NC State senior guard Marcus Hill understands being appreciative of things.

Hill looks around at all the amenities and perks of being an NC State basketball player, and it lets him know how far he has come from his days in junior college and last year at Bowling Green.

Hill had his life come full circle in some ways when Bowling Green played at Northern Illinois on Jan. 13, 2024, last season. Hill had 20 points on 6 of 17 shooting in a 83-72 win. Playing in front of his home area fans at a Division I college was meaningful for the Rockford, Ill., native.

The 6-foot-4, 185-pound Hill decided to enter his name in the transfer portal, due in part to see what life was like at a high major college. He wanted to take at least two visits and pondered NC State, Illinois and Oklahoma as possibilities, but once he came to Raleigh, he knew he wanted to play for the Wolfpack.