Scouting South Carolina-Upstate – TheWolfpacker

South Carolina-Upstate went 10-20 overall and 5-11 in the Big South and lost its coach after the season.

Coach Dave Dickerson left as head coach of the Spartans to become an assistant coach at Ohio State under new coach Jake Diebler. South Carolina-Upstate tapped former Drake assistant coach Marty Richter to take over. Richter’s lone head coaching experience came at Southwestern State College in Florida from 2016-18. He left the juco ranks to join Drake’s staff in 2018.

Only two players remain from last year’s team — sophomore point guard C.J. Rich and redshirt junior wing Andrew McConnell. Rich played in six games last year, and McConnell last made two appearances at James Madison in 2021-22.

South Carolina-Upstate will play NC State at 7 p.m. Monday at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, with the game on ESPN-plus.

South Carolina-Upstate will go through a year of change this season.

The aforementioned McConnell and Rich were joined in the starting lineup by freshman power forward Nick Book of New Zealand, junior wing Isaiah Skinner and junior center Daniel Helterhof of Germany against North Greenville on Oct. 29, which the Spartans won 99-62.

However, redshirt freshman wing Chico Johnson, a Drake transfer, redshirt sophomore guard Karmani Gregory from the junior college ranks and freshman wing Mr. Dean will be heavily in the mix.

South Carolina-Upstate will play NC State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Iowa and South Carolina among the high major programs in non-conference action.

Rankings

South Carolina-Upstate finished 303rd in the NET rankings last year, and NC State was 63rd.

ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index (BPI) ranks the Spartans at No. 315 overall and the Wolfpack at No. 33.

KenPom.com has South Carolina-Upstate at No. 349, and NCSU checks in at No. 53.

Shooting

South Carolina-Upstate shot 49.3 percent from the field (36-of-73), 34.4 percent on 3-pointers (11-of-32) and 16-of-18 at the free throw line for 88.9 percent against North Greenville in the exhibition game. Gregory went 4 of 6 on 3-pointers and Skinner went 3 of 9 from beyond the arc.

Gregory shot 35.9 percent on 3-pointers at Florida Southwestern College in the junior college ranks last year. Skinner made 34.8 percent on 3-pointers at Mt. San Jacinto Junior College.

Bounce

The Spartans outshot North Greenville 47-39 and both teams grabbed 16 offensive rebounds.

Dean led the way with nine boards and Jones had six. Dean averaged 17.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game at Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Air, Kansas, last year. The 6-10, 240-pound Helterhoff averaged 5.8 rebounds per game at Our Lady of the Lake Junior College last year.

Protection

North Greenville shot 33.8 percent from the field and was an abysmal 2-of-19 on 3-pointers against South Carolina-Upstate.

South Carolina-Upstate had five blocks and five steals against North Greenville, with the 6-6 Skinner getting two of the blocks.

Depth

The Spartans fielded 12 players against North Greenville, with 10 of them logging at least 15 minutes of action. The bench outperformed the starters with Gregory scoring 24, Dean adding 21 and nine boards and Johnson recording 10 points.

The 6-foot-1, 170-pound Karmani Gregory showed for at least one game, he can fill it.

Gregory went 8-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 on 3-pointers en route to 24 points in just 23 minutes of action in a 99-62 win over North Greenville.

Gregory is a native of Bradenton (FL), Southeast High, where he averaged 19.9 points and 3.2 assists per game his senior year. He attended Florida Southwestern College for two years, which is the junior college where Coach Richter worked in 2016-18.

Gregory redshirted his freshman year and then averaged 9.3 points in 23.3 minutes of action last year. he shot 44.3% from the field and 35.9% on threes. He had a season-high 23 against Indiana River State College on March 2, 2024.

Gregory reached double figures in nine games and topped 20 points twice.

NC state

PG — 12 Michael O’Connell (6-2, 195, Sr., 5.7 ppg, 3.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg)

SG — 8 Jayden Taylor (6-4, 195, Sr., 11.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.3 rpg, 1.1 rpg)

G — 10 Marcus Hill (6-4, 185, Sr., 20.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.6 rpg, 1.0 rpg at Bowling Green)

F — 3 Dontrez Stiles (6-6, 210, Sr., 12.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 0.8 ppg at Georgetown)

C — 1 Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (6-10, 240, Sr., 12.9 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 1.0 ppg at Louisville)

South Carolina-North State

PG — 21 CJ Rich (5-10, 155, Soph.)

SG — 0 Andrew McConnell (6-2, 170, R-Jr.)

SF — 2 Isaiah Skinner (6-6, 200, R-Jr.)

PF — 8 Nic Book (6-8, 205, Fr.)

C — 22 Daniel Helterhoff (6-10, 240, Jr.)

4 NCAA Tournament Coach Marty Richter has been a part of as an assistant coach – three at Drake (2020-21, 2022-24) and a Sweet 16 berth at Florida Gulf Coast in 2012-13.

6 Consecutive years in which South Carolina-Upstate had a player become their leading scorer for the first time. Trae Broadnax (Rice), Jordan Gainey (Tennessed), Bryson Mozone (Georgetown), Tommy Bruner (Jacksonville), Everette Hammond (UMass-Lowell) all transferred and Malik Moore graduated after 2018-19. Deion Holmes led the Spartans in scoring in 2015-16 and then again in 2017-18.

8 Travels of 15 non-conference games this year, with trips to NC State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, East Tennessee State, Iowa, Coastal Carolina, Western Carolina and South Carolina. Three of the seven home games are against non-Division I opponents.

South Carolina-Upstate has three players who are ranked 6-8 or taller, and two of them are freshmen.

Junior center Daniel Helterhoff is the only true center in terms of size at 6-10 and 240 pounds. The Cologne, Germany native went to Our Lady of the Lake Junior College in Texas and averaged 10.1 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.1 minutes per game last year. He shot 48.4 percent from the field and 79.5 percent from the free throw line, but hit just four 3-pointers.

Helterhoff had a season-high 21 points against Southwest JC in New Mexico on February 10, 2024, and had 15 double-digit scoring games in his sophomore year.

NC State will look to establish senior center Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who averaged 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game for Louisville last year. The 6-10, 240-pounder had a career-high 29 points against Florida State on Feb. 3, 2024.

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