NC State Basketball: Why Brandon Huntley-Hatfield is the most important team transfer for 2024-25

Rarely has a team ever had a month like NC State experienced last March. Kevin Keatts’ job may have been in question when the month began, but then his Wolfpack won the ACC Tournament, winning five games in five days, before marching to the Final Four. This was certainly a historic season for NC State, though any kind of repeat story will come with a far different group of athletes.

D. J. Burns Jr. became quite the star during that historic run, while Mohamed Diarra was also dynamic in that frontcourt. Not only are they both gone, but so are top scorer DJ Horne and talented shooter Casey Morsell. Losing those four players is devastating, though the Wolfpack do get Jayden Taylor and Michael O’Connell back after inspired seasons and have plenty of other talent coming to town.

In addition to a few freshmen, the Wolfpack added a number of players through the Transfer Portal, having to effectively reboot most of their starting lineup. They nabbed intriguing shooting guard Marcus Hill out of Bowling Green and also got a pair of small forwards from power conference leagues, getting Louisville’s Mike James and also Dontrez Styles from Georgetown. It’s hard to directly compare these players to what they lost, though there’s one more name that stood out from the offseason.

Formerly a Top 25 prospect, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield began his career as a freshman at Tennessee before spending the last two years at Louisville. A power forward with clear raw talent, Huntley-Hatfield was a key reserve for the Volunteers before developing into an important starter with the Cardinals in recent years. Despite Louisville’s immense struggles, he still played well as a junior last season, putting up 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds a game.

While his numbers don’t jump off the page, Huntley-Hatfield was 5th in rebounding in the ACC last year and was a highly rated offensive player for the Cardinals. He’s seen his game improve with each passing season and adds a veteran experience to the Wolfpack. He made just under 58% of his shots from inside the arc and showed the potential for a long-range game.

When you consider the new pieces in this rotation, it’s no guarantee that Huntley-Hatfield will have the best figures, but he might have the biggest impact. With Burns and Diarra gone, he slides into that important role at the back end, with contributions both on offense and defense. He’s the tallest figure in this rotation, it all depends on how he transitions into a different ACC system and how the rest of this new roster gels together.

NC State had 14 losses before the postseason began; then March changed so much about how we looked at this team and program. The bottom line is that with all these changes it’s probably likely that this team won't return to the Big Dance. However, the new-look ACC is winnable yet again. Can NC State surprise people again? Is a stellar senior year on the horizon for Huntley-Hatfield?