1. The big news for Friday is clarity in senior point guard
Kaden Magwood’s recruitment.
The senior point guard from Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy has made a whirlwind of official visits to NC State, Wake Forest, Mississippi State, Auburn and Mississippi.
Magwood has narrowed it to NC State, Ole Miss and Auburn and will announce Nov. 11, and the rules of engagement have been clear from the start in his recruitment.
NC State assistant coach
Levi Watkins came from Ole Miss and knows the ins and outs of that program. Conversely, Ole Miss assistant coach
Al Pinkins played at NC State.
Ole Miss has heavily leaned on the portal during the transition to second-year coach Chris Beard. The Rebels have a pair of 2025 prep commits in
Tylis Jordon and NC State legacy
Patton Pinkins. Jordan is a bouncy, long combo forward from Snellville (Ga.) Shiloh, and Pinkins is a shooter on the wing from Wolfforth (Texas) Frenship High, so he’s not playing in Oxford, Miss.
Auburn’s lone 2025 commit is wing
Simon Walker of Huntsville, Ala, who is ranked No. 110 in the country by Rivals.com.
Ole Miss doesn’t have a “young nucleus” of players, so it will be heavy in the portal again this spring. Freshman center
John Bol is skinny but at 7-2 is a gifted shot-blocker, and junior post player
Malik Dia arrives from Belmont. Junior wing
T.J. Caldwell would be in the rotation next year, but it's a program that will need to hit the portal hard this spring. Auburn will too with point guard
J.P. Pegues, wings
Denver Jones and
Miles Kelly, forward
Chad Baker-Mazara and center
Johni Broome all seniors, plus senior reserves
Dylan Cardwell,
Chris Moore,
Chaney Johnson,
Addarin Scott and
Ja'Heim Hudson.
Some believe Ole Miss has deeper pockets than Auburn, but coach
Bruce Pearl has been working his “magic” for years, winning along the way at Southern Indiana, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Tennessee and Auburn. He was fired at Tennessee for cheating and Auburn was involved in the FBI investigation and fired assistant coach
Chuck Person, a former Tigers standout, who pled guilty. Despite NCAA sanctions and rules of when Pearl could recruit off campus, it never slowed down the Tigers from getting players.
Another key figure from the FBI investigation is also involved in this recruiting scenario. If he didn’t go to the G-League, from all accounts, point guard
Scoot Henderson was going to Auburn for 2022-23 season. Who is Henderson and Magwood’s agent, the part owner of Combine Academy —
Christian Dawkins. From a pure basketball sense, NC State and Auburn make sense, but if it ends up Ole Miss, it might be more about the NIL aspect.
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2. NC State hasn’t had to tangle much with Ole Miss coach
Chris Beard on the recruiting trail. He made his bones at Texas Tech with a shocking trip to the 2018-19 championship game, falling to Virginia and coach
Tony Bennett.
His gift was to develop “sleeper” wings and make them into stars. He did that with both
Jarrett Culver and
Zhaire Smith, who became first-round NBA Draft picks. Not a sleeper in high school, but
Jahmi’us Ramsey was a one-and-done wing in 2020, who went No. 43 overall in the second round, and he did some of the early work with
Terrance Shannon and
Kevin McCullar before they transferred out, and had a good year with incoming transfer
Mac McClung, the dunking sensation.
However, he shocked TTU fans by going to rival Texas, his alma mater, for the 2021-22 season. It was supposed to be the dream pairing, but it lasted 42 games.
Beard went the transfer route in brining in Marcus Carr (Minnesota) and he had Courtney Ramey for his lone full season. He Iowa State transfer Tyrese Hunter to pair with Carr in 2022-23, and then he got jettisoned after getting arrested for an incident with his fiance.
Auburn landed a quality transfer in J.P. Pegues of Furman, who averaged 18.4 points and 4.8 assists per game last year as a junior. Ole Miss has steady senior
Jaylen Murray, a former St. Peter’s transfer, and Virginia Tech senior point guard transfer
Sean Pedula.
For Magwood purposes, here is Pearl’s point guard history since taking over in 2014:
• 2014-15: Brought in well-traveled K.C. Ross-Miller as a one-year rental, and he averaged 7.1 points and 2.4 assists per game.
• 2015-17: Junior college transfer T.J. Dunan arrived, and he averaged 9.3 points and 2.8 assists in 47 career games at Auburn.
• 2016-19: Signed Jared Harper from the prep ranks and he went to be a quality three-year starter. He averaged 13.5 points and 4.8 assists per game in 106 contests. He played sparingly in the NBA for three years.
• 2018-20: Former junior college transfer J’Von McCormick took over his senior year and averaged 11.6 points and 4.5 assists per game.
• 2020-21: Auburn signed star prep point guard Sharife Cooper and turned him loose for one year. He averaged 20.2 points and 8.1 rebounds, but went No. 48 overall in the second round.
• 2021-23: Wendell Green transferred in from Eastern Kentucky, where he played for former NC State assistant coach A.W. Hamilton. He averaged 12.9 points and 4.6 assists per game in 68 contests for the Tigers. He shared guard duties with Zep Jasper, a College of Charleston transfer.
• 2023-24: Auburn signed McDonald’s All-American Aden Holloway of Charlotte, N.C. He averaged 7.3 points and 2.7 assists per game and transferred to Alabama. Tre Donaldson also had 10 starts.
Harper was ranked No. 56 by Rivals.com, Cooper was ranked No. 22 and Holloway was ranked No. 29.
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