This week proved nightmarish for head coach Kevin Keatts, just when Wolfpack fans thought things couldn’t get any worse for the 21-loss NC State men’s basketball team.
With the transfer portal playing spoiler to much of the hope for the team to rebound from its abysmal 2021-22 performance, the announcement of guard combo freshman Terquavion Smith and redshirt sophomore Dereon Seabron testing the waters in the NBA draft comes as a defeating blow.
Smith and Seabron served as NC State’s first pair of 15-plus point-per-game scorers since the days of Tom Gugliotta and Kevin Thompson way back in the 1991-92 season. The dynamic of such an effective one-two punch may not have translated into wins during the 2021-22 season, but it certainly provided hope for what the two could accomplish with a fully healthy roster behind them.
Both of NC State’s premier guards reached exceptional highs in their individual games despite playing under the banner of the worst team in the ACC this season, so it’s not surprising they would consider moving on. If both of them are successful in achieving their hoop dreams, however, it leaves Keatts and company in dire straits.
How did Keatts and his staff even get in this position? Well, to put it mildly, playing for a team that finished 11-21, and 4-16 in ACC play while isolating a lot of its core isn’t exactly a desirable situation. Frustrations with performance, both on an individual scale and as a team have already seen four members of the Pack into the transfer portal.
The first to make the decision that their basketball career lies elsewhere was sophomore forward Jaylon Gibson. For anyone who dedicated a sliver of time to watching Wolfpack men’s basketball this season, this one comes as no surprise. For the larger part of the year, Gibson looked out of his league, failing regularly to keep pace with the Power Five style of basketball.
Not to be an advanced stats nerd, but Gibson’s minus-1.3 box plus/minus from 2021-22 is bad, signifying that the majority of the time he takes the court, he’s doing more harm than good for a Wolfpack team that hurt itself enough in other facets of its game last season.
The three-star recruit coming out of high school will undoubtedly find more success in something like a mid-major conference, but Wolfpack fans should not be too distraught to see him go; it’s what’s best for both parties. The more recent news of sophomore guard Cam Hayes deciding to move on from NC State definitely leaves a worse taste in the mouth, however.
A season ago it wouldn’t have been crazy to think that Hayes could be the future of men’s basketball at NC State, along with Shakeel Moore, but that’s a whole different story. However, as quickly as he rose to near stardom, his game saw a significant drop-off in his sophomore season. At that same time, a struggling Wolfpack offense found refuge in the offensive play of Seabron and Smith, leaving Hayes in an uncomfortable position where quality of play and playing time moved parallel.
Such situations often cause added pressure to an already stressful job of representing a fanbase with astronomically high expectations, and Hayes’ decision to leave in combination with the potential departure of Smith and Seabron make for a nightmare situation in the backcourt.
Redshirt senior guard Thomas Allen was the third member of the Pack to call it quits, entering the transfer portal as a fifth-year. This loss at face value isn’t nearly as detrimental as Hayes opting out, but with the situation Keatts currently finds himself in, even losing deep rotation guys is a serious concern.
Finally, in a not-so-shocking turn of events, redshirt junior Manny Bates has also decided to double down on his thoughts from last offseason, becoming the fourth member of the Pack’s 2021-22 squad to reportedly enter the transfer portal. This news comes as a far more significant blow than the first pair of transfers, with Bates seemingly serving as the one missing piece to the Pack’s success last year.
It’s been clear for some time that Bates has quickly fallen out of love with the program he originally committed to in 2017. The four-star recruit from the 2018 recruiting class was quickly rising to stardom as a premier shot blocker in his freshman season, but struggles with his health and Father Time creeping in on his college playing days have seemed to put Bates in now-or-never mode.
There’s no question Bates could see plenty of growth in his game and success if he chose to stick around in Raleigh. However, the pressures of making the NBA after a 21-loss season and a significant shoulder injury have deservedly caused Bates to realize his collegiate basketball career will end in a different place than it started.
As much good as Keatts has managed to do in his short time with the program, inheriting the culmination of all of Mark Gottfried’s wrongdoings, the situation he finds himself in now is an awful one. With Smith and Seabron potentially leaving the college game, Bates set on transferring and senior forward Jericole Hellems not shedding any clarity on whether or not he’ll use his additional year of eligibility, the promising core of Wolfpack men’s basketball that was expected to reach new heights this season is all but diminished.
If the transfer portal can play villain to NC State’s hopes of a massive turnaround in 2022-23, it can also play savior. With Bates and Gibson out, and sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowouna not proving to be a true fit in the starting lineup, Keatts will undoubtedly need to reel in some talent in the same way that he’s seeing it go.
Unfortunately, with the recent news of five-star prospect Robert Dillingham decommitting, morale in the recruiting department has hit a considerable low. For now, the program is caught at a standstill, suffering the consequences of losing 21 games in a single season for the first time in program history.
Success in bringing in transfers will make or break the Pack’s upcoming year, and the pressures on Keatts to make it happen are at an all-time high despite the program being at its lowest during his tenure.
