NC State Wolfpack: State Fires Head Coach Mark Gottfried
Mark Gottfried’s tenure with the NC State Wolfpack comes to an end after failing to live up to high expectations this season.
The NC State Wolfpack basketball team began to chart a new path today with the firing of head coach Mark Gottfried. Gottfried and this year’s State team had given up some embarrassing losses this season including two such losses to North Carolina. The most recent loss to the Tar Heels probably pulled the trigger on the head coach.
Gottfried’s team was supposed to be one of his most talented State teams. He paired some holdovers from the NCAA Tournament appearance of two years ago with dynamic freshman Dennis Smith and some transfers or injured players returning. The result was a bunch of pieces that didn’t ever seem to click together. Even so they managed to beat Duke earlier this year.
Representative of State’s problems was BeeJay Anya. Anya came into the season too heavy and this hurt his effectiveness. Instead of being his team’s rebounder and defensive anchor, Anya found himself unable to stay on the court due to foul trouble.
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Gottfried clearly showed deficiencies in getting his point across to his team. Several times over the course of the season they quit on their coach during games. That bad sign included their last game against Chapel Hill. Gottfried showed an ability to attract talent, but in the end could not get them to play together and for each other.
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He will remain with the team for the rest of the season. That will at least make State’s decision on the next coach a little easier. The last thing State wanted was having an interim turn around the team with some late season wins to complicate their hiring decisions. Now they can move forward with no distractions.
The next State coach will inherit some talent. Smith will probably go professional. There is a good chance that Torin Dorn, Maverick Rowan, Omer Yurtseven, and Abdul-Malik Abu will still be there. There is also a good chance that those guys will be motivated to show what they can really do.