1a. In many ways, the recruitment of Brandon Huntley-Hatfield was 4-5 years in the making.
Then Ole Miss assistant coach Levi Watkins recruited Huntley-Hatfield — maybe starting in 2019 — and got the Rebels in his final group in March 2021. He ended up picking Tennessee and graduating a year early in the class of 2021.
Tennessee had beaten Kansas, Ole Miss, Wake Forest, Syracuse and Auburn, and the guy guiding him through it all was Bobby Maze, of B-Maze Elite traveling team on the Under Armour circuit. Maze has always found a way to get young talent into his program over the years, from Jaden Springer to Jaden Bradley for a bit to Huntley-Hatfield. He was a point guard at Oklahoma and Tennessee from 2006-2010.
What Huntley-Hatfield once said in a Rivals.com story about Maze after committing to Tennessee on April 15, 2021:
“He’s played a huge role in my development. When I started with him 3-4 years ago, no one knew who I was. He’s helped develop me, surrounded me with really good players and we have played against the best competition. He’s like a second father to me. We are really close. He has taught me and is still teaching me so many life lessons,” Huntley-Hatfield explained.
Naturally, when Huntley-Hatfield showed he wasn’t ready as an early enrollee freshman, the finger pointing emerged. He averaged 3.9 points and 3.0 rebounds in 12.5 minutes per game, and he went 2 of 13 from three-point range. The team won big and went 27-8 and he split time with John Fulkerson, who was the better player, but had injury issues.
NC State with Watkins on staff tried to get involved after Huntley-Hatfield entered the portal in 2022, but it didn’t get anywhere. The Wolfpack landed D.J. Burns and Dusan Mahorcic that spring/summer.
Huntley-Hatfield settled on Louisville, and then new coach Kenny Payne. At the time it made sense. Payne had been an assistant coach at Kentucky and the Wildcats had evaluated Huntley-Hatfield at length. Huntley-Hatfield is close with former UK power forward Alex Poythress.
The Louisville experience has been good and bad. On the one hand, individually, Huntley-Hatfield has become a good solid player. On the other hand, he might have been coached by the worst high-major coach in the modern era of college basketball. Things were so thrown off at Louisville that every single player on the team entered the transfer portal after Payne was fired, and Pat Kelsey was hired from College of Charleston.
Washing away going 12-52 the last two years will be a big part in working Huntley-Hatfield into the NC State fold.
The two players from Louisville that transferred after going 4-28 overall and 2-18 in the ACC in 2022-23 struggled this past year — guard El Ellis at Arkansas and Jae’Lyn Withers at North Carolina.
Ellis averaged 17.5 points and 4.4 assists in 36.0 minutes per game at UL, and then dropped to 6.5 points and 1.8 assists in 21.0 minutes per game and was benched for a stretch at Arkansas.
Withers, who NC State was hoping to add a year ago, averaged 8.9 points and 5.3 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game at Louisville, fell to 4.2 points and 3.6 rebounds in 12.4 minutes a contest this season at UNC off the bench.
Sydney Curry transfer from Louisville to Grand Canyon and was a bench player, and Roosevelt Wheeler never found a role at his new college this season, VCU.
I don’t expect a drop off in Huntley-Hatfield’s statistics, but more so it will be about learning how to make winning plays in close games down the stretch.
1b. Huntley-Hatfield’s path has always reminded in many ways to another big man that has similar traits — Vernon Macklin, who played two years at Georgetown and two years at Florida (2006-2011). He ended up going in the second round to the Detroit Pistons and played a year in the NBA. He had a lot of hype and a catchy nickname, “Big Ticket” when in high school and was a McDonald’s All-American.
Coincidentally, Kevin Keatts coached the 757 standout at Chatham (Va.) Hargrave Military Academy, after starting off at Portsmouth (Va.) I.C. Norcom High. He was ranked No. 37 overall in the class of 2006 by Rivals.com, but was like Huntley-Hatfield, was much, much higher when he was younger. Macklin grew into being a true center and his stats at Florida were similar to Huntley-Hatfield.
Huntley-Hatfield was ranked No. 36 in the class of 2021, but was originally in the 2022 class, and ranked at No. 14 at one point. The original plan was to be a one-and-done small forward, and he even talked in 2019 about skipping college if the NBA rules got changed.
That plan bombed pretty good his freshman year at Tennessee, but Huntley-Hatfield has learned some valuable lessons over the last two years — most importantly, he’s a low-post center. He’s gone 16 of 52 in his three years from the tree-point line, including 9 of 21 this past season, but his money is made playing on the block.
2. Landing a center was of utmost importance this offseason in order to be able to play junior post player Mohamed Diarra mostly at power forward.
NC State will likely have to pay Diarra to keep him, but that drama will get played out after the season is over. It would be ideal to get one more post player this cycle, but that depends on if there is attrition on the roster.
Reviewing NC State’s 94-85 win over Louisville in the first round of the ACC Tournament, which now seems ages ago nine straight wins later, Huntley-Hatfield showed he he was one of the top 5-6 centers in the ACC.
He finished the game with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals, one block and three turnovers in 32 minutes played. NC State won’t have to hide him on defense and he played over 30 minutes in 20 games this season. He fouled out in three games.
Huntley-Hatfield guarantees that NC State will play two post players for the second year in a row, with junior Ben Middlebrooks likely backing up Diarra and Huntley-Hatfield, assume he is good with that role and returns.
Jotting down some notes from the game, this was the gist of what he achieved, with three different post players guarding him at various times.
First half:
Made a baseline 12-footer spotting up.
Head scratchingly bad over and back pass.
Got D.J. Burns to reach in and foul and made both free throws.
Ran the floor well, got stripped by Jayden Taylor.
Missed an elbow jumper.
Got blocked by Mohamed Diarra in the post.
Nifty fade-away in the lane to score on Diarra.
Drive on Diarra for a basket.
Rattled in a left corner 3-pointer.
Second half:
Nice half hook against D.J. Burns.
Faced up with Burns and drew the foul, and made both free throws.
Received a cheap foul posting up Ben Middlebrooks.
Bullied Middlebrooks on a post-up for two.
Missed a pull-up 16-footer.
Missed a short shot in lane against Burns.
