After the dust settled and all the excitement of being back home had subsided, new N.C. State men’s basketball coach Justin Gainey picked up his first big win.
Gainey, the former Wolfpack basketball player who took over for Will Wade after his one-and-done season, secured the return of Paul McNeil Jr.
Last month, McNeil, who entered the transfer portal and drew interest from several programs, including Wade and LSU, decided to stay put in Raleigh.
This was huge for a couple of reasons. McNeil, the rising junior from Rockingham, averaged 13.8 points per game a year ago while shooting 42.7% from three-point range. Gainey wanted big guards on his roster, and the 6-foot-5 McNeil fits the mold.
Secondly, from day one, Gainey has talked about recruiting the state of North Carolina, and that had to start with the in-state wing already in his locker room. McNeil staying gives Gainey a homegrown talent as the face of the program.
“My vision for the program was really taking care of the state,” Gainey said when he met with the media on Thursday. “Recruiting North Carolina really hard and trying to keep the best players in North Carolina home.”
That started with several conversations with McNeil, a player Gainey first offered when McNeil was a sophomore at Richmond County High School. McNeil’s trajectory has Gainey excited.
McNeil averaged only eight minutes per game as a true freshman and scored just 4.2 points per game. Last year, he was a rare holdover from the Kevin Keatts era and showed why he was a priority for Wade, hitting a game-winner against South Carolina in an exhibition game. In December, he knocked down 11 three-pointers against Texas Southern, setting a school record. He finished that game with 47 points. Those 11 three-pointers also tied an ACC record.
The need for a big wing who can shoot the leather off the ball is always high, which meant Gainey had some work to do once he settled into his new role.
“We all know what he does at a high level,” Gainey said. “And what he does, he does it as well as or better than anybody who has ever done it here before.”
Building the roster has centered around a player like McNeil, as Gainey and his staff placed a priority on shooting.
Gainey has added six players to the roster through the transfer portal so far. He told his staff to recruit players with toughness, bringing in a group of mid-major players with grit and perhaps a chip on their shoulders.
He was also intentional about bringing in players with multiple years of eligibility remaining. While that doesn’t mean as much in the NIL and transfer portal era, it’s a legitimate attempt to build something long-term.
“I’m not just trying to build a team every year,” Gainey said. “I’m trying to build a program, a program of people who feel the same way about N.C. State that I do. To get to that, you’re going to need some guys who have an opportunity to be here for multiple years.”
McNeil has spent two years in Raleigh and will have at least one more.
The conversations between the rookie head coach and star wing started with basketball, but shifted to much more than that.
“As we continued to talk, it went into a lot of different areas,” Gainey said. “Whether it was relationships, whether it was trust, legacy. We talked often and Paul was great through the process. The conversations will help me coach him because I got to learn a lot of in-depth things about Paul.”
