Sunday, March 19, 2017: the day NC State men’s basketball head coach Kevin Keatts stood at a podium in Reynolds Coliseum and proudly relayed the now famous quote, “Kevin Keatts is a winner.” Plastered onto T-shirts, banners and bumper stickers all across Raleigh, Wolfpack Nation fell in love with Kevin Keatts.
Keatts brought with him to Raleigh a swagger that exuded confidence and success, having helped turn every program he touched into a winner. He was a coach who believed in putting your head down and getting to work to achieve the goals you wanted.
The excitement surrounding Keatts was sent into overdrive following his first season as head coach of the Wolfpack. Picked in the preseason to finish 12th in the ACC, the Wolfpack shocked everyone finishing in a four-way tie for third in the ACC with an 11-7 record in conference play. Keatts and his squad earned an NCAA bid as a No. 9 seed before falling to Seton Hall in the round of 64. The season was a massive success; Keatts had returned the Wolfpack to the big dance in his first season in charge.
What would come next, however, was a consistent downhill slide for Keatts and the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack has now missed the NCAA tournament three straight years and has not been able to break past a .500 record in ACC play since that first season.
Frustration has begun to grow and questions have arisen about Keatts and his recruiting abilities. Jalen Lecque and Josh Hall, two of Keatts’ most impressive recruits, decided to forgo college and enter the NBA draft, much to NC State fans’ displeasure.
While this hasn’t been enough to get Keatts onto the dreaded “hot seat,” it has made a few of the Keatts faithful begin to question if he’s the man to take NC State to the top of the college basketball mountain.
Pressure is on for Keatts to get NC State back to the NCAA tournament this season. Wolfpack fans are tired of mediocrity; they aren’t satisfied with the National Invite Tournament (NIT) which is seen as more of a joke than anything in the eyes of most college basketball fans. More commonly referred to as the “Not Invited Tournament,” teams play to see who gets to claim they are the 69th best team in the country in half-empty arenas. That is simply not good enough for the Wolfpack.
There has never been a more important season for Keatts in Raleigh. The public perception of the Wolfpack head coach is teetering heading into this year. With a strong performance in the 2021 season, Keatts can have all of Raleigh in his corner backing him for the future. With another NCAA tournament miss, however, the questions will begin to pile up quickly for Keatts. It will be very interesting to see how the fifth-year head coach performs with his back against the wall in what could be a make or break year.
College basketball in the Triangle has long been dominated by UNC and Duke with NC State always lagging behind. With Roy Williams retiring after last season and Coach K set for one final season before retiring, there is no better time for Kevin Keatts and NC State to pounce.
