NC State’s Justin Gainey is ready to be a first-time head coach

By Noah Fleischman

Then-assistant John Groce approached starting point guard Justin Gainey on a bus trip through ACC country.

“Have you ever thought about going into coaching?” Groce asked Gainey.

The response? “I don’t want to.”

Gainey didn’t know what coaching entailed during his playing career. From his point of view, he thought most of the job was drawing up X’s and O’s on a whiteboard, while also using the whistle draped around a coach’s neck to demand more from his players.

At the time, Gainey couldn’t see himself coaching. He believed he’d play European pro basketball for as long as his body would allow and then find a new career. 

Would that be in 10 years after he graduated college? Maybe even 20? Gainey wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that coaching seemed to be a profession that wasn’t for him.

That was until he actually gave it a chance. 

Gainey, who spent two years playing professionally in Austria and France after his four-year career in Raleigh, returned back to the Triangle after his career ended. With a desire to stay connected to the sport that had given him so much, Gainey allowed coaching a shot. 

His introduction to the profession was volunteering to coach Cary Academy’s eighth-grade squad in the mid-2000s. While tutoring the youngsters on the intricacies of the game in small North Carolina gyms, Gainey quickly fell in love with coaching. 

Riding an activity school bus with a team full of 13- and 14-year-olds wasn’t glamorous, but the position sold him on what to do with his playing career over. 

“I was drawn to it. I wanted to do it,” Gainey recalled. “I wanted to mentor. I wanted to share my experiences with guys like me that have come from places like me; that had shared experiences and needed some direction, needed some guidance.”

Fast-forward a little more than two decades after guiding the middle school team to an undefeated record, Gainey is once again back in the head coaching chair. Just this time, instead of dealing with young boys that were just looking to have a competitive outlet, Gainey is tasked with leading his alma mater and its rich tradition of excellence on the hardwood.

The first-time collegiate head coach, who spent the last 19 years working his way through the ranks as a long-time assistant, Gainey is the 22nd man to take over at the top of NC State’s tradition-filled program. He has immense pride in the school where he etched his name into the record books as a player. Now, he is looking to use that same determination in his dream job.

But even though Gainey has never led a college program of his own, he is more than prepared for what’s to come. There are high expectations around the Wolfpack, and the former court general is eager to help pace the team through the ACC. 

“As I’ve developed and grown within the profession, you always think you’re ready,” Gainey said.

And now he is.

Early signs of a coach

There’s a reason why Groce walked up to Gainey that winter day of his senior year with that question. It wasn’t on a whim. NC State’s entire staff, led by Herb Sendek, believed he had what it took to become an excellent teacher of the game. 

Sendek — who led the Wolfpack for 10 seasons before a stint at Arizona State, and is now currently at the helm of Santa Clara — was confident in what he saw. Gainey was the one in charge of making sure his teammates were aligned correctly for a given play. He ran the offense as the team’s standout point guard. 

In a way, it gave Sendek a clear glimpse into what Gainey could become after his playing days were over. 

“As a player, he was a coach on the floor,” Sendek said in a phone interview with TheWolfpacker.com. “He was a tremendous leader and teammate. He had a great feel for the game. He competed with toughness. And, perhaps most importantly, he is the kind of person you want your son to play for and to represent your university.”

Gainey had the traits to do well in the profession. He was never the best player on the floor at the collegiate level, using his elite competitive spirit to make up for not being the quickest or having the prettiest jumper on the floor. 

His basketball mind, which helped him rack up 344 assists and 190 steals in the 128 games of his NC State career, seemed to stick out the most to everyone involved. 

For forward Damon Thornton, a fellow recruiting classmate alongside Gainey in the 1996 cycle, his point guard had a different presence about him. One that he was able to notice right away during their freshman season, the very campaign that Gainey ended up playing all 160 minutes of the ACC Tournament to set a league record.

“You knew from the time he hit the court,” Thornton said, “he was an extension of the head coach.”

Although Gainey didn’t know it at the time, he had everything those in the sport look for in a coach: A smart and determined ball handler, especially one with an elite drive to succeed. 

Learning at every stop along the way

Gainey’s coaching path has been one highlighted by not skipping any steps. The 49-year-old has followed the process. He entered college athletics as an administrative intern in NC State’s athletics department under athletics director Lee Fowler, a position that Sendek helped place him into for the next step of his life. 

“It changed my whole view on college athletics,” Gainey said. “From a business perspective, it really changed my view. I saw the business behind it, while still having the competitive nature of it. It intrigued me.”

Shortly after completing the internship, Gainey joined Sidney Lowe’s men’s basketball staff as an administrative coordinator. That role turned up his desire to enter the coaching ranks. He enjoyed being around the team every day. Players would ask him for his advice, and Gainey was more than willing to oblige. 

From there, he began to climb the coaching ladder. Gainey spent a season as Lowe’s director of operations before landing his first on-court role as an assistant at Elon. He jumped to Appalachian State as an assistant for four seasons, served as Marquette’s director of operations for three years before his career arc entered a new level as an assistant at Santa Clara (2017-18), Arizona (2018-20), Marquette (associate head coach, 2020-21) and, most recently, at Tennessee for the last five seasons. 

Gainey has been nomadic. He’s thrived in the grind of being an assistant coach, looking to take his stock to the next level at each stop along the way, which is exactly what he’s accomplished. 

And one of his earliest bosses, former App State coach Jason Capel, can attest to that.

“He’s earned his way. He’s done all the little things at every step of the way, every job to know how to do everything in every role, and to do it well,” Capel told TheWolfpacker.com. “It’s no different than being a player. You have to know how to do a lot of things to get on the court. Justin is really good at a lot of different things. That’s going to make him a very good head basketball coach.”

Gainey, throughout his entire coaching journey, has thrived on learning from those around himself. It’s what he did as a player under Sendek and his staff — featuring current Texas head coach Sean Miller and Groce, who left Akron for Charleston this offseason — taking pieces of them with him. He’s continued to do so after working under some of the country’s top coaches, including Tennessee’s Rick Barnes. 

Danny Strong, a senior forward at NC State during Gainey’s freshman season in the 1996-97 campaign, is confident that trait will lead his former teammate to immense success at their alma mater.

“I think every good leader is always a good follower first,” Strong said. “He’s been under great coaches that helped guide him on his path. … He’s really observant. He definitely observed more than he was probably talking at the beginning, waiting for the right moment to know what he needed to do when he had to run his own program. I know he’s 1,000 percent ready for this journey.”

Gainey’s career has allowed him to live a variety of experiences, including being selective for his first head coaching stop after interviewing with NC State last year and Georgia Tech this offseason. He’s lived both the mid-major and high-major life. There isn’t one area of the country that he’s pigeonholed himself to, either, working in the three major U.S. time zones, building connections at every stop along the way. 

As Sendek put it, Gainey has a “treasure chest of experiences.”

“We all bring the sum of our experiences to the present moment,” Sendek said. “And when you look at Justin’s journey, it includes a diversity of experiences. I always believe that’s really healthy, and I think it’ll help him.”

While Gainey has a plethora of mentors to pull from — whether it’s from living the SoCon life at App State or helping Tennessee win the 2023 SEC Tournament or being an integral part of three straight Elite Eights in the past three NCAA Tournaments — he isn’t looking to replicate exactly what any of his former bosses did with their programs.

Instead, Gainey wants to create his own program. It’ll have a bit of each of his previous stops, taking what he knows works, but putting his own stamp on it at the same time.

“As I go through my career and I think about those moments, I’m pulling from all those different situations,” Gainey said. “I can’t be Rick Barnes. I can’t be Herb Sendek. I’m Justin Gainey. I’m pulling from all those things I learned. While there may be some people with more experience or whatever in different positions, there aren’t a lot of people that have been where I’ve been.”

The key: Relationships

Gainey has always been known as a standout recruiter. His ability to forge bonds with players — and their families — is unmatched. He’s helped craft three top-10 recruiting classes at both Arizona and Tennessee over the past decade, but that isn’t where Gainey’s ability to connect showed the most. 

Instead, it arrived at just his second full-time assistant coaching position at App State. 

Gainey identified Raleigh (N.C.) Broughton standout four-star point guard Devonte Graham at an early stage of his recruiting process. The future NBA standout ended up committing to the Mountaineers after building a tight-knit bond with Gainey, who was able to attract one of the class of 2014’s hidden gems to Boone, N.C.

“That was all Justin Gainey,” Capel said. “Justin is who saw Devonte Graham and saw what he could be, saw his talent. He led the charge for us to even be able to get that commitment when we did. He is who evaluated Devonte Graham and saw that he could be someone that turned into a Big 12 Player of the Year and NBA player.”

Although Graham, who became the 2018 Big 12 Player of the Year, backed out of his signed national letter of intent to reopen his recruitment and later committed to Kansas over NC State and Virginia, Gainey’s recruiting acumen arrived early in his career. And it has only continued to grow ever since, including signing five-star small forward Nate Ament for Tennessee in the 2025 cycle.

Gainey has prided himself as a person that can build an authentic bond with his players and their inner circle. It’s helpful in recruiting, but it’s even more important in running a team. With the resources to land talent through the portal without the “getting-to-know-you” stage of old-school recruiting, Gainey still prides himself on this approach.

“Everything is about relationships,” Gainey said. “People may try to camouflage it by offering money, NIL, playing time, whatever. But it comes down to having a relationship with the young men, with their circle, with their coaches, with their parents. …  If you can develop a relationship, then you can work through any problem.”

Gainey truly believes in this.

Capel, who watched it up close, was quick to point out this is how Gainey will be able to make a seamless transition to running his own program in Raleigh as a first-time head coach.

“Just who he is as a person. He’s going to connect with players, he’s going to connect with alumni. He loves NC State,” Capel said. “His ability to communicate, to teach, to galvanize and to get players to believe and play at a level that maybe they don’t know that they can reach yet, he’s going to bring that out of them.”

From Gainey’s perspective, crafting a bond with his team is of the utmost importance to get what he wants from them. He’s a proven talent developer, finding ways to help get the most out of teams, including five straight top-15 defenses at Tennessee.

And the critical key to it is his elite ability to connect on a deeper level.

“I’ve learned that, in coaching, it’s about relationships and it’s about giving to and serving these young men. When they know that you care about them, they’ll run through a wall for you,” Gainey said. “If they know it’s all transactional, if they think it’s all just about basketball and you could care less about their personal life, when times get hard, they’re going to quit.

“They’re going to say, ‘Coach, what do you care about?’ I never want to be that guy.”

To this point, there’s no reason to believe Gainey will ever stray away from what’s worked to get him to this point. He believes this approach will not only allow his team to be made up of high-character players, but it will also get the most from the unit’s potential in the years to come. 

Gainey’s turn

The introductory press conference felt more like a pep rally than it did the usual way of passing the baton to the next head coach. Former players were streaming in from all directions, while the Gainey family sat in the front two rows with a beaming sense of joy.

It signaled a new era of NC State basketball. One that has a former player leading the charge once again. Gainey has breathed new life into what the Wolfpack has to offer, and despite not having any collegiate head coaching experience before this, he appears ready for the challenge. 

Sendek, who sat in these very shoes for a decade, believes his former point guard is exactly what the program needed, calling him the “complete and total package.”

The same can be said for Thornton, Gainey’s recruiting classmate from the late 1990s.

“In his journey, he has held every position you can have as a coach and now this opportunity comes along to be the head coach,” Thornton said. “I think the timing is right, and I think he’s prepared for it and knows what it takes. This is his alma mater, so you’ll never have to question how hard he’s going to work.”

Gainey has been a grinder his entire career. It all began coaching middle school basketball at Cary Academy. While it seemed small at the moment, that experience helped lead Gainey down a path that has now turned into a full-circle moment. 

“What you remember from those are not the games — I can’t even remember who we played. It’s the bus rides back,” Gainey said. “It’s the questions they asked about playing. That’s what coaching is about.”

Once again, Gainey is set to impact the lives of those in the Triangle. And he’ll get to do so with the logo that he fell in love with as a high school recruit.