NC State Reserve Colt Langdon Enters Transfer Portal After Limited Playing Time

Colt Langdon arrived at NC State last spring with enormous hometown expectations. The Millbrook High School legend who broke his school's all-time scoring record, averaged 26.4 points per game his senior year and once dropped 42 on Broughton, had called returning to Raleigh as a Wolfpack "a no-brainer." Eleven months later, he entered the NCAA transfer portal Tuesday as the two-week window opened, having never meaningfully suited up for the program he grew up rooting for.

Langdon, a 6-foot-7 forward, logged fewer than 20 total minutes across the 2025-26 season, appearing only in garbage time under then-head coach Will Wade. He is now applying for a medical redshirt in hopes of preserving this season's eligibility, which would leave him with four full years to sell to a new program.

His path to this point has been unusually winding for a player his age. Originally a member of the Class of 2025, Langdon reclassified a year early to enroll at Butler, where he redshirted for the 2024-25 season without playing a game. He entered the portal from Indianapolis last April, and NC State, with Wade and assistant Adam Howard recruiting aggressively in state, moved immediately. Langdon committed within days of taking a visit.

The decision made intuitive sense at the time. Langdon had finished his three-year career at Millbrook as its all-time leading scorer with 1,758 points, surpassing a record previously held by Chris Clemons, who went on to lead the nation in scoring at Campbell in 2018-19. He shot 48 percent from the field, 35 percent from three and 82 percent from the free-throw line in his final high school season, drawing offers from Illinois, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Ole Miss before choosing Butler.

The 2025-26 season in Raleigh, however, never materialized the way either side had hoped. NC State lost eight of its final ten games, finished with a first-four exit in the NCAA Tournament against Texas and then lost Wade, who departed for LSU after just one season. The program turned to Justin Gainey, a former NC State point guard and Tennessee associate head coach, who was introduced April 1 and faces the immediate challenge of rebuilding a roster in the compressed two-week portal window that opened Tuesday and closes April 21.

Langdon's departure is one of several roster decisions Gainey now inherits. Despite the brief and largely invisible stint in Raleigh, Langdon's eligibility situation, if the medical redshirt is approved, gives him an appealing profile for programs in the market for a long, shooting-capable wing with legitimate high school credentials and college experience. At the age most freshmen are just beginning their careers, Langdon would arrive at his next destination with four years remaining and a chip worth proving.