Justin Gainey declines comment on N.C. State basketball job

CHICAGO — Justin Gainey declined to comment on the N.C. basketball coaching search following the end of the Tennessee basketball season.

“Respectfully, no comment,” Gainey told Volquest.

Gainey met with N.C. State representatives regarding its vacant basketball coach position Saturday in Chicago, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Volquest.

The Vols lost 95-62 to No. 1 seed Michigan in the Elite Eight on Sunday, ending their season a win shy of the program’s first Final Four. During game, On3’s Pete Nakos reported that St. Louis coach Josh Schertz withdrew his name from consideration.

The search now could focus on Gainey, who has spent the past five seasons at Tennessee.

Gainey, 49, played for the Wolfpack from 1996-2000 and was on staff at NC State from 2006-09. He has been coaching for 20 years.

The Wolfpack is seeking to replace Will Wade, who ditched N.C. State after one season to return to LSU. Wade, who went 20-14 in his lone season in Raleigh, coached LSU from 2017-22 before he was fired amid widespread recruiting violations in his program.

“We have been so locked in here and you kind of see the noise and not really knowing what is real and what is not,” Gainey said about the opening Thursday. “N.C. State is a great place. It is home. I don’t know what they’ll do or what direction they’ll go in. I hadn’t really heard much.”

Gainey was hired as an assistant coach at Tennessee in April 2021 to fill one of two openings on coach Rick Barnes‘ staff. He was promoted to associate head coach following the 2021-22 season when Mike Schwartz was hired as the East Carolina coach.

Gainey got his start in coaching at his alma mater. He was the NC State administrative coordinator from 2006-08. He was the director of basketball operations for the 2008-09 season.

Gainey was the associate head coach at Marquette for the 2020-21 season before he was hired at UT. He spent two seasons from 2018-20 at Arizona.

His first assistant coaching job was at Elon in the 2009-10 season. He was an assistant at Appalachian State from 2010-14 and at Santa Clara in the 2017-18 season. At Santa Clara, he coached under Herb Sendek, who was the Wolfpack coach during Gainey’s playing career.

Gainey, who attended Greensboro Day School in North Carolina, was the director of basketball operations at Marquette from 2014-17.

Gainey started 103 of 128 games in his four seasons at NC State. He started all 67 games in his final two seasons, serving as a captain in his final season. He averaged 6.9 points in 29.9 minutes per game in his career.