RALEIGH -- Jim Harrick, the former UCLA and Georgia coach who gave Mark Gottfried his start in college coaching, said late Thursday night that he does not know if he will have an opportunity to join Gottfried's staff at N.C. State.
"I don't know the answer to that right now," Harrick said. "We haven't gotten to that point."
Orlando Early and Bobby Lutz are the only staff members Gottfried has announced. Early was a former Louisiana-Monroe coach who most recently served as an assistant at South Carolina, and Lutz was the former coach at Charlotte and was an assistant at Iowa State last season.
Since his hiring Tuesday as N.C. State's head coach, Gottfried has called to ask Harrick for advice. But Harrick said the matter of his possibly having a role on Gottfried's staff is a question for another time.
Asked Thursday whether there was any chance he would hire Harrick, Gottfried said: "I'm not ready to talk about any of those guys, just Orlando, here.
"I just want to make sure we get the best possible staff for these players. That's what I want to do."
Gottfried said he hopes to finish putting his staff together in the next week or two. He coached for eight seasons under Harrick at UCLA, winning an NCAA title with the Bruins in 1995.
Gottfried went on to head coaching stops at Murray State and at his alma mater, Alabama.
N.C. State athletic director Debbie Yow said through a school spokeswoman that coaches are responsible for hiring their staffs.
Harrick has been a winner at multiple schools, taking Rhode Island to an NCAA tournament regional final in 1998 and coaching Georgia to the NCAA tournament twice in four seasons.
But he also has run into trouble at previous stops.
He was fired at UCLA in 1996 after setting off an NCAA investigation that concluded his program provided improper benefits to players, recruits and a club team coach. The NCAA's most serious finding was that Harrick violated ethical conduct standards.
Harrick later resigned at Georgia, as an NCAA investigation at Georgia found that his son, Jim Harrick Jr., gave $300 to a player and gave three players A's despite poor attendance in a physical education class he taught. (Jim Harrick Jr. was a Georgia assistant coach at the time.)
Whether Harrick joins the staff or not, Gottfried's background at UCLA will influence his coaching, Harrick said.
While with the Bruins, Gottfried was schooled extensively in the UCLA system that dates back to coach John Wooden and his 10 NCAA titles with the Bruins.
The UCLA system is so ingrained in Gottfried that when Harrick visited a practice at Murray State, he knew which drill Gottfried was going to run next.
Wooden's system includes an offense that extensively uses a forward in the high post and uses simple motions that can be extremely difficult to guard.
Harrick said Gottfried's understanding of the system, work ethic and ability to communicate will make him successful.
"He's going to get people [recruits] to come there," Harrick said, "and then he's going to teach him the system, which is infallible."
Staff writer Robbi Pickeral contributed to this report.
