The NC State men's and women's basketball teams returned to practice this week over four months following the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Basketball tournaments.
Wolfpack men's basketball head coach Kevin Keatts first shared pictures of the team working out at the Dail Center Tuesday morning on social media via his newly-formed Instagram account (@coachkeattsncsu).
Notably present at the workout was redshirt senior forward D.J. Funderburk, who has yet to withdraw his name from the NBA early entrant list but is expected to return at this point considering his continued participation with the team.
Funderburk would be the top returning scorer and rebounder on the team after averaging 12.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game for the Wolfpack last season.
He would also provide an additional presence of seniority along with redshirt senior guard Devon Daniels and senior guard Braxton Beverly who are both set to return for the upcoming hoops season.
NC State's entire roster was present at the workout Monday according to Joe Giglio of WRALSportsFan.com.
Keatts posted once again Tuesday evening recapping the second consecutive day of workouts, this time featuring his incoming 2020 class which is the highest-ranked recruiting class of the head coach's career. According to Rivals, the class is ranked No. 25 nationally and fifth in the ACC.
The 2020 freshman class includes four-star point guard Cam Hayes, four-star combo guard Shakeel Moore, three-star power forward Nick Farrar, three-star center Ebenezer Dowuona and three-star forward Jaylon Gibson.
The women's basketball also returned this week under phase two of NC State's four-phased plan of return to athletics.
According to phase two of the plan, football athletes were to arrive no later than June 20 after medical clearance including COVID testing followed by men's and women's basketball players shortly after. The final phase of the plan is a return of action that coincides with the beginning of the fall semester which is set to start Monday, Aug. 10, less than three weeks from now.
NC State's women's basketball's Twitter account posted photos Wednesday morning of the 2020 ACC Tournament champions returning to practice at Reynolds Coliseum featuring a majority of the roster.
Included in the photos were senior forward Kayla Jones along with returning 2020 All-ACC freshmen, sophomore forwards Jakia Brown-Turner and Jada Boyd.
Head coach Wes Moore's Wolfpack is nationally ranked No. 8 according to ESPN's Way Too Early Top 25 that was created in March.
Since then, NC State added a key grad transfer in 2019-20 Big West Player of the Year Raina Perez, who will provide an additional option at point guard for Moore along with returning senior point guard Kai Crutchfield. Both were pictured in the tweet Wednesday morning.
Also making an appearance in the photos were true freshman guards Dontavia Waggoner and Genesis Bryant as well as redshirt freshman forward Elle Sutphin, who will all play the first minutes of their college careers the next time the Wolfpack take the floor.
——
• Talk about it inside The Wolves' Den
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker
• Like us on Facebook
