RALEIGH, N.C. – For the second time in 57 weeks, NC State introduced a new basketball coach on Wednesday. The introductions couldn’t have been more different.
A year ago, Will Wade rolled into Raleigh with the intensity of a spring thunderstorm, making brash predictions of immediate success and a “Red Reckoning.” Those promises went unfulfilled when Wade abruptly left for LSU after just one season.
There was no such bluster from Wade’s replacement, Justin Gainey. Instead of bold statements, the former Wolfpack point guard and Tennessee assistant simply stated that he is “humbled, grateful and ready” for his long-awaited first head coaching opportunity.
The 49-year-old, who was considered for the job prior to Wade’s hiring last March, signed a five-year contract to return to his alma mater. No financial terms were announced. Although he has no head coaching experience, athletic director Boo Corrigan said that Gainey was NC State’s first choice this time and the only one who was offered the position.
Besides a resume that includes apprenticeships under prominent mentors Herb Sendek at Santa Clara, Sean Miller at Arizona, Steve Wojciechowski at Marquette and, for the past five seasons, Rick Barnes at Tennessee, Gainey’s most important asset to the hiring process is his connection to the Wolfpack.
After being burned by someone looking to use the job as a stepping stone on the way back up the coaching ladder, a priority for this hire was finding a candidate looking to stay for the long haul.
Corrigan made that clear during his introduction of Gainey by welcoming his new coach “home” while at the same time taking a not-so-subtle swipe at Wade, who returned to the school that fired him under the cloud of NCAA violations in 2022 only days after proclaiming his intention to remain at NC State.
“We’re here to celebrate a new leader of this program who has everything we need,” Corrigan said, “who has the right moral compass for this fan base, who understands what NC State is all about and who truly is going to take pride in the name on the front of the jersey.”
Will Wade Returning to LSU as Head Coach
Wade, who spent this past season at NC State, coached the Tigers from 2017-22 before being fired for recruiting violations
Gainey played for the Wolfpack during a difficult time in the program’s history. He immediately became part of the program’s lore by playing all 160 minutes without a break over four games while leading his eighth-place team from the ACC Tournament play-in game to the championship final as a freshman in 1997.
That team finished with a 19-17 record, NC State’s first winning season in five years. It was the foundation of a successful run that finally helped recover from crippling NCAA sanctions incurred during the end of Jim Valvano’s tenure. His 103 career starts and 3,835 minutes rank sixth in program history.
Gainey said that he hopes to instill the same kind of grit and poise that were his trademarks as a player into others now that he has a team of his own.
“You’ve got to have a certain type of toughness to be here,” Gainey said. “If you look at my career, my path, I was never the tallest guy, I was never the fastest, I wouldn’t say I always shot the ball the best. But the one thing I prided myself on was toughness and I tried to bring that every day. As long as I’m your head coach, you can count on that every single day, that I’m going to bring that toughness and all of my teams and my staff and everybody that’s in contact with us will have that toughness.”
That toughness will be needed while going head-to-head both on the court and the recruiting trail against neighboring blue bloods Duke and North Carolina. Despite not previously having coached a team of his own, Gainey said he won’t be intimidated.
He said the experience he’s gained in his 20 seasons as an assistant has prepared him for the challenge that awaits him.
“I’ve been in a unique situation where I’ve been under some really high level coaches and we’ve done a lot of high level things at every stop,” Gainey said. “You learn from all those experiences. You see them, you live them and you take from each one of those. I can’t be Rick Barnes, I can’t be Herb Sendek, I can’t be whoever else. I’m Justin Gainey and I’m pulling from all those things I’ve learned. While there may be more people with more experience in different positions, there ain’t a lot of people who have been where I’ve been.”
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