NC State guard Preston Edmead is starting to pick up some real preseason heat.
College Basketball Report slotted him at No. 29 on its list of the top 30 sophomores in college basketball for the 2026-27 season, putting the Wolfpack transfer among a strong national group and giving NC State one of seven ACC players to make the cut.
The full ranking was topped by St. John’s Tounde Yessoufou, with Illinois’ David Mirkovic at No. 2 and Alabama’s Amari Allen at No.
- Edmead landed just ahead of UNC’s Matt Able at No. 30, a notable spot after Able transferred out of NC State to join the Tar Heels.
Edmead’s stock makes sense when you look back at what he did as a freshman at Hofstra. NC State brought him in through the Transfer Portal after he broke out in his first college season, one that earned him CAA Rookie of the Year honors, a place on the CAA All-Freshman Team and Second Team All-CAA recognition.
His numbers were strong across the board: 16.1 points, 4.4 assists, 3.5 rebounds, 38.7% from three and 40.1% from the field.
And when Hofstra needed him most, Edmead delivered.
The Pride entered the CAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed and left with the title, with Edmead doing heavy lifting along the way. He scored 22 points, added three assists and three rebounds, and hit five threes in Hofstra’s 68-65 overtime win over Towson. In the next game, he went even bigger, pouring in a career-high 26 points in a 75-69 win over No. 4 seed Monmouth to clinch the CAA Tournament Championship.
That run earned him CAA All-Tournament Team honors and the league’s Championship Most Outstanding Player award. He capped the season with 24 points against Alabama in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The buzz around Raleigh has already started to grow, too. Edmead has drawn comparisons to Trae Young during his Oklahoma days, mostly because of the way he works off screens and gets shots up quickly from deep. That’s a massive comparison for a sophomore who hasn’t played in the ACC yet, but it says plenty about the offensive upside people see in him.
Wolfpack General Manager Patrick Stacy also told NC State fans on our podcast to expect 30-point games from Edmead at Lenovo Center this season.
Whether No. 29 ends up looking too low will depend on how his game translates from the CAA to the ACC. The competition will be bigger, longer and more athletic.
But Edmead has already shown he can score, shoot it from deep and handle pressure. That’s a pretty dangerous combination.
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