Hoop transfer Allen takes circuitous route back to Wolfpack
CHARLOTTE -- Kevin Keatts has brought 10 transfers into the NC State basketball program during his three years as the Wolfpack's coach.
None of them has taken a more unconventional journey to get there than Thomas Allen.
The 6-foot-1 Garner native originally signed to play for State by former coach Mark Gottfried in 2016. He was released from his letter of intent after Gottfried was replaced by Keatts after the 2016-17 season and eventually landed at Nebraska.
But after two seasons with the Cornhuskers, the former four-star recruit changed his mind about Keatts and the Wolfpack and decided to transfer back home.
"The door usually doesn't swing back open and let guys back in," Keatts said Tuesday at the ACC's Operation Basketball event. "But because Thomas was a great kid and I felt like he was confused when we took the job, certainly we invited him back.
"He signed with a school, you get a new coach and like many kids do, he decided to go somewhere else. Then sometimes you realized that the grass is not greener on the other side and somebody's got to water that grass, and now he's back."
Allen averaged 8.7 points and 2.0 assists while shooting 36.4 percent from 3-point range in 29 games as a sophomore last season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury.
He entered the NCAA transfer portal on March 27, one day after Tim Miles was dismissed as coach of the Cornhuskers.
Allen, attended the same prep school -- Brewster Academy in Rhode Island -- as former Wolfpack star T.J. Warren. will have to sit out the 2019-20 season under NCAA transfer rules before he can finally suit up and play for State.
"I'm just going to stay in the moment," he said last week at the Wolfpack's preseason media day. "(Next season) is not far away, but it's kind of far away.
"I get to see my mom and my dad all the time now. I love it here. I'm from Raleigh. I bleed Raleigh."
