GLENDALE, Ariz. — DJ Horne has taken an extended highway to the Final Four.
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard has been the undersized, unoffered recruit out of North Carolina State’s base of Raleigh. He’s been the robust mid-major performer for 2 years at Illinois State, adopted by means of the dependable scorer at power-conference program Arizona State.
And now, he’s the twice-over homecoming famous person: enjoying a lone season with the Wolfpack to web the most improbable of Final Four runs that has introduced him again to the state of Arizona, not up to an hour from his earlier school forestall with the Sun Devils.
“Everybody has their own path,” Horne stated the day past.
The participant that’s getting this shot now may be very other from the person who left North Carolina as a three-star recruit to play for the Redbirds of the Missouri Valley Conference. He took a second-year leap in manufacturing there to reasonable 15.1 issues in 2020-21 whilst taking pictures 44.6% from the sphere and 42.4% from 3-point vary, making him a good looking participant simply in time for NCAA law clearing the best way for avid gamers to switch with no need to sit down out at a brand new college.
That in the end led Horne to Arizona State.
Horne averaged 12.5 issues whilst beginning 62 video games over two seasons for the Sun Devils, together with their go back to March Madness after lacking two directly NCAA fields. Horne additionally got here up giant in Arizona State’s lone event sport, crossing over defender Rondel Walker to create some house after which burying a straightaway 3-pointer to tie the game with 15.6 seconds left and completing with a team-high 17 issues in a narrow loss to TCU.
“DJ’s a fighter, he believes in himself,” Sun Devils trainer Bobby Hurley stated. “Like a lot of small guards, he plays with a chip on a shoulder. When he gets going and starts making a couple shots, man, you better look out because he’s a dangerous guy. I think his confidence grows, his belief grows.”
Across the rustic round that point, Wolfpack trainer Kevin Keatts was once searching for backcourt lend a hand as he retooled the roster after the lack of high-scoring duo Jarkel Joiner and Terquavion Smith. Horne’s construction was once completely timed. He was the highest addition for the Wolfpack, who had reached the NCAAs remaining season.
“Coming in, (Keatts) basically gave me the keys, man,” Horne stated.
Joel Justus, a Wolfpack assistant trainer who works with the guards, stated Horne arrived with assured polish, reinforced thru development a success seasons on the mid-major after which the power-conference ranges to seem in 159 school video games.
Horne has risen to the problem, averaging a team-high 16.8 issues with a couple of giant showings throughout N.C. State’s nine-game surge that resulted in an ACC Tournament name (the primary since 1987) and this unbelievable Final Four travel. The spotlight was once his 29 points in the ACC title game to take down eventual No. 1 NCAA regional seed North Carolina, then coming thru with 39 issues and 6 3-pointers in the wins towards Marquette and Duke — the second one of this March surge towards the Blue Devils — that advanced the 11th-seeded Wolfpack out of the South bracket.
It’s a run that has harkened again to the Wolfpack’s miracle run of 41 years previous, incomes 2024 a spot in Wolfpack lore along 1983 and the 1974 squad that received the nationwide championship — a run that integrated beating UCLA in the Final Four to finish John Wooden’s run of 7 directly championships.
Horne admitted he had allowed himself to dream somewhat as he left Arizona State remaining yr about the opportunity of returning to the state to play in the Final Four. That’s precisely what he was once doing the day past because the Wolfpack took the court docket for its open observe, breaking into giant smiles and bobbing his head along side track from the Wolfpack band throughout the festive match.
Like with the entirety else, Horne will get to savor that wrinkle, too.
“I was already planning on coming back out here to visit my guys and everything,” Horne stated. “But expenses-paid trip and the Final Four, it doesn’t get any better than that. Just to see that it came full circle and it’s right here in front of my face now, I’m ready to take advantage of it.”