NC State basketball roster outlook for 2022-23: Post-NBA decisions

NC State men’s basketball this week has learned two key components about the Pack’s roster for next season. THe best news for the Pack is that star freshman guard Terquavion Smith is returning for another year with NC State rather than stay in the NBA Draft.

On the flip side, NC State second-team All-ACC guard Dereon Seabron revealed that he was fulling turning pro rather than return as a redshirt junior to the Wolfpack.

This comes after NC State made several significant new additions to its roster for next season, including when the Wolfpack added 6-foot-9 Winthrop post player D.J. Burns Jr., the reigning Big South Conference Player of the Year.

Burns had marked the second time that NC State basketball has added a key transfer portal pickup in the post, joining Utah forward Dusan Mahorcic.

Ole Miss senior guard and leading scorer Jarkel Joiner is also coming to Raleigh, and La Salle forward/guard Jack Clark was first to say he will be transferring into the program.

On the other side of the coin, incoming recruit Shawn Phillips Jr. from Dayton, Ohio received his release. Phillips has since announced for LSU.

Redshirt junior center Manny Bates decided to transfer and committed to Butler. That followed sophomore guard Cam Hayes choosing to leave NC State and sophomore forward Jaylon Gibson going into the portal. Hayes also picked LSU as his new school, while Gibson is headed to Winston-Salem State.

Here is how the NC State basketball roster is currently configured for the 2022-23 season.

Guards

Smith’s return means that one of the two star players from last season will be back.

He averaged 16.3 points per game and set a school record for most 3-pointers made by a freshman with 96. That was also the third most made in a season overall for an NC State player, trailing the 104 that Scott Wood made in 2013 and Rodney Monroe had in 1991.

Smith shot 36.9 percent overall from long range, and he was NC State’s leading scorer in ACC games at 18.3 points. He shot 40.1 percent on 3-pointers in league action (73 of 182). He was named to the ACC All-Freshman Team.

Smith’s overall scoring average is technically the second highest by a freshman in school history behind Brandon Costner’s 16.8 in 2007. Dennis Smith Jr. had his average of 18.1 points in 2017 taken off the record books by the recent NCAA ruling.

Like Smith, Seabron had entered the NBA Draft but maintained his collegiate eligibility, but Seabron chose to continue pursuing professional ambitions instead.

Seabron led NC State in scoring (17.3 points), rebounding (8.2 boards), assists (102) and steals (44) this past season. His 12 double-doubles were the second most in the ACC.

Junior Casey Morsell averaged 7.2 points per game in his first season after transferring from Virginia. Morsell missed two games with an ankle sprain but seemingly took even longer than that to fully recover.

Freshman Breon Pass averaged 2.2 points and 0.7 assists in his debut season, playing in 25 games. Pass saw increased playing time late in the year, getting double-digit minutes in the final four contests.

Joiner’s addition could prove to be a significant one. He was the Rebels’ leading scorer last year, averaging 13.2 points per game and is considered a strong defender in the backcourt. Joiner averaged 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game along with 2.3 assists.

NC State also signed On3 Consensus three-star LJ Thomas, who previously played at Bull City Prep in Carrboro, N.C. Thomas averaged 18.5 points, 4.2 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game while shooting 44 percent overall from the field in 2020-21 at Bull City Prep, but he did not play (voluntarily) this past season.

The On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services, has Thomas rated at No. 153 nationally in the 2022 class.

Hayes was the second known backcourt departure, joining that of fifth-year senior Thomas Allen, who played in 26 games and made six starts last season while averaging 3.8 points and 14.5 minutes per contest.

Allen joined the transfer portal in pursuit of trying to use his super senior season eligibility elsewhere, and he is set to play at Ball State next year.

Hayes slumped from a promising freshman season. In 2020-21, Hayes averaged 7.8 points and 3.1 assists while making 36.4 percent of his 3-pointers (28 of 77). In his last eight games that year, Hayes averaged 11.0 points and 3.4 assists while helping the Pack go 6-2 in that span.

This year, Hayes averaged 7.0 points and 2.1 assists per game, while playing all 32 contests and making 13 starts. In ACC games, Hayes’ numbers dipped to 5.1 points and 1.7 assists, and he had just as many turnovers (33) as assists (33). Hayes also made just 25 of 100 three-pointers on the season.

NC State’s Backcourt Roster For 2022-23

Name	Year*	Height, Weight	Hometown	2021-22 Stats
Jarkel Joiner	R-Sr.	6-1, 181	Oxford, Miss.	22 games, 13.2 ppg, 2.3 apg (at Ole Miss)
Casey Morsell	Sr.	6-3, 200	Ft. Washington, Md.	20 starts, 7.2 ppg
Breon Pass	So.	6-0, 175	Reidsville, N.C.	25 games, 2.2 ppg
Terquavion Smith	So.	6-4, 160	Greenville, N.C.	25 starts, 16.3 ppg
LJ Thomas	Fr.	6-2, 185	Stone Mountain, Ga.	—

* — Year is based on players’ 2022-23 classification

Forwards And Centers

Senior Jericole Hellems is not using the extra year afforded him by the NCAA pandemic ruling, and Bates, Hellems and Gibson mark the known departures from the front court.

Hellems concluded his career at NC State as a 1,000-point scorer. He averaged 13.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game this past season, and joined Seabron as the only player to start all 32 games.

Gibson played in 29 contests and made four starts, averaging 2.7 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest.

The biggest loss may be Bates, who missed all but 57 seconds of the season with a shoulder injury. The prolific shot blocker (147 rejections in his first two seasons) averaged 9.8 points and 5.9 boards per game in 2020-21.

In Bates’ absence, Gibson and sophomore Ebenezer Dowuona played most of the minutes. Dowuona started 27 of 31 games he played and averaged 4.1 points and 4.1 rebounds while leading the team with 54 blocked shots.

To help make up for the losses of Bates and Phillips, NC State grabbed Mahorcic and Burns from the transfer portal. Mahorcic’s stats were a modest 5.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in 13 contests for Utah last year, playing just 14.4 minutes per contest. The 6-foot-10, 226-pounder averaged 9.9 points and 7.2 rebounds in 24.4 minutes a game at Illinois State the prior year.

Burns (6-foot-9, 275 pounds) averaged 15.0 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 62.7 percent from the field in 20.6 minutes per game last season.

Two players likely more ideally suited to play power forward expected back are sophomore Ernest Ross and junior Greg Gantt. Both would be returning from injuries.

Ross was averaging 1.6 points and 1.6 rebounds in 14 games before breaking his ankle. Gantt missed all season with a sports hernia after transferring from Providence, where he averaged 4.0 points and 3.1 rebounds as a sophomore.

NC State also added Clark via the transfer portal this offseason. This past year, Clark, a 6-foot-8, 200-pounder from Cheltenham, Pa., contributed 12.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest at La Salle. He had three games of at least 20 points, including in two of his last three contests. He had a season-high 30 points to go with eight rebounds in a win over Duquesne.

Clark may also have the versatility to play guard.

NC State’s Frontcourt Roster for 2022-23

Name	Year*	Height, Weight	Hometown	2021-22 Stats
Jack Clark	R-Sr.	6-8, 200	Cheltenham, Pa.	30 games, 12.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg (at La Salle)
DJ Burns Jr.	R-Sr.	6-9, 275	Rock Hill, S.C.	32 games, 15.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg (at Winthrop)
Greg Gantt	R-Jr.	6-8, 215	Fayetteville, N.C.	Injured
Ebenezer Dowuona	Jr.	6-11, 225	Accra, Ghana	27 starts, 4.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.7 bpg
Dusan Mahorcic	Sr.	6-10, 226	Belgrade, Serbia	13 games, 5.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg (at Utah)
Ernest Ross	So.	6-9, 190	Alachua, Fla.	14 games, 1.6 ppg, 1.6 rpg

* — Year is based on players’ 2022-23 classification

NC State Scholarship Count

Due to the NCAA’s ruling from the IARP committee on the case involving the recruitment of Dennis Smith Jr., NC State basketball will lose one scholarship next year. That brings the maximum allowed down from 13 to 12.

With Bates, Hayes and Gibson leaving via the transfer portal, Phillips receiving his release, Seabron turning pro and the quartet of Burns, Clark, Joiner and Mahorcic transferring in, NC State now has 11 scholarship players for next season.

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