We've just received word from a source close to the program that NC State director of operations and former point guard, Justin Gainey, has accepted an assistant coaching job at Elon University. Justin was a 4 year starter at NC State in the late 90's. In 1997, Justin became the first freshman to play every single minute of the ACC Tournament without sitting out once (4 games). He did this as he guided NC State to being the first team in ACC history to make it from the play-in game to the finals.
Justin is 9th on the NC State all-time assist list, and 4th all-time in steals. He was a smart, team oriented player who, you could tell, always wanted to win. His clutch performances his senior year against Purdue and Maryland are what stand out most in the memories of Wolfpack fans.
Good luck Justin, all of us in the Wolfpack Nation wish you lots of success!
April 9, 2009.
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11 Responses to "Justin Gainey Takes Assistant Job at Elon"That's kinda of a strange move for Justin....hmmmm...
Why? It is a promotion. He'll actually get to coach and recruit kids.
This is a bit of strange news. This is not even a lateral move for Justin. It makes me wonder what is being done behind the scenes.
It seems to me that there are two possibilities at work here: 1. Justin was thanked for his service, and made aware that a change was going to be made in his position, or 2. Justin got out while "the gettin' was good."
I sincerely hope that the former is true. The basketball staff is going to change from year to year in order to find the right chemistry. That is inevitable. But two directors of Ops in three years is not the best sign.
WPH, I hope you can find out a bit more for us, and thanks again for all of the the hard work.
Justin, good luck to you, in everything that you do, and thank you. Go Pack!
Or perhaps he wanted to COACH and he wasn't doing that in the position he was in. ppack don't be so negative. There's plenty of other reasons for him to go there other than the two you gave.
What we were told was that Justin wanted to get into coaching and this was a good opportunity for him.
Larry Harris has a good relationship with the coaches over there, so maybe he was involved in helping Justin out. That's just speculation though.
No drama or conspiracy here...just a guy trying to make his dream come true.
Sucks we're "losing" a member of the wolfpack family, but good for him. How is moving to an assistant coaching job not a step-up? particularly if its coaching that he wants to do?
Wolfpack Hoops, it's a strange move because certainly in the next couple of years there would be an opporunity for Justin to join the bench at State I would think...
When the opportunity becomes available for a coaching position wouldn't you want someone with coaching experience? I don't see what would prevent him from coming back to the Pack when that opportunity presents itself until then he should do what's best for him and that is to get some bench experience under his belt.
Good point Dennis! Does anybody else get the feeling that there is something strange going on with the basketball program?
PackAttack,
What Dennis is saying is that NC State isn't going to be in need of an assistant for the foreseeable future. Why not take the next few years to juice up your resume by getting some coaching experience instead of spending another year doing a job you don't really want to spend the rest of your life doing.
I heard that Justin needs to get some on the floor expericence before really getting into coaching at a higher level. Rumor has it the new Director of Operations is going to be Robin Pate who was Coach Yow's Director of Operations for the past dozen years. He is very good and well respected!
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