Justin Gainey Hiring Veteran Coach Matthew Driscoll to NC State Staff

According to reports, Justin Gainey is hiring Matthew Driscoll as an assistant coach on his new staff at NC State.

Driscoll spent this past season as the Associate Head Coach at Kansas State. After Jerome Tang was fired, Driscoll stepped in as the Wildcats’ interim head coach for the final seven games of the season.

Prior to his one-year stint at Kansas State, Driscoll served as the head coach at North Florida for 16 seasons (2009–25), compiling a 248–264 overall record. In conference play, he posted a 55% winning percentage in the Atlantic Sun, with 12 of his 16 teams finishing .500 or better in league play.

Driscoll left North Florida as the winningest coach in program history and the winningest coach in Atlantic Sun Conference history. Under his leadership, the Ospreys captured three Atlantic Sun regular-season championships and one conference tournament title. In 2015, he guided the program to its first, and only, NCAA Tournament appearance.

He was named Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year in each of the three seasons North Florida won the regular-season title.

Driscoll’s coaching journey began at the Division II and III levels, spending one season at Slippery Rock (1992–93) and four years at La Roche University.

He broke into Division I coaching in 1997–98 at Wyoming under Larry Shyatt, before following Shyatt to the ACC as an assistant at Clemson, where he spent five seasons.

That ACC experience adds another layer of value to Gainey’s staff build.

Before taking over at North Florida, Driscoll also served as an assistant at Baylor under Scott Drew. He was part of the early rebuild of the program while Baylor was navigating NCAA sanctions. After three losing seasons, the Bears posted winning records in his final three years, helping lay the foundation for what has become a perennial NCAA Tournament program. In 2007–08, Driscoll helped guide Baylor back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988.

In hiring Driscoll, Gainey is adding a coach with more than two decades of experience at the college level. and a track record of building, stabilizing, and winning programs.