The game has changed for NC State's men's basketball program, as the school announced the dismissal of head coach Kevin Keatts on Sunday. Under Keatts' leadership since 2017, the team saw three NCAA Tournament appearances and a storied run to the Final Four in 2024, but his tenure ended against a backdrop of a disappointing 12-19 season, just a year following that high mark.
With a final tally of 151-113 overall and a less stellar 69-84 in conference play, expectations within the Wolfpack had soared after last year's unlikely ACC tournament victory under Keatts' guidance, his squad's subsequent leap into the Final Four only to find the following season not meeting the bar set; they did not even qualify for this year's conference tournament, according to CBS17.
Boo Corrigan, NC State’s McMurray Family Director of Athletics, made it clear that despite the shift, Keatts' role in Wolfpack history is secure. “I want to thank Coach Keatts for his contributions to NC State and for always representing the university with class,” Corrigan stated, as reported by ABC11.
Speculation about the next head coach is already in full swing with Ryan Odom of VCU and McNeese's Will Wade emerging as possible targets, ESPN sources indicated Keatts meanwhile, notably expressed his own future plans with a concise, "I was officially entering the portal," signaling a readiness to take on new challenges in the ever-evolving landscape of college basketball, his time with the Wolfpack now a chapter closed amid a season where the team's performance just didn't rise to the occasion or expectations that had been seared into the fabric of the previous year’s accomplishments.
