Former UNC-Wilmington men’s basketball head coach Kevin Keatts has officially been named the head coach of the NC State men’s basketball team, the university announced Friday night.
Keatts has an impressive track record, as he led the Seahawks to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and CAA Conference Championships in just his second and third years with the team. During his three-year tenure at UNCW, he garnered a respectable 72-28 (41-13 CAA) record. He looks to bring his past success to an NC State team that is searching to get back to its old, successful ways.
“My vision is to build a program, not to build a great team,” Keatts said in his opening press conference Sunday. “I don’t want this to be a situation where we win one year and the next two or three years, we don’t win. I think it’s important to lay the foundation and try to build a program. We’ve got to be patient; we’ve got a job to do. This team only won four games in the ACC last year, so we’ve got to gradually build it. But I hope in a few years, we can build a national championship program.”
To put this into perspective, UNCW went 9-23 the year before Keatts was hired, was coming off six-straight losing seasons and hadn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2005-06 season. Fast-forward to this year, and the Seahawks went 29-6 (15-3 CAA) and ranked in the top 25 in scoring, 3-pointers made, assists and turnover margin with 84.8 points per game, 9.6 converted 3s per game and 565 total assists. Keatts has already made a strong impression on his new team.
“He comes in with a tremendous energy,” senior forward Abdul-Malik Abu said. “He has just a motivational character to him. He’s very serious; he believes that we can turn this page, play hard, compete and do all the things that we wanted to do. I’m grateful that our people at NC State, Debbie Yow, Chancellor [Randy] Woodson, that they took the time and they really put in the effort to talk to us and see the things we wanted and the values as the coach that we were looking for. I feel like they made a good decision.”
Prior to his stint with the Seahawks, Keatts was an assistant coach at Louisville under head coach Rick Pitino for three seasons. While with the Cardinals, the team advanced to the Sweet 16 in every year, including the Final Four in 2012 and winning the National Championship in 2013. Athletics Director Debbie Yow appreciates the winning history he brings to the table.
“I think that what it boiled down to is shared values,” Yow said. “Coach Keatts mentioned that I’m a former coach, so I have very strong opinions about what it takes to be successful. The value systems simply aligned. He loves hard practices; he expects the best out of our players. He’s going to maximize whatever abilities they have. Academic values, grinding, player development, recruiting; he’s just the whole ball of wax. It’s rare to find this level of fit in this day and age.”
Keatts’ first year as a head coach was at Hargrave Military Academy, a college preparatory boarding school in Chatham, Virginia. He served as the head coach from 1999-2001 before leaving for Marshall University as an assistant for two seasons. However, Keatts returned to Hargrave in 2003 to reprise his role as the head coach and stayed there until Louisville offered him a position as an assistant coach in 2011. He credits his good recruiting skills to his time at Hargrave, when he essentially had to bring in a new team every year.
“When you’re at a Division I program, you’ve got freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors, and you’re only losing three or four guys per year so that’s all you have to recruit,” Keatts said. “But at Hargrave Military Academy, I had to bring in 15 guys per year, 15 potential All-Americans who I thought could play at the highest level. Through that, I was able to get all the best contacts all around the country that were involved with the kids, and that was extremely helpful.”
Keatts signed a six-year deal with the team that will pay him about $2.2 million annually. In 2015, former head coach Mark Gottfried signed an extension that paid him at least $2.48 million per year, and the buyout for his contract will be about $2.5 million. Keatts expressed praise about the facilities NC State has to offer.
“When you look around NC State, its great facilities, you’ve got everything,” Keatts said. “It’s a tremendous academic university. You’ve got great leadership. There’s no negatives about this place, so we should be able to put a product on the floor that makes us all proud to represent this university.”
Keatts will take over a Wolfpack team that went just 15-17 (4-14 ACC) despite having high expectations before the start of the year. The season ultimately led to the downfall of Gottfried and opened the window for Keatts to take his shot at turning the team around.
“I want our identity to be that we play extremely hard,” Keatts said. “I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to be a basketball team that doesn’t make mistakes. I’m not going to tell you that we’re a basketball team that’s going to win every game right away. I think this fan base deserves a team that, if you’re going to pay money to come watch us play, and you’re going to support us like the support that we have here, they want to see a great product. My guys are going to dive on the floor, they’re going to take charges and they’re going to play hard. That’s what our identity should be.”
Keatts has his work cut out for him, but just how much will depend on what the current players decide to do. Freshman Omer Yurtseven is currently testing the NBA Draft waters, Abu might do the same, redshirt senior Terry Henderson is waiting to hear back from the NCAA about a sixth year of eligibility and multiple other players have the option to transfer. Either way, the future of the men’s basketball team will be much more clear by the time the 2017-18 season starts in November.
