CHARLOTTE, N.C. – NC State men’s basketball is entering its second consecutive season with a massive roster overhaul. Head coach Kevin Keatts lost his top two scorers and welcomed in seven transfers and one freshman.
This situation isn’t new for Keatts, as he brought in a handful of transfers to last year’s squad who excelled in their roles. Recruiting from the transfer portal has become the norm for college coaches, and Keatts is comfortable bringing in players from different programs.
“The scary thing is that I’m very comfortable with it,” Keatts said. “Do I want to bring in seven guys every year from the transfer portal? Absolutely not. But I think it’s an exciting time. I’ve told people that you’re going to lose some really good players to the transfer portal, but it’s important to go out and get some people that want to play at NC State.”
Keatts has extensively used the transfer portal the last two seasons, but he recognizes that even with practice, it’s a tricky tool to navigate.
“I don’t know that you ever get better,” Keatts said. “ Because sometimes you don’t understand or you might not understand why some individuals, some players may leave. I just think that’s part of where we are right now… as soon as I finished the Creighton game, I had to re-recruit the guys who wanted to be here and figure out who wasn’t going to be in our program and then go out and get some transfers.”
Although over half of the roster is made up of players who are new to the program, Keatts will rely on his veteran players, especially graduate forward DJ Burns and graduate guard Casey Morsell.
“I think we’ve got two really good veteran guys who had a really good year for us last year,” Keatts said. “[They’re] one of the reasons why we made it to the tournament and won 23 games. I’m hoping we can get something from DJ Burns. Maybe he can be the leading scorer… or Casey Morsell.”
Burns was one of the transfers last season who excelled under Keatts’ tutelage and believes his coach has brought in another great group of players from the portal.
“Coach did a great job of going out and recruiting some players who can really go, so I definitely plan on taking advantage of that,” Burns said. “Our guys work really hard, and I’m going to find them every time I can if I don’t have a shot.”
Bringing back key players from last year’s squad and adding eight new faces creates a deep roster for NC State. Even though it might be hard to give everyone valuable minutes, Keatts thinks having this amount of depth is an advantage over other teams.
“I would say the strength of the team is that we could be really good with depth,” said Keatts. “We got a lot of guys who can play a lot of different roles and wear a lot of different hats.”
Another area of strength Keatts has noticed from his squad in practice is the ability to defend. This would be a change of pace from last year’s team, which ranked eighth in points allowed per game in the ACC.
“I think I got a bunch of guys who can defend multiple positions,” Keatts said. “I think the biggest thing is just developing chemistry and trust and being able to make the right play and being able to make the right decisions.”
Last season’s squad was known for playing with a breakneck pace, ranking 13th in the country in transition points per game. Despite a different group of players, Keatts hopes to play a similar brand of basketball.
“We’ve got to figure out how to get some easy baskets as much as we can,” Keatts said. “With this particular team, because we lost Jarkel Joiner, we lost Terquavion Smith. I would love to play a little bit faster than that. But we’ve got to run.”
Wolfpack fans saw last year the impact transfers can have on a program, with NC State returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018. Now, it’s up to the head coach to recreate the same magic from last season that made the Pack one of the most electric teams in the ACC.
