Carolina Sports News

Carolina Sports News

Season Preview: Re-Introducing The ‘24-’25 Players

by

The Reigning ACC Champions ‘24-’25

We’re talented, we’re deeper than ever, will we be good?

Remember

“…the mistake people make all the time in gambling and everything else is you think year 2 begins where year 1 ends, and that’s not the case – EVER! “. Joe Giglio, OG Gambling Syndicate podcast 9/5/24

Season Previews:

This is the second in a series of weekly articles leading up to opening night against USC Upstate on November 4.

  1. Full Schedule Released – Taking a look at new Wolfpack committment Mikey Wilkins; New schedule released; Analyzing the OOC schedule
  2. Re-introducing the ‘24-’25 players – Breakdown on all 13 players
  3. Let’s discuss rebounding
  4. The ‘24-’25 Offense
  5. The ‘24-’25 Defense
  6. Who’s going to be the X-Factor this season?

Another Look At This Season’s Lineup

It’s been a minute, let’s do a refresher on what the team looks like this coming season. It’s only week two of practice, so we don’t know a great deal about how the eight new faces will fit in. And we won’t until they play a few games. But here’s generally the staff’s expectations based on what they know about the returning players and freshmen, what they saw from the transfer’s results last season, and watching the whole team during offseason workouts this past summer and fall.

Overall

Fast Facts:

  • Team makeup – 8 transfers (3 ’23-’24, 5 ’24-‘25), 5 high school recruits
  • New faces – 8 new faces, we’ll have at least 3 new starters
  • Talent – 11 of 13 players were rated either 4-star HS recruits or 4-star transfers on at least one recruiting site (excludes Diouf, Middlebrooks)
  • Experience – 9 of 13 players have started college games (excludes Pass, T Parker, McNeil, Heard) – Average of 34.2 starts across 13 players
  • Experience in Coach Keatts’ system – Our returning players represent experience and examples at all roles, and could be the foundation to build on. McConnell and Pass are point guards, Taylor is a SG / wing, Dennis Parker Jr played forward, and Middlebrooks played center. Will this accelerate our learning curve? Having a returning PG certainly should help.
  • Average height – 6’ 5.3”; Average weight – 199.3
  • Scoring – We lost our #1, #2, #4, and #5 scorers. To address that problem, we’ve added Bowling Green’s #1 scorer, Louisville & Georgetown’s #2 scorers, and Louisville’s #3 scorer. Plus the player who scored the most points in a NC high school game ever.
  • We Hungry! – James & Huntley-Hatfield only won 8 games with Louisville last season, and that doubled their previous season’s win total. Styles only won 9 games last season at Georgetown. In both cases, we should beat those previous win totals by the beginning of the year.

Six Guards to Rotate Through the Two Guard Positions

Expected Starters Day 1

PG – #12 MICHAEL O’CONNELL (6’2”) – GRAD – 4 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

  • Strengths: Ball control, leadership, passing
  • Shooting: 44.9% / 37.5% / 77.6%
  • 2024 Postseason highlights: UVA – 3PT to send to OT; Oakland – Season high 8 assists; Duke – Career high 11 rebounds

SG – #8 JAYDEN TAYLOR (6’4”) – SENIOR – 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

  • Strengths: defense
  • Shooting: 41.3% / 36.4% / 75.5%
  • 2024 Postseason highlights: Syracuse – Career high 9 rebounds

Might End Up Being A Starter

CG – #10 MARCUS HILL (6’4”) – SENIOR – 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE (2 JUCO, 1 MID-MAJOR)

  • What they’re saying about the transfer: “Hill LOVES driving to the basket. That’s his entire game. The 6-foot-4 guard had 321 shots at the rim last year. That was one of the top marks in the sport, period.”
  • “An under-the-radar transfer for NC State is Marcus Hill,” [Jon] Rothstein said. “Put up big time offensive numbers at Bowling Green and is very shifty. Sets the table. Remember the name for Hill moving forward.”
  • Strengths: scoring (20.5 Ppg), passing (2.6 Apg)
  • Shooting: 44.3% / 28.9% / 74%

First off the Bench

PG – #4 BREON PASS (6’0”) – SENIOR – 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

  • Shooting: 44.1% / 33.3% / 62.5%
  • 2024 Postseason highlights: Louisville – key first half 3PT shot to get rally going

Freshman

(PG, SG) #5 TREY PARKER (6’1”) – Fun Fact: ‘Trey’ is not wearing #3, is not historically a great 3PT shooter, and is not going to play the ‘3’ position.

(SG, WING) #7 BRYCE HEARD (6’5”) – Reclassified after junior season of high school. At 17, the youngest player on the team. Early feedback from the first week of practice is that Bryce is playing really well. No current plans to redshirt. Fun Fact: Former teammate at Monteverde Academy of Duke’s highly anticipated freshman, Cooper Flagg, so he must be good!

Five Wings To Rotate Through the Wing and Small Forward Positions (small lineup)

Expected Starters Day 1

WING – #0 MIKE JAMES (6’5”) – JUNIOR – 2 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE (plus a redshirt season due to injury)

  • What they’re saying about the transfer: “He drew fouls at an incredible rate and constantly sliced the defense to create advantages. James has all the physical tools to be one of NC State’s go-to scorers next season. “
  • Strengths: driving to the basket, rebounding
  • Shooting: 39.6% / 34% / 81.8%

SMALL FORWARD – #3 DONTREZ STYLES (6’6”) – SENIOR – 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

  • What they’re saying about the transfer: “If Styles can stay hot and knock down 36% of his 3-pointers, he’ll stay on the floor. The challenge is expanding his game outside of transition buckets and spot-up treys. Styles offers little playmaking and hasn’t turned into a punishing off-the-bounce driver.”
  • Strengths: shooting, rebounding
  • Shooting: 43% / 36.8% / 77.6%

Might End Up Being A Starter

WING / SMALL FORWARD – #11 DENNIS PARKER JR (6’6”) – SOPHOMORE – 1 YEAR EXPERIENCE

  • Strengths: Defense, athleticism
  • Shooting: 44.3% / 30.8% / 53.8%

Freshmen

  • WING – #2 PAUL MCNEIL (6’5”) – High school scoring machine.
  • Strengths: Shooting, solid all-around player
  • “An under-the-radar freshman is NC State’s Paul McNeil”,[Jon] Rothstein said. “6-5 and has a great feel, can make shots. He’s tailor made for Kevin Keatts system.”

(SG, WING) #7 BRYCE HEARD (6’5”) – (notes above)

Three Bigs to Rotate Through the Center and Power Forward Positions (in the big lineup)

Expected Starter Day 1

CENTER – #1 BRANDON HUNTLEIGH-HATFIELD (6’10”) – 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

  • What they’re saying about the transfer: “He’s become a double-double threat every night, and he plays with outstanding effort. He’s 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds with the ability to play multiple defensive coverages, and Huntley-Hatfield should continue to grow as a floor-stretcher. There’s no reason to think he won’t be a productive monster for NC State.”
  • Strengths: Shooting, Rebounding, Defense
  • Shooting: 56.7% / 42.9% / 67.2%

First off the Bench

CENTER / FORWARD – #34 BEN MIDDLEBROOKS (6’10”) – 3 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE

  • Strengths: Rebounding, defense
  • Shooting: 48.6% / 7.7% / 73.8%
  • 2024 Postseason highlights: Texas Tech – Career high 21 points

International Man of Mystery

CENTER / FORWARD – #33 ISMAëL DIOUF (6’9”) – 2 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE – LAVAL UNIV. IN QUEBEC

  • Strengths: Shooting, Rebounding
  • Shooting: 56% / 32.7% / 72.3%
  • 2024 Postseason highlights: Averaged 18.3 ppg and 11.7 rpg in the Final 8 of the national championship tournament. Laval won the championship, he was named tournament MVP.
  • #1 draft pick in the CEBL (Canadian Pro league)