MCLAMB: NC State Follows Its Heart

Through the years, no one has straddled a fence like NC State.

The biggest element of surprise in the dismissal of Kevin Keatts is not that it happened one season after a run to the ACC title and appearance in the Final Four, it is probably that it happened at all. 

Keatts was one more NCAA Tournament appearance away from probably buying himself a few more seasons in Raleigh, or at least the contractual obligation of more years of payments. If NC State brought him back, knowing now that it did not want to bring him back, the athletic department then took a risk of watching him conjure up something akin to the rebound season of 2022-23.

Winning should not be a risk. 

In many ways, the dynamic of the relationship between Keatts and NC State (both the fans and then the athletic administration) was like a marriage where the two principal parties like and respect each other, but are not in love. While there was never hatred and the gratitude of what was accomplished did exist, it seemed that neither were keen for it to continue. 

NC State saw more and more over the 2024-25 campaign that what happened in March and April of the previous year, while a much needed respite from the years of basketball torture it has endured, was also an outlier in the Keatts Era. The Wolfpack was average collectively during his tenure, sans the magic of 2024, and the base was bored to death. 

Call it PNC Arena, Lenovo Center, or whatever else, assign the reasons to the recent global pandemic or something else, the bottom line is when the teams Keatts fielded played games at home, Wolfpack fans often had something better to do. Wandering eyes and empty seats do not put money in NC State’s coffers.

The overall record of Keatts’ tenure at NC State is 151-113. That is 38 games over .500 in eight seasons. The math is there. Keatts was a last-second dunk in Miami away from averaging exactly 19 wins and 14 losses per season.

But pulling the trigger to dismiss Keatts? NC State finally listened to its heart. 

Like any breakup or divorce, there will be outside conjecture as to if NC State was being fair to Keatts. How can they do this to someone who delivered the title and Final Four appearance that fans have craved for so long? 

Kevin Keatts is an amazing man. From a Division 3 basketball player to a major college head basketball coach, with a stop at prep school coaching along the way, he climbed the ladder as well as anyone. Keatts also used his journey to improve himself with a college degree from Marshall and financial security for his family that he would have eventually gotten from someone else had NC State not come calling for him first.  

Keatts deserved the chance he got at NC State and he earned the right to be respected for what he did with it. Most followers of the Wolfpack have no problem with that. 

But this was not a fairy tale marriage. Keatts remaining at NC State would have made the relationship worse. Both parties should get the chance to move on. 

Some will call NC State unfair for relieving Keatts of his job, but the previous 35 years prove that its basketball head coaches get treated as well as anyone, if not better. If the name ‘NC State’ was replaced by any other major conference school, and each men’s basketball head coach the university has employed since 1990 had his tenure cut exactly in half, most would not say a word. 

Somewhere along the way, those previous coaches did enough or were given sufficient leeway to keep going and going. When it comes to the leaders of its two major athletic programs (men’s basketball and football) NC State has often strung the relationship along and never had the heart to end it with the first set of rumblings.

This time the Wolfpack did something it seldom does, nipped it in the bud. While the postseason of 2024 bought Keatts a couple of years worth of money, it only got him one more season to coach. The packing he was going to do after the ACC Tournament last season now begins before the conference tournament this season. 

The Pack wanted a fresh start and did not feel like waiting another year or two to get it. 

Right or wrong, NC State is following its heart.