{"id":124512,"date":"2025-08-06T20:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/124512\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T20:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:39:08","slug":"why-darrion-williams-is-nc-states-most-important-team-transfer-for-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/124512\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Darrion Williams is NC State\u2019s most important team transfer for 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

After that miraculous run to the Final Four in 2024, NC State had a major downturn last season. The Wolfpack finished just 12-19, grabbing 16th place in a very weak ACC, and saw Kevin Keatts relieved of his duties less than twelve months after an insane March. Fortunately, this program made what might be one of the best hires of the offseason in grabbing Will Wade fresh off his work down at McNeese State.<\/p>\n

The program now becomes two years removed from that magic run and the faces will look very different on the sidelines in Raleigh. Very little of last season\u2019s talent will return under Wade next season, with Paul McNeil the only real impactful returner after a decent freshman campaign. Last year\u2019s senior-laden lineup bids goodbye to Marcus Hill, Ben Middlebrooks, and plenty of others as the new coaching staff ushers in a new era for the Wolfpack.<\/p>\n

Two Top 100 freshman and eight transfer additions rejuvenate this new-look roster and there are some notable new names from other schools. Wade brought former McNeese starters Alyn Breed and Quadir Copeland with him, while his backcourt also gets a major boost in Tre Holloman<\/a>, former Michigan State point guard. Terrance Arceneaux comes from success at Houston while Ven-Allen Lubin<\/a> was productive at rival North Carolina, though there\u2019s another big forward we\u2019ve got our eyes on this season.<\/p>\n

A major weapon throughout his collegiate career to date, Darrion Williams<\/a> is a 6-6 wing from Las Vegas who was MWC Rookie of the Year while playing for Nevada back in 2023. He then spent the last two seasons as a starter for Texas Tech and grew into an All-Big 12 talent, averaging 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists this past season. Williams was a major piece as the Red Raiders advanced to the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n

Not only one of the best names in the entire transfer portal, Williams was a First Team All-Big 12 weapon who does damage all over the court. He\u2019s a solid shooter, a great rebounder, and has pretty solid assists numbers too. His work with the Red Raiders was outstanding and he becomes the focal piece for NC State this season.<\/p>\n

Talent comes to Raleigh in bundles, with Holloman and Lubin two of those other notable additions, but the Wolfpack\u2019s hopes rest on Williams\u2019 back. He was a major force at Texas Tech and if this new-look NC State team can gel and compete in the ACC then they\u2019ll need his leadership and athleticism. Don\u2019t be surprised if we\u2019re talking about Williams as one of the nation\u2019s best players in a few months, especially if he hits the ground running with NC State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After that miraculous run to the Final Four in 2024, NC State had a major downturn last season.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-124512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114983755009211493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}