If you’re like me, you were probably disappointed when the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was canceled — regardless of concerns over its potential to spread coronavirus — and you were heartbroken you couldn’t see if NC State would make the tournament and have a run at the title. For me, now that disappointment and heartache has turned into boredom, as I’m finally starting to feel the effects of having nothing to watch while being stuck at home all day. With that being said, if the next time we get to see college basketball is in the fall, it makes sense to look ahead to see what the future might bring.
In this year’s recruiting class are blue-chip prospects Josh Hall and Cam Hayes, a freak athlete in Shakeel Moore and underrated big men with upside in Nick Farrar and Ebenezer Dowuona. Their combined talents helped give NC State the eighth highest 2020 recruiting class in the country, according to 24/7 Sports.
But other new faces will be making their debuts in the red and white in the fall too: redshirt-junior, Nebraska transfer and Raleigh native Thomas Allen and redshirt-freshman Dereon Seabron will be battling for minutes in a crowded Wolfpack rotation. Former JUCO redshirt-sophomore A.J. Taylor missed most of last season with a knee injury and he’ll be looking to fit into the roster as well.
When you add them to the mix of players returning next year, sophomore Jericole Hellems, redshirt-freshman and 2019-20 ACC blocks leader Manny Bates, junior three-point specialist Braxton Beverly, and (hopefully) redshirt juniors Devon Daniels and D.J. Funderburk, you get a basketball team that’s highly versatile and has the potential to make a lot of noise next season.
However, quick counters in the audience will realize that makes 13 scholarship players for the Wolfpack. And this before the Pack have reached their hands into what’s supposed to be a crucial source of talent: the transfer pool.
The Wolfpack has had some success in recent years with getting key pieces in the transfer pool. Daniels and Funderburk are evidence of that, and players like 2017-18 hero Al Freeman come to mind as well. But while the Pack has had its hits, it’s only fair to talk about its misses as well. While Danny Dixon and Wyatt Walker certainly had their followings in their time at State, both Dixon’s and Walker’s production on the floor was minimal at best. Graduate transfer Pat Andree was meant to be a sharpshooter who could stretch the floor, but the idea of Andree ended up being better than what he actually was on the court.
All this begs the question, does NC State really need to go after any transfers this year?
Jamarious Burton, Elbert Ellis and Trey Wertz are some of the players that NC State has shown interest in, and while I don’t necessarily hate their game collectively, I have no personal affinity towards them either. Besides, the team has a logjam at the guard position as it is.
Even if NC State didn’t have the depth at guard it has now, there’s no guarantee that their skills would fit well on the team. While Burton, Ellis and Wertz were all productive players in the AAC, junior college and the WCC respectively, there’s another level basketball players need to reach to excel in the ACC. And while Ellis would be eligible to play right away as a JUCO transfer, the same can’t be said for Burton and Wertz, meaning they’ll have to wait a year on the bench behind a team that’s already sitting at 13 scholarship players. Why wait a year for a player that may or may not be productive?
The argument can be made that if immediate production was a concern, then going for graduate transfers who can play right away and have more experience would be a more optimal route. But once again, all 13 scholarship spots are already taken up if all the seniors come back, so adding a graduate transfer would mean having an odd man out. And the funny thing about graduate transfers is, well, they graduate, typically the year after they transfer, and therefore they spend less time at an institution than even regular transfers with two or more years of eligibility. As a result, a grad transfer should be really good for a school to dedicate a scholarship offer to, but when considering Pack’s recent luck with grad transfers, what with the Andrees, Dixons and Walkers of the world, I doubt that would be the case if NC State went that route again. Should NC State use a coveted roster spot for someone that won’t be around for long?
Instead, men’s basketball needs to embrace the youth movement that’s already underway. Moore has a personal grudge against the rim that he’ll hope to settle in his time with the Wolfpack. From what I’ve seen of Farrar on Youtube, he’s got good ball-handling skills for a forward and can potentially stretch the floor and add another dimension to this team. Dowuona adds a lot of size and depth at the center position behind Bates and (once again, hopefully) Funderburk, something the Wolfpack has been sorely lacking for a couple of seasons. And there’s nothing I can say to adequately describe how huge Hayes and Hall coming to State’s program is.
There’s already a lot of talent in Raleigh that can compete in the ACC next year, and all the pieces are in place for the team to make the NCAA tournament comfortably. But it’s up to the higher-ups in NC State to recognize that and work with what they have already, instead of trying to look for some stopgaps.
