N.C. State has fired basketball coach Mark Gottfried.
He will coach the final four regular-season games and the ACC tournament, according to N.C. State athletic director Debbie Yow. In a statement released by the school, Yow said she met with Gottfried on Thursday and decided the program needed a change in leadership.
"While it has long been my practice to evaluate the body of work at season's end, in reviewing the overall direction of our program, we believe a change in leadership is necessary moving forward," Yow said in a statement released by the school. "Our focus now remains on supporting our student-athletes and staff over the final weeks of our season."
The Wolfpack (14-13) has lost six straight ACC games, after Wednesday's 97-73 home loss to North Carolina, and is 3-11 in the ACC, a game out of last place.
Gottfried, 53, is owed about $2.5 million as a buyout for the remainder of his contract. The sixth-year coach had a 122-82 record at N.C. State and led the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first four seasons but the bottom has fallen out on the program the last two years.
The Wolfpack has lost five ACC games by at least 20 points this season, including a 51-point "disaster," as Gottfried called it, 107-56 at UNC on Jan. 8. Wednesday's game was closer but not enough to save Gottfried's job.
Gottfried had a 47-55 mark in ACC play but was only 8-24 since the start of the 2015-16 season. Boston College (2-30) is the only conference team with a worse ACC record over the same time span.
Gottfried received a contract extension in Sept. 2015 that runs through the 2019-20 season. He is owed his base salary ($760,000) for each of the remaining three seasons plus the prorated amount left on his base salary for this season. If Gottfried gets another job over the next three seasons, N.C. State would owe him the difference in his new contract and his base salary.
N.C. State hosts Notre Dame on Saturday and then finishes the regular season with a trip to Georgia Tech (Feb. 21), a home game with Virginia (Feb. 25) and a road game at Clemson (March 1).
