Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning presented by Will Ga...
Full disclosure, we're in the part of the year where it's virtually impossible to come up with ten things that have to do with Mizzou sports so there will be a mix of Mizzou stuff and national stuff for the next 2-3 months in this space.
1) Kevin Keatts is now Exhibit A for those who will advocate for patience with a coach. Let me be clear, I'm not saying that's necessarily always the right approach. I'm just saying Keatts is the argument in your favor if you argue that it is.
Keatts took over a program that had been to four NCAA Tournaments in the previous 11 seasons. NC State had once been a great program and for quite a while was a decent one. When he took over in 2017-18 it had started to slip to the wrong side of the bubble in terms of relevant national programs. The Wolfpack made the NCAA Tournament in his first year, then got progressively worse over the next four seasons in which they didn't dance (24-12, 20-12, 14-11, 11-21). A lot of schools would have fired him then. He was 90-68, four years removed from his only tournament appearance, without a tournament win and trending in the wrong direction.
He probably saved his job with a 23-11 season in 2022-23, but the Wolfpack lost again in the first round. There's no way he was out of the woods in terms of job security entering this year. NC State entered the ACC Tournament 17-14 as the 10 seed in a league most considered to be down from what it normally is. They then won five games in five days to make the NCAA Tournament and trigger an automatic two-year contract extension for Keatts. They won four straight games over the last two weekends to make their first Final Four in 41 years and Keatts is now untouchable for at least a couple of years.
Every coach who's fighting for his job is going to use that example as to what can happen if you just give him a little bit more time. Again, I'm not saying it's necessarily applicable in every case, but it's going to be used in every case.
2) You want more proof how thin the line is between success failure? Here you go:
This is going to be remembered as one of the three best seasons in NC State basketball history regardless of what happens next weekend. And if Virginia makes a free throw, or if NC State doesn't make a miracle banked in three that defied some of the laws of physics, it doesn't happen and the coach is fired and most of us never know who DJ Burns is.
We like to run around and proclaim things as the best or the worst and anoint or bury everyone. The truth is, the margin between being a great team that's remembered forever and a bad team that's forgotten the day after the season ends just isn''t that big. I don't know enough about NC State basketball to do this, but I can virtually guarantee you can go back and find five plays that would have had the Wolfpack at 20 wins or better and already in the tournament entering the ACC Tournament. You can almost certainly also go back and find five that would have had them sub-500 with Keatts fate sealed. The Wolfpack had played 1455 minutes of basketball before the last two weeks. Change 5.3 seconds and the whole thing looks different.
3) What the Wolfpack has done should give Mizzou fans hope for next season.
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