The Kevin Keatts era at NC State is officially over. This Sunday, the Wolfpack fired Kevin Keatts after a disappointing season where the Wolfpack didn’t win a single game on the road this season. This comes after the Wolfpack went on a magical Final Four run last March. This year, NC State won’t even make the ACC Tournament.
Kevin Keatts will be paid $6.7 million since his contract was terminated after being extended for going on the Final Four run last season. The search for a new coach is expected to begin in earnest at the end of the season.
After nine underperforming seasons, in which the Wolfpack went to several NCAA Tournaments, and had several marquee wins, the era of Kevin Keatts is over.
Keatts went 151-113 as the coach of the Wolfpack, and at times, the Wolfpack was underwhelming as a team during his tenure.
Adam Fox, who is a big fan of the Wolfpack and a teacher at FVHS, said that he thought the team was disappointing this season. He says that he wasn’t shocked that they were not as good this year as they were last year, but he also said that he expected the team to be better than where it ended up finishing this season.
This season, the Wolfpack went a disappointing 5-15 in conference play, finishing the season 16th in the conference and therefore missing the conference tournament. Overall, the team went 12-18 this season, which is the reason that Kevin Keatts was fired. Whoever the team hires as their head coach will have to rebuild a program next year to compete for an ACC championship next season. It remains to be seen if they will be able to replicate the success of last year’s magical run in which they won five games in five days to win the ACC tournament, and then went all the way to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1983.
NC State fans are going to be hoping that the next coach can bring stability to the program, which has lacked consistency for a long time. Until that happens, all NC State fans can do is hope that the future will be better.
