Less than a year ago, Kevin Keatts and N.C. State had a remarkable journey, capturing the program’s first Atlantic Coast Conference title in nearly 38 years and making an unexpected run to their first Final Four in even longer.
However, Keatts’ time at N.C. State came to an end on Sunday when he was fired. This marked a sudden conclusion to his eight-year tenure, as the team’s struggles this season proved insurmountable, despite the impressive finish the previous year. The announcement came after the Wolfpack ended the season with a 12-19 record and failed to qualify for the ACC Tournament as the defending champions.
“I want to thank Coach Keatts for his contributions to N.C. State and for always representing the university with class,” said athletic director Boo Corrigan in a statement. “He will always have a cherished place in Wolfpack history for the accomplishments of his 2023-24 squad, and I appreciate the passion he brought to this role. We wish him and his family the best in the future.”
Keatts shared his own statement on social media, describing the past eight years as “a dream come true.”
“As we enter this new era of college sports, I firmly believe I am leaving the program in a better position to succeed than when I started—and that the basketball program will continue to thrive when given the necessary support to compete,” Keatts wrote.
He ended his statement with a lighthearted reference to the evolving landscape of college sports, where players can now transfer freely.
“I am officially entering the portal,” Keatts joked.
Keatts’ contract was set to run through April 2030, with a two-year extension automatically added due to last year’s postseason achievements. If N.C. State were to buy out the remainder of his deal, they would owe him approximately $6.9 million in base salary alone, according to his contract.
During his time at N.C. State, Keatts posted a 151-113 record, including 69-84 in ACC play. His teams made three NCAA Tournament appearances, with the most recent coming after the Wolfpack’s improbable five-game, five-day run to their first ACC Tournament title since 1987. This was followed by an equally unexpected journey to the program’s first Final Four since the late Jim Valvano’s 1983 NCAA championship team, known as the “Cardiac Pack.”
It seemed hard to believe that just a year after a remarkable run, Keatts would find himself without a job.
However, he couldn’t maintain that momentum as this season unraveled. The Wolfpack’s efforts to rebuild through the transfer portal, which had previously helped N.C. State secure back-to-back NCAA bids, turned out to be ineffective. N.C. State finished just 5-15 in ACC play, failing to make the 15-team ACC Tournament in an expanded 18-team league.
The team’s road struggles were particularly glaring, as they went 0-11 away from home. This was a sharp contrast to the tradition Keatts had established, where the team would celebrate road wins with ice cream. The season ended with the Wolfpack giving up the final 10 points in a loss to Miami, a team that had only won six games all year.
Keatts’ firing follows a series of challenges during his tenure. He had to stabilize a struggling program while navigating the aftermath of a federal corruption investigation linked to his predecessor, Mark Gottfried. This investigation cast a long shadow over the program for years and resulted in the school being placed on probation in December 2021.
In the end, Keatts achieved five 20-win seasons but was never able to provide the consistent success that N.C. State fans had long hoped for. The drastic fluctuations in performance over the past year highlighted this issue.
Keatts arrived in 2017 from UNC Wilmington, boldly declaring in his introductory press conference that “Kevin Keatts is a winner.” In many respects, he lived up to that promise, especially after the program had struggled under Mark Gottfried’s final years, which followed a period of four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. Keatts’ first season saw the Wolfpack win 21 games, including victories over highly ranked teams like Duke, UNC, and Arizona, and secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
That marked the beginning of the 20-win seasons. However, Keatts’ tenure also had its setbacks. In 2019, the Wolfpack fell just short of the NCAA Tournament bubble, and in 2020, a likely bid vanished when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the tournament to be canceled. Then followed two challenging years, including a program-record 21 losses in 2022, before the team’s impressive two-year turnaround that culminated in last year’s remarkable run.
But just as quickly as it all turned around, Keatts’ time at N.C. State came to an end.
