The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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22 ■ THE WOLFPACKER TRACKING THE PACK When former NC State head football coach Chuck Amato was hanging around the Wolfpack's first practice of 2018 on Aug. 3, he might have been doing some homework. In May 2011, James Curle decided to start doing a podcast dedicated to NC State sports he called the Riddick & Reynolds Podcast, the name a nod to the iconic former homes of Wolfpack football and basketball. A couple months later, the show moved to Amedeo's, a restaurant that is also a shrine to NC State athletics located on Western Boulevard. One week after Curle recorded his first show at Amedeo's, Amato joined his program, and for most of the 2011 football season, Amato became a weekly guest on The Riddick & Reynolds Podcast before he was hired by Akron in 2012. Curle continued the podcast until June 2016, recording 234 episodes over five years. The Wolfpacker then began recording podcasts at Amedeo's after Curle stepped away. Yet two years after ending The Riddick & Reynolds Podcast, Curle had an itch to get back into it, and he had the perfect idea. "I didn't want to just reboot The Riddick & Reynolds Podcast after a two-year hiatus, so I kicked around several ideas and the one that I couldn't shake was doing a show that featured Chuck Amato," Curle noted. "Chuck had just recently retired from coaching at Akron, and he even said as he was leaving Akron that: 'I have to find something to do. If anybody out there has something, they can call me.' "So, I called him, and he was up for it." From there, The Chuck Amato Show was born. The new podcast will start Aug. 20 at Amedeo's, recording weekly on Monday nights and will be available on TheWolf - packer.com and everywhere else podcasts are found. Curle noted he is not interested in recreating Riddick & Reynolds, but there may be some familiar elements. The two will dissect NC State football each week, but will also branch off into other topics "that might be tangentially related to our primary discussion points," Curle noted. "I hope listeners of the show get to enjoy hearing a lot of the great stories I got to enjoy back when Chuck was a guest on the old show," Curle continued. "Naturally, some of the best stories were ones told after the microphones were off, but I feel like we'd have to do the show for a long time to exhaust all the ones that are fit to air. "It's hard to coach for 45 years at your alma mater and on two national title teams [at Florida State] and not have tons of great stories that should make for a fun listen each week. And if you're eager to hear some of the great off-the-record stories, I imagine you can hear a few if you hang around at Amedeo's after the show ends." — Matt Carter T he Wolfpacker staff has enjoyed getting to know various guests on their podcast nearly every Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. inside of Amedeo's Italian Restaurant in Raleigh. The podcast is al- ways available to listen to on TheWolf- packer.com, iTunes and most everywhere else podcasts can be downloaded. Here are some excerpts from when se- nior writer C.L. Brown of The Fieldhouse, which is part of The Athletic, was a guest July 31. He covers the Triangle area col- leges and has his hand on the pulse of college basketball nationally: You mentioned last year that NC State men's basketball coach Kevin Keatts had the right temperament for the job. Can you expand on that? "For those that don't know, I used to work for The Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper for 13 years, covering the Uni- versity of Louisville, when Coach Keatts came there as an assistant. First and fore- most, under [former UL head coach] Rick Pitino, I lost count of the amount of as- sistants that came through and went on to become head coaches. Whenever he hired somebody, you figure their ambition is to be a head coach and this is how they got groomed to do that. "With Keatts, when he first got there, I was like, 'This is a head coach, like now.' Probably not at a Power Five team, but a lower level D-I coach. He was that pol- ished. I have never talked to him directly [about] what exactly he took from coach- ing under Pitino, but he was somebody that didn't buckle under the pressure Pi- tino can put on you. "A lot of people think Pitino micro-man- ages his staff, which he didn't. He just had high expectations. He delegated a lot, and what you do he expected a certain standard. "Keatts could handle it and thrive under it. He was brought in initially because at that time Louisville's recruiting had gone down. Keatts was one of the people he felt would bring it back up. "Personally, I think he has a certain charisma about him that would play well with this fan base [at NC State]." What are you expectations of NC State basketball moving forward? "I know this coming season there are a lot of transfers. Ultimately, I don't think Keatts will build it that way. I think this is just his second year, so you have to do what you have to do right now. "Long term — not that he won't take transfers because you always look for talent to help the team — I think he wants to build the right way. He wants guys from the ground up who will stay in the program a few years. "They'll get acclimated to the system and go from there." What is your vision on how NC State will incorporate 10 newcomers? "I guess this is how [Kentucky head coach] John Calipari feels every year, having new guys in. The thing that is good about it, a lot of these guys are ex- perienced guys — graduate transfers and coming from other schools. They know how it should work. "The challenge is obviously getting everybody to believe in this system and accept their roles on this team, this year. That will be a challenge. It may lend to starting off slower when the season starts. "I definitely think this will be a team that will play small because of all the big men that left. There isn't a clear-cut frontcourt." Where do you picture NC State in the ACC next year? "I saw Keatts at either Peach Jam or in Indianapolis during the earlier period [in April]. He figured NC State would be picked 12th again because of all the teams that have a lot of people back and State only has three guys back from last year. "Initially, nobody is going to know how the pieces will fit in. I think it will be sim- ilar to this year, where nobody knew and State ends up surprising. The interchange- able parts is what I like about this team. "It is no longer an anomaly to see a four-guard lineup in college basketball. Everybody is playing small. It isn't like they have to get over not having a domi- nant big man. They can do that. I think it will take some special seasons and some- body has to step forward. "I think [Utah redshirt sophomore trans- fer] Devon Daniels would be who I pick in being that standout guy for State next year who can help get them over the hump and back into the NCAA Tournament." PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS Former Football Coach Chuck Amato To Begin Podcast At Amedeo's