Stanford junior center Maxime Raynaud has elected to exit the transfer portal at some point and return to play for the Cardinal. He's a skilled 7-footer from France, who I'm sure had all the schools on him but symbolic victory for the new coach Kyle Smith, who was a miracle worker at Washington State.

Maxime Raynaud stats

Who knows but he clearly is interested

2 Carolina Tix...my Grandson wants to go with me!

Vote with our feet and keep ALL our money. What a recipe FOR DISASTER. Truly "back the Pack" and be part of the magic. We know The Carter is loud...did you ever wonder how loud it could be if EVERYONE was cheering at the same time? A friend who lived two miles from the stadium in Ann Arbor said the ground would shake with the noise of a first down! Isn't it time we shake the ground TOGETHER for NC State, as One Pack One Goal? Whining, _itching, and moaning are very effective...in guaranteeing failure and the same old poop!
Dean Smith was hung in effigy! Coach K was on the chopping block...but the AD put his neck out to keep him

Former Washington and Kentucky player Mark Pope, who also played in the NBA and even was in medical school for a few years, looks to be the next coach at Kentucky. He has gone 110-52 overall in his five years at BYU.

Mark Pope bio

High Point star guard Duke Miles is in the portal. Now what is interesting, he gave out a lengthy list of schools that have contacted him, but it was a day before he even was in the portal. You can do a lot of things in the NIL era, but that isn't one of them. He played his first three years at Troy, so a former teammate of Kam Woods.

So this could be interesting where the schools that didn't contact him will turn in the schools that did:

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I wonder if this will be the trend, but Mount St. Mary's coach Dan Engelstad left after six years to become an assistant coach at Syracuse. He reached the NCAA Tournament in 2020-21.

I think the big question moving forward will be whether athletic directors will look at assistants on high major staff's more than low/mid-major coaches. Too early to tell, but if a rash of coaches rejoin high major staffs, it will be telling.

ESPN reporter Chris Mortensenpassed away to day at 72 years old from throat cancer. He was great reporter on NFL football. Prayers to his family. He was a very good one.

NC State hoops transfer hot board, version 1.0​

I've studied all these players. I'm not sure all will be fits, but they've publicly mentioned NC State so far. It will get more into focus early next week.

Baylor coach Scott Drew turns down Kentucky, so I'm sure Chip Gaines will be doing a victory lap over it on Twitter.

Some think UK could even turn to Rick Pitino at this point. No inside info, but Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who seems to not have much NIL at the moment, Illinois coach Brad Underwood or Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg could be the next tier of coaches that fit.

I don't think he wants to leave the NBA, but Billy Donovan of the Chicago Bulls would be the grand prize.

NC State will host safety Maliki Wright of Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips on June 14-16.

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Maybe the SEC is right: men play football, baseball and go huntin’. Basketball is a girl’s sport

From WSJ:
The NCAA women’s basketball tournament final Sunday drew more viewers than the men’s final for the first time in history, fueled in part by Iowa standout Caitlin Clark’s rise to superstardom and marking a stunning moment for the sport.
But that won’t be reflected in the money each side earns for TV rights: $6.5 million for the women’s tournament and $873 million for the men’s.

FWIW- Bama had, by far, the fewest supporters in Phoenix. Purdue had, by far, the most. Purdue folks were also a bit unfriendly/ rough. The UConn folks reminded me of UNC- arrogantly entitled

Hey guys, Ben Parker from Cardinal Sports Report, the Stanford site for Rivals. I wrote a little something on Michael O'Connell and his contributions to the Wolfpack's Final Four run. Read that here.

NC State sophomore PG L.J. Thomas lands at Austin Peay after he quit the team.

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I don't have any problem with that:

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Swept notre dame

Transfer rankings​

We'll see how many of these players NC State gets heavily involved in, but for this particular batch of players, I felt specific groupings when doing the rankings.

Looking at the rankings, players 1-through-6 should be NBA Draft choices.

The next groupings will change as each week, it feels like 40-plus players get inserted, so very good players will start to drop some in the rankings.

Players 7-through-41 should be All-Conference caliber players.

Players 42-through-112 should be really good role players at high major colleges.

The players from 113-to-152 or so should be solid starters at mid/high-major schools.

For 153-196, it’s a more a combination of players with really good upside, but not a lot of resume yet, or can fill a specific kind of role.

For 197-to-222, again a combination of talented prep players who haven’t done much and guys who could be good role players.

You look at the eight NC State players who came in as transfers — Casey Morsell, Jayden Taylor, D.J. Burns, Mohamed Diarra, Ben Middlebrooks, M.J. Rice, Kam Woods and Michael O'Connell — they'd have fallen into these categrories.

Burns and Taylor would have been in 113-to-152 range description.

Morsell, Diarra and Rice would have been in that 153-196 range.

Middlebrooks, Woods and O'Connell probably in the 197-222 range.

Ex-NFL RB Merrill Hoge says drafting Drake Maye is the kind of decision that can get you fired:

"Drake Maye is the kind of player that will get you fired," Hoge told WCCO radio. "Especially if you draft him in the top five or top three, he’s going to get you fired."

"His last game against NC State was probably the most embarrassing display I’ve seen from a guy who is supposed to be an elite franchise quarterback. … He’s erratic. He’s everywhere."

I love this. Love that the ass kicking we put on him might contribute to him not being taken so highly in the draft.

Indiana State made it to the title game of the NIT and had all five starters back for next year. Some thought they should have been in the Big Dance, but there are always a few teams that could have been No. 69.

Their accomplished head coach Josh Schertz, who once was the manager I believe for Raleigh Ravenscroft prep coach Kevin Billerman at Florida Atlantic, and has been an assistant coach at Queens and High Point, gets the Saint Louis job. And then one-by-one the portal has swallowed up the starters, with big man Robbie Avila the last one who hasn't entered the portal yet. These are very good players, especially Julian Larry, who shot 46.2 percent on three-pointers.

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