Kevin Keatts

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.

Kevin Keatts

Keatts at the White House in 2013
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	NC State
Conference	ACC
Record	73–43 (.629)
Biographical details
Born	July 28, 1972 Lynchburg, Virginia
Playing career
1991–1995	Ferrum
Position(s)	Guard
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1996–1997	Southwestern Michigan (assistant)
1997–1999	Hargrave Military Academy (assistant)
1999–2001	Hargrave Military Academy
2001–2003	Marshall (assistant)
2003–2011	Hargrave Military Academy
2011–2014	Louisville (assistant)
2014–2017	UNC Wilmington
2017–present	NC State
Head coaching record
Overall	144–69 (.676) (college)
Tournaments	0–3 (NCAA Division I) 2–1 (NIT) 0–1 (CIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3 CAA regular season (2015–2017) 2 CAA Tournament (2016, 2017) 2 National Prep (2004, 2008)
Awards
2× CAA Coach of the Year (2015, 2016)

Early life and playing career

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

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]

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 because of recruiting violations that occurred from December 2010 until June 2014.[6] Citing Keatts' coaching and recruiting prowess, Pitino promoted Keatts to the position of associate head coach in January 2014.[7]

On March 27, 2014, he was named the head coach of UNC Wilmington (UNCW), succeeding Buzz Peterson. 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 (7) years.

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.

On March 17, 2017, Keatts became the 23rd head coach at North Carolina State University, succeeding Mark Gottfried.[8] 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.[9] After being projected to finish 12th in the ACC,[10] Keatts led the Wolfpack to a tied-for-third-place finish in the conference, as well as earning an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

In his spare time, Keatts enjoys table tennis and often posts on social media about playing with his sons.

Head coaching record

College

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	8-7	4-6
NC State:		73–43 (.629)	34–32 (.515)
Total:		144–69 (.676)
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

1. "The KEATTS Report". www.alumni.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
2. Lang, Chris. "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. 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. 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.
7. "Louisville basketball assistant Kevin Keatts promoted to associate head coach". The Courier-Journal. Jan 15, 2014. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
8. Gary Parrish (2017-03-17). "NC State hires UNC-Wilmington's Kevin Keatts to be next Wolfpack coach". cbssports.com. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
9. McLamb, Rob. "NOTABLE NUMBERS: The UNC Win". Inside Pack Sports. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
10. "Duke Voted ACC Basketball Preseason Favorite". Atlantic Coast Conference. Retrieved 16 March 2018.

External links

• NC State profile