The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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136 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER T here's no doubt that Kevin Keatts and his inaugural edition of NC State men's basketball team exceeded last year's modest preseason expectations. In fact, I remember writing in this space that Wolfpack fans shouldn't even have expectations because no one knew exactly how Keatts' up-tempo offense and frantic defense that made him successful at UNC Wilmington would translate to ACC play. "What should fans expect from Keatts' first team?" that column said. "To be honest, nothing." Boy, was I a doofus. Keatts and his team began the season with a bang, beating No. 2 Arizona in the Battle 4 Atlantis. It was the highest ranked team a first-year coach had ever beaten since the Associated Press poll began. The Pack followed it up by beating Duke, also ranked No. 2, in early January, with Keatts becoming one of the few coaches in history to win his first ACC matchup against Hall of Fame Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. Keatts and his team also won their first game against North Carolina, with Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams, and Wake Forest, becoming the first coach in 100 years to beat the Wolfpack's three in-state rivals in his first meeting against them. The Pack also beat Syracuse, coached by the ACC's other Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, and won a total of five games against top-25 opponents. But the season ended quickly, with first-round losses to Boston College in the ACC Tournament and Seton Hall in the NCAA Tournament. So what should we expect from Keatts' second team? I'm tempted to say noth- ing, because it worked out well for last year's team. That would be impractical, of course, but not necessarily unwarranted. After an offseason makeover, Keatts has only three returning players from last year's squad, which won a total of 21 games and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. He and his staff added 10 new players, eight of which will be eligible this year. For his part, Keatts has Olympic ex- pectations for his second squad: he wants it to be faster, higher, stronger. The returning core of junior Markell Johnson, sophomore Braxton Beverly and senior Torin Dorn are ACC-tested and key components to Keatts' fast-tempo offense and pressing defense. How Keatts will integrate everyone else into his system is anyone's guess, though transfers Devon Daniels (Utah), C.J. Bryce (UNC Wilming- ton), Blake Harris (Missouri), Eric Lock- ett (Florida International), Wyatt Walker (Samford) and DJ Funderburk (Northwest Florida State Junior College) all have exten- sive postsecondary basketball experience. And the two incoming freshmen, Jeri- cole Hellems and Ian Steere, are both talented four-star recruits. After last year's team spent significant amounts of times playing four guards, Keatts hopes this year's squad will be similarly unpredictable, especially with such a deep cast of unknown components. It's the kind of cobbled-together roster he often had in his 10 seasons at Hargrave Military Academy, where he amassed a monumental 263-17 in two separate stints. He definitely has some surprises in store. "We will not play conventional bas- ketball this year," Keatts said. "It should be fun." Historically, second-year Wolfpack coaches have done well, with Everett Case setting the standard. His second team — featuring All-Americans Dick Dickey and Sammy Ranzino, along with a deep roster — not only went undefeated (12-0) in the Southern Conference, it won its second consecutive league tournament and finished with a 29-3 overall record. NC State did not, however, earn a bid into the NCAA Tournament, and lost its opening game in the National Invitation Tournament in New York. Press Maravich followed the ACC cham- pionship he won in his first season with an 18-9 record and a return trip to the ACC title game, where the Pack lost to Duke. Norm Sloan more than doubled his paltry seven-win total in his first year with a 16-10 mark in 1967-68, including a surprise appearance in the ACC Tour- nament title game, thanks to the unusual and controversial 12-10 victory in the semifinals over No. 6 Duke. But Sloan's team lost to North Carolina in the final. Jim Valvano second team — buoyed by an influx of a large freshman class that in- cluded Lorenzo Charles, Cozell McQueen, Terry Gannon, Dinky Proctor, George Mc- Clain and Mike Warren — made signifi- cant strides from his debut year. However, V's second team did not have postseason success, losing in the semifi- nal of the ACC Tournament to No. 1 (and eventual national champion) North Caro- lina and bowing out in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Chattanooga. That team did set the stage for big things in Valvano's third year, when the Cardiac Pack won both the ACC and NCAA titles. Les Robinson had the biggest drop from his first to second seasons, due to the loss of the Pack's "Fire and Ice" backcourt of Rodney Monroe and Chris Corchiani. Even with senior Tom Gugliotta, Robin- son's team went from 20 wins to 12. Expectations were high for both Herb Sendek and Sidney Lowe after they both led their inaugural teams to the ACC Tournament championship game and earned unexpected bids to the NIT. But Sendek's second team had just 17 wins, and Lowe's had a losing record of 15-16. Mark Gottfried had the second most wins of any second-year coach at NC State when the 2012-13 team went 24-11, but that team — loaded with C.J. Leslie, Tracy Smith, T.J. Warren, Lo- renzo Brown and Scott Woods — entered the season with exceedingly high expec- tations, following a surprise Sweet 16 run in Gottfried's first year. Not unexpectedly, that team wasn't quite as good as the lofty prediction of being preseason ACC favorites, though it did have homecourt wins over Duke and North Carolina and won two games in the ACC Tournament. This season maybe it's better not to make predictions of grandeur and be surprised — and delighted — when the outcome exceeds expectations. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE What Should We Expect In Kevin Keatts' Second Season? Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. In his first season at NC State, Keatts led his team to five wins over top-25 squads — in- cluding Arizona and Duke, which were both ranked No. 2 in the country when the Wolf- pack knocked them off. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN