{"id":578377,"date":"2026-04-01T10:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/578377\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:59:11","slug":"nc-state-introduces-former-point-guard-justin-gainey-as-new-mens-basketball-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/578377\/","title":{"rendered":"NC State introduces former point guard Justin Gainey as new men’s basketball coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — NC State on Tuesday introduced former Wolfpack point guard Justin Gainey<\/a> as the school’s new men’s basketball coach, marking a homecoming for a program veteran with deep North Carolina roots.<\/p>\n

Gainey, who played for the Wolfpack from 1996 to 2000 and later served as an assistant coach, was welcomed back to campus ahead of his formal introduction at a 2 p.m. event at the Lenovo Center.<\/p>\n

The former guard had been on NC State’s short list of candidates during last year’s coaching search and was believed to be among the finalists before the university hired Will Wade. Gainey has spent the past five seasons as an assistant under Rick Barnes at Tennessee.<\/p>\n

A native of the Triad, Gainey returns to Raleigh with decades of experience and a reputation for bringing intensity and leadership to the court.<\/p>\n

Former NC State teammate Brian Keeter said Gainey’s personality off the court never diminished his competitive drive.<\/p>\n

“Justin has a baby face, always laughing, but he’s also a killer,” Keeter said. “I remember him taking it easy on me when I was new, helping me through the process.”<\/p>\n

Eyewitness News will have coverage of Gainey’s introductory event and additional reaction throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Download the ABC11 News app<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — NC State on Tuesday introduced former Wolfpack point guard Justin Gainey as the school’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[283710,64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-578377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-283710","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}