Keatts 'Ecstatic' Over New Wolfpack Recruits

The five-man class, all but one of which are from North Carolina, is ranked in the top five nationally

Before congratuating his NC State basketball team for playing "a great game" in an 87-64 win against Alcorn State on Tuesday, Kevin Keatts took a little time out to pat himself on the back.

The third-year coach had every reason to crow after assembling a 2020 recruiting class that has been ranked by at least one site as the fifth best in the country.

Making his first public comments since his newest class of five players signed their NCAA National Letters of Intent, Keatts couldn't hold back his excitement, saying "Hopefully, we've got something special in this group" that includes five-star wing Josh Hall, four-star point guard Cam Hayes, three-star combo guard Shakeel Moore, three-star power forward Nick Farrar and three-star big man Ebenezer Dowuona.

"I know we played a game tonight, which is great, but I’m excited too about our future," Keatts said, adding that Nebraska transfer Thomas Allen and redshirting freshman Dereon Seabron will also be eligible to play when the newcomers arrive next season. "We signed five really good basketball players that I think can certainly help us in the future. It helps us to continue to develop our culture.

"When you look at the guys that we signed, all five of them fill a need for us. Give our staff a lot of credit. I thought our assistant coaches did a tremendous job recruiting those guys. It’s an exciting class. I’m ecstatic about those guys. I think we’re headed in the right direction. I know we are headed in the right direction."

This is the first time Keatts has brought in a full class of incoming freshmen after relying heavily on transfers to build his first three Wolfpack teams. 

In addition to the influx of young talent, the class should help raise the profile of Keatts' program within the state, since all but Dowuona are from North Carolina.

"When I took the job I wanted to get some homegrown guys that could be able to certainly help us win a championship someday," Keatts said. "Four of those five guys are from the state of North Carolina and that was a priority from our staff and me." 

While each of the new recruits officially came on board during the early signing period that began last week, Keatts said their commitments were the fruit of an effort that began more than two years ago and began to take off when current redshirt freshman big man Manny Bates of Fayetteville chose to play for the Wolfpack.

"A majority of these guys that we signed, we started from the day we got here recruiting," Ketts said. "We started building a relationship with them. We started selling them on the opportunity of coming to NC State and getting a great education.

"We started talking to them about a lot things, about our fan base. We talked to them about the opportunity to play our style of play. We talked about being an alumni of NC State. I think it just worked out. We worked extremely hard for these guys, and give them credit. All of these guys could have chose to go somewhere else and they came to NC State."

It's a balanced group Keatts is counting on to become the foundation for the next phase of his program's growth once current seniors Markell Johnson, C.J. Bryce and Pat Andree move on.

"Cam Hayes is a talented guard," Keatts said. "He reclassified back up to his regular class. He can play the one and the two. He’s a really great basketball player. When you talk about Shakeel Moore, he’s probably one of the best defensive guards in the country. The last time I watched him before this weekend, he’s a guy that stepped out and made seven 3s. That’s not who he is. Certainly you know that he’s able to do those types of things. 

“I love the bunch. I love what Ebenezer brings to our class. Not only are those guys good basketball players, but they’re good people and all of them are coming in with really good academic background. If I can get two out of the three I’m lucky, but with the majority of those guys I got three out of three so I’m pumped about that.”