NC State men’s basketball is still growing as new faces emerge in the rotation

NC State has been an ever-evolving team on the floor through the first 10 games this season. It has eight new faces, including seven transfers, and the Wolfpack’s lineups on the hardwood have become a revolving door as the team works to find a rotation. 

The Pack opened the season with six of the new faces on the court before it added Kansas transfer MJ Rice, who missed part of the preseason workouts due to personal reasons, and NC A&T transfer Kam Woods, who was going through the NCAA transfer waiver process. 

Rice hit the floor in the Pack’s 93-61 dismantling of Maryland Eastern Shore on Dec. 6. Woods, the most recent addition to the lineup, made his NC State debut in the team’s 79-70 loss against No. 12 Tennessee on Saturday night in San Antonio.

While those two have suited up and played in the past two weeks — and the pair has been in practice — it has still taken some getting used to for the Wolfpack. 

“The tough thing about us, we’re playing good basketball, but we’ve also added two pieces that probably most teams haven’t added in the last week or two,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said after the loss to the Volunteers on Saturday night. “So it’s going to take a little bit of time for us to jell with those newer guys in.”

Rice has averaged 13 minutes through his first three games, while Woods played 18 in his Wolfpack debut against the Volunteers. With their addition to the bench, Keatts has had to rework his rotations a little bit. 

Woods was featured at shooting guard and as a primary ball handler against Tennessee. The Bessemer, Ala., native’s addition to the lineup appeared to bump sophomore guard LJ Thomas from the usual rotation, while graduate guard Michael O’Connell saw his minutes dwindle even more. 

O’Connell, a pass-first Stanford transfer, played just four minutes against Tennessee, while he averaged 15 minutes a game over the previous four contests. The Mineola, N.Y., native was expected to be one of the Pack’s go-to point guards, but it appears that graduate guard DJ Horne and Woods have taken over that role. 

Horne, who is not a prototypical point guard, has seen 48% of the available point guard minutes over the last five games, according to KenPom. He has also played 36% of the available shooting guard minutes over that span. Horne has excelled as a ball handler for the Pack this season, and boasts a 5.6 turnover percentage, which is 28th best in the nation.

The Cary native has committed just six turnovers this season — three came against Tennessee — while he has 26 assists. Horne has recorded at least a pair of assists in all but two games this season, and he paced the Pack with five in the team’s 84-78 overtime win at Boston College. 

While NC State is working with various lineups on the court, Horne has been the point guard for the four most common groupings of players in the last five games. The most frequently used lineup — Horne, graduate guard Casey Morsell, junior guard Jayden Taylor, freshman forward Dennis Parker Jr. and graduate forward DJ Burns — has been on the floor for 16.3% of the time in the past five contests.  

Morsell has played in 48% of the shooting guard minutes and 30% of the small forward time, and has been featured in the top 10 most commonly used lineups on the court over the last five games. Taylor, the team’s leading scorer, has played 60% of the available minutes at small forward, per KenPom. Burns, the staple of NC State’s roster, has been used in 69% of the minutes over the last five games at center.

NC State’s new pieces to the rotation — Rice and Woods — have been utilized often, too. Rice has played 18% of the time at power forward in the last five games, even though he has only appeared in three of them. Woods, who played close to 20 minutes against Tennessee, is likely to carve his way near Rice’s total as the schedule turns over into January. 

The Pack’s lineups have varied on the floor, and Keatts knows it will take time for the new groups to continue to mold together. 

“I wish I had a magic wand and it would happen overnight,” Keatts said. “They’re not that far off. They’re practicing, it’s just making sure that everybody’s completely on the same page. … It’s a lot to build on.”

NC State’s loss against Tennessee provided opportunities for the Pack to see growth with its full roster mostly available — junior forward Mohamed Diarra was limited since he is coming off a sore ankle. The red and white held a lead against the Vols, and the Pack was able to tie the game late in the second half after trailing by double digits. 

And though Keatts does not want to take any “moral victories,” there were still pieces to the NC State team that he liked to see — particularly the Pack’s defense.

The seventh-year coach hoped that while NC State left San Antonio with a loss, it can continue to grow from it like it did with its losses to BYU and Ole Miss, which culminated in a road ACC win at Boston College. 

“Playing these types of games only helps you when you get to ACC play,” Keatts said. “Playing Vanderbilt, playing Ole Miss, playing BYU helped us win at [Boston College]. We’ll get some help from this game somewhere down the road.”