Mark Gottfried

Mark Gottfried

Sport(s)	Basketball
Current position
Title	Head coach
Team	NC State
Conference	ACC
Record	108–69 (.610)
Biographical details
Born	(1964-01-20) January 20, 1964 Crestline, Ohio
Playing career
1983–1984	Oral Roberts
1984–1987	Alabama
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1987–1995	UCLA (asst.)
1995–1998	Murray State
1998–2009	Alabama
2011–present	NC State
Head coaching record
Overall	387–223 (.634)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
3× OVC regular season (1996–1998) 2× OVC Tournament (1997, 1998) 2× SEC regular season (2002, 2005)
Awards
OVC Coach of the Year (1998) SEC Coach of the Year (2002)

Mark Frederick Gottfried (born January 20, 1964)^[1] is an American men's college basketball coach and former player. He was named head coach of North Carolina State University on April 5, 2011.^[2]

Gottfried played one season at Oral Roberts and three seasons at Alabama, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in each of his seasons with the Crimson Tide. He spent eight seasons as an assistant coach at UCLA, including the team's 1995 NCAA championship season, three years as head coach at Murray State, and eleven years as head coach at Alabama.

Gottfried is currently an honorary board of trustees member of the Athletes in Action sports ministry.^[3]

Early years

Gottfried was born in Crestline, Ohio. He played varsity basketball at Carterville High School in Carterville, Illinois and Carbondale High School in Carbondale, Illinois. He then played for UMS Prep (now known as UMS-Wright Preparatory School) in Mobile, Alabama during his senior year, averaging 21.6 ppg/11.2 rpg before graduating in 1982. As a student, he was selected to the National Honor Society. Gottfried was inducted into UMS-Wright's Hall of Fame and in 2004 was the UMS Alumnus of the Year.

College career

Gottfried attended Oral Roberts on a basketball scholarship. After playing there for one season, where he was a Freshman All-American, he transferred to Alabama. There, he started 98 consecutive games, and Alabama advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in all three seasons he played. He holds the school records for most 3-point shots made in a single game with eight in a 1987 game against Vanderbilt, and for career 3-point field goal percentage (.485, 81–167).^[1] Gottfried graduated with a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences in Communications from the University of Alabama in 1987, after winning both the school's Hayden Riley Top Scholar Award and the Bryant Award as the school's top scholar-athlete during his senior year.^[4] He was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the seventh round of the 1987 NBA Draft,^[5] though he never played professionally. Instead, he spent three years touring with Athletes in Action, then attended UCLA graduate school for two years.^[1]

Coaching career

UCLA

Gottfried served as an assistant coach for eight seasons (1987–95) at UCLA under Jim Harrick. Also members of the staff were former St. John's and UCLA head coach Steve Lavin and current Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar. The Bruins were the 1995 NCAA champions with Gottfried as an assistant coach and recruiter. The Bruins were ranked 1st nationally for their recruiting class in 1994 and produced future NBA players Ed O'Bannon, George Zidek, Tyus Edney, Don MacLean, Tracy Murray, Trevor Wilson, Darrick Martin and Mitchell Butler.^[1] He has faced his former school twice as head coach at Alabama, losing 79–57 in the 2001 John Wooden Classic and losing 62–59 in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

Murray State

Gottfried was head coach from 1995 to 1998 at Murray State University and compiled a 68–24 overall record. Murray State advanced to the NCAA tournament in 1997 and again in 1998 and made the NIT in his first season there in 1996. He coached the Racers to Ohio Valley Conference Championships in each of his seasons as head coach, becoming the first head coach to win three OVC titles in only three seasons.^[1] In his last season, the Racers finished 25th in the final AP Poll.

Alabama

Gottfried was hired by the University of Alabama on March 25, 1998.^[1] He led the Tide to the SEC regular season championship in the 2001–02 season. The following year, his team became the first in Crimson Tide history to be ranked No. 1 in the AP poll.^[6] The team held the ranking for two weeks before losing 51–49 to Utah shortly before conference play.^[7] During the end of the following season, his team upset top-ranked and top-seeded Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The squad then defeated reigning national champion Syracuse to advance to the Elite Eight, achieving another program first. The Tide ultimately lost to eventual national champion UConn. For his efforts he was named SEC coach of the year by the AP and his fellow coaches. The next season, Alabama entered the NCAA tournament as a fifth seed before suffering a first-round loss to UW–Milwaukee.

After that, his tenure at Alabama was marked by key player injuries and disappointment. Alabama posted back-to-back losing seasons in the SEC in 2006–07 and 2007–08. The 2007–08 season marked the first time in nine years (only the second time under Gottfried) that Alabama did not reach either the NIT or NCAA post-season tournament, although the Tide did receive an invitation to the first annual College Basketball Invitational, which it did not accept.

On January 26, 2009, after the controversial departure of player Ronald Steele and an underperforming season at that point, Gottfried met with Alabama Athletics Director Mal Moore, and resigned mid-season as basketball coach at the University of Alabama.^[8]

North Carolina State

On April 5, 2011, Gottfried accepted the job as head coach of the NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team. To celebrate the upcoming basketball season, Gottfried planned to perform a tandem skydive into Carter Finley Stadium during halftime of a football game. The jump, scheduled for September 17, 2011, was canceled due to weather concerns.^[9]

On March 11, 2012, the NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team received an 11th seed in the NCAA Tournament. Because his team was selected into the tournament, Gottfried received a 2-year extension on his contract through April 4, 2018.^[10]

On March 18, 2012, Gottfried's 11th-seeded Wolfpack team defeated the 3rd-seeded Georgetown Hoyas in the 3rd round of the NCAA Tournament, earning a Sweet 16 berth. Five days later, the Wolfpack lost to 2nd-seeded Kansas Jayhawks in the Sweet 16.

On January 12, 2013, Gottfried became just the 14th coach in history to beat the #1 ranked team in the country with two separate schools after beating Duke 84-76 (having previously done so at Alabama).

During the 2014-2015 season NC State picked up wins against 2 Top 10 conference opponents (Jan. 11 vs Duke & Feb. 14 vs Louisville). Both Top 10 victories came immediately after losses to the ACC leading Virginia Cavaliers. The road victory against the Louisville Cardinals was only the 3rd time since the turn of the century that the Wolfpack had picked up a road win vs. an AP Top 10 squad, snapping a 22-game drought in such games.^[11]

Head coaching record

^[12][13]

Family

Mark is divorced and the father of four sons and one daughter.^[1] His oldest son, Brandon, was a standout athlete at Gulf Shores High School (ORANGE BEACH, AL) in both football and basketball and graduated from Stanford University (),() where he played football as a tight end (). His father, Joe Gottfried, was also a basketball coach and recently retired as Director of Athletics at the University of South Alabama.^[1] His uncle, Mike Gottfried, was a college football head coach and was an analyst on ESPN college football broadcasts. Both served as head coaches of their respective programs at Murray State.

References

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