NCAA Basketball: 20 early team winners of 2023 transfer portal offseason
10. NC State Wolfpack
The roster for the Wolfpack has seen plenty of changes, some of which were expected. They lost both Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner and still need to know what bigs, DJ Burns and Dusan Mahorcic will do this offseason. But they were able to land four transfers that have potential.
On the perimeter, NC State brought in Jayden Taylor and DJ Horne. Taylor led Butler in scoring this past season with 12.9 ppg, shooting 41% from the field. He had five games with at least 20 points, including three straight in the ladder part of Big East play. Horne, who comes back home to Raliegh, averaged 12.5 ppg and 2.4 apg at Arizona State, both second on the team.
The Wolfpack added frontcourt depth with Ben Middlebrooks, who stays in the ACC after transferring over from Clemson. He averaged just 3.1 ppg and 2.7 rpg in 11 mpg but is a capable big at 6’10 and 225 pounds. And they recently added MJ Rice, a former five-star prospect and transfer from Kansas that was limited due to injuries as a freshman.
If Rice can have a big sophomore campaign, NC State will end up as one of the biggest transfer portal winners. How big of a ceiling the team will have in 2024 could depend on it.