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We’ve heard it. You’ve heard it. Kevin Keatts, the current UNCW head coach, is on the list of head coaches that are being vetted by NC State.

From everything we’ve heard, Keatts would take the job if offered. But WILL NC State offer? Let’s take a look at the situation and give you a breakdown of our thoughts.

Most of you know Keatts from Hargrave, where he coached former NC State point guard Lorenzo Brown. During Brown’s recruitment, we had the chance to speak with Keatts on numerous occasions. He is a good basketball mind and gave a lot of good insight into the recruiting process.

After Hargrave, he went to Louisville to become to the top recruiter for Rick Pitino’s squad. While there, he landed some impressive classes and started to make a name for himself. After his run with the Cardinals, Keatts took his first head coaching job at UNC-Wilmington. His work there is why he is currently on the Wolfpack’s radar.

In his three years at UNCW, Keatts has taken a struggling program and put them back on the map. Wilmington has finished 1st (or tied for first) in all three seasons under Keatts. He also won coach of the year in his first campaign.

So why is NC State considering him? Well, first off, he is an up and coming star in the coaching ranks. The key phrase, however, is ‘up and coming.’ Winning in the Colonial conference is one thing, but winning in the ACC is another animal. Wilmington’s competition isn’t that strong, but his recruiting ties to the area and his ability to build a program has NC State’s attention.

Honestly, I find the amount of buzz around him to be fair, but not fully substantiated. We’d think that Keatts would be a top tier (maybe #2 or #3) candidate for the Wolfpack if he had both shown success at Wilmington and also shown success at another stop. Basing your hire on 3 years in the Colonial conference is fine, but we’d like to believe that the NC State position is prestigious enough to warrant a little more evidence of success.

Sure, Dayton’s Archie Miller only has 6 years at one stop, and VCU’s Will Wade has 4 years of experience at two stops, so it’s not like they have that much more. However, both Miller and Wade have found success in a much more competitive conference and we believe that is worth something. Miller and Wade are pretty much believed to be NC State’s top two mid-major candidates at the moment, with Keatts looking like the #3.

We think Keatts is a good candidate, sure, but we think he’s a tick below Miller and Wade based on experience and proven success. So why is there so much buzz about Keatts?

Let’s break that down. Keatts is thought to be the most attainable candidate. Talk is that he wants the NC State job pretty bad. True or not, that is a reason that the N&O and multiple national writers are talking seriously about Keatts being a real potential for NC State.

The other reason we think you’re hearing Keatts name mentioned so much is because we are seeing it being floated a lot more by sources close to NC State. What does this mean? It certainly doesn’t mean they think Keatts is a top 2 or 3 candidate, does it? You have Miller, Wade, Drew, Holtmann and a few more that would obviously be bigger splashes than Kevin Keatts. So why all the chatter?

We believe that NC State is doing all they can to not replicate the failure in PR we saw during the last search. People were talking Rick Barnes, Sean Miller, Billy Donovan, and many more huge names (many of which ended up being pipe dreams). Debbie Yow offered up a letter during the latter days of the search that basically tried to walk back NC State fans expectations before she announced the ‘out of the blue’ hire of Mark Gottfried.

We believe that while it may have worked at the time, NC State fans felt blindsided by the hire. They didn’t have time to vet him on the message boards and social media or come to a consensus on whether or not they liked him for the position. Now, it shouldn’t matter what message board fans think, however as you’ve seen, fan perception does end up playing a role. Gottfried was never ‘their guy.’ So when the going got rough they didn’t feel a invested connection with him and were quick to create a rallying cry for his ouster. We’re not trying to say it was undeserved, but had it been Rick Barnes or Sean Miller with the same record we believe the fans would not have come to such a quick consensus on ‘time being up.’

At the end of the day, what we believe is going on is that, yes, NC State does think Keatts would be an acceptable hire and would be someone who could turn the program around, but we also believe they know he’s their ‘floor guy’. They likely aren’t going to hire Keatts over Archie, Wade, or any of the other more proven options, but they are doing their best to get his name under consideration early, so if in fact, they end up missing on their top names, fans aren’t breaking out the pitchforks after being blindsided for a second time.

Take it for what it’s worth. We don’t have any insight into the true motive for Keatts’ name being floated so prominantly, but we’ve been doing this for a while now and get a feeling that this just might be the case.

Discuss.

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Wolfer96
Wolfer96
7 years ago

May have to put ETSU’s Forbes on coaching search backburner. Doesn’t have a lot of Div I head coaching experience but the success of the programs while he was an assistant is impressive: TAMU, Tenn, Wich St.

0
Wolfer96
Wolfer96
7 years ago

Butler’s Holtmann pulled out the “4 corners” to beat the press. Tyler Lewis playing well for Holtmann. Guess we’ll have to wait to talk to him as Butler just beat Winthrop.

0
Wolfer96
Wolfer96
7 years ago

I hear Yurt7 is testing NBA waters. I think they’ll tell him what I would tell him… go back and work on getting stronger. When he committed to playing in college I don’t know that he fully thought that through. A mediocre 7 footer coming out of Europe has a better chance of getting drafted than someone who played in the States because the NBA does not vett foreign players very well.

1
Wolfer96
Wolfer96
7 years ago
Reply to  Wolfer96

Prime example Georgio Papagiannis. Almost came to State then decided to stay in Europe and got drafted. Don’t even know if he’s played a minute this season.

1
wolfpack74
wolfpack74
7 years ago
Reply to  Wolfer96

The NBA should tell him that yoou can’t even play at the college level, how in the hell do you think you can play at the NBA level? He is a mid development league player right now at best. Stay in school under a decent coach until you average a double double. Most overrated player of all time at State.

1
Wolfer96
Wolfer96
7 years ago

I don’t think it would be a good move for either party. Keats is too inexperienced and has not coached in a challenging enough level to make this kind of leap. It could be a disaster for both State and Keats’ career if he fails badly. We should have learned our lesson about recruiting. It’s only part of the answer. Good coaching at a high level is the bigger part of the equation.

4

NC State Basketball

NC State Women’s Basketball Releases Their 2024-25 Non-Conference Schedule

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15 hours ago

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July 26, 2024

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NC State Women’s Basketball team released their 2024-25 Non-Conference Schedule yesterday.

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RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State women’s basketball program has announced its non-conference slate for the 2024-25 season, as revealed on Thursday.

The Pack will play eight of its 11 games, in addition to a preseason exhibition, at Reynolds Coliseum. Coming off a historical 2023-24 season that was highlighted by the program’s first Final Four since 1998, second in program history, head coach Wes Moore is entering his 12th season at the helm. With a strong home court advantage, the Pack has accumulated a 117-15 (.886) record at home since the renovation of Reynolds Coliseum was completed in August 2016.

NC State will participate in the Pink Flamingo Championship at Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas on Monday, Nov. 25 and Wednesday, Nov. 27 against opponents that will be announced at a later date. As previously announced, NC State will play the defending NCAA Champion South Carolina at the Ally Tipoff at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte on Sunday, Nov. 10, as well as host Ole Miss for the SEC/ACC Challenge on Thursday, Dec. 5.

The Wolfpack will host Anderson (S.C.) for an exhibition on Tuesday, Oct. 29 before officially starting the season at home vs. ETSU on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Following the Ally Tipoff, NC State will return home to host Kent State on Thursday, Nov. 14.

NC State’s first true road game of the season is at TCU on Sunday, Nov. 17. The Pack will then play Coastal Carolina at home on Thursday, Nov. 21 before its trip to the Bahamas for two games (Nov. 25-27).

The Pack will close out the non-conference slate with four straight games at Reynolds Coliseum, starting with the SEC/ACC Challenge game vs. Ole Miss (Thursday, Dec. 5). NC State will then host Old Dominion (Sunday, Dec. 8), Davidson (Wednesday, Dec. 11) and James Madison (Thursday, Dec. 19) to wrap up non-conference play.

With NC State’s known non-conference opponents, six are coming off postseason tournament appearances. Three received NCAA Tournament bids (Kent State, Ole Miss and NCAA Champion South Carolina), two were invited to play in the WBIT (TCU and James Madison) and one played in the WNIT (Old Dominion).

NC State’s Atlantic Coast Conference schedule will be announced by the league office at a later date. NC State will play Wake Forest, Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Miami, Notre Dame, Pitt, Virginia and Virginia Tech at home. The Pack will take on Wake Forest, Cal, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, North Carolina, SMU, Stanford and Syracuse on the road.

Season tickets are sold out for the 2024-25 season. Tip-off times and television designations will also be released at a later date.

2024-25 Non-Conference Schedule

Tuesday, Oct. 29 – Anderson (Exh.)

Tuesday, Nov. 5 – ETSU

Sunday, Nov. 10 – South Carolina $

Thursday, Nov. 14 – Kent State

Sunday, Nov. 17 – at TCU

Thursday, Nov. 21 – Coastal Carolina

Monday, Nov. 25 – Opponent TBD &

Wednesday, Nov. 27 – Opponent TBD &

Thursday, Dec. 5 – Ole Miss +

Sunday, Dec. 8 – Old Dominion

Wednesday, Dec. 11 – Davidson

Thursday, Dec. 19 – James Madison

$ – Ally Tipoff (Spectrum Center, Charlotte, N.C.)

& – Pink Flamingo Championship (Baha Mar, Nassau, Bahamas)

+ – SEC/ACC Challenge (Raleigh, N.C.)

 

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NC State Basketball

NC State Legend Julius Hodge Named Head Coach at Lincoln University

Published

2 days ago

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July 24, 2024

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NC State Legend Julius Hodge has been named the Head Coach at Lincoln University.

This marks Hodge’s first stint as a Head Coach.

Hodge has been in the Coaching world since 2015, when he served as Director of Player Development at the University of Buffalo under Bobby Hurley. Then, he spent 2016 and 2017 as an Assistant Coach under Herb Sendek at Santa Clara. From 2018-20, Hodge served as an Assistant Coach at San Jose State. Hodge has spent the past three seasons as an Assistant Coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

At NC State, Hodge earned 1st Team All-ACC honors in 2003 & 2004, and 2nd Team honors in 2005. Hodge was named the ACC Player of the Year in ’04. He earned the All-Freshman Team in 2002.

Hodge is 1 of 11 players in NC State history to earn 1st Team All-ACC honors more than once.

His 2,040 career points scored rank 3rd in NC State history. Hodge also ranks 1st in Free Throws Made, 14th in Rebounds, 7th in Offensive Rebounds, 6th in Assists and 7th in Steals.

Congrats Julius! You deserve this!

 

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NC State Basketball

WATCH: Getting to Know NC State’s Trey Parker

Published

4 days ago

on

July 23, 2024

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NC State Men’s Basketball is releasing videos helping fans get to know the new players on the 2024-25 roster.

Below is the video of Freshman Trey Parker (6’1″/178), with a transcript underneath.

“My name is Trey Parker. I’m an incoming Freshman from Fayetteville, North Carolina.” 

“I was recently playing at Overtime Elite. It was a great experience. A whole lot of development and great energy.” 

“Coach Levi (Watkins) recruited me. As soon as I got to the campus, it was a great experience. They just gave me that big inspiration to feel like I’m home, and feel like a great student outside of basketball.”

“I knew I wanted to be a part of the Pack back in November of 2022. I just felt like it was a great fit for me.”

“Living in North Carolina, and now playing in North Carolina, is a big opportunity. There’s a lot of people from North Carolina looking up to me, and I want to give them what they want to see.” 

“Being close, allows for them to bring the whole city out. It just feels like I’m already at home.” 

“Y’all stay tuned. Showtime is coming this year.”

_______

Parker originally signed with NC State in November of 2022, as a member of the 2023 recruiting class. He decided to reclassify, making him a member of the 2024 class.

Parker is a consensus 3-Star prospect, though 247Sports’ Composite Rankings have him as a 4-Star prospect. 247 ranks him as the #135 overall player in the 2024 recruiting class, the #26 Shooting Guard, and the #13 player in the state of Georgia.

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NC State Basketball

Jersey Numbers for 2024-25 NC State Men’s Basketball Team Revealed

Published

1 week ago

on

July 18, 2024

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The NC State Men’s Basketball team revealed the Jersey Numbers for their 2024-25 team yesterday.

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Numbers that are Staying the Same

Michael O’Connell – #12

Ben Middlebrooks – #34

Dennis Parker Jr. – #11

KJ Keatts – #13

Jordan Snell – #22

Numbers that have Changed

Jayden Taylor – #1 –> #8

Breon Pass – #10 –> #4

Numbers of New Players

Mike James – #0 (He wore #0 at Louisville last year)

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield – #1 (He wore #5 at Louisville last year)

Paul McNeil – #2 (He wore #2 in High School last year)

Dontrez Styles – #3 (He wore #0 at Georgetown last year)

Trey Parker – #5 (He wore #5 in High School last year)

Marcus Hill – #10 (He wore #0 at Bowling Green last year)

We don’t know what number Ismael Diouf will be wearing at NC State next year yet. 

 

 

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