Eighth-year NC State basketball head coach Kevin Keatts has never coached a Wolfpack player who boasted a prep composite ranking better than No. 39 overall. And most of his top pledges from the recruiting trail have ended up either transferring out of Raleigh or never even suiting up for the program in the first place.

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The shortage of top-shelf weapons serves as the simplest explanation for the Wolfpack’s current struggles (9-9, 2-5 ACC) following the miracle postseason success last go-round, in which Keatts & Co. enjoyed the good fortune of unique talents DJ Burns and DJ Horne, who just happened to far outperform their stocks from their high school days after transferring to NC State.

On that note, if Keatts is to consistently achieve the results that some NC State basketball fans feel is reasonable to expect from an ACC school on Tobacco Road, one could argue he’ll need to make a habit of landing the likes of a JJ Andrews, the Wolfpack’s highest-ranked target among high school juniors at No. 27 overall on the 247Sports 2026 Composite.

Perhaps it’s farfetched.

But Andrews, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound four-star guard at Little Rock Christian Academy (Ark.) displaying a combination of length, athleticism, and skills rarely seen in Raleigh these days, has already visited the Wolfpack. That trip came in late September, roughly two months after he received an offer from Keatts and his crew.

Now, Andrews might be in line for a bump in his rankings. After all, the gifted southpaw has been delivering rim-rocking statements this year. Most recently, he advertised the following steal and in-game windmill dunk from his Warriors’ 64-54 road win over the Catholic High School Rockets on Friday night:

He finished with 27 points in the contest, powering Little Rock Christian to its fifth conference victory in as many tries to improve to 15-4 overall this season.

JJ Andrews has yet to name finalists. However, he has continued to mention the NC State basketball recruiting team as one of his most persistent suitors.

Stay tuned to NC State Wolfpack On SI for more NC State basketball recruiting news.