Roster Build: One Month In, How’s It Going?

“We’re going to be active, we’re going to be aggressive, and we’re going to be very competitive in the transfer portal. “ Coach Gainey

Transfer Rankings:

Using the 247sports transfer rankings as of Cinco de Mayo, we see NC State ranked 27th.  That just considers the six transfers and excludes Whitty, McNeil, and Wilkins. That ranks us behind ACC opponents Louisville (#1), Miami (#5), UNC (#6), and Duke (#11). (And it also raises the question, how the heck is Tennessee (#2) killing it without ace recruiter, Justin Gainey?) For comparison, last season NC State ended up ranked 14th on this same scale.

Evan Miya is a little more harsh, ranking NC State 33rd overall, and 7th in the ACC behind Louisville (#1), Miami (#3), Duke (#12), UNC (#20), Pitt (#25), and FSU (#26). Last season NC State ended up ranked 4th in the country and 1st in the ACC on this same scale.

Are We Shopping at the Discount Store?

Definitely not with the staff – The first order of business was to build a staff, and Coach Gainey (SEC) shopped exclusively in the power 4 conferences, he hired 3 from the SEC (Brooks, Goins, Collins) and 2 from the Big 12 (Driscoll, Comar). All are coaches with extensive experience coaching against top level programs. We don’t have the full 2026 picture yet, but the top 2 assistant coach salaries last season were Howard at $350k and both Chambers and Hamilton made $250k. This season’s top two are Coach Brooks at $500k and Coach Driscoll at $450k.

“I want to recruit high character student athletes who embrace the standard and take pride in wearing that jersey.” Coach Gainey

What about the players? – One of the storylines on last season’s team was that most were from high major conferences, four of the five starters were seniors, and many had played on teams that had advanced in the NCAA tournament the previous season. One writer described the roster as ‘a team built for the post season.’  (that did not age well) This season looks quite different.

The emerging themes so far this season seem to be:

1. Mid Majors – Five of our six transfers are from mid-majors and the sixth is from Maryland (12-21 / 4-16) who finished next to last in the B1G last season. Maryland was (is) a mid-major in P4 clothing.
2. Tournament experience – Our best three transfers (Edmead, Hammond, Evans) all did play in the post season, as did McNeil. (Evans was in the NIT) But all lost in the first game.
3. 3PT Shooting – Looking at the roster at the beginning of May, four of the probable starters are excellent 3PT shooters, together they shot 305 of 757 (40.3%) last season. Interestingly, Edmead (248 3PT-A) and McNeil (246 3PT-A) took a similar number of shots, as did Yalaho (128 3PT-A) and Hammond (135 3PT-A).
4. Youth – Excluding redshirt seasons, only Keene and Evans have played 3 full seasons. The first 9 signees average 1.55 years of experience.
5. Potential – The biggest question is, of course, how will they handle the upgrade in competition? Can they replicate their previous season’s performance? And, if we’re honest, we know most of them need to not only play as well as they have but get better if they want to lift this team to the post season.

“This program is going to be built off development, guys getting better every single day … I’m gonna push, pull, try to get every ounce of talent out of you” – Coach Gainey

Coach Gainey has put together an interesting mix of staff and players.

He has a staff that has a track record of player development …

• Coach Gainey – Coached point guards at UT, they finished top 25 in assist rate every year. He coached Kennedy Chandler and Zakai Zeigler to a combined four consecutive All-SEC seasons.
• Coach Gainey – Responsible for the UT’s consistently elite defense every season he had that responsibility, also coached Naismith Defensive Player of the Year finalist Jamai Mashack.
• Coach Brooks – He was a key in the development of UK’s forwards in Ansley Almonor, Andrew Carr and Trent Noah. Almonor became the first player in program history to finish a season with a 50-40-90 shooting split
• Coach Goins – While at Clemson, he oversaw the development of the Tigers’ backcourt standouts Tevin Mack, Al-Amir Dawes and Nick Honor.
• Coach Driscoll – While at North Florida, he helped develop two-time ASUN POY Dallas Moore, and ASUN Defensive POYs Demarcus Daniels and Wajid Aminu.

Development Needs:

… And he has a team that will need development to reach their potential, and the post season.

Team – They will have to adapt to consistently facing bigger, stronger, faster players than they are used to playing against in their former conferences.

Experience – The current 9-man roster would be ranked 152nd in experience based on last season’s KP rankings. However, Duke was ranked 312, so take that for what it is worth. (UConn was ranked 21st)

Darius Adams – He’s considered an elite talent but struggled last season on a bad Maryland team. He has a boat load of potential and could be a real difference maker on this team. Where does he best fit on the court?

• He led the Maryland team in turnovers. Tied for second in assists. Assist / TO ratio 0.8.
• 35.4 FG% / 24.8 3PT% – His FG% was 8th on the team, his 3PT% was 7th.

Paul McNeil – Paul was a catch and shoot guy last season. The fact that he seldom did anything else is evident in his having only 14 turnovers. (Fewer than Sagnia) He only made 33 2PT shots, less than one per game. He was an underutilized player. How can the staff make the most of his abilities?

• In high school, he was an all-around player. He averaged 25.8 ppg / 9.2 rpg / 4.2 apg 2.0 steals and 1.3 blocks for his four-year career. Granted, the quality of opponent was a big factor, but that’s consistent production and indicative that he is not a one-dimensional player.
• On last season’s poor rebounding team, he was the 4th leading rebounder in offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, and total rebounds.
• On last season’s poor shot blocking team, he was 3rd
• He was an 82.4% free throw shooter. That’s a guy you want driving to the basket more often.

Kyle Evans – Kyle is going to be a 30 (ish) minute per game starter. He has not historically been foul prone; he has never averaged as much as 2 fouls per game in his career and last season he had only 3 games with 4 fouls. But this is a much more physical league than he has dealt with before. It is going to be hard for him to replicate his production.

• He is 6’10” 210 which is a little light for an ACC center. For example, Duke’s Ngongba is 6’11” 250, Louisville’s Bidunga is 6’10” 235, UVA’s Grunloh is 7’0” 238, and Miami’s Cyril is 6’11” 260.

“Our team is going to defend. We’re going to rebound. And we’re going to take care of the basketball. It’s that simple.” Coach Gainey

“When you watch us on TV I want you to be able to say that’s the hardest playing team in the country. That’s what we’re hanging our hats on.” Coach Gainey