Five NC State basketball roster questions heading into offseason

NC State basketball enters a crucial few months for head coach Kevin Keatts.

The transition season has already begun in college hoops, with players entering the transfer portal after conference tournament eliminations and coaching vacancies opening up.

Unfortunately for NC State, their time for that portion of the calendar has arrived.

Here are the five most pressing roster questions entering the offseason for NC State that await answers.

What will NC State basketball center Manny Bates do?

Keatts said on multiple occasions he felt with a healthy roster that NC State basketball could have been a borderline top-25 team.

No injury was more devastating than losing redshirt junior center Manny Bates about a minute into the opener. During his rookie season, Bates had established himself as one of the premier shot blockers in the country.

In his second year on the court, Bates showcased a much-improved offensive game, increasing his scoring average from 5.1 to 9.8 points per game. He also went from a 48.6-percent free throw shooter to 68.6 percent.

The hope this season was that Bates, who also averaged 5.9 boards per contest in 2020-21 and contributed 2.8 blocks per game in his first two seasons, would turn into a reliable double-digit scorer and be an all-conference contender.

Instead, a shoulder injury that required surgery cost him the year.

Now the question is: what’s next?

Bates chose to participate in Senior Day festivities, although Keatts cautioned against reading too much into that. Bates was also included on the media guide cover with seniors Thomas Allen and Jericole Hellems, perhaps a tacit acknowledgement that Bates intended on this season being his last before turning pro.

Bates himself also acknowledged that he explored the possibility of transferring after last season.

It would seem unlikely given his injury that Bates has a strong interest form the pro ranks to explore at this point. And Keatts said that Bates was very involved in team activities.

“I’ve never had a kid that was injured that didn’t ever miss anything,” Keatts said. “He was at every meeting. He was at every film session. He traveled with us everywhere we went. And that says a lot about Manny.”

Without Bates and forwards Ernest Ross (ankle) and Greg Gantt (sports hernia) in an ACC that had a strong contingent of post players to expose NC State in the paint, the Wolfpack understandably struggled. A return of a healthy Bates in the post could alleviate that issue.

What will All-ACC guard Dereon Seabron do?

The player with the best prospects of turning pro on the NC State basketball roster is redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron, who finished the year as the ACC’s Most Improved Player and also was a second-team All-ACC selection.

Seabron averaged 17.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per contest in 2021-22 and had 12 double-doubles on the season. He also led the Pack with 102 assists and 44 steals.

Early NBA mock drafts teased Seabron as a potential pick, perhaps even first round, but more recent versions from the more credible mock drafters do not have him being selected. Furthermore, Seabron’s production dipped some in ACC play when teams played off his jumper to stop his driving ability. For the season, Seabron shot 11 of 43, 25.6 percent, on threes.

His unique blend of length, athleticism and ball handling make Seabron a tantalizing talent, but the development of a reliable jumper would take his game to the next level.

That said, whether or not a player would get drafted years ago quit being a deciding factor in decisions to leave early in pursuit of professional aspirations. Seabron used a prep year after high school and then redshirted when he arrived at NC State. That means had his eligibility been on schedule he would have actually been a senior this season.

Seabron himself was non-committal after the ACC Tournament loss on his future.

“When the time comes, I’m going to sit down with Coach and my family, and we’ll see what’s the best decision,” Seabron noted.

Is freshman sensation Terquavion Smith a lock to return?

On the surface, all signs would point towards Smith returning as a focal point of the NC State basketball rebuild.

He actually led the Pack in scoring during ACC play at 18.3 points per game, shooting 40.1 percent on his threes (73 of 182). He was the second-leading vote-getter on the ACC All-Freshman Team and was leading the conference in threes made (96) entering the league tournament.

In today’s college basketball world, the guarantee of a player staying put is not given until all the appropriate deadlines have passed.

Smith’s background does not suggest anything other than returning. He grew up a NC State fan, and he is one of the rare players in today’s basketball world to spend his entire prep career at one high school (Farmville Central near Greenville, N.C.).

Hellems was another player who spent all his prep days at one place, Chaminade in St. Louis, and he turned into a rarity who played all four years at one college.

Who will leave NC State basketball and hop into the portal?

The transfer portal is a fact of life for college basketball, and it will be flooded once again.

Thus far in his tenure, Keatts has actually done a reasonable job of avoiding mass exoduses to the portal. He had three leave after his first season and three after last year. One of the trio a year ago was Braxton Beverly, who had played four seasons at NC State and chose to be a super senior closer to home at Eastern Kentucky.

After the 2019 and 2020 seasons, just one player each year transferred, a pair of reserves in Blake Harris and A.J. Taylor. Only two players made significant contributions and left before their four years were up at NC State under Keatts — Omer Yurtseven after year one and Shakeel Moore after last season.

Yurtseven, who spent one season at Georgetown, is now with the Miami Heat organization, averaging 5.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Moore is averaging 8.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while starting at Mississippi State, which is 17-14 entering its first SEC Tournament game against South Carolina on Thursday.

Before Keatts can get to question No. 5, he will need to know some answers to questions 1-4.

What offseason additions will be added to the roster?

Fallout from the Dennis Smith Jr. case will leave NC State basketball without a scholarship next year.

Keatts has already announced that Allen and Hellems are moving on, but those two scholarships will be taken by a pair of fall signees in On3 four-star center Shawn Phillips Jr. and On3 three-star guard LJ Thomas.

Currently NC State is committed to using all 12 of its available scholarships for next year. So before any decisions can be made about who to add, Keatts needs to know how much room he will have.

There is a clear anticipation of having attrition free up space. NC State hosted On3 Consensus four-star guard and No. 50 overall prospect in the 2022 class Judah Mintz from Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., on an official visit in February.

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