One of the most important in college basketball is ensuring the center position is taken care of.

NC State learned that lesson the hard way when center Manny Bates got injured in 2021-22 in the opening game of the season. The Wolfpack made sure that wouldn’t happen again and landed transfers D.J. Burns and Dusan Mahorcic in 2022-23, and then transfers Ben Middlebrooks and Mohamed Diarra arrived to join Burns last season.

NC State struck fast in the transfer portal last spring to land former Tennessee and Louisville post player Brandon Huntley-Hatfield on April 4, in one of the shrewdest moves of the offseason. NCSU eventually added Laval University junior Ishmael Diouf to Middlebrooks and Huntley-Hatfield, and the Wolfpack hope to be fortified once again.

The 6-foot-10, 240-pound Huntley-Hatfield has been on a journey since his freshman year of high school, and has learned numerous life lessons along the way. It led to averaging 12.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, and he shot 56.7 percent from the field at Louisville last year.