Former Elon Assistant Gainey Named N.C. State Head Basketball Coach

Sixteen years after Matt Matheny gave him his first college coaching job at Elon, Justin Gainey signed a five-year contract March 31 to become the 22nd head men's basketball coach in NC State history, returning at 49 as the face of a program that had burned through a head coach in a single season.

NC State's board of trustees approved the hire on March 31, 2026. Gainey was introduced two days later at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, shortly after Tennessee's Midwest Regional final loss to Michigan in Chicago, where he had been serving as associate head coach for the previous five seasons. He replaces Will Wade, who departed the Wolfpack after one year to return to LSU, leaving NC State to introduce a new head coach for the second time in 57 weeks.

For Alamance County readers, the entry point is Elon. Gainey spent the 2009-10 season on Matheny's Phoenix staff before moving to Appalachian State under Jason Capel in 2010. From there he worked at Santa Clara, Arizona, Marquette, and Tennessee, each stop extending a career that started on the sideline in Elon, North Carolina. That kind of coaching arc, small-school assistant to Power Five head coach, is exactly what Elon's athletic department can point to when it talks about coach development.

Gainey's regional roots, though, run far deeper than one season in Elon. He is a High Point native and a Greensboro Day School product who played point guard at NC State from 1996 to 2000 as part of Herb Sendek's first recruiting class. He earned honorable mention All-ACC honors for the Wolfpack and helped NC State reach the ACC Tournament championship game as an eighth seed in his freshman season, earning All-Tournament honors after logging all 40 minutes of all four games.

At his introductory news conference, Gainey was direct about what his regional roots mean for recruiting. "I'm a North Carolina guy," he said. "Everywhere I've been, I've recruited North Carolina, and I feel like I've done it at a high, high level. We're going to recruit the state hard and heavy." That is a pledge with direct implications for Elon and other Triad and Triangle programs: a High Point product with five years of ACC-caliber Tennessee recruiting now runs a Power Five program 60 miles down Interstate 40.

One incoming freshman already in the fold, Cole Cloer, grew up in Hillsborough, just across the Alamance County line in Orange County, and attended Gainey's introductory event at Lenovo Center.

Gainey kept his on-court identity short. "We're going to defend, we're going to rebound, and we're going to take care of the basketball," he told media in Raleigh. "When you watch us play on TV, I want you to be able to say that's the hardest playing team in the country." Chancellor Kevin Howell called the hire a "full-circle" moment. Gainey, asked to describe the day, offered something quieter: "This is surreal. It feels like it hasn't fully set in. I'm excited to be back home."

Financial terms of the five-year deal were not immediately disclosed.