Gainey Makes Two More Key Additions to NC State Staff

RALEIGH — NC State men's basketball will look much different once the 2026-27 season gets underway, as first-year head coach Justin Gainey remakes the program in his image. The alumnus arrived at the beginning of April and immediately began building his first staff and recruiting players from the transfer portal for his first year leading the Wolfpack.

While the staff was mostly assembled in the first two weeks of his tenure, Gainey wasn't done building his support team of assistant coaches and administrators. NC State announced two more additions on Tuesday, bringing in assistant coach Ognjen Vasiljević and director of scouting Matt Holt, essentially finalizing the program from top to bottom before the next phase of the offseason.

What to know about Vasiljević and Holt

Vasiljević arrives in Raleigh after spending last season as both an assistant and the director of basketball operations at South Alabama, a program that finished second in the Sun Belt and earned an NIT bid. Before his experience at South Alabama, he worked as an assistant for Life University, an NAIA program. Obviously, NC State is a much larger opportunity for the young coach.

A native of Serbia, Vasiljević played at the Division-II level in the United States before playing for Ohio Valley University for a pair of seasons. His connections to European basketball are particularly intriguing for the Wolfpack, as he could serve as a bridge between the Wolfpack program and rising stars in Eastern Europe who are increasingly interested in playing college basketball in the US. He is set to join Alvin Brooks, Matthew Driscoll, Riley Collins and Antony Goins on the bench next year.

Holt is set to be NC State's director of scouting, a front office role that is highly important as Gainey works to balance his coaching duties with his recruiting duties. The Wolfpack did retain Pat Stacy in a general manager role after he worked for Will Wade last season, but he'll get some much-needed assistance with identifying and recruiting high school talent from Holt, an experienced evaluator and support staff member.

Before arriving in Raleigh, Holt spent three seasons at Georgia Tech as the director of player development and six seasons in various roles with Nebraska. He has a background in scouting and video coordination as well, both important aspects of the support process for a new head coach. He will work closely with Stacy and the director of operations, Bill Comar. Now, it seems as though Gainey is ready to attack the 2026-27 season with a full staff in his corner.

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