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5 questions with NC State’s Kevin Keatts

Kevin Keatts is on the heels of one of the most incredible runs in the history of the NCAA Tournament. The 52-year old head coach took NC State to the Final Four last spring for the first time since 1983 and prior to that, won five games in five days to capture the program’s first ACC Tournament title since 1987. I caught up with Keatts this week in Raleigh to discuss last season’s run to the Final Four, what lies ahead for the Wolfpack in 2024-25, and much more.

Jon Rothstein: How much different is this team than the team who played Purdue in the Final Four?

Kevin Keatts: The team that we had last year was so unique. We have a center in D.J. Burns that was completely different than anyone in the country. We’re a little faster. I think we have a chance to be better defensively. I don’t know if we have a guy like DJ Horne that can go off for 20 in a game, but we have a bunch of guys that can get between 12-15 points on any given night. I could see this team have a different leading scorer every single night.

Rothstein: Everyone in Raleigh still wants to talk about last season’s run to the Final Four because it was so magical. How important is it for the guys who are back and for your staff to officially turn the page now that practice has officially started?

Keatts: I think it’s important that we turn the page in a lot of areas except for the guys who are back and our coaching staff — I want them to preach our culture to the new guys, how hard we work and all that stuff. We win those nine games last March — five in the ACC Tournament and four in the NCAA Tournament — because of the culture, because of our work ethic, and because we defended. Turning the page is creating their own memories, which is what we’re trying to do, but I do want them to insert some of what we did to get over the hump.

Rothstein: Which newcomers are on track to have the biggest impact for NC State this season?

Keatts: I like all of our guys. I think Marcus Hill (Bowling Green) comes in as a mid-major guy who has a chip on his shoulder and really wants to show people that he can play high-major basketball. Dontrez Styles (Georgetown), MIke James (Louisville), and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Louisville) are all double-figure scorers at the power conference level. They’re all really good players. So I think all four of those guys will bring something unique to our team. I think we did a really good job in the transfer portal with those guys. And our two freshmen — Paul McNeil and Bryce Heard — are good. McNeil is going to be special and Heard is really, really good. I love our freshmen and our returning guys. Those six guys plus Trey Parker and you can throw Ish (Diouf) in there too, once he gets more comfortable, all have the chance to be really good players.

Rothstein: How deep can this team be when you get into the guts of the ACC?

Keatts: I think we can probably go with eight or nine guys and some nights I’ll be to play 10. I like the fact that we have a lot of versatility. We’ve got three guys who played a lot last year in Michael O’Connell, Ben Middlebrooks, and Jayden Taylor, but a few other guys also had roles. Dennis Parker Jr. had a really good start to last season and Breon Pass is a guy who’s been a backup. When you add those guys who are returning to the guys we brought in, I think we can go 9-10 deep.

Rothstein: The run you had last season captivated college basketball during the month of March. How do you though in 2025, do enough prior to the ACC Tournament so you don’t need an automatic bid to reach the NCAA Tournament?

Keatts: It’s up to me and also the rest of the teams in the ACC. Unfortunately, in the last two or three years, we’re only getting five teams into the NCAA Tournament as a conference. If we don’t go on our run last year and win the ACC Tournament last season, we would have had four teams in and Virginia still had to go to Dayton to play in the First Four. I think it’s a group effort. All 18 teams have to try and have a really good November and December so that we can get more teams in the NCAA Tournament when it comes to March. As far as us, I like where we’re at. We’re one of three teams in our league that have been to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and we want to obviously put ourselves in a situation where we can make our third in a row.

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