WHEN NORTH CAROLINA State advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 over the weekend, DJ Burns Jr. was at the center of the run. And in the process, he reminded basketball fans everywhere that the old-school big man is not dead.
The Wolfpack made the Sweet 16 of March Madness for the first time in nine years behind 24 points and 11 rebounds from Burns in a second-round win over fellow Cinderella Oakland. It was a game that the bruising forward was built to dominate: Oakland doesn’t have a single player on its roster who’s within 40 pounds of Burns’ listed weight (275 pounds). You can watch the highlights here.
“I’ve been saying it, you know; welcome back!” Burns said after the game. “They didn’t really believe in us, and they probably still don’t, but that doesn’t matter to us, we’re still gonna stay together.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Burns as NC State attempts to advance through the tournament.
How big is DJ Burns Jr.?
The NBA has embraced long, lanky players like Spurs star Victor Wembanyana and Oklahoma City forward Chet Holmgren—guys who can step block shots and hit threes alike.
That’s not Burns, who’s part big man, part NFL offensive lineman. He’s 6-foot-9 and 275 pounds, and he’s been big all his life (he was 6-foot-7 by eighth grade). He’s the latest in a long (but increasingly scarce) collection of supersized college hoops stars. There was LSU’s Glen “Big Baby” Davis (286 pounds in his playing days) and UNC’s Sean May (266 pounds) in the early 2000s, and Derrick Caracter (276 pounds) starred for Louisville and UTEP later that decade.
What is Burns’s game like?
As you’d expect, Burns doesn’t exactly fire away from long range. In fact, he’s attempted just 11 threes in his five-year college career (and drained just one). Instead, he does most of his dirty work in the paint, posting opponents up, then shooting hooks and short jumpers over them. He also excels at setting bone-crushing picks for Wolfpack guards, then rolling toward the rim to score easy buckets.
It’s all led to Burns dropping 12.8 points per game for the Wolfpack this season. Despite his size, he averages just 4.1 rebounds per game.
What was Burns’s biggest game?
His performance against Oakland, when he went for 24 points, 11 boards, and 4 assists, definitely ranks up there. But that may not actually be his finest performance. Burns actually has a knack for amping things up in critical games. In NC State’s 84-76 win over uber-powered North Carolina in the ACC Tournament (the victory that helped the Wolfpack sneak into the NCAA tourney), he dropped 20 points and dished out seven assists.
And early last month, in a loss to then-ninth-ranked Duke, Burns exploded for a season-best 27 points on 12-of-19 shooting. He scored a career-best 31 points in a 79-77 win over Wake Forest last year.
Where is he from?
Burns grew up in Rock Hill, South Carolina, and he started his basketball journey while attending prep school there. He earned MVP honors in the C. Dan Joyner Poinsettia Classic and the USA National Prep Championship during his junior year, and played a total of three seasons at York Prep Academy, in which time he recorded 1,000 career points and over 1,000 rebounds.
His college career started in Tennessee.
Burns made his college debut at Tennessee in 2018, having also received offers from Virginia and South Carolina, and was named Big South Freshman of the Year. However, he made a return to Rock Hill the following year, transferring to Winthrop in 2019.
He declared for the NBA Draft in 2021, but ultimately returned to Winthrop for the season, before then transferring to NC State in 2022.
He’s already led NC State to victory.
NC State won the 2024 Atlantic Coast Conference men’s postseason tournament, triumphing over North Carolina in the final on Mach 17. This marked the NC State Wolfpack’s first ACC Tournament win since 1987. Burns secured 28 points and seven assists in the climactic game, and was named ACC Tournament MVP.
He has gifts beyond basketball.
In addition to his prowess on the court, Burns is also an accomplished musician. According to an interview he gave with The Herald, he is a multi-instrumentalist. He plays the piano, saxophone, bass, and tuba.