2024-25 North Carolina Sports Network
Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Spotlight:
NC State University
By Ben McCormick
North Carolina Sports Network
School: North Carolina State University
Location: Raleigh, N.C.
Previous Conference Affiliations: Independent (1912-1921), Southern Conference (1921-1953)
ACC Member Since: 1953-54
ACC Ranking Among 32 Leagues (KenPom): 5th (2025), 5th (2024), 7th (2023), 5th (2022), 5th (2021), 4th (2020)
NCAA Tournament Bids: 29 (1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1965, 1970, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2023, 2024)
NCAA Championships: 2 (1974, 1983)
Final Fours: 4 (1950, 1974, 1983, 2024)
Conference Titles: 18 (1929, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952 in SoCon; 1954, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1965, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1983, 1987, 2024 in ACC)
Conference 1st-Place Finishes: 13 (1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953 in SoCon; 1955, 1956, 1959, 1973, 1974, 1985, 1989 in ACC)
Head Coach: Kevin Keatts, 52, 8th season at NC State, 144-94 (.605)
As A Player: Ferrum (1991-95)
Record As Head Coach (through Nov. 27): 216-122 (.639) in 10+ seasons
Previous HC Experience: Hargrave Military Academy/prep school (1999-2001; 2003-11), UNC Wilmington (2014-17)
AC Experience: Southwest Michigan/NJCAA (1996-97), Hargrave Military Academy (1997-99), Marshall (2001-03), Louisville (2011-14)
Assistant Under: Greg White, Rick Pitino
2023-24 Record: 26-15, 9-11 (10th in 15-team ACC); ACC champions; NCAA Final Four
2024-25 Preseason Prediction (Media): 8th in 18-team ACC
2024-25 Record (Through Nov. 27): 5-0, 0-0 ACC
2024-25 Midseason Ranking (KenPom): #55 nationally (5th in ACC)
Upcoming Schedule: vs. #13 Purdue (11/28), vs. BYU or #23 Ole Miss (11/29), Texas (12/4), Florida State (12/7), Coppin State (12/10), at Kansas (12/14), Rider (12/22), at Virginia (12/31)
On March 11, if you had put $100 down on NC State to win the 2024 ACC Tournament, first of all, everyone would have called you nuts. At the time, that seemed like the most efficient way to flush a crisp $100 bill down the toilet.
On the night of March 16, though, you would have looked like a clairvoyant sports guru (with a lot of money in your pocket).
The Wolfpack’s run in Washington, D.C., was almost inconceivable. In the end, the Pack became the first ACC team ever to win five games in five days to win the ACC Tournament, and it had to go through the event’s top three seeds to do it: #2 Duke in the quarterfinals, #3 Virginia in the semis, and #1 UNC in the championship game.
With the Wolfpack players hitting their stride at exactly the right time, and a little bit of luck sprinkled in, the Cardiac Pack was reborn. It was impossible not to see shades of the 1983 miracle NCAA title team in last year’s squad, especially once it made a run to the Final Four.
The 2024 story didn’t end with a national championship, but going from the #10 seed in the ACC Tournament to a Final Four was truly special.
“When you think about NC State, the couple things that really stand out to you is the ’74 championship and the ’83 championships,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said. “If we could make any of those guys proud, and hopefully they are, by what we did here in the ACC, that’s a great thing.”
So, now what?
Most of State’s key players from last year’s team are gone, including fan favorite DJ Burns Jr., whose dynamic post play became a spectacle for the entire basketball world last March. The team’s leading scorer, DJ Horne, also exhausted his eligibility, as did fellow starting guard Casey Morsell. In addition, the Pack lost a past-time starter with forward Mohamed Diarra’s decision to pursue a professional career.
Beyond those primary losses, State lost two bench pieces at the end of June, when guard MJ Rice and forward Ernest Ross decided to leave the program. Rice, who transferred in from Kansas prior to last season, is a former McDonald’s All-American. Ross initially entered the transfer portal and committed to UTSA, then withdrew that pledge and announced his return to Raleigh, only to ultimately sign with Grambling.
Backup guards LJ Thomas and Kam Woods transferred away from the program, too.
That left Keatts, who assumedly saved his job last March, with five returning contributors: starting guards Michael O’Connell and Jayden Taylor, plus backups Ben Middlebrooks, Dennis Parker Jr. and Breon Pass.
Taylor, a starter on the wing for much of the 2023-24 regular season, is an outstanding defender who hopes to have a bigger offensive role in 2024-25. O’Connell, a pass-first point guard, took over Taylor’s starting spot in the postseason and helped the Pack improve its offensive efficiency.
Joining them in a very experienced Wolfpack backcourt will be senior Marcus Hill, a Bowling Green transfer who averaged 20.5 points per game last season, and redshirt junior Mike James, a Louisville transfer who was a double-digit scorer for the Cardinals in each of the past two seasons.
James has missed the beginning of this season with an injury. Still, the Pack’s backcourt has helped lift the team to a 5-0 start. That doesn’t mean it’s been a pretty start, though.
State struggled to come away with a win in an exhibition with a Division II foe, Lees-McRae. Ultimately, the Pack won by four, but it wasn’t the start Keatts’ squad was looking for.
They began the regular season with a commanding 31-point victory over USC Upstate before once again struggling to handle a low-major Presbyterian team, eventually winning 81-72. Taylor led State in scoring against Presbyterian with 19 points.
“We’re going to continue to build,” Keatts said. “I like where we are at in game number two, and I just want to keep building on it. I thought we did some good things, you look at JT (Taylor), it was good for him to score the basketball. He had a career high in steals (with) five.”
Regardless of talent, it typically takes time to get returning pieces and incoming talent from the portal to click together. Just look at last year’s Wolfpack rotation. It took nearly the entire season for those players to start clicking.
Keatts seemingly has attempted to replicate the success he had from the portal over the last two years. During the 2024 postseason run, every single regular rotation player for the Wolfpack was someone who arrived in Raleigh as a transfer.
Three of State’s most intriguing additions from the portal are forwards, although they offer very different and distinct styles of play.
Dontrez Styles (Georgetown), a Kinston native who was a little-used reserve during his first two collegiate seasons at UNC, averaged 15.3 points per game last season for the Hoyas. While also a solid rebounder for his size, he spends a lot of time on the perimeter, where he hit 37 percent of his threes in 2023-24.
The Wolfpack also lists Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Louisville) as a forward, but he’s functionally a center. At 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds, Huntley-Hatfield spends almost all of his time in the paint, where he averaged 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season for the Cardinals. He and Middlebrooks have rotated in the post thus far.
Finally, the Pack received a summer commitment from Canadian star Ismael Diouf, who had to serve a two-game suspension to start the season because of his impermissible play in the professional Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL). Diouf, who led Laval University to Canada’s collegiate national championship last season, was the #1 overall pick in the CEBL draft in April.
There are some key returners and some interesting new faces in Raleigh. Does that mean Keatts and company will be able to replicate last year’s magic?
The odds obviously aren’t in the Wolfpack’s favor for another ACC title, or another long March Madness run, but that was the case back in March, too. For now, the Pack just hopes to put itself in position, game by game, for another NCAA Tournament bid.
2024-25 NC State Wolfpack
(5-0, 0-0 ACC; through Nov. 27)
STARTERS (stats = final 2023-24 numbers)
PG Michael O’Connell*, Gr., (6-2/195) — 2024 All-ACC Tournament
25 mpg, 6 ppg, 3 rpg, 45% FG, 78% FT, 38% threes, 130/51 ATO, 3 blocks, 36 steals
G Jayden Taylor*, Sr., (6-4/195) — #3 scorer on Final Four squad
27 mpg, 11 ppg, 3 rpg, 41% FG, 76% FT, 36% threes, 55/63 ATO, 19 blocks, 47 steals
G Marcus Hill, Sr., (6-4/185) — Bowling Green transfer (All-MAC first team)
36 mpg, 21 ppg, 5 rpg, 44% FG, 74% FT, 29% threes, 87/90 ATO, 10 blocks, 35 steals
F Dontrez Styles, Sr., (6-6/212) — Georgetown transfer (starter)
34 mpg, 13 ppg, 6 rpg, 43% FG, 78% FT, 37% threes, 26/49 ATO, 21 blocks, 18 steals
C Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Sr., (6-10/240) — Louisville transfer (two-year starter)
31 mpg, 13 ppg, 8 rpg, 57% FG, 67% FT, 43% threes, 33/54 ATO, 26 blocks, 19 steals
KEY RESERVES (stats = final 2023-24 numbers)
G Breon Pass, Sr., (6-0/175) — logged nine minutes in Final Four
5 mpg, 1 ppg, 1 rpg, 44% FG, 63% FT, 33% threes, 10/7 ATO, 2 blocks, 5 steals
F Ben Middlebrooks, Sr,, (6-10/240) — 21 points in NCAA win over Texas Tech
16 mpg, 6 ppg, 4 rpg, 49% FG, 74% FT, 8% threes, 25/26 ATO, 24 blocks, 34 steals
G Mike James, R-Jr., (6-5/200) — Louisville transfer (two-year starter)
33 mpg, 13 ppg, 5 rpg, 40% FG, 82% FT, 34% threes, 47/57 ATO, 6 blocks, 19 steals
G Trey Parker, Fr., (6-2/170) — Top 150 in Class of 2024
Atlanta, Ga.; Overtime Elite
F Dennis Parker Jr., So., (6-6/205) — ACC Rookie of the Week last November
15 mpg, 5 ppg, 3 rpg, 44% FG, 54% FT, 31% threes, 11/19 ATO, 7 blocks, 21 steals
F Ismael Diouf, Sr., (6-9/215) — Laval transfer, #1 pro draft pick (Canada)
26 mpg, 11 ppg, 7 rpg, 55% FG, 71% FT, 32% threes, 79/27 ATO, 19 blocks, 11 steals
Departures from 2023-24: C DJ Burns Jr.* (Ss./South Korea), BF Mohamed Diarra (Sr./early NBA entry/France), WG DJ Horne* (Ss./Germany), WG Casey Morsell* (Ss.), WG MJ Rice (So./transfer), BF Ernest Ross (Jr./transfer/Grambling), PG LJ Thomas (So./transfer/Austin Peay), WG Kam Woods (Sr./transfer/Robert Morris)
*—2023-24 starter (started at least 50% of NC State’s games last season)
NC State Wolfpack
10-Year Snapshot
Season — Overall, League (Place), Postseason
2023-24: 26-15, 9-11 ACC* (10th), NCAA Final Four (Kevin Keatts)
2022-23: 23-11, 12-8 ACC (6th), NCAA Round of 64 (Kevin Keatts)
2021-22: 11-21, 4-16 ACC (15th), no postseason (Kevin Keatts)
2020-21: 14-11, 9-8 ACC (9th), NIT Elite Eight (Kevin Keatts)
2019-20: 20-12, 10-10 ACC (6th), COVID (Kevin Keatts)
2018-19: 24-12, 9-9 ACC (8th), NIT Elite Eight (Kevin Keatts)
2017-18: 21-12, 11-7 ACC (3rd), NCAA Round of 64 (Kevin Keatts)
2016-17: 15-17, 4-14 ACC (13th), no postseason (Mark Gottfried)
2015-16: 16-17, 5-13 ACC (13th), no postseason (Mark Gottfried)
2014-15: 22-14, 10-8 ACC (6th), NCAA Sweet 16 (Mark Gottfried)
*—conference champion
NOTE: In the coming weeks and months, please visit the North Carolina Sports Network’s 2024-25 profiles and 10-year snapshots for all 19 Division One men’s basketball programs in North Carolina and all 18 Atlantic Coast Conference programs. The items below will become “live links” as new articles are posted.
Appalachian State Mountaineers, Sun Belt Conference
Boston College Eagles, Atlantic Coast Conference
California Bears, Atlantic Coast Conference
Campbell Camels, Coastal Athletic Association
Charlotte 49ers, American Athletic Conference
Clemson Tigers, Atlantic Coast Conference
Davidson Wildcats, Atlantic-10 Conference
Duke Blue Devils, Atlantic Coast Conference
East Carolina Pirates, American Athletic Conference
Elon Phoenix, Coastal Athletic Association
Florida State Seminoles, Atlantic Coast Conference
Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Big South Conference
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Atlantic Coast Conference
High Point Panthers, Big South Conference
Louisville Cardinals, Atlantic Coast Conference
Miami Hurricanes, Atlantic Coast Conference
North Carolina Tar Heels, Atlantic Coast Conference
North Carolina A&T Aggies, Coastal Athletic Association
North Carolina Central Eagles, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Atlantic Coast Conference
Pittsburgh Panthers, Atlantic Coast Conference
Queens Royals, Atlantic Sun Conference
SMU Mustangs, Atlantic Coast Conference
Stanford Cardinal, Atlantic Coast Conference
Syracuse Orange, Atlantic Coast Conference
UNC Asheville Bulldogs, Big South Conference
UNC Greensboro Spartans, Southern Conference
UNC Wilmington Seahawks, Coastal Athletic Association
Virginia Cavaliers, Atlantic Coast Conference
Virginia Tech Hokies, Atlantic Coast Conference
Wake Forest, Atlantic Coast Conference
Western Carolina Catamounts, Southern Conference
