Basketball Calendar
- Santa Clara (Christian Hammond) Spring Exams ended – 6/10
- UC-Irvine (Kyle Evans) Quarter ended – 6/12
- 6/29: Summer Session 2 begins
- 8/17: Fall semester begins
- 9/21: First official day of practice
- 11/2: Basketball season begins
Recruiting:
With 12 slots filled, and at least on paper, a complete rotation – recruiting is down to the last 3. Two are likely to be development pieces, but hopefully one will ‘bring the big’ to the backup center position. (“…the area that needs to be addressed is our depth up front …” Coach Gainey – Field of 68 interview) The European league seasons generally finish by the end of May with a few trickling into the first couple of weeks of June, so that’s still a distinct possibility.
Most recently:
- Shah Hall – 6’11” JUCO center is scheduled to visit this weekend – arriving Saturday, visit begins Sunday morning. He visited Arkansas last weekend and is planning visits to Miss State and Ole Miss after leaving Raleigh.
- Ilia Frolov – the Pack is said to have been in contact with the 6’11” Russian center – not sure how serious this one is, that was the only information released so far. Arkansas and Penn State were also reported to be in the mix.
- Emeka Opurum – As per Pack Power 247, they were told yesterday (6/12), “NC State has not been actively recruiting him for weeks.”
As we saw last season with Sagnia, there are still 60+ days until the fall semester starts and while there are roster spots available and cash in the till, it ain’t over.
Experience – Trying a Better Approach
As has been rehashed repeatedly, last year’s ‘First Four Flop’ team had solid resumes, most from P4 schools, eight players with at least 3 season’s experience, and most of the starting lineup had been in the previous season’s NCAA tournament. Recipe for success? Nope. Barely made the tournament.
Coach Gainey has a refreshingly different approach, and as noted in the clip above, is not only trying to build a winner for next season, but is attempting to establish a foundation for the future of the program with both his selection of assistant coaches and choice of players to recruit.
First Priority: Coaching Staff
The prior coach brought his posse with him, plus a very good offensive guy (Howard) from Nebraska. That posse included a “special assistant to the head coach” which was a big red flag screaming ‘it’s all about me’. Before that, Coach Keatts had a pattern of hiring long time friends from the coaching community.
Coach Gainey took a different approach. He’d been planning his future as a head coach and thinking about the coaches he’d like to work with while paying close attention to opposing coaching staffs. In his opening press conference he talked about the importance of the staff focusing on player development and he also talked about high level experience being a priority. And that is who he hired.
With the support of the school, he got both quality and quantity of experience. Four of his five allowed assistants are from either the SEC or the Big 12, both tossed about as being the best basketball conferences in recent seasons. Together they have more than 60 years of experience. The group includes high end recruiters, coaches who have coached both offenses and defenses, and a history of player development. And, as reported by The Wolfpacker and Pack Power, the administration was willing to invest more in this basketball staff than any other previously.
Second Priority: The Roster
Comparing Roster Experience:
I compared those two rosters BEFORE their individual seasons started.
D1 Starting Experience:
- Coming into last season, that team’s primary rotation had accumulated 103 starts, 79 of them at the P4 level. If you add in the rest who didn’t play much, it’s 104 starts with 81 at the P4 level.
- This season’s team has 216 starts, 60 of them (McNeil & Adams) at the P4 level.
Takeaway: Obviously, the level of competition for most has been different, but this season’s team has seven players that were full time starters. Those seven players will carry the bulk of the minutes this season. Also, Jurkovic comes in with 67 games played over 3 seasons in his Euro ball career, he’s no rookie and will add value day one.
D1 Playing Experience:
- Coming into last season, that team’s primary rotation was heavily senior laden playing their final year of eligibility, averaging 2.11 years. As a whole, the roster was rated 38th in experience on Kenpom.
- This season’s team (so far) averages 1.75 years, and in theory, should the ‘5 for 5’ rule pass (it should this month) in theory, many should be eligible to return. Coach Gainey is trying to start a pattern of retaining quality core pieces. Full rebuilds each season is tough.
- So how important is D1 experience? The 2026 final four was Michigan (2.12 yrs) KP ranked 46th in experience, Arizona (1.56 yrs) ranked 147, UConn (2.43 years) ranked 21, and Illinois (1.64 yrs) ranked 130. Arizona and Illinois indicate that a lack of experiences doesn’t necessarily limit success, but on the other hand, it was old timers UConn and Michigan playing for the trophy.
Takeaway: In a period when the pattern seems that most teams are trying to ‘get old’, this team isn’t. But it’s one with a lot of playing time experience. And with that youth – coupled with this staff – comes a team with the potential – and the time – to improve at every position.
Summary
Coach Gainey is playing chess. His priority is the Wolfpack program.
He’s a rookie head coach, but has invested heavily in an experienced staff with a history of high level success.
He’s recruited a young team without a lot of high major or postseason tournament experience. But at the same time, they are talented and he has a staff experienced at, and committed to, maximizing the potential of these young players (Quote from Jacari Brim visit, “They just talked about development a lot. I’m at a school where I can grow as a player …”), and we are already seeing them getting into the homes of the quality players of the future.
As Evan Miya’s analysis recently concluded, in today’s basketball world, “a team’s season is 80% defined by how good its roster is before the year even starts, with the remaining 20% accounting for everything that happens after.“ Coach Gainey is banking on that 20%.
It remains to be seen if this ‘young, mid-major’ strategy will work during his first season in the ACC, but I think he has used his resources wisely.
