Roster Building: Backup Point Guard

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Preston Edmead on the drive | Credit: NC State Men’s Basketball

Basketball Calendar (Under 100 days to game #1!)

• Analysts are starting to do the rounds – On3’s Jamie Shaw visited practice last week, expecting his article soon.
• August is a recruiting dead period. It would be a great time to crank up the marketing machine with coach & player ‘get to know the new guys’ interviews. That was a nice feature last season.
• August 17 – First day fall semester
• September 21 – First official day of practice
• November 2 – Season starts

Basket Under Review’s Matthew Winick does a very interesting (and huge) annual analysis of every transfer player and I pull from that for this article. Take what he says for what it’s worth, here is a sample of his work before last season.

NC State’s Darrion Williams – “Two words. Super star. He may be the best player in the country, genuinely. …There is absolutely nothing he cannot do.” Hmmm, reminds me of the old saying about Michael Jordan, ‘No one could stop Michael but Dean Smith.’

PRESTON EDMEAD – POINT GUARD​

He is going to have a great season and might lead the team in minutes.

Analyst Matthew Winick on Edmead, “Outside his teammate Cruz Davis, Edmead was probably the best guard in the CAA last year… but Davis was in his fourth year of CBB and Edmead in his first. Uber-impressive. Great passer, tremendous PNR player, you want to run your team through him. He’s also exceptionally clutch. Has it all as an on-ball star PG except for the rim, he’s REALLY small and that impacts his ability to score on non-threes.”

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Who Will Be His Backup? Introducing Your Candidates​

Door #1: Darius Adams

I’m not sure we really know much about Darius Adams after his one season at Maryland. Injuries killed that team. Very little went as planned.

Before last season Adams wasn’t expected to start by many, he was talked about in some of their preseason previews as “coming off the bench and maybe breaking into the starting lineup by the end of the season.” Injuries were probably a factor, but Adams won the starting role in the offseason and started the first 10 games, and 28 total games on the season, at both point and (more often) at shooting guard. He logged the second most starts on their team. He ended up with the highest offensive usage on that team and took the third most shots – all because he had to. Winick described his season this way, “All things considered, Adams was really bad as a FR, but circumstantially, being the leader in possession usage for an awful team in an elite conference as a FR is a really, really challenging place to be. Not a very efficient passer yet. Wasn’t an impactful defender either. 6-5 on-ball guard with a solid 33% rim rate is a decent starting point though, … Wasn’t a good shooter as a prep player either, so my guess is that won’t be a strength any time soon.” This season should be an entirely different experience for Adams, and I expect much better results.

Role: Adams was on the ball a lot by necessity but is not a natural point guard. Rice and Coit were expected to share the point, but Rice struggled with injuries the entire season so Adams stepped up. Coit ended up leading the team in assists (Adams had 54 assists for the season) and while not starting as much as Adams, played the most minutes per game by a guard.

Door #2: Christian Hammond

I watched / read several ’25-’26 Santa Clara preseason preview podcasts & articles, and if Hammond was mentioned at all, it was only briefly. He was under the radar because he chose to redshirt the ’24-’25 season and worked on his game. Surprise! He led the team in scoring and was the fifth leading scorer in the WCC. He was voted first team All-WCC. He started all 34 games. Winick said, “[Hammond] may have the sport’s best floater. No. 4 in floater makes last season and is 55% on that shot for his career, which is insane. Had 23 more made floaters than anyone who played in the ACC last year. . .Really capable scorer both on and off ball. Really good guard size and impactful defender overall.”

Role: Hammond was not the primary point guard, he was more of a secondary ball handler, but he did play some point and had 84 assists on the season. (for comparison, Darrion Williams had 92) But no matter what the position, he triggered the offense when he was on the floor, whether scoring or passing.

Door #3: Kingston Whitty

Kingston was the sixth player added this summer, Coach Gainey’s first high school recruit as a head coach, and his first effort toward planting the Wolfpack recruiting flag in NC. He is a 3-star point guard ranked #206 who originally signed with WVU but decommitted. His addition did not bring out the confetti with Wolfpack Nation. But then, surprise!, a few weeks later he won the NC state championship in the high jump, setting a new state record at 7’2”. Dig a little deeper and you find that before transferring his senior season to play in Arden NC he was in Georgia where he won two state championships, one in the 400-meter dash and in the high jump. He can really run and jump, skills frequently in demand in the sport of basketball.

Role: He was a point guard in high school. Looking a little closer at his senior season:

• Scoring: 15.1 ppg – 18 (of 25) games double figures including 9 games with 20+. Season high 24.
• Assists: 3.2 apg – 10 games with 4+ assists. Season high 10.
• Steals: 1.8 spg – 10 games with 3 or more steals. Season high 5.
• Turnovers: 2.5 topg – 6 games with 4+ turnovers. Season high 7.

Others receiving consideration:

Jacari Brim is also a point guard. He played one season at App State. Played 22 games, 6.2 minutes per game. Played double digit minutes in 5 games, only one after Christmas. He attempted 23 shots on the season, 17 of them 3PT shots. He was a deadly 3PT shooter in high school, he had two seasons averaging 47+% and averaged 43.4% on 442 attempts for his HS career. He is not expected to contend for backup point guard during the ’26-‘27 season.

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Making their case for backup point guard​

Darius Adams

Compared to the other candidates, Darius has two things going for him. First, size. He’s 6’5” and has added 10 lbs. of muscle which should put him around 185. That’s a matchup problem for an opponent on defense; however, he has to prove he can defend better than he did last season. Secondly, high-quality experience. He’s only played one season, but it was against B1G competition (7 teams in the final top 20), and their OOC included UVA, Gonzaga, and Alabama.

Christian Hammond

He’s played two non-consecutive seasons, the first about what you’d expect for a freshman, a second season off the clock to work on his game, and last season was a very good one. Compared to Adams, he leads in every statistical category other than rebounding (- 0.4 rpg), blocked shots (- 0.1 bpg), and volume of free throws (- 32 attempts). He’s not a natural point guard either, but he had good assist numbers and his assist/turnover ratio (A/TO) is solid.

Kingston Whitty – the wild card?

Kingston is a true point guard. He was not a highly rated recruit. Most of his offers came from mid-majors. No recruiting analyst is expecting him to start or even contribute much for a P4 school his freshman year. But we know he is a heck of an athlete and has the trophies to prove it, and that can translate. He played at a basketball school in ’25-‘26, but they didn’t have one of their better seasons. Meaning, his stats look good but it wasn’t on a great team. He was a good shooter and rebounder. His assist numbers were good, his turnovers a little high, but he had a very good steal average and steal/turnover ratio. (S/TO).

So, who’s going to start the season at backup point guard?​

The winner, Door #1, Darius Adams

I like Hammond and think he’s going to play heavy minutes in the starting lineup. He averaged 30 mpg last year and should be near that again. So, asking him to also sub in at point is a lot, although on paper he looks like a good alternative. Anything positive Whitty provides this season will be an unexpected, but nice, surprise. That means Darius Adams will be the first off the bench at point guard and probably backing up Hammond at shooting guard as well.

Adams will be a nice contrast to Edmead. He is taller and bigger than Edmead, is athletic and in high school was a decent defender and had a solid steal rate. While Edmead is the outside shooter, Adams is very good at going to the basket. (and unofficial buzz from practice is, his outside shot is looking good) Coming out of high school, 247 Scout Adam Finkelstein said, “Adams can also make reads with the ball, so he can come off screens and get to his mid-range game if that’s how the defense is playing him. Combine that with his reliability as a passer and he has the type of floor game that should fit into offensive structure nicely at the next level.

I think he makes the ‘sophomore jump’, has a great season, and helps this team overachieve preseason expectations.

The best news is, the strength of this team is going to be the guards and they all (P2 included) will have remaining eligibility and couldplay together a second season. Highly unlikely, but possible.

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