Quick hits from Braxton Beverly's NC State career

NC State senior guard Braxton Beverly could have returned for one more season in Raleigh, but instead the Hazard, Ky., native decided he would spend his extra year of eligibility at Eastern Kentucky.

With his Wolfpack career over, here's a look back at Beverly's time in the red and white.

Beverly took a unique path to NC State. He originally was headed to Miami of Ohio, but Beverly bet on himself, asked out of his release in 2016 and spent a post-graduate year at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., coached then by A.W. Hamilton.

The move appeared to pay off. In the fall of 2016, he committed and signed with Ohio State.

Then the Buckeyes had an unusual mid-summer coaching change after Thad Matta stepped down and was replaced by Chris Holtmann. In the meantime, Hamilton had accepted a job as an assistant for the recently named head coach at NC State, Kevin Keatts.

Beverly decided to “transfer” to NC State. Because he had taken some summer classes at Ohio State, the NCAA originally ruled he could not play right away and had to sit out a season. Eventually, through appeals and perhaps public pressure, Beverly was cleared.

It came early in his career. Beverly, in his third game since being declared eligible, made 5 of 7 shots from the field, including 3 of 5 threes, and was clutch at the line by making 7 of 9 to finish with 20 points and help NC State upset No. 2 Arizona, 90-84.

Beverly went over 1,000 career points during the ACC Tournament loss to Syracuse, and he would finish his time in Raleigh with 1,012 points. His best single-season total was 329 points as a sophomore, and his fewest were 162 this past season.

Beverly, who averaged 8.4 points per game for his career, would become the 54th player in program history to reach 1,000 points, and the first signed and coached entirely by Kevin Keatts to get there. Of the 54, Beverly is fewest over the mark.

For his career, Beverly made 218 of 589 three-point attempts, or 37.0 percent. His best percentage from long range came this past season when he made 40.0 percent (32 of 80).

Beverly finished tied with former Pack guard (and college head coach Archie Miller) for the fourth most made threes in a career, five behind former guard Engin Atsur for third place. Beverly’s attempts were the third most ever at NC State, behind only Scott Wood (809) and Rodney Monroe (739).

Beverly’s calling card in his Wolfpack career was his shooting, but he was also a capable ball-handler and distributor. He finished his career with 305 assists, which moved him one ahead of Ilian Evtimov into 20th place in school history.

His career 2.36-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked fifth-best at NC State, ahead of notable guards like Spud Webb, Nate McMillan, Markell Johnson and Lorenzo Brown. Beverly’s freshman year ratio of 3.27 still ranks as the third best in an individual season at NC State.

After two seasons at NC State, Beverly had 55 starts, which put him on pace to become just the 10th player in Wolfpack history with 100 for his career. Injuries that hampered his availability and play put him off that pace, and he finished with 88, six shy of reaching Lakista McCuller for the top 15 in NC State history.

Beverly’s 3,419 career minutes at NC State though finished in the top 15 at 12th place overall, 11 shy of Gavin Grant for 11th. Had Beverly enjoyed a full, normal senior season, Beverly would have almost certainly cracked the top 10.

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