Keatts showed what good coaching does
NC State's men's basketball team amazed its staunchest fans and its growing critics, including the author, in winning the 2024 ACC Tournament
Not long after the NC State men’s basketball team used a broom on five opponents in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament to sweep all comers, win the official ACC title (regular season first in the standings is just that) and qualify for an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament did an interesting text message come my way.
“Keatts for President” wrote the friend on the other end, suggesting Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts with his magical and thoughtful strategy on the court through timely substitutions and off the court approach enroute to defeating the Nos. 1, 2, and 3 ACC Tournament seeds and taking the ACC title be anointed to lead the great United States of America.
But when you study the situation with rose colored glasses, “President” would belittle Keatts who is now the god of NC State men’s basketball. Win a few games at the right time and fans flock to praise and kiss rings. His contract for winning the ACC title gives him two additional years at the Wolfpack helm, a $400,000 raise, and several other monetary perks. Does he deserve his rewards? Well, according to his contract he does, but over the long-run, probably not, especially the raise of $400,000.
That money could be used for the root of the problem in today’s college amateur-professional sports situations of transfer portals and name, image, and likeness payments. Messages from Athletics Director Boo Corrigan who shed tears of joy on one hand and tears related to pay raises and extended contracts on the other, encourages Wolfpack fans to pony-up with the support level needed to pay better athletes to come to Raleigh. Keatts pay raise would do that fund wonders.
I think I read somewhere, but I’m not sure (CMA), Corrigan may have financially benefited from Keatts magnificent coaching during the ACC tournament. Corrigan, no doubt, went from the bottom of the canyon to the top of the mountain at decision-making time, though he had nothing to do with the contract extension and pay raises and bonuses except for when the contract was written. To the coaches and administrators go the spoils while the players must fend for themselves.
After the Wolfpack lost its last four games in the 2023-24 regular season including the finale 81-73 at Pitt, I started to write Keatts’ epitaph. Before Pitt, State lost at Florida State, at North Carolina, and to Duke at the Wolfpack’s home. The mood amongst most Wolfpack fans was not very positive.
The final game of the season loss to Pitt came 17-days after I wrote about the Wolfpack basketball program: A Mediocre Men's Basketball Program at Best? At that point, NC State was 16-10 overall, 8-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and tied for fifth in the league. I wrote:
On the surface, the future of this team, at least this season, doesn’t appear too encouraging to the fans. Right now, even at 5th in the ACC, it’s another mediocre, at best, season. Don’t get me wrong. It’s an exciting team, but with mediocre results so far. At best, look for a five game sweep and a 13-7 ACC record. At the other end, it could be a disaster and an 8-12 ACC mark. What’s your best guess?
I was close on the disaster end. The Wolfpack ended the regular season 17-14 overall, 9-11 in the ACC, and all alone in 10th place in the conference. A quick exit from the ACC Tournament either through an upset by Louisville in the opening round or a knock-off by Syracuse in the next round could have happened, State fans feared. If so, Keatts may have found his butt on the coaching hot seat.
So I waited to write the epitaph, waiting until the game with the Cardinals was over and done. But, the Wolfpack won that game. And then I waited to see how Syracuse would treat NC State. The Wolfpack won that game as well. Actually, those two games, defeating the Cardinals, 94-85, and the Orange, 83-65, helped the Wolfpack get ready to face the top-three tournament seeds. Both games allowed Keatts to tweak his player substitutions.
After losing 79-64 to Duke in the next to last season game, there seemed to be no way State would survive Duke in the quarter-finals, especially after playing so very hard in its first two games of the ACC Tournament, but Duke failed its coach and fans. NC State won that game much to the pleasure of North Carolina fans.
I contend that Tar Heels fans in the Capital One Arena and all across the nation and the world were not pulling for NC State to win that game as much as they wanted Duke to lose. One can’t happen without the other, but there is a difference. UNC faithful always want Duke to lose, and secondary to that, UNC fans prefer the Wolfpack to lose. In this case, I’m confident the Tar Heels, even after beating the Blue Devils twice during the season, didn’t want anything to do with Duke in the ACC title game, a good possibility. They were pulling for Duke to lose, not for State to win.
In finishing the tournament with wins over Virginia and North Carolina, with the exception of the three-pointer attempt that had to go in to send the game with the Cavaliers into overtime, in reflection, the NC State team was better and played better than the five games sweep: Louisville, Syracuse, Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Much of being better than those five teams in a pressure cooker environment to make the NCAA Tournament is attributed to the players, but much more to Keatts who figured out a substitution rotation to keep the defensive pressure on and still being able to attack its basket with vigor to score the points needed to win. He also inspired the players to keep at it even in moments of being so tired that collapsing on the court could have been an option.
In the final minutes of the Championship win over North Carolina, the Wolfpack simply wanted it more than the Tar Heels, the regular season leader and one of the top teams in college basketball this year. (The Tar Heels could very easily win the NCAA tournament.) NC State, with the exception of a few wayward passes resulting in turnovers which put Wolfpack fans on the edge of their seats, surged in the final minutes and wouldn’t let the Tar Heels catch up. Again, you can praise Keatts and his gutsy players for that.
Today, do I think the NC State basketball program is mediocre? At the current high the team is on, as the Wolfpack, an 11th seed, faces 6th seed Texas Tech of the Big 12, there’s a lot of hope for the extension of the current season but that doesn’t make the Keatts era at State a great show of basketball? You can answer that yourself.
Wolfpack fans can enjoy the moment as well as anyone, but what Wolfpack fans really want is to compete annually for the top of the regular season, win more ACC (or whatever conference NC State is in) tournaments, and have a program that has the same national respect North Carolina and Duke have, to make the NC State-North Carolina rivalry more meaningful than it is now. It’s one thing to say it’s a rivalry; it takes winning game more than the Wolfpack has to make it a rivalry.
As far as Keatts is concerned, I admire his effort a lot more now than when the regular season ended. He may have been the head coach the last seven seasons, but he raised his level of coaching at least 10 fold in the 2024 ACC Tournament, and for that I thank and praise him.
Now, coach Keats, do what you did best for this program. Continue to use the transfer portal to bring in a team to compete at the high level you showed at the ACC Tournament. Don’t rest on the laurels of winning those five games to attract great players to Raleigh. It takes more that that. Do what’s needed to give Wolfpack fans hope for basketball every year.
Spot on, Jim!