NC State freshman guard Trey Parker shows growth with career night in Coastal Carolina win

If there’s a three-minute stretch that could show NC State freshman guard Trey Parker’s confidence rising, it arrived in the second half of just his third collegiate game, an 82-70 win over Coastal Carolina on Wednesday night at Lenovo Center. 

Parker checked back into the game just about seven minutes after halftime concluded, already with 4 points from the opening period, and he appeared to be on a mission. He grabbed a defensive rebound less than a minute into the shift before he got to the rim at will. 

The twitchy guard hit a layup to put the Pack up 9 before he quickly ran down the floor to finish with his first-career dunk before he hit the court hard and earned a three-point play. Parker was able to finish that stretch of time on the floor with a mid-range jumper to quickly surpass his point total from the first two games combined (6). 

Parker, a 6-foot-1, 165-pound athletic bucket-getter, finished the night with a career-best 13 points on an efficient 6-for-8 shooting with five rebounds and a steal in just 20 minutes of action. 

For NC State senior guard Jayden Taylor, who played alongside Parker on the wing with the freshman at the shooting guard spot and led the team with 22 points in the victory over the Chanticleers, watching the young player find his groove early was a welcomed sight to see.

“That’s big-time, man,” Taylor said of Parker postgame. “Trey works so hard. He’s been consistent every day and he shows up. I’m happy for him. As a freshman, that’s big time. I think he played very well.”

Parker was able to put his previous outing behind him in the win over the Chanticleers. He flashed in the season-opening win over USC Upstate last Monday with 6 points on 2-for-5 shooting with two rebounds, two steals and four assists. But his second appearance lasted just nine minutes in the Pack’s 81-72 win over Presbyterian on Friday night. In that appearance, he missed all three shot attempts with just two rebounds and two turnovers in his brief action. 

Although he didn’t make as big of an impact in the Pack’s second win of the season, Parker’s ability to quickly make his presence felt with graduate guard Michael O’Connell on the bench with foul trouble against Coastal Carolina appeared to show the freshman’s growth within coach Kevin Keatts’ system.

Keatts, who hasn’t been shy to play any of his three freshmen this season, has opted to play Parker the most through the first three games. His 47 minutes of action have outpaced fellow classmates Bryce Heard (38) and Paul McNeil (13) to this point. 

For the eighth-year coach, Parker’s increased playing time against the Chanticleers came down to how he fared in the Wolfpack’s practices since the win over the Blue Hose last Friday. 

“He’s gotten better and he’s been an energy guy,” Keatts said of Parker. “Every game I go into I look and see who’s going to be my energy guy and I thought Trey was great. But he’s had great practices. You know, it’s weird. With this group you can look at how they practice and determine how they are going to play on gameday. With these guys we need to have good practices to determine how well we’ll translate to games.”

It seems like Parker’s adjustment to college basketball has been a learning experience, but that’s what he expected going into the regular season. He spent a prep year at Overtime Elite last season, where he averaged 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals in the regular season against some of the top competition in the country, but the collegiate level is a different beast. 

“College basketball has been, I ain’t gonna say it’s been rough, but it’s been definitely a challenge because you’ve got to fight through things,” Parker told TheWolfpacker.com in the preseason. “You’ve got to go through adversity. You’ve got to be up on time for class. At the end of the day, it is just a big change that you’ve got to be ready for.”

Parker’s ability to evolve has allowed the first-year player to carve out a possible consistent role within NC State’s rotation this season. He’s third on the team with 1.3 steals per game, while shooting at a 50% clip from the field. 

For a player that made himself viral on social media in high school with highlight-reel dunks, Parker has shown Keatts exactly what he was looking for going into his freshman year. Parker has proven he is more than just a high-flyer — he can hit mid-range jumpers and has displayed his play-making ability with the four-assist season opener. 

“When you see him play, he’s not as flashy as he is when you see him on the internet,” Keatts said during the preseason. “He’s a good basketball player. What I wanted from Trey is to be more of a basketball player than to be a guy who’s about Instagram and Snapchat. … He’s a freshman, but he’s a talented basketball player that will bring a lot of value to our program.”

Now, as Parker continues to play with the Wolfpack, he is likely to continue to grow and improve through each shift on the court. Taylor, one of NC State’s veteran leaders, believes that Parker is only scratching the surface. 

 “You just learn with experience,” Taylor said of Parker growing through college basketball. “As time goes, he’s going to get even better. We haven’t seen the best Trey yet. I’m proud of him.”