North Carolina State Wolfpack: A Farewell to Mark Gottfried

After the Wolfpack’s ACC Tournament loss to Clemson, sixth-year head coach Mark Gottfried leaves the program after two abysmal seasons succeeding four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

Everybody knew the NC State men’s basketball season, as well as Mark Gottfried’s tenure as head coach, would end this week in Brooklyn. Even then, the Wolfpack appeared to want it to end as soon as possible.

The 13th-seeded Clemson Tigers stomped out 12-seed State Tuesday afternoon at the Barclays Center, effectively ending Gottfried’s six-year span as the Pack’s head coach. Clemson moves on to face Duke while the Pack heads back to Raleigh to rebuild for 2017-18 without a head coach named, presumably without its star point guard Dennis Smith (which is probably for the better), and with the real possibility of being without other key players from this season such as Abdul-Malik Abu and Omer Yurtseven.

Many can debate the merits and drawback of canning the Alabama graduate, but it doesn’t change the fact that Gottfried will not be on the Wolfpack bench in the future. So this will be a reflection on the six years of NC State basketball with Gottfried at the helm.

Capitalizing Early

Inheriting the mess Sidney Lowe left behind, Gottfried engineered a solid team around players like Calvin Leslie, Lorenzo Brown, and Scott Wood. None of the big stars on his team were “his” players, but he helped the team find success, culminating with a Sweet 16 appearance.

The next season was primed to be one of the best years in NC State basketball history with Leslie, Brown, Wood, and Richard Howell returning with three McDonald’s All-Americans entering the picture: Rodney Purvis, Tyler Lewis, and T.J. Warren. However, despite beating No. 1 Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest at home for the first time since 1989, the Pack’s season fizzled out with a Round of 64 loss to Temple. After the season, the team lost Howell and Wood to graduation, Brown and Leslie to the NBA Draft, and Purvis to UConn.

The Struggle to Return to Form

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The 2013-14 season was seen as a rebuilding year but had many bright spots, including the additions of Anthony ‘Cat’ Barber and BeeJay Anya. The biggest stars on the team were LSU-transfer Ralston Turner and Warren, the ACC Player of the Year. Many thought this would be the first year Gottfried would miss the “Big Dance,” but with key wins down the stretch and Warren’s spectacular playing, the Pack slipped in the very last spot available to reach the Tournament. However, State would once again lose in the second round against Saint Louis despite winning in the First Four round in Dayton against Xavier.

Another rebuilding year looked to be in the works with Warren drafted to the Phoenix Suns and Lewis gone to Butler, but Alabama transfer Trevor Lacey, incoming freshman Abu, Barber, and Turner helped the Pack become more of a contender in the ACC than the year before. Gottfried and company once again reached the NCAA Tournament and not only defeated LSU on a last-second, left-handed hook shot by Anya but also upset No. 1-seed Villanova to advance to Gottfried’s second Sweet 16. However, Louisville halted the Pack’s quest for an Elite Eight bid, ending the Pack’s 2014-15 season.

The Beginning of the End

North Carolina State Wolfpack Basketball /

North Carolina State Wolfpack Basketball

State followed the Sweet 16 run by missing the NCAAs the next season. Even though Barber played stellar basketball, the Pack had trouble without Turner (graduated), Lacey (declared for the draft), and Kyle Washington (transferred to Cincinnati). Despite promising freshman Maverick Rowan showing glimpses of potential, State never got the run it needed to make a splash in the selection committee’s radar.

That underwhelming season then brings us to this year where, even though the team lost Barber to the draft and the Martin twins, Cody and Caleb, to Nevada, the Pack looked to get even better with Smith and Yurtseven coming in along with Markell Johnson and Ted Kapita, giving State the depth it needed in season’s past. With only two losses in non-conference play, everything looked like it was going to work out for NC State until it didn’t.

Early losses, including a 51-point loss to the team in light blue, seemed to suck out any effort or enthusiasm from the team. Even a win over Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium couldn’t bring the team out of the rut it continued to dig for itself. Finally, the icing on the fecal-matter cake of the 2016-17 campaign came when athletic director Debbie Yow said enough was enough, ending the Gottfried era in Raleigh.

Six Years Later

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Gottfried’s six seasons have been a roller-coaster of emotion. From the highest highs of beating Duke, Villanova, Carolina, and other high-caliber foes to the lowest lows of losing to Carolina, Boston College, and Wake Forest, he stuck with his players and always showed dedication to his student-athletes, his support staff around him, and the university. Even knowing he was out of the job, he insisted to stay with the team until the end of the year. This is the type of coach he was: perseverant until the very end. He was a better recruiter than an X’s-and-O’s coach, but he never backed down in the face of adversity, especially with the big blue behemoths down the road.

No one knows who will take over the reins as the next Wolfpack coach, but despite the last two seasons showing otherwise, whoever leads next will have big shoes to fill.

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NC State Wolfpack: A Farewell to Mark Gottfried

By Daniel Wilson | Mar 8, 2017