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Where NC State men’s basketball’s priority targets are in the Rivals150 rankings update

image_6483441 (3)by: Noah Fleischman08/05/25fleischman_noah
Deron Rippey Jr
Deron Rippey Jr

NC State men’s basketball coach Will Wade set the expectation that he was going deep sea fishing in the 2026 recruiting class soon after he accepted the Wolfpack job.

The 42-year-old has a knack for recruiting the high school ranks at an extremely high level, and his goal is to do the same with the Pack. He made a splash in the 2025 cycle with the No. 13 recruiting class nationally, and he’s looking to build upon that in the current recruiting crop. 

“We want to compete at the top nationally and at the top of the ACC. You don’t do that with bad players,” Wade previously told TheWolfpacker.com. “You don’t win the Kentucky Derby on a donkey. You’ve got to go get the right race horses. You need race horses that run fast. It’s the horse, it ain’t the jockey. It’s the players, it ain’t the coaches. Your coaching is a lot better with good players, and we never lose sight of that in our program.”

As the Wolfpack looks to position itself to land commitments from the top high school players around the country, many of its priority targets moved up in Tuesday’s Rivals150 rankings update. 

Brooklyn (N.Y.) Blair Academy four-star point guard Deron Rippey Jr., who is set to officially visit NC State on Nov. 7-9, rose from No. 17 nationally into the top 10 at No. 8. AZ Compass Prep industry five-star power forward Miikaa Murrinen moved up one spot from No. 15 to No. 14, rounding out the pair of top-20 prospects NC State is pursuing. 

The biggest riser among NC State’s top priorities was Bronx (N.Y.) Archbishop Stepinac four-star shooting guard Jasiah Jervis, who moved up from No. 53 to No. 22. He consistently turned heads over the summer with his standout play, including averaging 17.0 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists with the New York Rens at Peach Jam. 

Jervis’ top outing of the summer was a 28-point performance to beat AZ Unity at Peach Jam on July 18. He will take his NC State official visit on Aug. 28-30, overlapping with the Wolfpack football opener against East Carolina.

Boston (Mass.) The Newman School four-star point guard Lucas Morillo, meanwhile, jumped nine spots from No. 40 to No. 31 after multiple strong performances this summer. He averaged 8.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists at the NBPA Top 100 camp in early June, while Morillo put on a show at the U-19 World Cup with the Dominican Republic, averaging 20.0 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists on 47 percent shooting.

District Heights (Md.) Bishop McNamara four-star shooting guard Qayden Samuels dropped from No. 29 to No. 38, while Bradenton (Fla.) four-star small forward Cole Cloer moved from No. 58 to No. 52. Cloer will take an official visit to see the Wolfpack on Aug. 29-31.

Rounding out the Rivals150 rankings update was Charlotte (N.C.) SPIRE Academy small forward Tarris Bouie, who fell from No. 64 to No. 82, and Castaic (Calif.) SoCal Academy three-star center Trevon Carter-Givens slipped from No. 105 to No. 108. Carter-Givens is set to take an official visit with the Wolfpack on Sept. 5.

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