In the midst of all the media hubbub surrounding the NCAA tournament, NC State quietly agreed to terms with an under-the-radar coach to take over the reins of its men’s basketball program.
Kevin Keatts, formerly the head coach of the UNC-Wilmington men’s basketball team, signed a six-year deal on Friday — the same length as recently fired coach Mark Gottfried’s tenure in Raleigh. He’s tasked with turning around a team that has missed the tournament in consecutive seasons. The pressing question: is he the man for the job or simply the best that NC State could do?
The answer lies somewhere in between, but there’s a lot to like about the hire. Keatts took over a program that was in the doldrums — having missed eight straight national tournaments and posting only one winning record over that span — and won conference championships in his second and third seasons.
Keatts wasn’t just capitalizing on the talent that was already there either; the 44-year-old head coach brought in local transfers and loads of overlooked talent in the area, including Devontae Cacok, who led the country in shooting percentage as a sophomore.
The Seahawks’ leaders, such as seniors Chris Flemmings and Denzel Ingram, were not ranked recruits coming out of high school, but Keatts’ fast-paced offense made the most of their skills and challenged defenses all-season long, ranking 18th in Ken Pom’s adjusted efficiency.
The stat that should really be music to Wolfpack fans’ ears is Wilmington’s 13.9 turnover percentage for 2017, which is the best in the country. That’s tough to do when you run a high-tempo offense like Keatts’.
Getting stops on defense was a problem for the Seahawks, but not due to a lack of effort. The team ranked 69th in turnover percentage against — more defensive pressure will be part of the game plan at NC State — but 328th in defending 2-point shots.
It was one of the shortest teams in the country — on average 2.3 inches shorter than the Wolfpack — and opponents took advantage, taking 71 percent of their shots from inside the arc. Keatts will have a lot more height and athleticism to work with at NC State; if the Wolfpack had a strength on defense, it was protecting the paint.
Keatts learned this style of play under the tutelage of a coach you may have heard of: two-time national champion and current Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. From 2011 to 2014, Keatts was an assistant coach at Louisville and helped the program win a national championship in 2013.
“He is absolutely awesome,” Pitino told ESPN’s Andy Katz. “He is a great recruiter, he is a tremendous coach and he has a very difficult style to play against.”
It’s a meaningful endorsement coming from one of the country’s most respected coaches. For Athletics Director Debbie Yow to make such a hire in mid-March has to be a boon for the Wolfpack program, even though there were other strong candidates out there.
Many had an eye on NC State alum and Dayton coach Archie Miller, but all signs indicated he wasn’t interested. Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall also would be a tough get, given the condition of that program and the competitive salary he’s already receiving.
Former Indiana coach Tom Crean was also on the list, but he had the same struggle as Gottfried: consistent talent but roller-coaster-ride seasons. VCU’s Will Wade and Butler’s Chris Holtmann would also have been attractive options, but the timing isn’t right for them to make a move.
Ultimately, Keatts was the right fit for both sides. He’s excited to take on the challenge of competing in the Triangle and wasn’t too comfortably entrenched in his position at UNCW. The Wolfpack gets a coach that has seen how an elite program should operate and turned around a struggling mid-major, making connections in the area’s recruiting trail along the way.
You can’t definitively say at this point that the hire is a home-run, but Keatts checks off all the boxes and provides a young, fresh face to a program in need of just that. Now it’s time, in the words of Rick Pitino, “to just sit back and let the guy coach.”
