NCAA Basketball: Top 25 early winners from 2023 offseason moves
By Joey Loose
5. NC State
The Wolfpack got back to the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in several seasons but Kevin Keatts knows that things will be very different now. Star scorers Terquavion Smith and Jarkel Joiner are both gone and they’re still waiting for a decision from Casey Morsell, whose name is also in the NBA Draft process. With all of these losses, Keatts needed to get busy to replenish this roster and he’s certainly accomplished that much.
Five transfers are currently slated to play for the Wolfpack next season, led by combo guard DJ Horne who starred at Arizona State last season. Other additions include Jayden Taylor from Butler, Mohamed Diarra from Missouri, Ben Middlebrooks from Clemson, and MJ Rice from Kansas. Rice is a former Top 30 recruit who didn’t have a chance with the Jayhawks while Taylor was Butler’s leading scorer at nearly 13 points a game. It’s not a top-rated recruiting class, but 4-star recruits Trey Parker and Dennis Parker Jr. will also join next year’s roster.
Keatts adding some legitimate talent back to this roster after losing a lot of last year’s scoring and production. It’s hard not to call the Wolfpack a winner for going out and getting all of these transfers. They can almost build a starting lineup from the names they’ve added in recent weeks, but let’s not forget they still have DJ Burns and a couple other pieces from last year back too.