Self-Assessment, Holdovers, and Transfers: The Journey To Respectability And A Title
It could not have been what Kevin Keatts imagined. Five seasons into a dream job it seemed like the forces were always aligned against him and his NC State teams.
In his first season, Keatts guided the Wolfpack to a return to the NCAA Tournament after the program missed the previous two. That generated excitement, which was not overly mitigated by consecutive postseason losses to Boston College and Seton Hall, sending the journey to a sudden halt.
After the first four seasons, Keatts’ tenure was decent, but not championship-worthy. The Wolfpack still had the one NCAA Tournament appearance, with another likely invitation scuttled by a global pandemic. NC State made two runs to the quarterfinals of the NIT, with one coming after a campaign that NCSU felt merited an at-large bid to the NCAAs and another where the Pack had to use a late-season winning streak to get to the postseason.
Then came the 2021-22 debacle. An early injury to Manny Bates – who many wondered if he truly wanted to be in Raleigh before the season – meant NC State lacked an anchor inside. Despite having Terquavion Smith and Dereon Seabron, two NBA-quality players, NC State fell to rock bottom. It culminated with a five-game losing streak, which turned a bad season into a historically awful one. When the dust settled, the Wolfpack lost 21 games and finished last in the ACC.
While it was crumbling, Keatts never could adjust or find the right formula. That led to self-reflection.
The coach that NC State has now is getting to be great at self-assessment. Keatts understood the ramifications of declaring in the third person that he “is a winner” and he has also shown a willingness to make meaningful tactical adjustments.
Scaling back the pressure defense at the ACC Tournament was a masterstroke. The tone of the games against Syracuse and North Carolina in particular were drastically different than when the Wolfpack faced them in the regular-season. If NC State had not worn its red jerseys as a lower seed, the uninformed observer would have no trouble believing that the Pack had more talent than the opposition.
And talent is what makes the dog’s tail wag. This journey that NCSU is on is not one that took off in Washington, DC at the ACC Tournament. It is, in fact, a path that has been two seasons long.
Having coached prep basketball for so long at Hargrave, Keatts has the skill sets required to build teams on the fly, but it was a high school recruit who helped kickstart the ascension.
When Smith eschewed the allure of the NBA to return to NC State last season, he provided Keatts with a scoring bellcow. When Jarkel Joiner and D.J. Burns Jr. elected to join the Pack, the team suddenly had a dynamic scoring trio – meaning every game was winnable.
NC State did not hang a banner for 2022-23, but the one they will hang for this season – along with the prizes they seek in the current NCAA Tournament – had its genesis before the ACC champions cut down the net in the nation’s capital.
“Guys like Terquavion Smith – who I love – who committed to me when I was 15 years old and stuck around the program after we didn't have that great year and then to get a guy like Jarkel Joiner to come into the program – people forget how good those two guys were,” Keatts said.
“We lost 34 points from those guys and a lot of leadership and everything else, but when we win a championship like we did this year, those guys were so important to us winning because they gave us momentum. Then a guy like D.J. Burns comes in and comes back. Casey Morsell and we were able to add some to it, but the guys from the year before laid a great foundation to get us right back on track.”
Keatts is now what he said he was in 2017, he is a winner. Questions that were fair two seasons ago are now needless.
His biggest victories are adapting to where his players are put in the best position to succeed, while also seeing the value and appreciating not just those who cut down the net, but also the ones who helped lift him and his program to where they had their shot at winning titles.
And if the Wolfpack conjures some more magic in Pittsburgh, there will be more opportunities to raise banners. It is a new day at NC State.