Women’s basketball head coach Kellie Harper headed into this year with sub-par expectations, after a previous season that saw a sophomore slump, and returned equal results. The Wolfpack finished 5-11 in the conference, fell short of a bid to the NCAA Tournament and ended its season by losing to Appalachian State in the WNIT on Saturday.
In her first season at N.C. State, Harper lead the Pack to an NCAA Tournament bid and yielded a positive prognosis for the direction of the program. Now that the program is in its third year with Harper and has fallen short of its expectations over the past two seasons, is it time to rethink the direction that she is taking the program into?
Answer: No. Even though the team did not have the success that it hoped for in terms of wins and losses, there are still some elements in the team that show Harper is making progress towards building a foundation for her tenure at State.
The current roster has some talented players that State could potentially build upon. Even though junior guard Marissa Kastanek was initially a Yow recruit, she has blossomed under Harper. Kastanek finished the season twelfth among conference scoring leaders and 4th in three-point percentage. She was also named to the All-Tournament team, which should give Harper some confidence going into next year at the guard position.
Freshman guard Krystal Barrett, Kastanek’s understudy, is also a very aggressive guard that could blossom in her time at N.C. State. When scoring 14 points in one game, she attacked the rim ferociously and showed that she could get in a rhythm from outside. If she can perform in this fashion for the Pack on a consistent basis she could certainly be an asset for the program.
Harper also has one of the better big players in the conference, sophomore center Kody Burke. She has had double-double outings and aggressive outbursts of scoring for the Pack, most notably being her career-high 26-point performance at Wake Forest. If she too becomes a consistent performer for the Pack, she can also become a dominant force in the ACC.
Another reason why you shouldn’t question Harper’s tenure yet is that she has spread the recruiting network for Pack basketball. Since arriving in Raleigh, she’s garnered signings from California, Texas and Ohio, which is an expansion on what was once a majority eastern seaboard recruiting pipeline. The combination of local and national talent usually garners success for athletic programs. This formula is largely present in tri-state (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) based programs.
Don’t pass judgment on Harper yet. Fans thought of her as being the real deal after her first year, and the last two may have them questioning — but it’s important to keep the faith. State has been in a rebuilding phase since Yow handed over the majority of her coaching responsibilities to her assistants in her later stages of cancer, and the program is still building. It’s important to stay calm and let it all play out over the next couple of years.
