The NC State Wolfpack finally has the right trio of head coaches in place at the same time for its “big three” revenue sports: Dave Doeren in football, Kevin Keatts in basketball and Elliott Avent in baseball.
In 2017-18, Doeren, Keatts and Avent led the Wolfpack to its first year in school history where the football team won at least nine games, the basketball team won at least 20 and the baseball team notched at least 40.
After struggling to a 3-9 record in his first year as head coach in 2013, Doeren has compiled an impressive 31-21 record since, including going 3-1 in bowl games and finished the season ranked in the AP Top 25 in 2017 (23). Doeren led the Pack in 2017 to a second-place finish in the ACC Atlantic, its best finish since 2010.
Keatts, hailed as a savior for the men’s basketball program before he even coached a single game for the Wolfpack, delivered on his famous promise: “Kevin Keatts is a winner.” The first-year NC State head coach led the Pack to a 21-12 record and an 11-7 record in the ACC, its best since the 2012-13 season. After a two-year postseason drought, the Wolfpack made the NCAA Tournament, losing to Seton Hall in the first round.
Although postseason struggles have become something of a trend for the NC State baseball program the last few years, Avent guided the Pack to yet another season with at least 35 wins, this time to a 42-18 record and a second-place finish in the Raleigh Regional. Avent has compiled a 348-197 (.639) record over the last nine years, averaging nearly 40 wins per season and reaching five regional championship games, two Super Regionals and one College World Series.
NC State’s football, basketball and baseball combined for a 72-34 (.679) record during the 2017-18 athletic year. To put that into perspective, Stanford, which won the Director’s Cup as the D1 college in the country with the top athletic programs, had a 74-33 (.692) record in those three sports.
Doeren has proven that he has NC State football here to stay, with the No. 23 recruiting class in the country for 2018, No. 19 for 2019 and No. 25 for 2020. Prior to Doeren taking over the program, NC State football hadn’t won three bowl games in four years since 2000-2003; it’s taken Doeren just five years at the helm of the team to accomplish that.
With a 75-26 record in his last three years as a head coach (two at UNC-Wilmington, one at NC State), Keatts has consistently proven that his “Kevin Keatts is a winner” mantra is no joke. Keatts has excelled both on and off the court, getting 2017-18 leading scorer Al Freeman (Baylor), 2016-17 leading scorer for UNCW CJ Bryce and former five-star recruit Sacha Killeya-Jones (Kentucky) all to transfer to NC State. With Keatts leading the way, a fifth-place ACC finish and first-round NCAA Tournament exit look to be just the beginning for the Wolfpack.
After making it to a Super Regional and the College World Series (CWS) in back-to-back years in 2012 and 2013, the Pack hasn’t been able to get over the NCAA Regional championship game hump the last four years, coming in second four years in a row. However, if Avent’s history (four Super Regional appearances and one CWS appearance) is any indicator, it won’t be long before the Pack is back in the supers.
After a long, long wait for Wolfpack students, fans, alumni and athletes, it seems that NC State’s revenue sports glory days are on the horizon. The Pack finally has its leaders in football, basketball and baseball all at the same time for the first time in school history.
Head coach Dave Doeren comes out to thank the young fans for coming to the 37-20 win over Marshall on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017 at Carter-Finley Stadium.
