NC State basketball uses transfer portal to add Winthrop star, Big South POY DJ Burns
More post help is on the way for N.C. State.
Winthrop transfer D.J. Burns verbally committed to the Wolfpack on Tuesday, the second big man Kevin Keatts has added this off-season.
Burns, who made his announcement on social media, played three seasons for the Eagles, averaging 12.4 points per game.
He joins Utah transfer Dusan Mahorcic in filling a huge need for N.C. State, which lost Manny Bates and Jaylon Gibson to the transfer portal.
Burns (6-9, 275) started 63 of the 82 games he played for Winthrop in his three seasons with Eagles.
The Rock Hill, South Carolina native started his career at Tennessee, where he redshirted in 2018. After transferring to Winthrop, he was named the Big South Conference Freshman of the Year for the 2019-20 season. That season he led the league in field goal percentage (58.3) and set the school record for field goals made by a freshman (175).
Last season after averaging 15 points per game, while shooting 63% from the floor, Burns was named the Big South Conference Player of the Year. He has two more years of eligibility remaining.
Burns was the No. 3 player in South Carolina coming out of York Prep High School in the Class of 2018. Zion Williamson and Ja Morant — the top two picks in the 2019 NBA Draft — were the only players in the state ranked higher than him.
Burns and Mahorcic join guards Jack Clark and Jarkel Joiner in transferring to the Wolfpack this off-season.
After losing four players to the transfer portal, one to graduation and awaiting the decisions of two more players, N.C. State’s current roster has 11 players, nine of whom are scholarship athletes.
Keatts will have to see if guards Terquavion Smith and Dereon Seabron, who entered their names in the NBA draft, will decide to return to school. They will compete at the NBA draft combine next week in Chicago.
Next season, Keatts’ team adds one player, guard L.J. Thomas, coming in from high school.
Here’s a look at N.C. State’s roster transactions this off-season.
TRANSFERRED | New schools | |
|---|---|---|
Cam Hayes | Greensboro | LSU |
Manny Bates | Fayetteville | Butler |
Jaylon Gibson | Zebulon | Winston-Salem State |
Thomas Allen | Raleigh | TBD |
EXHAUSTED ELIGIBILITY | ||
Jericole Hellems | St. Louis, Mo. | |
*ENTERED NBA DRAFT | ||
Terquavion Smith | Greenville | Guard |
Dereon Seabron | Norfolk, Va. | Guard |
CURRENT ROSTER | ||
Breon Pass | Reidsville | Guard |
Casey Morsell | Ft. Washington, Md. | Guard |
** Chase Graham | Raleigh | Guard |
** Alex Nunnally | Cary | Guard |
Ebenezer Dowuona | Accra, Ghana | Forward |
Ernest Ross | Alachua, Fla. | Forward |
Greg Gantt | Fayetteville | Forward |
*** Jack Clark | Cheltenham, Pa. | Guard |
*** Jarkel Joiner | Oxford, Miss. | Guard |
*** Dusan Mahorcic | Belgrade, Sebia | Forward |
*** D.J. Burns | Rock Hill, S.C. | Forward |
*Could return
**Walk-on
***Transfer
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 11:37 AM with the headline "NC State basketball uses transfer portal to add Winthrop star, Big South POY DJ Burns."
