Mark (Gott fired)

Jake Gibson
Staff Writer

​On Thursday, Feb. 16, NC State made it official that Mark Gottfried had been fired as the Head Coach of Men’s basketball; however will finish the season with the Pack. Gottfried had three years left on his contract, worth about $2.28 Million. Debbie Yow spoke on the issue stating that “Mark and I met today to discuss the future direction of our program. While it has been my long time practice to evaluate the body of work at season’s end, in reviewing the overall direction of our program, we believe a change in leadership is necessary moving forward.” 

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Gottfried was hired in 2011, by Debbie Yow, after firing Sidney Lowe. Gottfried has an overall record of 122-82; however, his overall record being 401-236. In his first four years, he took the Pack to four NCAA tournaments, being defeated in two Sweet Sixteens. However, his past two years he has come short.   His ACC record this year being quite rough, at 3-11. Gottfried will finish out the year with NC State. However, the focus has now shifted to possible replacements to become the next Head Coach. The number one prediction now is current Dayton Head Coach, Archie Miller. Miller played for the pack from 1998-2002 and was an Assistant Coach for State from 2004-2006. He finished with an 84.9% free throw percentage and 218 three-pointers. Archie has currently taken Dayton to three NCAA tournaments and predicted to take them to another this year. His current record is 130-59, with the Flyers being 20-5 this season. Dayton currently stands with a 11-2 conference record. Archie has already denied multiple reports that NC State has reached out to him. Another possible candidate for the head spot is UNCW head Coach Kevin Keatts. Kevin Keatts has been the UNCW Mens Basketball Coach since the Spring of 2014. In just two short years, he has been a huge turnaround for the UNCW Men’s team. He has taken the Men’s team to back-to-back CAA regular season title games, and the team to the Sweet Sixteen, both years. He currently has a 43-22 record with a CAA Conference record of 30-11. He is a Former Assistant coach of the Men’s Louisville Cardinals. Currently, Kevin Keatts is the second predicted candidate for Head Coach of the Wolfpack.

​Personally, I think it was good to fire Mark Gottfried. Gottfried has had multiple blowout loses to Wake Forest, UNC, Miami, and FSU. He continued to say that the team was young, and finding something to blame it on. I think Kevin Keatts would be a great pick for Head Coach, as he has turned around UNCW tremendously and has led them to two CAA titles back to back. I look forward to hearing the decision of Debbie Yow and NC State on their pick for the new Head Coach.