By The Tobacco Road Scribe
Raleigh, NC – Justin Gainey has spent his first summer as NC State’s head men’s basketball coach asking players to accept an apparent contradiction: He wants them pushed relentlessly, held accountable publicly and privately, challenged outside their comfort zones and expected to defend with uncommon effort — but he also wants them to know that the person doing the pushing genuinely cares about them.
For Gainey, those ideas are not competing philosophies. They are inseparable.
During a July 21 media availability at NC State’s Dail Basketball Center, the former Wolfpack guard repeatedly returned to relationships as the foundation beneath virtually everything he is trying to establish: accountability, player development, strength training, leadership, chemistry and the defensive toughness he expects to become the program’s signature.
The message was particularly revealing because this is Gainey’s first offseason as a college head coach. NC State hired the High Point native and former Wolfpack captain in March as the 22nd head coach in program history after five seasons on Rick Barnes’ Tennessee staff, including four as associate head coach. Gainey arrived with 20 years of Division I coaching experience and a reputation built substantially around defense and player development.
Now comes a different challenge: creating his own program.
What is emerging is a coaching philosophy based on three words printed on the backs of NC State’s practice jerseys — connect, develop, compete — and on an understanding that demanding more from players works best when players understand why those demands are being made.
“You’re going to push them,” Gainey said. “That’s your job. You’ve got to get them out of their comfort zone, and they might not always like you, but they’ve got to respect you and they’ve got to know you’re coming from a genuine place.”
That may ultimately be as important to NC State’s future as any offensive set Gainey installs.
Summer begins with standards, not plays
The first thing Gainey wanted the sports media to understand about his new team was not its shooting ability, transfer-portal ranking or potential starting lineup.
It was how hard the players were working.
He described a group “relentlessly” pushing itself, with players holding one another accountable and communicating at a level he said reminded him of veteran teams.
That development is particularly significant because much of the roster is new. NC State’s 2026-27 roster includes 13 players, mixing returning Wolfpack players with transfers, international players and younger prospects. The official roster includes guards Preston Edmead, Christian Hammond, Paul McNeil Jr., Jacari Brim, Kingston Whitty, R.J. Keene II and Darius Adams, along with frontcourt players Eemeli Yalaho, Comeh Emuobor, Robert Jurkovic, Kyle Evans, Shah Hall and Zymicah Wilkins.
In an era when roster turnover has made summer basketball as much about introductions as improvement, Gainey views the quieter months as an opportunity to establish behavioral expectations before wins and losses begin shaping perceptions.
“Who are we going to be?” he asked. “Who are we going to be on a night-to-night basis?”
His answer, at least for now, revolves around three basketball fundamentals.
Defend.
Rebound.
Take care of the basketball.
Those principles have dominated the summer. During the portion of a July 21 practice observed by local media, NC State reportedly spent its opening minutes entirely on defense, reinforcing what Gainey had said moments earlier at his press conference.
The plays, Gainey said, can come later.
Identity comes first.
Accountability begins inside the locker room
Coaches frequently talk about holding players accountable. Gainey appears interested in something more difficult: creating an environment where players hold themselves and one another accountable.
He said he has been encouraged by how quickly the Wolfpack players have communicated with each other and organized activities without waiting for coaches to direct them.
Players have approached him asking whether the team could go somewhere together or hold its own group functions.
Those seemingly small moments matter to Gainey because chemistry cannot simply be scheduled onto a practice plan.
“It begins” during the summer, he said, particularly because fewer students are around campus and newcomers naturally depend more on teammates. But chemistry, he cautioned, does not become permanent merely because players spend June and July together.
“It continues to grow as you go through hard things,” Gainey said.
That distinction is central to his philosophy.
Connection without adversity can be superficial. Gainey wants players to discover whether they remain connected when practices become difficult, minutes are reduced, shots stop falling, games are lost or teammates make mistakes.
He said the team already has experienced a demanding summer in which players have been pushed in unfamiliar ways.
The real test will come later.
College basketball teams rarely fracture because everyone gets along during an offseason meal. They are tested when individual ambitions collide with team needs.
Gainey appears to understand that the stronger the relationships are before those moments arrive, the greater the chance accountability will be interpreted as investment rather than criticism.
The lesson Gainey learned as a teenager
One of the most revealing moments of the media session came when Gainey was asked about his own high school basketball experience.
The legendary Greensboro Day coach who coached Gainey was Freddy Johnson, who has led that program for decades. Gainey played at Greensboro Day from 1993 through 1996, won two state championships and was twice named North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association Player of the Year. The school later retired his No. 12 jersey.
Gainey still talks with Johnson regularly.
He said they might speak three times in a week.
That relationship helped shape his definition of coaching.
“The biggest thing is just the relationship piece,” Gainey said.
As a 16- or 17-year-old, he never imagined that decades later he would maintain such a close relationship with his high school coach.
Now he wants the players he coaches at NC State to eventually feel the same way about him.
The modern college game has changed dramatically around them. Name, image and likeness compensation, revenue sharing, transfer flexibility and rapidly rebuilt rosters have transformed the coach-player relationship into something more complicated than it was during Gainey’s playing career.
Gainey does not believe those changes eliminate the human element.
“Regardless of the era of the NIL and transfer portal,” he said, he wants former players to be able to pick up the phone years later and call him.
The implication is significant.
For Gainey, successful coaching cannot be judged solely by whether a player remains on the roster, scores more points or helps win a tournament game.
The relationship should survive the transaction.
Paul McNeil becomes an early test case
No player may illustrate Gainey’s philosophy better than Paul McNeil Jr.
The 6-foot-6 junior guard is one of the most recognizable returning pieces on the Wolfpack roster.
But what has impressed Gainey this summer is not simply McNeil’s basketball ability.
It is his willingness to participate in building the team.
Gainey described late-night calls and text messages from McNeil discussing the emotional temperature of the group.
“Hey, coach, I think the team is feeling this,” McNeil might tell him.
At other times, McNeil has suggested team-building ideas, including going go-karting.
To Gainey, those conversations represent leadership because McNeil is thinking beyond his own workout, role or statistics.
“He has been amazing,” Gainey said.
Perhaps more importantly, Gainey said McNeil wants to be coached hard.
“He doesn’t want to be treated differently than any of the guys,” Gainey said.
That is precisely the type of relationship Gainey is trying to establish: closeness without favoritism.
A player can have direct access to the head coach and still be corrected.
A returning star can have influence without receiving a separate standard.
A coach can develop a personal relationship without surrendering authority.
Gainey also acknowledged that the relationship remains incomplete.
Practices create one kind of adversity.
Games create another.
The first time a player sits longer than expected, turns the ball over in a late-game possession or disagrees with coaching strategy will provide a more revealing test of the culture.
Strength training as relationship building
Gainey’s philosophy extends beyond the head coach’s office.
He praised strength and conditioning coach Cody Dukquits not simply for changing players’ bodies, but for building relationships strong enough that players voluntarily seek additional work.
Gainey said multiple players have undergone significant physical changes. McNeil has added about eight pounds, Darius Adams about 10 and Kyle Evans about 10. Zymicah Wilkins has lost approximately 25 pounds, while Eemeli Yalaho has dropped close to 20.
But Gainey seemed equally impressed by how Dukquits has generated buy-in.
The strength coach brings players to his home and cooks for them.
Part of that is nutritional — making sure players are eating properly.
Part of it is relational.
Once trust develops, Gainey said, players begin calling on Saturdays or Wednesdays asking to get into the weight room.
“In order to get the best out of guys, to push them, you’ve got to have that relationship,” Gainey said.
That sentence could serve as the organizing principle for Gainey’s entire program.
The objective is not to make training easier.
It is to make players more receptive to difficult training because they trust the person demanding it.
A frontcourt built around different tools
Gainey’s roster construction also reflects his emphasis on development rather than requiring every player to fit one rigid prototype.
The Wolfpack’s frontcourt expanded significantly with the arrival of Shah Hall and Robert Jurkovic.
Hall, listed at 6-foot-11, gives NC State length and athleticism. Jurkovic brings experience, versatility and the ability to operate both near the basket and away from it. The pair joins Yalaho, Evans and Wilkins in giving Gainey five primary frontcourt options.
Gainey sounded almost like a developmental coach evaluating five separate projects.
Yalaho has shown more low-post ability than expected.
Gainey knew he could shoot, but said he had underestimated Yalaho’s interior presence, physicality and ability to make composed decisions from the post.
Evans, a 6-foot-10 graduate transfer from UC Irvine, has impressed Gainey with his movement and ability to operate in ball-screen coverage.
Wilkins may represent the clearest example of the coach’s demanding approach.
Gainey recruited him previously and arrived at NC State already believing Wilkins possessed significant potential.
His message to the young forward was direct: Gainey intended to push him because he believed Wilkins had a chance to become special.
According to Gainey, Wilkins has responded without sulking or retreating.
“He hasn’t once flinched,” Gainey said. “He hasn’t once hung his head. He just keeps coming.”
Hall has shown more physical readiness than Gainey anticipated, while Jurkovic has impressed with his basketball intelligence, ball movement and what Gainey called a European feel for the game.
The common thread is not that all five players are alike.
It is that Gainey believes each can be challenged differently.
Defense will be the non-negotiable
Relationships may form the foundation of Gainey’s program, but defense is expected to become its public identity.
That should not be surprising.
Gainey served as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator after becoming associate head coach before the 2022-23 season. Tennessee finished first nationally in KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency that season and third in each of the next two seasons cited in NC State’s biography of Gainey. His final Tennessee team also led the SEC in several major defensive categories.
His playing career followed the same pattern.
Gainey recorded 190 steals at NC State and still owns the ACC Tournament single-game record with nine steals against Virginia in 2000.
So when he says NC State will defend, it is not a newly adopted talking point.
His first rule is blunt:
“Protect the paint at all costs.”
The Wolfpack intends to pressure the basketball.
That could mean full-court pressure, three-quarter-court pressure or aggressive half-court coverage.
The purpose is not merely to create steals. It is to make offensive initiation uncomfortable and discourage clean access to the lane.
Preston Edmead figures prominently in that plan.
Gainey called the 6-foot-1 Hofstra transfer a “junkyard dog” and “as tough as they come.”
Edmead will pressure opposing ballhandlers, but Gainey emphasized that pressure defense works only when the other four defenders behave as a connected unit.
“They’ve got to have his back,” he said.
NC State intends to position help defenders in gaps, contest perimeter shots and eliminate uncontested rhythm 3-pointers.
When the first defender gets beaten, Gainey wants what he calls a “fix-it mentality.”
Someone else must solve the problem.
That could mean switching.
It could mean challenging a shot at the rim.
It could mean taking a charge.
It could mean going vertical without fouling.
The important part is collective responsibility.
“We’re going to have a team full of defenders,” Gainey said.
That language mirrors the culture he is trying to establish off the court. One player’s mistake becomes everybody’s problem.
Accountability is shared rather than isolated.
A backcourt that can create offensive uncertainty
Gainey has spent more summer time installing defense than assigning detailed offensive roles, but he believes the Wolfpack has enough shooting and versatility to create a difficult scouting problem.
The guards, he said, have occasionally been too unselfish.
They have passed up good shots looking for great ones.
For a coach, that is generally a favorable problem.
Gainey highlighted the contrasting traits among Edmead, McNeil, Christian Hammond and Darius Adams. Edmead brings speed and defensive tenacity. The bigger guards offer additional length and shooting.
The next developmental challenge for Edmead is expanding his influence beyond scoring.
He scored effectively at Hofstra, Gainey noted.
Now the question becomes: Whom can he make better?
At the same time, Gainey is challenging McNeil, Hammond and Adams to defend with Edmead’s intensity.
The broader offensive goal is unpredictability.
Gainey does not want opponents knowing that one particular player will receive the ball on every important possession.
“When there’s a play run for one guy every single time, that’s easy to scout,” he said.
Multiple shooters and scorers should allow NC State to keep spacing the floor until the basketball finds an advantageous matchup.
That philosophy may also influence Gainey’s eventual rotation.
He said he would prefer to play as many as 10 players if the roster earns that opportunity.
That is partly philosophical and partly practical.
A team expected to defend with constant pressure cannot simultaneously ask players to conserve energy because there are no substitutes coming.
“I don’t want you out there trying to conserve energy because I’m only playing seven guys or eight guys,” Gainey said.
Depth, in that sense, becomes another form of accountability.
Play hard enough to require a replacement.
Then expect the replacement to meet the same standard.
Success measured by a process
Perhaps the most unconventional answer of the session came when Gainey was asked what would define his first season.
He did not name a victory total.
He did not say NCAA Tournament.
He did not say ACC championship.
He returned to daily improvement.
“We won’t judge it off wins and losses,” Gainey said. “We’re strictly process-driven.”
That does not mean wins are unimportant. Gainey was hired to lead one of college basketball’s historically prominent programs, and NC State officials explicitly said upon his hiring that the university’s goals include competing for championships.
Rather, Gainey’s argument is that results should emerge from repeated behavior.
Did players improve?
Did they give their best effort?
Did the coaching staff fulfill its promise to develop them?
Can everyone look back at the end of the season and say the group became better than it was at the beginning?
Those questions explain why “connect, develop, compete” is printed on the practice gear.
Connection comes before development because coaching requires trust.
Development comes before competition because improvement creates opportunity.
Competition becomes the public test of the first two.
The responsibility of coming home
There is another layer to Gainey’s first head-coaching job that would not exist at most schools.
He is coaching his alma mater.
Gainey played four seasons at NC State from 1996 through 2000, appearing in 128 games and starting 103. He later returned in administrative roles before beginning a coaching journey that included Elon, Appalachian State, Marquette, Santa Clara, Arizona and Tennessee.
When asked how he believed he was adjusting to being a head coach, Gainey had difficulty grading himself.
The reason, he said, is that he holds the job in such high regard.
He described asking himself each night whether he had given his best effort.
“I think I’m getting better,” he said, “and I think that’s the ultimate compliment you can pay anybody.”
That answer sounds remarkably similar to the standard he applies to his players.
Gainey is not exempting himself from his own accountability system.
He expects players to improve daily.
He expects coaches to do the same.
His return has also reconnected him with familiar people around the university and Raleigh. He spoke warmly about seeing old acquaintances, shaking hands around town and experiencing a job that he views as more than another advancement on a coaching résumé.
NC State called his hiring a “full-circle moment,” and Gainey has consistently described the position in terms of responsibility, history and tradition.
Building a schedule that exposes weaknesses
Gainey also wants the Wolfpack challenged before ACC play begins.
He said his scheduling philosophy favors opponents that can present different basketball problems — zone defenses, presses and contrasting styles that might resemble challenges encountered later in the ACC or NCAA Tournament.
NC State has already announced a Dec. 1 home game against South Carolina in the SEC/ACC Challenge, while its conference slate will include home-and-road series against California and Wake Forest and road games at Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Miami and others.
Gainey also referenced participation at Baha Mar and neutral-site opportunities as part of a demanding nonconference plan.
The objective is consistent with everything else he discussed.
Do not protect the team from problems.
Expose it to them.
Then require players to respond together.
Even an NCAA rule change regarding foreign tours could eventually provide another team-building tool. The Division I Cabinet approved a change in April allowing teams to conduct a foreign tour annually rather than once every four years. Gainey said NC State had not made such a trip a priority yet but would consider the opportunity when appropriate.
Again, the emphasis remains on the present.
There is enough work to do inside the Dail Basketball Center.
The real test begins when games do
It is easy to build an appealing culture in July.
Everybody has a fresh start.
Nobody has been benched in an ACC game.
Nobody has lost three straight.
Nobody has missed the shot that would have won against Duke or North Carolina.
Nobody has watched a teammate receive the minutes he thought belonged to him.
Those moments will determine whether Gainey’s summer philosophy is something deeper than offseason optimism.
His approach depends on a difficult balance.
He wants to know his players personally without lowering expectations.
He wants leaders empowered without allowing a hierarchy that protects certain players from criticism.
He wants teammates responsible for one another without turning accountability into blame.
He wants players to play aggressively without becoming selfish.
He wants a deep rotation while acknowledging not everyone ultimately may play.
And he wants players to understand that being pushed is not evidence that a coach has turned against them.
It may be evidence of the opposite.
Gainey’s strongest example remains the relationship he built decades ago with Freddy Johnson.
As a teenager, Gainey was coached hard.
Years later, they remain close.
That experience appears to have convinced him that accountability and relationships do not have to exist on opposite sides of coaching.
Properly handled, one strengthens the other.
NC State’s identity will be tested one possession at a time
Justin Gainey has not coached his first official game as NC State’s head coach, so any judgment about the success of his program remains premature.
Summer workouts cannot prove whether the Wolfpack will contend in the ACC.
Improved conditioning does not guarantee victories.
Strong chemistry in July does not ensure harmony in February.
But the early framework is unusually clear.
NC State intends to defend aggressively, protect the paint, rebound, value the basketball and use its depth to sustain effort. Gainey wants a roster in which players communicate, correct mistakes, accept hard coaching and help teammates recover when something breaks down.
Most of all, he wants a program in which accountability does not destroy relationships because the relationships are strong enough to support accountability.
“Connect, develop, compete” may be printed on practice jerseys, but the order of those words appears intentional.
Before Gainey can develop players fully, he believes he must connect with them.
Before they can compete collectively, they must trust one another enough to accept correction.
And before NC State discovers what its record will be, Gainey wants to establish what the Wolfpack will look like every night.
Defend.
Rebound.
Protect the basketball.
Play for the teammate beside you.
And when something goes wrong, fix it together.