Paul McNeil, Jr.

And so when you do have a player or a coach that is like overly loyal to your program, it means more to us.

Like Paul McNeil, we'll talk about him in just a second.

It means more to us that he's here for another season.

C.J. Bailey, it means more to us that he's here for another season.

Honestly, I don't know if we had Shaw Hall yet at that point either.

So coming up next, we're going to talk more about expectations.

We're going to talk some about Paul McNeil.

Stick with us.

He, you know, he flew under the radar next to Cru Da- Cruz Davis, but he was really good in his own right.

Christian Hammond's a really good scorer from Santa Clara, and you obviously bring back Paul McNeil, who averaged 13 a game for the Wolfpack.

So there, there, there's a lot to like with the team.

I do wonder how the spacing will work if you have, uh, Lubin and Kyle Evans playing the front court together.

But, uh, [laughs] Matt Abel came in as a top 20 recruit, goes to North Carolina State.

Uh, he plays behind, what's the shooter's name at North Carolina State? Paul McNeil, who, you know, start, very good shooter.

He's got, he's a guy with NBA buzz, but in 22 minutes per game Matt Abel averaged almost 9 points, three and a half rebounds, less than as- one assist.

He shot 35%, 36% really, from three.

And then, uh, Haitian kid, he transfers from North Carolina to North Carolina State.

Lubin played the five.

Paul McNeil was a movement shooter.

Like, they had a bunch of guys that kinda, like, filled the same, you know, role.

They love the shooting that they have.

Preston Edmeade, obviously Paul McNeil, voted as a top ten three-point shooter in the country by Andy Katz earlier this week.

And then Isaac Trotter listed him as the number 12 overall shooting guard in the country.

So that tells you the talent level that they have in the backcourt.

NC State needs to get some modern-day guys going to the league and making an impact if they want to be able to use that as a recruiting chip.

I think maybe Justin Ganey might be hoping Paul McNeil can end up being that guy, but it remains to be seen where Carolina has, maybe not in the most recent years, like the most guys that have... like gone and exploded like Caleb Wilson will probably be that next one that is like a big impact player that comes out of Carolina but at least like in the 2010s and late 2000s like when players that are playing now we're growing up like they have a number of guys that went through went to the NBA have carved out careers you know you've got Kobe White starting in Charlotte You've got Kobe White.

You've got – and I'm struggling because there aren't as many, again, from the super recent years.

But if you go back even more to the 2000s, like the Marvin Williams of it all – and maybe it's just because I can only name the Hornets guys because that's the only team that I really watch.

So I just think there's a lot of pieces there at Clemson.

I, I'm most intrigued though, I think by this NC State team and Paul McNeil Jr.

A lot of people remember him going viral when he scored, I think it was 47 points at, at Texas Southern.

Yeah.

And, you know, just being able to have his tenure with, um, his route and his coaching career, and then finishing off, you know, being the defensive coordinator at Tennessee.

I think along with bringing a guy home, they also went out and got what they were just kind of missing last year, and that was the defensive end, um, for NC State.

And so you talk about going to get him and being able to retain some of the guys, Paul McNe- Paul McNeil Jr., who, uh, you know, we've seen come onto the, to the stage, and last year had a 47-point game.

Um, but I think m-m-more than anything, um, this is a new era for NC State, and they're doing it with a guy that they know, that put on the jersey, that had the NC State across their chest.

Yeah.

And a ton of other really talented pieces, including a guy in Paul McNeil that I think might be one of the more underrated players in the conference.

So I think that there are certainly games in the schedule that could sneak up on Louisville.

But there's also games that if they lose that you're going to look at your buddy or your podcast co-host or whatever and you're going to just say – or you're going to talk to the wall and think Pat Kelsey is there.