The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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140 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BY TIM PEELER I f this piece regarding NC State first-year men's basketball coach Kevin Keatts seems familiar, it's because I've written it before. Keatts is the fifth new coach hired to coach Wolfpack men's basketball since I started writing in 1984. Les Robinson was the first, hired in the aftermath of Jim Valvano's dismissal in 1990. Herb Sendek lasted the longest, a to- tal of 10 years. Legendary Wolfpack point guard Sidney Lowe followed and stayed for six years. And Mark Gottfried, hired in 2011, was the most recent. All were hired because of the shortcom- ings of their predecessors. All came with quality credentials, whether from previous stops in college basketball or, in Lowe's case, the NBA. All came with high expectations that are inher- ent for a Wolfpack fan base eager to return to the pinnacle of the program's success. All had immediate success. Robinson's first squad was the only one in his six seasons with the Pack that qualified for the NCAA Tournament, advancing to the second round in the East Region on the shoulders of seniors Rodney Monroe and Chris Corchiani plus junior Tom Gugliotta. Both Sendek and Lowe advanced to the ACC Tournament championship game and made unexpected trips to the NIT. Gottfried took his first team to the ACC semifinals and the NCAA Sweet 16. None, however, matched the success of Robinson's two immediate predeces- sors, Norm Sloan and Valvano, who both won multiple ACC championships and one NCAA championship each. So what are the expectations for Keatts, the candidate athletics director Debbie Yow and her lieutenants zeroed in on last season when it was apparent that Gottfried would not have future success with the program and needed to be dismissed? Keatts was hired from UNC Wilmington after three successful seasons in his first college head coaching position. First of all, the expectations can be part of the problem, and the quest to quickly establish a successful team is not always the best way to build a program. Certainly, the world of college basketball has changed since Sloan and Valvano were hired, with the advent of early NBA Draft entries and one-and-dones and the constant churn of rosters. So what should fans expect from Keatts' first team? Nothing. That's not to say Keatts and his team won't be factors in the ACC race, despite being picked 12th in a preseason poll of media, a rite of futility by regional sports- writers that is an anticipated part of the annual ACC Operation Basketball. But it's mostly meaningless. There will be at least two upsets, several close games against better competition and a loss or two that is inexplicable. Such is the case every year in the nation's top bas- ketball league. What Wolfpack fans should be on the lookout for is a change in pace, a change in attitude and a change in the way the Wolf- pack goes about its business. Keatts certainly isn't writing off any pos- sibility of success. Otherwise he wouldn't have recruited graduate players Allerik Free- man and Sam Hunt, along with freshmen guards Lavar Batts Jr. and Braxton Beverly. "I'm excited about our team," Keatts said. "I'm asking the older guys on our team to show some leadership and some maturity." With experienced returning players like Abdul-Malik Abu, Lennard Freeman (who redshirted last season), Torin Dorn, Markell Johnson and Omer Yurtseven, Keatts' cup- board certainly isn't bare. It's a team that can compete on multiple levels. The coach has also put together a schedule that is de- signed for his team to have early success. Here, however, is the key. Keatts, with all of his experience as a college assistant and a military prep school head coach, is still young in his profession. That's one of the things that made him at- tractive to Yow. And it's one of the things that fuels his energy for the game, which was quite apparent in his introductory press conference, his spring tour of the state on the Wolfpack Club Caravan and his early appearances this preseason. He has a definite blueprint for how he wants to build his program. And he has both the recruiting background and coach- ing skills to compete in a world where constant roster turnover is now a permanent part of the game. Let's see, over the course of the next six months, how he goes about implementing it. "Right now, I'm the only coach in NC State history that is undefeated," Keatts said following the Primetime With the Pack preseason tipoff. "I don't know how long that will last, but I'm in a great situation. What I promise is that I will show up here every day to work and punch the clock. "Certainly, I hope the players will do the same thing." He's already made a huge impression on his players. He has laid out his expec- tations for what he wants from each of them. He holds them accountable for their slip-ups and praises their successes. He's made practices and workouts fun in a way it hadn't been before. "I'm trying to create a competitive at- mosphere," he says. "I want our players to compete in everything they do. "I'm also teaching them how to win. That's important because when you look back at us as a program, we won five games in the conference two years ago and then four games last year. We want to be more competitive in the league and have an op- portunity to win it." Sometimes that process will take longer, depending on how significant the changes are. Eventually, though, it will lead to greater success. ■ ■ PACK PERSPECTIVE Realistic Expectations For Kevin Keats' First Team Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. The Wolfpacker is a publication of: Coman Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Offices are located at 905 West Main St., Ste. 24F, Durham, N.C. 27701. (919) 688-0218. The Wolfpacker (ISSN 0273-8945) is published bimonthly. A subscription is $39.95 for six issues. For advertising or subscription information, call (800) 421-7751 or write The Wolfpacker. Postmaster: Send address changes to: The Wolfpacker, P.O. Box 2331, Durham, N.C. 27702. Periodical mail postage paid at Durham, N.C. 27702 and additional offices. First-class postage is $14 extra per year. E-mail: thewolfpacker@comanpub.com • Web site: www.thewolfpacker.com The most important things to watch during Ke- atts' first season are not wins and losses, but rather intangibles such as attitude and culture. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN