NC State coach Will Wade poised to take advantage of college basketball changes

For NC State freshman Musa Sagnia to run, the Wolfpack needed players like Omer Yurtseven to walk.

Sagnia had 10 points and four rebounds in arguably his best game at NC State in the 88-68 win over Texas on Tuesday. Sagnia is averaging 3.1 points and 3.2 rebounds in 14.4 minutes per game.

Sagnia had played professionally with Baxi Manresa in the Liga ACB since 2021, which is the top professional basketball division in Spain.

In the case of Yurtseven, he played with Fenerbahce from 2013-16 and made waves with quality performances against NBA teams in preseason games. Yurtseven wanted to play college basketball in the class of 2016, and most schools didn’t believe he’d be eligible for college basketball under the previous rules.

Then NC State coach Mark Gottfried pursued the native Turkey vigorously and landed him over Utah, Syracuse and Tennessee. Then NC State fought hard to get him eligible and the essential “compromise” was that Yurtseven had to sit out the first seven games of the season. 

Gottfried was incensed about the suspension, but administrators at NCSU felt it was a massive victory, putting coach and school at odds. That ended up being Gottffried’s last year because Yurtseven struggled and the team went 15-17 overall and 4-14 in the ACC. Yurtseven thrived his second year with new coach Kevin Keatts, but elected to transfer to Georgetown, where he sat out a year under the old rules. He then played in the G-League after graduation, and made the NBA.

Flash forward to the present and an Alabama judge allowed Alabama to play former Crimson Tide center Charles Bediako. He had played at Alabama from 2021-23 and declared for the NBA Draft. He went undrafted and has been playing in the G-League and NBA Summer League.

The 6-foot-11 Canadian had 13 points and two blocks in a 79-73 loss vs. Tennessee on Saturday, and then had 14 points and six rebounds in 18 minutes in a 90-64 win vs. Missouri.

NC State coach Will Wade looked wistfully at the thought of adding a gifted rim protector and lob threat. The Wolfpack used its last roster spot in late December with freshman wing Cole Cloer joining the program to rehab his knee injury.

“Alabama, I mean, they went from, they they raised their ceiling dramatically by getting him dramatically,” Wade said. “That was their one weak point, defense and rebounding, and raised their ceiling to me. Any coach in the country would do the same.”

The evolution in roster management has been on-going since freshman were allowed to play in 1972 in football and basketball. The original Prop 48 added academic requirements in the mid-1980s that led some players being forced to sit out a year. It later got modified to players that didn’t quality could practice, but not play.

The 1994 NBA Draft allowed a player to get drafted, but return to college if the player didn’t like his slot. Minnesota shooting guard Vashon Lenard and Georgia center Charles Claxton Sr. took advantage of the rule after going in the second round, but returned to college. That rule ended in part due to players were still going to get paid based on their draft spot from the previous year because Lenard and Claxton did not get to be in the 1995 NBA Draft.

Recruiting stabilized and freshman started to take over the sport and the “one and done” era took off. The rules were simple — if you hired an agent or entered the NBA Draft, the player was done with college. Then the combination of graduate transfers, NIL and eventually players not having to sit out a year as a transfer started to take off in roster management.

Now, players like Sagnia or Virginia’s Thijs De Ridder of Belgium and Johann Grunloh of Germany can come over from professional leagues. Players from G-League Ignite were ruled eligible, and now whatever happens with Bediako.

“Look, if they’re eligible and somebody says they’re eligible, you can play them,” Wade said. “That’s my that’s my take on it. I think people are up in arms because of some of this is G-League and NBA guys. Well, a lot of these Europeans that have been coming over are way more pros than some of these G-League and NBA guys. They’ve played way more professional basketball than that. It’s just a matter of what we understand and what we don’t understand.”

Wade is ready for whatever is needed to build a winner. Some schools will still be “traditional” with prep players, but not NC State.

“Any coach is going to do what they need to do,” Wade said. “It’s my obligation to make NC State basketball the best we can make it. However, we need to do that. It’s my obligation within the rules. If it’s within the rules, people are going to do it.”