (Wisconsin); Kobe Rodgers (College of Charleston); Kasean Pryor (South Florida); Noah Waterman (BYU); Frank Anselem-Ibe (Georgia)
Signing class

Miami (Fla.):
Transferring: Christian Watson (Southern Mississippi); A.J. Casey (Saint Louis); Michael Nwoko (Mississippi State); Bensley Joseph (Providence); Jakai Robinson (Bryant); Wooga Poplar (Villanova); Norchad Omier (Baylor).
Turning pro: Kyshawn George.
New transfers: Lynn Kidd (Virginia Tech); Brandon Johnson (East Carolina); Jalen Blackmon (Stetson); Kiree Huie (Idaho State).
Signing class

North Carolina:
Transferring: James Okonkwo (Akron); Zayden High.
Turning pro: Harrison Ingram.
New transfers: Cade Tyson (Belmont); Ven-Allen Lubin (Vanderbilt); Tyzhaun Claude (Georgia Tech).
Signing class

Notre Dame:
Transferring: Matt Zona (Fordham); Carey Booth (Illinois).
Turning pro: None.
New transfers: Matt Allocco (Princeton); Nikita Konstantynovskyi (Monmouth); Burke Chebuhar (Lehigh).
Signing class

Pittsburgh:
Transferring: William Jeffress (Louisiana Tech); Federiko Federiko (Texas Tech).
Turning pro: Carlton Carrington.
New transfers: Cam Corhen (Florida State); Damian Dunn (Houston).
Signing class

Southern Methodist:
Transferring: Emory Lanier (Rice); Jefferson Koulibaly (Pacific); Mo Njie; Xavier Foster (Radford); Ricardo Wright (Kennesaw State); Zhuric Phelps (Texas A&M); Denver Anglin (Rice); Jalen Smith (Rice); Tyreek Smith (Memphis); Ja'Heim Hudson (Auburn).
Turning pro: None
New transfers: Kevin Miller (Wake Forest); Yohan Traore (UC-Santa Barbara); Matt Cross (UMass); AJ George (Long Beach State); Kario Oquendo (Oregon).
Signing class

Stanford:
Transferring: Brandon Angel (Oregon); Kanaan Carlyle (Indiana); Max Murrell (UC-Santa Barbara); Andrej Stojakovic (California).
Turning pro: None
New transfers: Derin Saran (UC-Irvine); Oziyah Sellers (USC).
Signing class

Syracuse:
Transferring: Quadir Copeland (McNeese State); Peter Casey (Siena); Justin Taylor (James Madison); Benny Williams (Central Florida); Maliq Brown (Duke); Mounir Hima (Howard); William Patterson (High Point).
Turning pro: Judah Mintz.
New transfers: Jyare Davis (Delaware); Eddie Lumpkin (Colorado); Jaquan Carlos (Hofstra), Lucas Taylor (Georgia State).
Signing class

Virginia:
Transferring: Leon Bond (Northern Iowa).
Turning pro: Ryan Dunn; Reece Beekman.
New transfers: Jalen Warley (Florida State); Elijah Saunders (San Diego State); Carter Lang (Vanderbilt); Dai Dai Ames (Kansas State).
Signing class

Virginia Tech:
Transferring: John Camden (Delaware); Tyler Nickel (Vanderbilt); Sean Pedula (Mississippi); Lynn Kidd (Miami, Fla.); MJ Collins (Vanderbilt); Rodney Rice (Maryland).
Turning pro: None.
New transfers: Ben Burnham (College of Charleston); Rodney Brown Jr. (California); Toibu Lawal (VCU); Jaden Schutt (Duke).
Signing class

Wake Forest:
Transferring: Damari Monsanto (Texas-San Antonio); Kevin Miller (SMU); Jao Ituka (Jacksonville State); Zach Keller (Utah); Aaron Clark (Pepperdine); Matthew Marsh (Oregon State); Andrew Carr (Kentucky); Abramo Canka (Stetson).
Turning pro: None.
New transfers: Tre'Von Spillers (Appalachian State); Omaha Biliew (Iowa State); Ty-Laur Johnson (Louisville); Churchill Abass (DePaul).
Signing class

NC State offered a pair of Rolesville (N.C.) High defenders on Wednesday. Sophomore defensive end Zavion Griffin-Haynes had just unofficially visited the Wolfpack, and he’s been a semi-regular visitor. It seemed a matter of when, not if, he’d get a NCSU offer. At a little over 6-foot-4, he’s intriguing but raw. I think he’ll get there by the time he’s a senior at Rolesville.

Freshman defensive back Marquis Bryant is one of the rare class of 2027 prospect to get offered. Clayton (N.C.) High has a freshman cornerback that also appears to be on the fast track.

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For those that haven't ready today's The Run Down, it explains the philosophy of what NC State is doing in the portal, and why Utah senior point guard Deivon Smith could be the Wolfpack's next big portal battle.

The Run Down

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Not many times you see a rock fight break out over a backup, but it seems that way with former NCSU nose tackle Joshua Harris, who officially has entered the transfer portal today. Probably the one person that Harris remains close to is S&C coach Dantonio Burnette.

could someone please give updates on the score tonight against the pirates

1. The addition of former Georgetown and North Carolina senior forward Dontrez Styles has helped put a few things into focus.

First, the addition of Styles nails down the starting small forward spot, and he has the versatility to play small ball power forward if the Wolfpack want to go with that alignment next winter. There has been no question that NC State coach Kevin Keatts prefers a smaller lineup, but the run to the Final Four doesn’t happen without having two post players on the court at the same time. The trio of Louisville center senior transfer Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, senior post player Ben Middlebrooks and senior power forward Mohamed Diarra guarantees that NC State can always play two posts together.

Styles gives NC State some flexibility if another team basically has a small forward playing power forward, and it could really diminish the role sophomore Dennis Parker would have had, since they overlap in many ways.

Styles also will likely mean that incoming freshman Paul McNeil will come off the bench rather than start now. McNeil can be a microwave sixth man where he can score in bunches, and if his jumper happens to be off that night, it won’t be as big a deal in a bench role. McNeil can get the minutes behind senior shooting guard Jayden Taylor, besides the small forward minutes behind Styles.

I do think NC State is eyeing some point guards who could push senior Michael O’Connell into a reserve role, but they haven’t entered the transfer portal yet. One name will be somewhat familiar to NC State fans and ties into the second and third parts of this The Run Down.

What would be a good projection for Styles? Probably to have similar numbers as he did at Georgetown, and get around 12-13 points and 5-6 rebounds per game. If he makes three-pointers, he’ll be a key contributor, it’s that’s simple. It was the biggest concern at Kinston (N.C.) High and he simply didn’t get to play enough in his two years to show if he could make them. He made 36.8 percent for the Hoyas and that is a good percentage for a small forward.

What Styles will need to improve upon is consistency. He had a steady patter of good game and then he struggled. The team went 9-23 overall and 2-18 in the Big East, with both wins against 3-29 DePaul. Styles played good in 21 of the 32 games. He was a minutes eater, meaning he played at least 34 minutes in 17 games, including at least 40 in four of them. To put that in perspective, he played 89 minutes his entire sophomore year at North Carolina.

Picking Georgetown over NC State meant guaranteed minutes but a lot of losing, and that proved true. Styles needed to play though. It’s hard to bounce back after not getting on the court his first two years with the Tar Heels. Styles deserves a lot of credit for finding his game again.

NC State rising senior power forward Ernest Ross, who announced he was transferring this week for sure, will have a similar situation at his next school. After not playing much at NC State, going somewhere he’s guaranteed to get 30-plus minutes could be his No. 1 motivator.

The one concern about the additions of Styles and Huntley-Hatfield is that they got solid stats on lousy teams. Georgetown was really poor this season. They were fine until about late December. Losing 81-51 at Marquette on Dec. 22 reeked of Christmas vacation is coming up and we don’t want to be in cold Milwaukee, Wis. That was the start of losing 11 games by at least 13 points.

On the one hand, it’s great that Styles scored a Big-East high of 23 points against eventual national champion Connecticut on Feb. 10. He scored 17 in the first half, but the Hoyas were losing 52-28 at halftime. It was that kind of year for them.

Playing Jayden Epps at point guard was messy as he had wild shot selection and wasn’t a winner at the position, and that trickled down through the lineup. The Hoyas were more organized when sophomore Rowan Brumbaugh was running the show, who also has entered the transfer portal. They struggled in the post with a rotation of bigs.

2. Styles and Huntley-Hatfield are also examples of what NC State’s philosophy has been the last three weeks in portal season — the Wolfpack are going after players they already know from the past.

NC State assistant coach Levi Watkins recruited Huntley-Hatfield since his sophomore year of high school, while coaching at Ole Miss. Watkins and Keatts recruited Styles since he was a freshman or sophomore in high school.

Other names NC State has been linked to like Tennessee guard transfer Freddie Dilione, Indiana State wing Ryan Conwell and Louisville wing Michael James, were either coached by someone on the staff (Conwell), or recruited by the Wolfpack in high school. Another former target, if he enters the transfer portal, fits that pattern as a one-time target, plus the other key part that is about to be discussed.

Cold calls is the alternative way of recruiting and now those cold calls involve player agents. Usually, what happens these days, a school checks in with player or agent, and find out what kind of NIL money is needed for the conversation to take place. If too pricey, no point in anyone wasting time.

You look at the recent NC State transfers:

Prior connection:
D.J. Horne
D.J. Burns
MJ Rice
Kam Woods
Mohamed Diarra
Jarkel Joiner
Greg Gantt

No real prior connection:
Ben Middlebrooks
Casey Morsell
Michael O’Connell
Jayden Taylor
Jack Clark
Dusan Mahorcic
Jack Clark

What helped with Taylor, Middlebrooks and Morsell was that they had played NC State, and knew the style of play.

Watkins coaching Joiner and former assistant coach Joel Justus coaching Horne, is like current fourth assistant coach Larry Dixon coaching Conwell at South Florida. NC State flirted with Burns and Diarra in the past recruitments. Woods had former NCSU player Sam Hunt as an assistant coach at North Carolina A&T, and that helped. NC State actively recruited Rice and Gantt in high school.

3. NC State’s philosophy also shows they aren’t really messing around with low- and- mid-major recruits.

Narrowing the pool might not be the right move long-term as some really good players are playing at smaller schools, but it takes the guess work out of the equation of can they translate up a level.

Usually what happens is that a player coming out of high school is too light or not the perfect height and end up at a mid-major. After a few years, they get stronger and put on weight, and the skill is matched with the body, and you get someone like Brice Williams, who NC State did like last year and went from Charlotte to Nebraska.

History has shown that it isn’t all high major or bust in the portal for Keatts.

Clark arrived from La Salle and Woods came from Troy and North Carolina A&T, but the rest of the Wolfpack transfers played at a high major school at least for a year.

Burns shows it can happen from both worlds. He went to Tennessee out of high school and was a high-major recruit. However, he found himself playing three years at Winthrop, so he’s more mid-major player than high-major. The same with Mahorcic. He went to junior college and Illinois State, before an abbreviated stint at Utah, before getting dismissed from the team. Joiner went to Cal-State Bakersfield for two years before he went to Ole Miss.

Doing the national rankings for Rivals.com’s transfers, I have low/mid-major transfers up and down the rankings, and the overwhelming majority of them have gone on to pick a high-major college.

When the next rankings get updated coming up in the next few days, and another 30-40 players get added, that will push some players down, but Huntley-Hatfield will probably be in the 20-30 range, and Styles will get inserted in the 110-130 range in all likelihood.

Conwell would be the outlier this cycle, but Styles, Huntley-Hatfield, James, Dilione and a few others that NC State reached out to were all high-major guys.

Will that trend continue? My guess it will this spring. So, the key is to see if any high major players who NC State recruited in the past or maybe played against that enter the portal the next month. Supposedly, many football and basketball players get paid for the last time this upcoming week and are waiting for that last check before entering the portal.

Sophomore Aiden Smalls back playing QB at new school​

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1. History has shown that schools get one chance to lock up a player after an official visit, so any player that makes his way to campus is ultra important.

Enter Indiana State sophomore wing Ryan Conwell, who is about to go to his third college in three years.

He started off at South Florida, where he was recruited and played for coach Brian Gregory in 2022-23. The team went 14-18 and Gregory was let go, and that led to NC State hiring one of the members of the Bulls’ staff — fourth assistant coach Larry Dixon. He provides the “in” that NC State needed, but Conwell is apparently solid friends with NCSU junior guard Jayden Taylor, with both natives of Indianapolis, Ind.

Conwell played with Eric Gordon All-Stars in travel team ball and went to Indianapolis Pike High. He didn’t have a big recruitment — Virginia Tech was his lone high-major offer — and he picked USF over the Hokies, Wichita State, Murray State, Middle Tennessee State, Indiana State, Charlotte, Northern Kentucky, Appalachian State and Nevada.

Conwell started 21 of 32 games for USF, and averaged 5.1 points and 1.9 assists per game, and he shot 34 percent from the field and 30.0 percent on three-pointers.

Conwell transferred back to his home area with the move to Indiana State, and was a key cog on a 32-7 squad, that went 17-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Drake topped Indiana State 84-80 in the MVC title game, and Conwell had 13 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

I would have had Indiana State in the NCAA Tournament and think they would have been similiar to say Wake Forest in the ACC. The Sycamores can really score, but weren’t all that great on defense. Coach Josh Schertz just understands offensive basketball and he had a unique group of players to play out his vision. Schertz and Indiana State went on to reach the title game of the NIT, falling to Seton Hall, and he took the Saint Louis job not long afterward.

Indiana State, if intact, would have been a top 20 team next year in my opinion. The favorite game that could get played is who was their top player? Sophomore center Robbie Avila gets the attention and he’s the rare gifted passing big man. Junior power forward Jayson Kent plays off Avila so well, and was a prep teammate of him. Kent did two years at Bradley and then reunited with Avila at Indiana State.

Conwell, Southern Indiana guard transfer Isaiah Swope, a junior, and junior combo guard Julian Larry formed a potent perimeter trio.

I had the order as top players…
1. Kent
2. Avila
3. Conwell
4. Larry
5. Swopes

But that order is much closer than people realize. The big question after watching them is how much of the success rests with Schertz and Avila being the rare point center? In another comparison to Wake Forest, you see that with the players that coach Steve Forbes sprinkles some magic dust over and go from being a role player to becoming All-ACC caliber players — Hunter Sallis and Alondes Williams.

2. Conwell has two distinct traits — he’s a muscular wing and he has a good and deep lefty jumper.

I see him as a cross of NC State’s Casey Morsell and D.J. Horne. He’s built similarly to Morsell but can get hot from outside like Horne. He seemed OK on defense, but probably not on the level of Morsell or his friend Jayden Taylor.

The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Conwell can drive and finish some, but his money is more on the perimeter. You can see that between Conwell, Taylor and incoming freshman Paul McNeil, the needs would be covered but it would put the pressure on the point guard to be a potent offensive performer.

Breon Pass can play both guard spots and if M.J. Rice is back, he’ll probably play more at small forward than being a small ball power forward, which was the original plan.

Conwell can play some shooting guard, but defensively, he’ll be more comfortable guarding the bigger wings, and that allows him to play with Taylor.

Conwell went 95 of 155 on two-pointers this season for 61.3 percent, which is pretty good and likely means shots at the rim, but he isn’t a dunker. Conwell gets his points spotting up — 198 of his points came on that — and then he had 108 points in transition and 76 as the pick-and-roll ballhandler.

As a comparison, Morsell had 98 points came on his jump shot, 119 in transition and 69 as the pick-and-roll ballhandler. Horne had 183 points spotting up, 100 in transition and 156 as a pick-and-roll ballhandler.

Conwell is not an isolation player and doesn’t use the runner much in the lane, so that is where he is different than Horne, besides their size.

The key for Conwell if he’s not with Avila, is to find a place that can create shots for that deep lefty jumper.