Wilmington’s Keatts may not be Wolfpack’s first call, but may make most sense – DeCock

N.C. State is going to hear “no” a lot in this coaching search, and that’s fine. You have to ask. They might say yes. They probably won’t.

Given that, the most delicate aspect of the search could be if the Wolfpack ends up deciding on UNC-Wilmington’s Kevin Keatts – and that would be a perfectly acceptable place to end up – making sure it doesn’t seem like Keatts was a fallback plan, because he isn’t.

The way coaching searches go, it’s easy to create that impression. Debbie Yow and her intermediaries will make a lot of calls, talk to a lot of coaches and their representatives. That’s the luxury N.C. State has with this headstart on its search. It would be silly not to reach out to anyone who…