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If he can persuade Mr. Smith to spend one more year in West Rawlee, then that’s a homerun at his first AB…
Not happening, he’s already hired an agent.
I think I lied about this.
Congrats Coach Keatts. I hope you are highly successful.
Archie was my first pick, but I guess it was clear he wasn’t coming based on the timing of the hire. We clearly had two viable candidates and moved quickly with the one we preferred once he was eliminated from the tournament. That’s worlds better than our last two
searches and I think the results are better as well (though time will tell on that).Nothing about what I have seen out of the ACC in the NCAA really scares me for next year. Get enough kids back and get them playing as a functional unit and we could see quick improvement.
Anya is a senior, so he is gone. Yurtseven has not signed an agent. And Abu will hopefully remain. The others will probably stick around.
And then there is baseball and softball. Both started their season poorly, but seem to on track now, with both winning friday, and tonight. Ending series at noon Sunday. Go Pack!
I’m just now really catching up on who KeaTTs is but the biggest thing that stuck out at me was his teams lost to Duke and UVA in the last two years in the big dance by single digits. Undermanned and they still had a chance to knock two really big names in not only the ACC but in all of NCAA. Time to give the guy a chance. As far as a high school pedigree Hargrave with two championships is about as good as it gets from my perspective. Give him the ability to have higher caliber recruits and he may really surprise some people. I was high on Smart 6 years ago, I think Keatts upside is much better than Smart, to the point where in 2 or 3 years we may be giving him a substantial raise. I’d sure like to silence the naysayers.
Smarter than the average bear
Yogi: I wasn’t high on Smart 6 years ago, but actually warmed to him after. It wasn’t that I thought Smart was bad, but just that I thought we were a little caught up in the hype of the tournament run.
I like Keatts better this time than Smart then. I honestly am pretty excited about the style of play. This is what I have wanted to see out of us for 20+ years (attacking style that takes the game to the opponent as opposed to sitting back). I think it’d be a fun system to play in and it should enable a team that can recruit like NC State can to go very deep into a bench.
Rye,
Two years in the BIG league does not a career make….but Smart rode Rick’s coattails with an NBA PG who left. UT, without said PG, was picked to finish #2 (it varied) behind KU. He was fighting to stay out of the last place. I watched a few of the UT games just to see how “SMART” he was. He appears to need some remedial course to catch up.Don’t know much more than that, except to say that Rick’s boys had a much more impressive record.
I also wondered if WE (the unloved and ugly duckling pack) would have been better with him versus GOTT. GOTT did, often times avoid the “HOOK” early produce some nice NCAAT results. Had the trend and momentum of the first 3 or so years continued, then the word KEATTS would not be on everyone’s lips today. GOTTFRIED was just as much of a “Con Man” than Jimmy V. IN that respect….we DID have our reincarnation of Valvano.
BUT, despite BOTH coming from coaching and sports families, Valvano was magnitudes better. Gottfried as a player was one of the “Blue Chippers” as Valvano called them. They had all the designer clothes and were the heart throb of all the cheerleaders and they attracted a crowd just walking into the gym.
Valvano was a Rat…and that was his “pathway to $$tardome”. He had to work hard and learn and hone his skills…he was an All Something QB his senior year after being told he was going to be cut. He coined the Gym Rat phrase when the “Motivator” or the highly paid speaker did not show up for a speech at the camp he was working in. Word spread about his “gift of gab” and then he made about 5 times as much that summer doing the speeches at all the local camps than working IN the camps. I don’t know what he wrote about that in his Lifetime Contract book, as I only listened to the Audio Version and it was a HOOT….much more upbeat than the dark tone of the book…or so my wife says.
Valvano also, as a JV or Freshman coach had NOT film. His philosophy was to hang on in the first half and then develop a strategy durin the half and WIN. He was much more of a game coach, that could motivate his players, than a by the book X & O.
Gottfried was the X&O coach or the control freak that planned practice to the minute and had a big clock running and did “Words from your Mentor” breaks with a white board.
Smart seems to be a bit lost, to me at UT and if he does not show some improvement in 17/18, he will be put on probation and the call will be made in 18/19. Doubt they will do it earlier if next year is bad….but if it is REALLY bad and the price of OIL goes up….the Big Boys might say…”You ain’t so SMART….see ya”
Keatts IS the recruiter. Can he do a Stand Up Jimmy V routine” Don’t know. But V could cross the color line and recruit in the inner city. Keatts has an advantage there and, unlike the UNC and Dookie bunch, NCSU is really more COLOR BLIND.
YES, a P5 star would have been nice. They were not interested in us. If Keatts can bring some glory (AKA Bennett and UVA) back to Raleigh, then WHEN he leaves, we will be a “prettier date”…
my son sent me a picture of the team last night with Keatts, Anya and DSmith2 were missing. all the scholarship players were in the picture. Abu had a big smile on his face but that just may be his personality. Keatts looks to be 5 inches shorter than Markell and 12″ shorter than abu?
for the past three hires we have expected to steal a successful coach away from a P5 conference team and have failed. many other teams when they made their hires most people had never heard of the names. only the big name teams Kansas, Mich, UCLA, KY can expect to take that route. Wichita state, Florida, Wisconsin, Vill, Ariz, Purd, Xav, Butler, USC, Baylor all hired their coaches when they were relatively unknowns, unproven.
What have we done in the past 20 years to expect to hire like the big boys?
We made a solid hire, as good as we could have gotten.
From my neighbor’s father who played for State in the 60s, the facts are, if we did not hire him when we did, he would not have been available in one week.
We should be thankful and excited about our future, Just like Florida and Arizona’s fans should have been when they made their hires.lets plan on Keatts being so successful that Louisville tries to steal him when Pitino retires
edit on the post about the team picture last night with Keatts, Keatts was there.
Anya and Smith were missing.Why are we failing to hire P5. Money? Facilities? Location? Conference?
In the last 25 years, left Reynolds for the hockey rink! Hired numerous failed coaches. Increased ticket price. Increased budget.
1) Why don’t we have money for P5 coach?
2) If the conference and proximity to competition is problem identified by P5 coaches, then why have we remained
in ACC
3) If BOG is problem, then why not go to courts or legislative process to change?
4) Maybe we could work with Raleigh to make it more attractive.“We keep repeating the same behaviors, expecting different results! Is that not definition of insanity!”
Hope this coach is successful, however “hope is not a strategy”.
Why are we failing to hire P5. Money? Facilities? Location? Conference?
lack of prestige is the reason, lack of recent relevant history
we are using the same men’s basketball coach hiring strategy as other schools in our league, Wisconsin, Florida, Arizona, Purdue, Maryland, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wake, Clem,Illinois more prestigious than OK State! Possible, but sure 3 mill is more prestigious
than 1 mill.I would leverage Char-grill and Amedeos. What sane person could ignore our “superiority”!
I’ll say this.. I like KeaTTs a lot better after the press conference earlier this afternoon. We’ll see if his talk translates to on the court.
I’ll say this.. I like KeaTTs a lot better after the press conference earlier this afternoon. We’ll see if his talk translates to on the court.
Welcome friend
I too listened to the press conference, and am also more of a fan, just listening to him talk, and what he expects from himself/coaches/players. If you missed it, you can pull it up on line. Worth listening to.
I’m just now really catching up on who KeaTTs is but the biggest thing that stuck out at me was his teams lost to Duke and UVA in the last two years in the big dance by single digits. Undermanned and they still had a chance to knock two really big names in not only the ACC but in all of NCAA. Time to give the guy a chance. As far as a high school pedigree Hargrave with two championships is about as good as it gets from my perspective. Give him the ability to have higher caliber recruits and he may really surprise some people. I was high on Smart 6 years ago, I think Keatts upside is much better than Smart, to the point where in 2 or 3 years we may be giving him a substantial raise. I’d sure like to silence the naysayers.
+1
Time will tell if Keatts succeeds here, but I can say that I’m ready to run through a brick wall after watching that press conference.
If you are skeptical of the hire (and I still am as well), at least watch the press conference and give the man a shot. He’s got the right attitude.
High points:
-Grew up an NC State fan in Lynchburg
-Repeatedly said he “loved” that we had passionate fans and views that as a huge positive
-Identity is we will play hard and be the best conditioned team in the country
-When asked about “the Blues,” said (paraphrasing) I don’t care what they are doing, my job is to beat everyone and win championships
-For those who like analytics, he correctly cited from memory his team’s high turnover percentage when discussing his defensive philosophy
-Closed his introductory remarks by saying flat out “I am a winner. I know how to motivate players and win games.” and PROMISED a championship.I have a hard time reading Smart and what’s happening at Texas. I’ve heard there will be a masssive turnover in players at Texas this offseason. If that happens and it is more of the same, then Smart will be out quickly (as Texas doesn’t suffer fools). I tend to think he’ll turn it around.
I do think that VCU has it rolling in a way that allows coaches to plug in and be successful. It is a huge part of what scares me about Wade.
Keatts inherited nothing at UNCW and quickly turned it around. Here’s to hoping he can do the same here!
I really can’t understand this hire. This guy has been a head coach at only one school and that from a less than mid-major program. Getting that team to the NCAAs is no guarantee of success at the P-5 conference level. Besides, he got lucky with one star player who carried his team.
Besides where is Iona? And I am not very impressed with how Ruland has progressed there. And if this Valvano guy was any good, he would have coached him up better. We’re screwed. This guy will go 0-fer against Carolina and Duke, and any championships are out of the question.
(Confession: I plagiarized this.)
He seems to have already made a good impression on the players. Videos of Abu, Nard, Kirk, and Dorn from today:
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