1. This was the start of transfer portal week, and we’ll start off with what is our current fastball in terms of knowledge.
It’s been pretty quiet publicly with NC State, the ground work is getting laid while juggling trying to keep advancing in the NCAA Tournament. Landing a point guard, a rotational center and preferably best shooter possible would be my current plan. NCSU has three scholarships available, but odds are good that a fourth (or fifth) will end up in play. If four are in play, then best shooter on the wing and best outside shooting stretch four sounds pretty good, to go with a center and point guard.
Where it will get tricky is will NC State add two players who can play center with junior Ben Middlebrooks, or get a power forward and use junior Mohamed Diarra if an emergency occurs due to injuries.
The portal will come in different waves of players. The first wave was players who had their coach fired or graduate transfers, and they were in the portal prior to this past Monday.
Then an explosion of players entered the portal Monday, with players who aren’t playing in the NCAA Tournament or NIT Tournament. Usually, about 20 players each day have the appearance of players who could be high major players or could play in leagues such as the Atlantic 10, Missouri Valley or Mountain West.
The next big wave should come this Monday and Tuesday after teams start falling out of the NCAA Tournament. The final wave will come after most of the teams are eliminated from the postseason.
Maybe coaches have different lingo, but players tend to fall into three categories, and we’ve seen NC State take transfers from each one.
1. There are the no question ready to be all-conference types, whether first team or honorable mention.
2. Plug and play types, meaning they are smaller school standouts who were overlooked at one point, but wants to see how he can do at the highest levels. They usually need a “good fit.”
3. Reclamation projects, meaning they were well thought and likely ranked out of high school, but it hasn’t gone their way.
Glancing at the NC State roster:
• D.J. Burns was a reclamation project when he went from Tennessee to Winthrop and then a borderline plug and play/all-conference type when he went from Winthrop to NC State.
• Casey Morsell was a reclamation project that worked out well going from Virginia to NC State.
• D.J. Horne was a plug and play type going from Illinois State to Arizona State, and essentially the same going from ASU to NC State, but he has overachieved.
• Jayden Taylor was a plug and play going from Butler to NC State.
• Diarra was a reclamation project going from Missouri to NC State.
• Middlebrooks was a plug and play type for his role going from Clemson to NCSU.
• M.J. Rice was a reclamation project going from Kansas to NC State, but it hasn’t worked out so far.
• Kam Woods was expected to redshirt this season and then be a plug and play type, going from North Carolina A&T to NC State.
• Michael O’Connell was expected to be a plug and play type for his role, going from Stanford to NC State.
