After a few twists and turns, NC State coach Mark Gottfried landed the final piece of his revamped coaching staff Thursday.
The school announced that Tennessee-Martin head coach Heath Schroyer has been hired to complete the overhauled staff. The new mix of coaches will be tasked with improving upon last year’s 16-17 record, which included going 5-13 in the ACC.
Schroyer takes over for former associate head coach Bobby Lutz, who spent the past five years on Gottfried's staff, and also joins newcomer Butch Pierre, most recently of Oklahoma State. Lutz was reassigned to a role in the athletics department, and reports last week indicated that Florida Gulf Coast head coach Joe Dooley had been offered Lutz's old position before staying at his current job.
The Wolfpack was able to turn to another current head coach to fill the vacancy in Schroyer.
“I’m excited to have Heath join our staff," Gottfried said in a school release. "He has done an outstanding job at UT-Martin, and has had success as both a head coach and as an assistant. Heath’s programs have traditionally shown great improvement, he is a strong on-floor and in-game coach, and is a proven recruiter at the highest level.”
"I'm really excited to join Coach Gottfried's staff. NC State University is a program full of rich tradition and it’s an honor to serve in this role,” said Schroyer. “I have the utmost respect for the administration, the other coaches and the Wolfpack Nation. My family and I are excited to move to the Raleigh area and get started."
The 44-year-old Schroyer hails from Walkersville, Md., and has coached at eight different colleges, including head coaching stints at Portland State (2002-2005), Wyoming (2007-2011) and the last two years at Tennessee-Martin, where he went 41-28 overall and 20-12 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
After taking over an eight-win squad, he led them to 21 wins in his first year at the helm and was named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association's Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year in 2014-15. He was also named a finalist for Mid-Major Coach of the Year honors that season before taking his squad to the conference championship game in 2016.
Schroyer's career head coaching record is 125-143, including two berths to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) with UT-Martin and one to the 2008-2009 College Basketball Invitational (CBI) while at Wyoming.
Prior to the UT-Martin gig, he spent three years as an assistant and recruiting coordinator at UNLV, where the Runnin' Rebels won 71 games and landed a pair of top-10 classes and four McDonald's All-Americans. The veteran coach helped them sign the nation's No. 7 recruiting class in 2012, headlined by Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.
The product of DeMatha High School, where he played for legendary coach Morgan Wootten (whose 1,274 wins as a head coach are the second-most in the history of basketball at any level), has also been an assistant at Fresno State, Wyoming, BYU and Fresno City College.
NCSU also announced Thursday that Pierre and holdover assistant Orlando Early, who has been on Gottfried's Wolfpack staff since he took the job, were elevated to the roles of assistant head coach.
Schroyer, Pierre and Early will take part in the second spring evaluation period April 22-24. The Nike EYBL and Under Armour II are both in Indianapolis, Ind., this weekend and adidas Gauntlet takes place in Atlanta.
The Pack currently have five available scholarships to use, and that jumps to six if sophomore power forward Abdul-Malik Abu decides to start his professional career. Abu has entered the draft but has not signed with an agent and can return to NC State.
