D.J. Horne had all the comforts of home when he arrived at Arizona State to play for coach Bobby Hurley in 2021, sort of.
Horne is from Raleigh, North Carolina, but he had the support he required because his parents bought an RV that allowed them to follow him anyplace. It was the height of the COVID-19 epidemic, so his parents could work from home, and his younger brother went to school virtually.
Horne also played for the Sun Devils last season, where he helped them finish 23-13 and win the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 12.5 points, but his parents, who had returned to more typical work schedules in Raleigh, were unable to watch it all.
This season, Horne decided to return home and play for the North Carolina State Wolfpack. It couldn’t have worked out any better, as Horne has guided the Wolfpack to an unexpected victory, bringing him back to the state he called home for two years.
“It’s really full circle, man; I remember putting my name in the portal around the time they announced the tournament, at least the championship was going to be out here, and I was thinking to myself, ‘Wow, it would be crazy if I got to be back out there.'” And look where I am today. It is crazy.”
N.C. State (26-14), the 11th seed from the South region, will face top seed Purdue (33-4) in the first NCAA semifinal on Saturday at 3:09 p.m. at State Farm Stadium. The later matchup will pair reigning national champion Connecticut (35-3) against first-time Final Four participant Alabama (25-11).
D.J. Horne’s 2023-24 Campaign
Horne leads the club with an average of 16.8 points and 3.4 rebounds. He has 14 games with 20 or more points, the most famous of which being his 29-point performance in the ACC title game victory over North Carolina, which advanced the Wolfpack to the postseason.
His season-high of 32 came against Syracuse.
Kevin Keatts, the program’s seventh-year coach, has brought in seven transfers.
“It means everything for us to have a kid from the Raleigh area have so much success in the tournament,” said Keatts. “Some of N.C. State’s best players are from within an hour and a half of our campus, as are previous players who were very good. What a wonderful year he has had. I’m delighted you borrowed him for a year or two and were able to return him to North Carolina. I’m glad he’s on our team.”
Horne said many of his former teammates have stayed in touch and provided notes of encouragement during the tournament. So has ASU coach Bobby Hurley, who was the first coach from a Power Five university to offer Horne, who was not well touted coming out of high school and spent his first two years at Illinois State.
Hurley said Horne has thrived in the role of an underdog so not being heavily recruited brought something out in him.
D.J. Horne’s relationship with Bobby Hurley
“D.J.’s a fighter. He believes in himself. Like a lot of small guards he plays with a chip on his shoulder,” Hurley said. “When he gets going and starts making a couple of shots, man you better look out because he’s a dangerous guy because his confidence grows, his belief grows. He’s the type of guy that can run points off for you in a hurry. But I think it’s his whole story, being overlooked maybe and being a guy that’s persevered over a lot of adversity, a guy you want to go to war with, you believe that he’s playing winning basketball. He’s going to make plays to help you win.”
Of course Hurley’s roots were at Duke where he was part of two national championships and has an idea of what his former player is going through. Horne says he knows his former coach is happy for him, even though his team’s success has come at the expense of Duke, who the Wolfpack beat both in the ACC Tournament, then again later in the Elite Eight game that got them a ticket to Phoenix.
Horne also said playing two years in the Pac-12 also helped prepare him to play in the ACC.
“Coach Hurley was a big stepping stone in my journey. He definitely helped me with opportunities I didn’t think I would have had if I didn’t go to Arizona State. I appreciate him for that,” Horne said. “He’s definitely been hitting me up this stretch we’ve been going on. We knocked his guys off twice now, once in the tournament and once in NCAA Tournament. He probably didn’t like to see that, but being that it was me playing, I’m sure made him feel a little better.”
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