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Kevin Keatts

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Kevin Keatts
Keatts at the White House in 2013
Current position
TitleHead coach
TeamNC State
ConferenceACC
Record144–94 (.605)
Biographical details
Born (1972-07-28) July 28, 1972 (age 52)
Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
Playing career
1991–1995Ferrum
Position(s)Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1996–1997Southwestern Michigan (assistant)
1997–1999Hargrave Military Academy (assistant)
1999–2001Hargrave Military Academy
2001–2003Marshall (assistant)
2003–2011Hargrave Military Academy
2011–2014Louisville (assistant)
2014–2017UNC Wilmington
2017–presentNC State
Head coaching record
Overall216–122 (.639) (college)
Tournaments4–5 (NCAA Division I)
3–2 (NIT)
0–1 (CIT)
7–5 (ACC)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
NCAA Division I Regional – Final Four (2024)
2 National Prep (2004, 2008)
3 CAA regular season (2015–2017)
2 CAA tournament (2016, 2017)
ACC tournament (2024)
Awards
2× CAA Coach of the Year (2015, 2016)

Kevin Andre Keatts (born July 28, 1972) is an American college basketball coach. He is the current men's head coach at North Carolina State University.

Early life and playing career

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Keatts grew up as an only child in Lynchburg, Virginia. His father was a masonry instructor at Amherst County High School, and Keatts worked as his apprentice on the weekends.[1] He attended Heritage High School and played point guard on their basketball team as well as quarterback on their football team. As starting quarterback, Keatts led the football team to be ranked the best in the state, losing only one game his entire career.[2] He played basketball for Ferrum College, averaging 13.3 points per game by his senior year.[3]

Coaching career

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Keatts began his coaching career as an assistant at Southwestern Michigan College for the 1996–97 season.[4] He then went to Hargrave Military Academy as an assistant coach for two seasons before being promoted to head coach in 1999. In 2001, Keatts moved to Marshall as an assistant coach to Greg White. He returned to Hargrave in 2003 and served as the head coach until 2011. During his ten years (over two stints) as the head coach at Hargrave, Keatts had a record of 262–17.[5] He coached several future NBA players at Hargrave including Marreese Speights and Mike Scott.[6]

In 2011, he earned a degree from Marshall University.[4] Keatts then joined the staff of Rick Pitino at Louisville and was a part of the Cardinals' 2013 NCAA Division I national championship team which was later vacated by the NCAA due to recruiting violations.[7] Citing Keatts' coaching and recruiting prowess, Pitino promoted Keatts to the position of associate head coach in January 2014.[6]

On March 27, 2014, he was named the head coach of UNC Wilmington (UNCW), succeeding Buzz Peterson.[8] In Keatts' first season at UNCW he was named CAA Conference Coach of the Year after leading the Seahawks to their first conference championship in nine years, and first winning season in seven years.[9]

In his second year, Keatts repeated his rookie-year double, once again winning the CAA regular-season championship and Conference Coach of the Year. In winning the 2016 conference coach of the year, he became the first coach in CAA history to ever win the award in consecutive years.[10]

On March 17, 2017, Keatts became the 23rd head coach at North Carolina State University, succeeding Mark Gottfried.[11] Keatts is the first Wolfpack head coach to defeat Duke, North Carolina, and Wake Forest in his first attempt since Tal Stafford during the 1918–19 season.[12] After being projected to finish 12th in the ACC,[13] Keatts led what recruits were left from Mark Gottfried Wolfpack to a tied-for-third-place finish in the conference, as well as earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

In 2024, the Wolfpack finished the regular season with a 17–14 overall record and a 9–11 record in the ACC, good for 10th place in the conference. However, Keatts' team rallied to win five games in five days in the ACC Tournament, including wins over No. 15 seed Louisville, No. 7 seed Syracuse, No. 2 seed and No. 11 ranked Duke, No. 3 seed Virginia, and No. 1 seed and No. 4 ranked North Carolina to earn the ACC's automatic NCAA tournament bid.

In the 2024 NCAA Tournament they were placed in the South Region and seeded No. 11. There the Wolfpack defeated No. 6 seed and No. 22 ranked Texas Tech, No. 14 seed Oakland, No. 2 seed and No. 8 ranked Marquette, and No. 4 seed and No. 13 ranked Duke to advance to their first Final Four since 1983, becoming only the sixth ever 11 seed to reach the Final Four.

Head coaching record

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College

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Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
UNC Wilmington Seahawks (Colonial Athletic Association) (2014–2017)
2014–15 UNC Wilmington 18–14 12–6 T–1st CIT First Round
2015–16 UNC Wilmington 25–8 14–4 T–1st NCAA Division I Round of 64
2016–17 UNC Wilmington 29–6 15–3 1st NCAA Division I Round of 64
UNC Wilmington: 72–28 (.720) 41–13 (.759)
NC State Wolfpack (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2017–present)
2017–18 NC State 21–12 11–7 T–3rd NCAA Division I Round of 64
2018–19 NC State 24–12 9–9 T–8th NIT Quarterfinal
2019–20 NC State 20–12 10–10 T–6th Postseason not held
2020–21 NC State 14–11 9–8 9th NIT Quarterfinal
2021–22 NC State 11–21 4–16 15th
2022–23 NC State 23–11 12–8 6th NCAA Division I Round of 64
2023–24 NC State 26–15 9–11 10th NCAA Division I Final Four
2024–25 NC State 5-0
NC State: 144–94 (.605) 64–69 (.481)
Total: 216–122 (.639)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

References

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  1. ^ "The KEATTS Report". www.alumni.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
  2. ^ Lang, Chris (21 December 2014). "Keatts authors a script for coaching perseverance". NewsAdvance.com. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
  3. ^ "Profile: Coach Kevin Keatts". WALTER Magazine. 2017-11-01. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
  4. ^ a b Louisville Athletic Department (2013). "Kevin Keatts Bio". Louisville Cardinals. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  5. ^ Jeff Goodman (March 27, 2014). "Kevin Keatts accepts job with UNC-Wilmington Seahawks". ESPN. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  6. ^ a b "Louisville basketball assistant Kevin Keatts promoted to associate head coach". The Courier-Journal. January 15, 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  7. ^ Tracy, Marc (February 5, 2016). "Louisville Men's Basketball Team Is Out of Post-Season". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 9, 2016.
  8. ^ "Keatts Named UNCW Head Basketball Coach: UNCW News". uncw.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  9. ^ "UNCW's Kevin Keatts named CAA Coach of the Year". Port City Daily. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  10. ^ "Keatts Headlines UNCW's CAA Award Winners". uncw.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-30.
  11. ^ Gary Parrish (2017-03-17). "NC State hires UNC-Wilmington's Kevin Keatts to be next Wolfpack coach". cbssports.com. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  12. ^ McLamb, Rob (29 January 2018). "NOTABLE NUMBERS: The UNC Win". Inside Pack Sports. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  13. ^ "Duke Voted ACC Basketball Preseason Favorite". Atlantic Coast Conference. 26 October 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
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