Three years ago, Kevin Keatts stood before a team of players who had never met him before with a simple message: “You can change your fate. What you did in the first three years, especially the seniors, nobody will care if you play well this year and you win a championship. And we did.”
That’s what he told his first UNC Wilmington team, a group of players who had never finished above. 500. It’s pretty much the same message he had for his new players at N.C. State after meeting them Saturday.
The degree of difficulty in taking over a basketball team that hasn’t won in years, just got its coach fired and may be overmatched in its conference is generally underrated.