ROCK HILL, S.C. — Every year some of the private schools in North Carolina attract someone from out of state that could get recruited by NC State.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts was able to see Kaden Magwood of Louisville, Ky., play Thursday with Team Loaded VA, following an offer to him this past Monday. Magwood will be playing at Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy with exciting junior guard Yohance Connor of Salisbury, N.C.
Another player making his way to the U.S. is point guard Adriel Nyorha of Ottawa, Canada, which is west of Montreal. It’s not that far away from where new NC State post player Ismael Diouf is from. Nyorha, who plays with Brookwood Elite, is making the move to Winston-Salem (N.C.) Christian, and will take over the point guard spot from Jordan Lowery. Last year, Lowery was the move-in player that NC State started to pursue in the class of 2025. He came from Denton (Texas) Guyer High, got offered by NC State, and is now back at Guyer High for his senior year.
Nyorha is much different than Lowery. He’s closer to Isaiah Denis of Davidson (N.C.) Day, who NCSU has already offered. He doesn’t force the action, but he’ll have about 4-5 plays where. you get surprised and think “Wow, he can do things like that.” He played well against a solid Jalen Green Elite squad, but some coaches didn’t even know he was back from his injury.
Nyorha isn’t a complete unknown. He currently has offers from Arizona State, DePaul, Mississippi State, Canisius and UC-Santa Barbara. My hunch is that another 15 high-major schools will jump in once they see him play in the future. It’s easy to predict that many of the colleges chasing Denis, will move on to Nyorha after Denis picks a school. Ohio State and assistant coach Joel Justus are the rumored current leader for Denis.
NC State and Winston-Salem Christian coach Antonio Lowe have a good working relationship. Lowe once coached Shakeel Moore and Josh Hall at Hickory (N.C.) Moravian Prep, when they signed with NC State.
•••
Magwood and Team Loaded VA had a major battle on their hands against a scrappy team from Indiana, Team Tradition. Loaded won 64-58 and needed every basket Magwood and senior small forward Nate Ament could produce. Magwood had 24 points and two three-pointers, and Ament finished with 19 points.
Magwood has the gift of being able to create his shot any time he wants, and that is what separates players. That combined with great speed and his fearlessness and the prediction is that he’ll move up from No. 60.
Last year, guard Jalil Bethea of Team Final and Archbishop Wood Catholic in the Philadelphia, Pa., area went through that rise last year. He finished No. 7 in the class of 2024 and signed with Miami and the Hurricanes should be turning him loose this season.
Magwood probably won’t be a top 10 recruit, but he will be coveted. Team Loaded VA has at least four high-major players for sure, and the coaches were lined up all around the court. The people who take pictures and videos, at least 12 people were around the court. They are the biggest show on adidas this year.
Some will wonder if Magwood is a point guard or shooting guard, but I view him as a weapon. He’ll have some wild shots and turnovers, but his plusses definitely outweigh minuses. He’s a cross of Terquavion Smith and D.J. Horne in many ways.
•••
Some quick hitters…
• I talked to a MAC head coach who I’ve known off and on for about three decades. He was recruiting Ricardo Greer Jr., and he said the biggest concern has been his injury history. Greer isn’t on the NBA Academy rosters and was seen with a cast on his arm in accepting a recent award, so the guess is he might not play at all in July.
The coach also said he liked Bowling Green transfer Marcus Hill’s one-on-one skills. He viewed him as the kind of guard who passes the ball when he has to, meaning, he wants to score and when that is taken away from him, then he’ll look to pass the ball.
• ACC coaches such as NC State’s Kevin Keatts, Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes, California’s Mark Madsen, North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, Clemson’s Brad Brownell, Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry and Virginia’s Tony Bennett, were in attendance. Maybe I missed someone along the way. The other ACC coaches seemed excited in talking to former NBA player and Stanford star Madsen, who brought in a host of transfers this offseason.
• Iowa State has been quietly super effective in getting players out of Wisconsin. It hasn’t just been Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers. Batemon plays with Kevon Looney-sponsored Power 5.
Senior shooting guard Jamarion Batemon of Milwaukee Academy of Science is a player that some told me is a “Kevin Keatts kind of player.” After watching him, I concur. He’s a heck of a steal for Iowa State on the wing. He’s ranked No. 104 by Rivals.com at the moment, but I see him rising considerably.
• Michael O’Connell transferred in from Stanford last year and few expected him to be a 30-plus minutes a night point guard for NC State, but he proved everyone wrong.
Portland (Ore.) Central Catholic senior point guard Isaac Carr has a lot of O’Connell in his game. Not surprisingly Stanford has offered him, but so has Wake Forest, Oregon, Oregon State and a good amount of mid-majors.
• One high major coach said some schools are recruiting high school players to be able to build a foundation to land them as transfers down the road.
• It took some time, but finally got to see Jacob Wilkins, the son of NBA legend Dominique Wilkins of Washington, N.C. Jacob Wilkins also is going to Georgia, which is where Dominique went and his cousin Damien Wilkins, who transferred there after playing at NC State.
Jacob Wilkins is ranked No. 28 in the class of 2025, but he struggled with Team Huncho. He’s a perfect example of why you need to watch players a few times. He looks the part and I'm under the impression he's a freaky athlete at 6-8, but he just didn't get much done.
• Maybe a traveling team first, but former NBA player and coach Sam Mitchell is coaching Phenom United, an Ohio-based traveling program built around senior wing Darryn Peterson. He is ranked No. 3 in the country by Rivals and plays with Huntington (W.Va.) Prep, and he’s a terrific scorer. The top 7-8 players in the class of 2025 will come in and make a big impact as freshman, and Peterson could be a 15-plus points per game scorer in a year.
Mitchell coached the Toronto Raptors from 2004-09, and with Minnesota in 2015-16. He last coached as an assistant at Memphis in 2018-19.
• Not at adidas, but heard that coach Curtis Malone has a traveling team on the new Puma circuit. He’s one of the original big name traveling team coaches, making D.C. Assault one of the most elite programs ever. He had D.C. Assault on both Nike and adidas, and then D.C. Premier on Under Armour is my understanding. He was sentenced to 100 months in prison in 2014 for dealing cocaine and heroin in the Washington, D.C. area.
• Team Loaded VA 16s is the one of the main attractions Friday.
Combine Academy’s junior guard Yohance Connor and junior power forward Elhadji Diallo, Fayetteville (N.C.) Berean Prep forward Josiah Sanders and Winston-Salem Christian junior center Kosi Mgbejiofor play for Team Loaded VA 16s.
I’ll also get a second look at Adriel Nyorha and Brookwood Elite against the Atlanta Celtics today.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts was able to see Kaden Magwood of Louisville, Ky., play Thursday with Team Loaded VA, following an offer to him this past Monday. Magwood will be playing at Lincolnton (N.C.) Combine Academy with exciting junior guard Yohance Connor of Salisbury, N.C.
Another player making his way to the U.S. is point guard Adriel Nyorha of Ottawa, Canada, which is west of Montreal. It’s not that far away from where new NC State post player Ismael Diouf is from. Nyorha, who plays with Brookwood Elite, is making the move to Winston-Salem (N.C.) Christian, and will take over the point guard spot from Jordan Lowery. Last year, Lowery was the move-in player that NC State started to pursue in the class of 2025. He came from Denton (Texas) Guyer High, got offered by NC State, and is now back at Guyer High for his senior year.
Nyorha is much different than Lowery. He’s closer to Isaiah Denis of Davidson (N.C.) Day, who NCSU has already offered. He doesn’t force the action, but he’ll have about 4-5 plays where. you get surprised and think “Wow, he can do things like that.” He played well against a solid Jalen Green Elite squad, but some coaches didn’t even know he was back from his injury.
Nyorha isn’t a complete unknown. He currently has offers from Arizona State, DePaul, Mississippi State, Canisius and UC-Santa Barbara. My hunch is that another 15 high-major schools will jump in once they see him play in the future. It’s easy to predict that many of the colleges chasing Denis, will move on to Nyorha after Denis picks a school. Ohio State and assistant coach Joel Justus are the rumored current leader for Denis.
NC State and Winston-Salem Christian coach Antonio Lowe have a good working relationship. Lowe once coached Shakeel Moore and Josh Hall at Hickory (N.C.) Moravian Prep, when they signed with NC State.
•••
Magwood and Team Loaded VA had a major battle on their hands against a scrappy team from Indiana, Team Tradition. Loaded won 64-58 and needed every basket Magwood and senior small forward Nate Ament could produce. Magwood had 24 points and two three-pointers, and Ament finished with 19 points.
Magwood has the gift of being able to create his shot any time he wants, and that is what separates players. That combined with great speed and his fearlessness and the prediction is that he’ll move up from No. 60.
Last year, guard Jalil Bethea of Team Final and Archbishop Wood Catholic in the Philadelphia, Pa., area went through that rise last year. He finished No. 7 in the class of 2024 and signed with Miami and the Hurricanes should be turning him loose this season.
Magwood probably won’t be a top 10 recruit, but he will be coveted. Team Loaded VA has at least four high-major players for sure, and the coaches were lined up all around the court. The people who take pictures and videos, at least 12 people were around the court. They are the biggest show on adidas this year.
Some will wonder if Magwood is a point guard or shooting guard, but I view him as a weapon. He’ll have some wild shots and turnovers, but his plusses definitely outweigh minuses. He’s a cross of Terquavion Smith and D.J. Horne in many ways.
•••
Some quick hitters…
• I talked to a MAC head coach who I’ve known off and on for about three decades. He was recruiting Ricardo Greer Jr., and he said the biggest concern has been his injury history. Greer isn’t on the NBA Academy rosters and was seen with a cast on his arm in accepting a recent award, so the guess is he might not play at all in July.
The coach also said he liked Bowling Green transfer Marcus Hill’s one-on-one skills. He viewed him as the kind of guard who passes the ball when he has to, meaning, he wants to score and when that is taken away from him, then he’ll look to pass the ball.
• ACC coaches such as NC State’s Kevin Keatts, Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes, California’s Mark Madsen, North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, Clemson’s Brad Brownell, Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry and Virginia’s Tony Bennett, were in attendance. Maybe I missed someone along the way. The other ACC coaches seemed excited in talking to former NBA player and Stanford star Madsen, who brought in a host of transfers this offseason.
• Iowa State has been quietly super effective in getting players out of Wisconsin. It hasn’t just been Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers. Batemon plays with Kevon Looney-sponsored Power 5.
Senior shooting guard Jamarion Batemon of Milwaukee Academy of Science is a player that some told me is a “Kevin Keatts kind of player.” After watching him, I concur. He’s a heck of a steal for Iowa State on the wing. He’s ranked No. 104 by Rivals.com at the moment, but I see him rising considerably.
• Michael O’Connell transferred in from Stanford last year and few expected him to be a 30-plus minutes a night point guard for NC State, but he proved everyone wrong.
Portland (Ore.) Central Catholic senior point guard Isaac Carr has a lot of O’Connell in his game. Not surprisingly Stanford has offered him, but so has Wake Forest, Oregon, Oregon State and a good amount of mid-majors.
• One high major coach said some schools are recruiting high school players to be able to build a foundation to land them as transfers down the road.
• It took some time, but finally got to see Jacob Wilkins, the son of NBA legend Dominique Wilkins of Washington, N.C. Jacob Wilkins also is going to Georgia, which is where Dominique went and his cousin Damien Wilkins, who transferred there after playing at NC State.
Jacob Wilkins is ranked No. 28 in the class of 2025, but he struggled with Team Huncho. He’s a perfect example of why you need to watch players a few times. He looks the part and I'm under the impression he's a freaky athlete at 6-8, but he just didn't get much done.
• Maybe a traveling team first, but former NBA player and coach Sam Mitchell is coaching Phenom United, an Ohio-based traveling program built around senior wing Darryn Peterson. He is ranked No. 3 in the country by Rivals and plays with Huntington (W.Va.) Prep, and he’s a terrific scorer. The top 7-8 players in the class of 2025 will come in and make a big impact as freshman, and Peterson could be a 15-plus points per game scorer in a year.
Mitchell coached the Toronto Raptors from 2004-09, and with Minnesota in 2015-16. He last coached as an assistant at Memphis in 2018-19.
• Not at adidas, but heard that coach Curtis Malone has a traveling team on the new Puma circuit. He’s one of the original big name traveling team coaches, making D.C. Assault one of the most elite programs ever. He had D.C. Assault on both Nike and adidas, and then D.C. Premier on Under Armour is my understanding. He was sentenced to 100 months in prison in 2014 for dealing cocaine and heroin in the Washington, D.C. area.
• Team Loaded VA 16s is the one of the main attractions Friday.
Combine Academy’s junior guard Yohance Connor and junior power forward Elhadji Diallo, Fayetteville (N.C.) Berean Prep forward Josiah Sanders and Winston-Salem Christian junior center Kosi Mgbejiofor play for Team Loaded VA 16s.
I’ll also get a second look at Adriel Nyorha and Brookwood Elite against the Atlanta Celtics today.
