Ex-NC State coach Mark Gottfried and his staff placed on leave at Cal State Northridge
Mark Gottfried, the former N.C. State basketball coach, was placed on leave at Cal State Northridge, where he’s been the head coach since 2018.
Cal State Northridge issued a statement on Thursday saying its men’s basketball coaching staff has been placed on paid administrative leave while the school investigates potential rules violations within the men’s basketball program.
In a statement, CSUN athletic director Michael Izzi said the school could not “elaborate further about the nature of the potential violations while the review is underway.”
Gottfried coached the Wolfpack for six seasons before being fired in 2017. He took over at CSUN in 2018 and has a 37-51 record there.
N.C. State was one of several high-profile college basketball programs tied to the FBI’s investigation into pay-to-play schemes involving Adidas, college coaches and recruits.
The investigation centered around the recruitment of former N.C. State guard Dennis Smith, Jr. and one of Gottfried’s top assistants, Orlando Early. Former Adidas consultant Thomas Gassnola testified in federal court that he worked with Early, an assistant under Gottfried from 2011 to 2017, and Smith’s trainer Shawn Farmer, to funnel $40,000 to Smith’s family in exchange for Smith’s commitment in October 2015. N.C. State is an Adidas school.
N.C. State was given a Notice of Allegations by the NCAA in July 2019. The basketball program was charged with two Level I violations involving Smith, Gottfried and Early. N.C. State responded to the notice in December 2019.
Gottfried was named in two Level I violations: one for failure to control Early, and another for game ticket distribution.
Gottfried sues NC State
In September Gottfried sued N.C. State in federal court alleging that the university owes him thousands of dollars in buyout payments.
Gottfried’s lawyer claims that in 2017 the coach and N.C. State had a contract regarding his separation that included monthly payments to Gottfried through April 4, 2020. According to the lawsuit, the school’s last payment came on August 31, 2018.
Elliot Abrams, Gottfried’s lawyer, told the N&O in 2019 that the school still owed Gottfried $520,000 but was trying to use his connection to the Adidas case to pay him less. On May 24, 2018, N.C. State sent Gottfried a “Notice of Intent to Discharge for Cause” claiming that the former coach had “induced the university to enter into payment arrangements.”
Gottfried was fired late in the 2016-17 season, but was allowed to stay and coach through the conclusion of the season, which ended with an early exit from the ACC tournament. Gottfried was 123–86 at N.C. State, including 48–58 in the ACC. His best conference finishes were during his first two seasons, when the Wolfpack tied for fourth. The team finished 13th in each of his final two seasons.
Staff at Cal State Northridge includes Jim Harrick, Jeff Dunlap
Gottfried’s basketball coaching staff at Cal State Northridge includes assistants Jim Harrick, who resigned from Georgia in 2003 amid NCAA violations there, and Jeff Dunlap, who worked under Gottfried at N.C. State and Alabama.
In a statement after Gottfried was hired in 2018, Cal State Northridge said: “Compliance was an important issue for us in the search for our next men’s basketball coach. The great thing about bringing Mark Gottfried to CSUN is that we had a 20-year track record to review. Coach Gottfried has an excellent compliance record and understands how to build winners the right way. We did our own due diligence and, as both Coach Gottfried and officials at North Carolina State have said, there are no red flags whatsoever.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 5:28 PM.
