• Slug: Sports-DJ Horne Returns, 800 words.
• 4 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lucas Gordon
Cronkite News

GLENDALE – The 2022-2023 season for the Arizona State men’s basketball team was one of its most successful in recent years. The team won 22 games and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018-2019.

Despite the short postseason stint, guard DJ Horne made a name for himself, leading the team in scoring in both games. Soon afterward, Horne announced he was entering the transfer portal and weeks later, he revealed he was transferring closer to home – North Carolina State – with most believing he would never return to Arizona.

Fast forward a year later and Horne is back in the Valley, this time leading NC State to a Men’s Final Four bid.

“When I put my name in the portal that’s when I found out that the Final Four would be here and I was thinking to myself it would be crazy to be back here,” Horne said.

On his journey back to Phoenix, Horne has gone through many full-circle moments during his last year of college eligibility.

Throughout his high school career, Horne played at three different schools in the Raleigh area. In his junior season at Cary High School, he was named to the Triangle 6 All-Conference team and averaged 18 points, four assists and three rebounds per game.

For his senior season, Horne transferred to Trinity Christian in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and had another strong season. Despite his play in high school, he was not recruited by any teams in his home state and ended up spending his first two years in college at Illinois State.

Entering college, Horne has had to prove people wrong to get to where he is today.

“(Not getting a college offer) could add an incentive to work harder,” said Horne’s coach at Cary High School, Allan Gustafson.

“(It’s extra motivation) to prove these people wrong. ‘They should have recruited me early on.’”

During his time at Illinois State, Horne proved that he could play tougher competition. As a freshman and sophomore, he averaged 11.5 points and shot 41% from 3-point range.

Following his sophomore season, Horne tested the transfer portal and was brought in by Bobby Hurley at ASU to be the team’s point guard.

Even though he saw the potential of Horne, Hurley wanted the guard to prove himself once again, this time in a Power Five conference.

“When we brought DJ in from Illinois State we saw how productive he had been and thought his game would transfer up from the mid-majors,” Hurley said.

“DJ was a guy we never promised anything to when he came into our program and he fought for it. He was an underdog and those are the types of guys I can relate to.”

For the next two seasons, Horne showed that he could compete in the Pac-12 as he averaged 12.3 points, 2.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game as well as shooting 83% from the free throw line.

Following graduation in 2023, Horne decided to hit the transfer portal once again for his final year of eligibility.

A majority of NC State’s team from last year exited the program, making it the perfect time for Horne to return home to Raleigh.

No one was more excited for Horne to come back to North Carolina than his parents, Tivona and Lamar. The two spent the last four years in a RV following Horne to all of his games.

“I was very excited when DJ decided that he wanted to come back home,” Tivona said. “It’s easy for us as his family and his fans to make it out to games, so we were very excited when he came back.”

Horne has seized the opportunity since returning to North Carolina. He has averaged a career-high 18.5 points this season and is showing for the second straight season that he can elevate his game during the postseason.

In nine straight elimination games, dating back to the ACC tournament, Horne is the second-leading scorer for the Wolfpack at 15.2 points per game.

Horne breaking out in his final year in college shows that every basketball player develops differently.

“Players develop late a lot,” Gustafson said. “Coaches are always looking for that diamond in the rough player and late bloomers.”

NC State coach Kevin Keatts was one of the lucky coaches who got that “diamond in the rough” in Horne.

“It means everything for us to have a kid from the Raleigh area to have so much success in the tournament,” Keatts said. “Some of NC State’s best players are from within an hour, hour and a half from our campus.”

Horne and NC State are looking to continue their magical run on Saturday at State Farm Stadium as they eye a win in their 10th straight elimination game against Purdue.

“With this being my last year in college basketball, it couldn’t have gone any better,” Horne said.

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