1. We’ll keep this simple — it is almost over with forming what the coaches hope is an ideal roster.
Finding a starting point guard and backup center is what is left after adding combo guard DJ Horne of Arizona State, shooting guard Jayden Taylor of Butler, forward M.J. Rice of Kansas and center Ben Middlebrooks.
There are two ways of working the portal for coaches, pre-existing relationships or cold calls. NC State assistant coach Joel Justus had coached ASU two years ago, and assistant coach Kareem Richardson coached Middlebrooks two years ago at CU. That is the perks of having a new group of assistant coaches, it extends the reach. Coach Kevin Keatts recruited Rice for a little over three years for NC State. Taylor was truly a cold call, but it also didn’t hurt that the Wolfpack played Butler and probably scouted the Bulldogs leading up to that game in the Bahamas. Obviously, Keatts could also see Middlebrooks in his three meetings this season.
The portal has also led to not settling. Gone are the springs where the Wolfpack would add guys like Jaylon Gibson, Darius Hicks or Atticus “A.J.” Taylor to fill out the roster. This spring they have attacked players with a purpose for specific roles they are suited for.
Middlebrooks is an ideal backup center, who easily could play 30-plus minutes at a mid-major school. Having three wings to rotate among Morsell, Taylor and Horne is textbook and should make up for the scoring lost from Terquavion Smith going to the NBA. The plan from the start was to bring in at least five guys through the portal, and now it has expanded to six, but not because of any alarm bells happening, but being assertive.
Whether it’s the influence of Justus being at Kentucky or Watkins being at Ole Miss, but the Wolfpack are much more aggressive than in the past. Say whatever you want about the SEC, but recruiting in that league has always been much different than the ACC. You see that with how few of the rebuilding teams in the ACC and how they’ve been doing in the portal. Louisville, which is as SEC as it gets traditionally, has one transfer and got a prep player in Trentyn Flowers of Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy to graduate early. Flowers has talent, but might be a year away from being a solid ACC forward.
Syracuse has two transfers, one who played just 11 games for Auburn this season in Chance Westry, and the other is J.J. Starling from Notre Dame, who was a good get. But NC State has been better than both Syracuse and Louisville this offseason.
There is still many more weeks of portal recruiting coming up, but NC State, Virginia and perhaps Pittsburgh have to be happy with what they’ve achieved this far. However, at the end of the day, the Wolfpack will have to get a point guard, and that remains a big mystery.
In NC State’s high ball screen pick-and-roll offensive philosophy, the point guard makes it go, plus the team wants to play fast, and not every point guard has wheels. With D.J. Burns not a three-point shooter, and Rice is unproven at making three-pointer’s on the college level, the point guard will also need to be a threat. It’s a big ask, but the coaching staff has been analyzing various guards to see if they were a good fit or not. If they wanted to take the easy way out and call it a spring, Jalen Benjamin, the son of former NCSU guard Ishua Benjamin, would be committed. He’s now going to play for Herb Sendek at Santa Clara.
What will likely happen is some point guard, who might not even be in the portal right now, will know that NC State is looking for someone to be a starter, wants to play in the ACC, maybe even from the region and accepts the challenge of leading a potential preseason top 25 team. NIL money would be icing on the cake because this kind of setup could lead to making money overseas if the player isn’t an NBA prospect. Jarkel Joiner is living proof of what the next point guard can achieve.
2. The other nice aspect of this week is that NC State isn’t bogged down hosting transfers this weekend, and can hit the road to Atlanta for the Nike Elite Youth Basketball, adidas 3SSB in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Under Armour in Phoenix, Ariz.
Assistant coach Joel Justus will be at Nike, coach Kevin Keatts and assistant coach Levi Watkins will go to adidas and then Nike, and Richardson will hold it down at Under Armour.
One of the biggest reasons some of these schools have signed players not good enough is that they’ve been bogged down hosting players on weekends and not really getting to see high school players and evaluating them. A simple NCAA fix would be to push the April evaluation period to May and then colleges could host transfers on weekends, since this is essentially speed-dating, it would help if the coaches could all be on campus when the transfer visits happen.
That is why landing the four transfers, and we’ll see what happens with Missouri post transfer Mohamed Diarra coming up, will pay off for NC State down the road. Perhaps that is also why the urgency of the last few weeks has occurred.
The Wolfpack Central has the hot boards rolling for both the class of 2024 and 2025. The expectation is that a couple of in-state players, like say sophomores Sadiq White of Charlotte (N.C.) Myers Park and Zymicah Wilkins of Rutherfordon-Spindale Central High could get seen the next two weekends with Team United 16s, and perhaps get offered. Having them playing together makes it easier for NC State coaches.
The Wolfpack will also make sure to see Garner Road in Iowa to check in on commit Paul McNeil and junior target Rakease Passmore.
Another team that will be a major priority is Boo Williams at Nike, due to having Jaeden Mustaf of Matthews (N.C.) Carmel Christian and Austin Swartz of Concord (N.C.) Cannon School.
NC State is in good shape with Mustaf who came out with a top five of the Wolfpack, Miami, Florida State, Indiana and Virginia Tech. The Hokies have lost assistant coach Mike Jones, the former Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic coach, to Maryland, and that was a blow to the Hokies.
Mustaf has that toughness, winning mentality and basketball IQ that college coaches covet. It is amazing how often he gets to the the free-thrown line due to being crafty and taking the bumps while getting to the rim.
Swartz is a different kind of guard. He’s mostly played point guard whether at Cannon School or in the past with Team Charlotte. Swartz has a beautiful jumper and knows how to create space to get his shot off. He’s played against some high level guards over the last year, and showed he doesn’t back down. It might lead to some games that hurt his shooting percentage, but it’s better than the alternative of not trying to carry a squad.
Both Mustaf and Swartz were two of the few class of 2024 guys to play in the 17s division from the state of North Carolina. Mustaf was with New World 17s and won the adidas 3SSB title in Rock Hill, S.C., last July. Playing against older players is a great way of learning. All the younger players play against older players on the high school level, but the trend has been to keep freshman on the 15s and sophomores on the 16s for travel ball.
3. Sometimes you get a mysterious puzzle to put together. That happened late Thursday night when I got a tip that NC State could be looking at a junior college player at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla. If that school sounds familiar, it is where former NC State post player Derek Funderburk went. The same coach who had Funderburk, Steve DeMeo, is back there again after being an assistant at ECU in 2021-22 and St. John’s in 2019-21.
So that is the background for this recruitment. After checking some things out, I also understand why NC State would be interested in Kasean Pryor, a 6-foot-10, 200-pounder who does a little bit of everything. He grew from 5-11 as an eighth grader to 6-10.
Pryor is originally from Chicago, Ill., and he went his senior year to Link Year Prep School in Branson, Mo. He picked Boise State over a boatload of mid-major offers including Southern Illinois, Detroit Mercy, South Alabama, Appalachian State, Winthrop, Drake, Southeast Missouri State, Saint Louis, Eastern Michigan, Canisius, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Southern Utah, Robert Morris, Central Michigan, NJIT and Harvard.
He played at Boise State and it just did not work out at all. He appeared in five games in 2020-21 and eight games in 2021, finishing his abbreviated career with 24 points, 16 rebounds and three assists.
Pryor made his way to junior college and played with three players this season who went to North Carolina high schools — Tajuan Simpkins and his twin brother Takai Simpkins of Charlotte (N.C.) Liberty Heights and Treyvon Byrd of Durham (N.C.) Bull City Prep. Pryor was one of five former Division I players and the team went 29-8 this season.
Pryor’s looks pretty creative on video and refers to him self as a point guard at 6-10. He averaged 14.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and had 49 blocks and 59 steals in 35 games this season. He shot 46.2 percent from the field and went 43 of 122 on three-pointers for 35.2 percent.
He had 18 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in the season-ending 73-70 loss to John A. Logan College on March 25.
Junior college transfers have had a hard time adjusting to the ACC, and NC State has dabbled a bit with Funderburk, Desmond Lee and Atticus Taylor to mixed results. However, there just seems something about Pryor that draws you in and wherever he ends up, he’ll be fun to follow.
Finding a starting point guard and backup center is what is left after adding combo guard DJ Horne of Arizona State, shooting guard Jayden Taylor of Butler, forward M.J. Rice of Kansas and center Ben Middlebrooks.
There are two ways of working the portal for coaches, pre-existing relationships or cold calls. NC State assistant coach Joel Justus had coached ASU two years ago, and assistant coach Kareem Richardson coached Middlebrooks two years ago at CU. That is the perks of having a new group of assistant coaches, it extends the reach. Coach Kevin Keatts recruited Rice for a little over three years for NC State. Taylor was truly a cold call, but it also didn’t hurt that the Wolfpack played Butler and probably scouted the Bulldogs leading up to that game in the Bahamas. Obviously, Keatts could also see Middlebrooks in his three meetings this season.
The portal has also led to not settling. Gone are the springs where the Wolfpack would add guys like Jaylon Gibson, Darius Hicks or Atticus “A.J.” Taylor to fill out the roster. This spring they have attacked players with a purpose for specific roles they are suited for.
Middlebrooks is an ideal backup center, who easily could play 30-plus minutes at a mid-major school. Having three wings to rotate among Morsell, Taylor and Horne is textbook and should make up for the scoring lost from Terquavion Smith going to the NBA. The plan from the start was to bring in at least five guys through the portal, and now it has expanded to six, but not because of any alarm bells happening, but being assertive.
Whether it’s the influence of Justus being at Kentucky or Watkins being at Ole Miss, but the Wolfpack are much more aggressive than in the past. Say whatever you want about the SEC, but recruiting in that league has always been much different than the ACC. You see that with how few of the rebuilding teams in the ACC and how they’ve been doing in the portal. Louisville, which is as SEC as it gets traditionally, has one transfer and got a prep player in Trentyn Flowers of Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy to graduate early. Flowers has talent, but might be a year away from being a solid ACC forward.
Syracuse has two transfers, one who played just 11 games for Auburn this season in Chance Westry, and the other is J.J. Starling from Notre Dame, who was a good get. But NC State has been better than both Syracuse and Louisville this offseason.
There is still many more weeks of portal recruiting coming up, but NC State, Virginia and perhaps Pittsburgh have to be happy with what they’ve achieved this far. However, at the end of the day, the Wolfpack will have to get a point guard, and that remains a big mystery.
In NC State’s high ball screen pick-and-roll offensive philosophy, the point guard makes it go, plus the team wants to play fast, and not every point guard has wheels. With D.J. Burns not a three-point shooter, and Rice is unproven at making three-pointer’s on the college level, the point guard will also need to be a threat. It’s a big ask, but the coaching staff has been analyzing various guards to see if they were a good fit or not. If they wanted to take the easy way out and call it a spring, Jalen Benjamin, the son of former NCSU guard Ishua Benjamin, would be committed. He’s now going to play for Herb Sendek at Santa Clara.
What will likely happen is some point guard, who might not even be in the portal right now, will know that NC State is looking for someone to be a starter, wants to play in the ACC, maybe even from the region and accepts the challenge of leading a potential preseason top 25 team. NIL money would be icing on the cake because this kind of setup could lead to making money overseas if the player isn’t an NBA prospect. Jarkel Joiner is living proof of what the next point guard can achieve.
2. The other nice aspect of this week is that NC State isn’t bogged down hosting transfers this weekend, and can hit the road to Atlanta for the Nike Elite Youth Basketball, adidas 3SSB in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Under Armour in Phoenix, Ariz.
Assistant coach Joel Justus will be at Nike, coach Kevin Keatts and assistant coach Levi Watkins will go to adidas and then Nike, and Richardson will hold it down at Under Armour.
One of the biggest reasons some of these schools have signed players not good enough is that they’ve been bogged down hosting players on weekends and not really getting to see high school players and evaluating them. A simple NCAA fix would be to push the April evaluation period to May and then colleges could host transfers on weekends, since this is essentially speed-dating, it would help if the coaches could all be on campus when the transfer visits happen.
That is why landing the four transfers, and we’ll see what happens with Missouri post transfer Mohamed Diarra coming up, will pay off for NC State down the road. Perhaps that is also why the urgency of the last few weeks has occurred.
The Wolfpack Central has the hot boards rolling for both the class of 2024 and 2025. The expectation is that a couple of in-state players, like say sophomores Sadiq White of Charlotte (N.C.) Myers Park and Zymicah Wilkins of Rutherfordon-Spindale Central High could get seen the next two weekends with Team United 16s, and perhaps get offered. Having them playing together makes it easier for NC State coaches.
The Wolfpack will also make sure to see Garner Road in Iowa to check in on commit Paul McNeil and junior target Rakease Passmore.
Another team that will be a major priority is Boo Williams at Nike, due to having Jaeden Mustaf of Matthews (N.C.) Carmel Christian and Austin Swartz of Concord (N.C.) Cannon School.
NC State is in good shape with Mustaf who came out with a top five of the Wolfpack, Miami, Florida State, Indiana and Virginia Tech. The Hokies have lost assistant coach Mike Jones, the former Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha Catholic coach, to Maryland, and that was a blow to the Hokies.
Mustaf has that toughness, winning mentality and basketball IQ that college coaches covet. It is amazing how often he gets to the the free-thrown line due to being crafty and taking the bumps while getting to the rim.
Swartz is a different kind of guard. He’s mostly played point guard whether at Cannon School or in the past with Team Charlotte. Swartz has a beautiful jumper and knows how to create space to get his shot off. He’s played against some high level guards over the last year, and showed he doesn’t back down. It might lead to some games that hurt his shooting percentage, but it’s better than the alternative of not trying to carry a squad.
Both Mustaf and Swartz were two of the few class of 2024 guys to play in the 17s division from the state of North Carolina. Mustaf was with New World 17s and won the adidas 3SSB title in Rock Hill, S.C., last July. Playing against older players is a great way of learning. All the younger players play against older players on the high school level, but the trend has been to keep freshman on the 15s and sophomores on the 16s for travel ball.
3. Sometimes you get a mysterious puzzle to put together. That happened late Thursday night when I got a tip that NC State could be looking at a junior college player at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla. If that school sounds familiar, it is where former NC State post player Derek Funderburk went. The same coach who had Funderburk, Steve DeMeo, is back there again after being an assistant at ECU in 2021-22 and St. John’s in 2019-21.
So that is the background for this recruitment. After checking some things out, I also understand why NC State would be interested in Kasean Pryor, a 6-foot-10, 200-pounder who does a little bit of everything. He grew from 5-11 as an eighth grader to 6-10.
Pryor is originally from Chicago, Ill., and he went his senior year to Link Year Prep School in Branson, Mo. He picked Boise State over a boatload of mid-major offers including Southern Illinois, Detroit Mercy, South Alabama, Appalachian State, Winthrop, Drake, Southeast Missouri State, Saint Louis, Eastern Michigan, Canisius, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Southern Utah, Robert Morris, Central Michigan, NJIT and Harvard.
He played at Boise State and it just did not work out at all. He appeared in five games in 2020-21 and eight games in 2021, finishing his abbreviated career with 24 points, 16 rebounds and three assists.
Pryor made his way to junior college and played with three players this season who went to North Carolina high schools — Tajuan Simpkins and his twin brother Takai Simpkins of Charlotte (N.C.) Liberty Heights and Treyvon Byrd of Durham (N.C.) Bull City Prep. Pryor was one of five former Division I players and the team went 29-8 this season.
Pryor’s looks pretty creative on video and refers to him self as a point guard at 6-10. He averaged 14.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and had 49 blocks and 59 steals in 35 games this season. He shot 46.2 percent from the field and went 43 of 122 on three-pointers for 35.2 percent.
He had 18 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in the season-ending 73-70 loss to John A. Logan College on March 25.
Junior college transfers have had a hard time adjusting to the ACC, and NC State has dabbled a bit with Funderburk, Desmond Lee and Atticus Taylor to mixed results. However, there just seems something about Pryor that draws you in and wherever he ends up, he’ll be fun to follow.
