Kerry Keating · Row9 LLC
Origin Story · Layup
K2
Origin Story · The Inflection Point

Twenty-Five Years
Inside the Game.
Then Everything Changed.

From walk-on at Seton Hall to Final Four staff at UCLA to head coach at Santa Clara. The game was always the teacher. The question that changed everything came from a Silicon Valley engineer — and it had nothing to do with basketball.

25+
Years in D1 Basketball
8
Programs. Every Level.
100%
Graduation Rate at Santa Clara
2016
Row9 LLC Founded
The origin

Where the Story
Starts.

Kerry Keating walked on at Seton Hall under P.J. Carlesimo. He wasn't just a player — he became the first digital video coordinator in college basketball, understanding film and systems before the tools existed to build them properly.

From there, every stop deepened the picture. Video coordinator at Wake Forest. Assistant coach at Seton Hall, Appalachian State, Tulsa, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt. Then UCLA, where the Final Four staff included Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook — the talent was obvious, but the systems behind the talent were the real education.

"The game teaches what the classroom can't. Every program, every staff, every loss and every win — it's all data. You just have to know how to read it."

— Kerry Keating

Head coach at Santa Clara. One hundred percent graduation rate. Not because the program had the most talent — because it had the clearest system. Then the Warriors: radio and TV analyst, NBA player evaluations, watching the highest level of the game and understanding it well enough to explain it to anyone.

Row9 LLC was founded in 2016. The decade after the bench wasn't a step back from the game — it was the clearest view of it he'd ever had.

Career timeline
Seton Hall
Walk-on player · Student assistant · First digital video coordinator in college basketball (under P.J. Carlesimo)
Wake Forest
Video coordinator
Seton Hall · App State · Tulsa · Tennessee · Vanderbilt
Assistant coach
UCLA
Assistant coach · Final Four staff · Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook
Santa Clara
Head coach · 100% graduation rate
Golden State Warriors
Radio & TV analyst · NBA player evaluations
Row9 LLC
Founded 2016 · Raleigh, NC · The platform that connects everything
The inflection point

The Question That
Changed Everything.

It wasn't a coaching moment. It came from outside the game entirely — and it forced a reckoning with everything the game had been teaching all along.

→
The moment

A Silicon Valley engineer asked a simple question: "Why does every coach in the country evaluate players the same way they did thirty years ago?"

The honest answer: because no one had built anything better. Not because the old method worked — because the alternative didn't exist yet. The game had evolved. The evaluation of talent hadn't kept up. That gap was the opportunity.

01
The Problem
Portal chaos. Impossible timelines. No system.
Every coaching staff in the country was drowning in transfer portal volume with no infrastructure to process it. Hundreds of players, two-week windows, gut decisions masquerading as evaluation. The tools were generic — built for other industries, adapted badly for basketball.
02
The Insight
The game is data. It always has been.
Twenty-five years of coaching isn't just experience — it's a structured understanding of how talent develops, how programs fit players, and what signals actually predict success. That knowledge, translated into a systematic framework, becomes something no generic tool can replicate: genuine expertise, made scalable.
03
The Result
Layup. Built from the inside out.
Not an AI product built for basketball. A basketball product that uses AI — built by someone who has stood on every sideline, evaluated every level of talent, and knows the difference between data that matters and noise that doesn't. That's Layup.
The platform

Layup.
Human First. Data Powered.

Customized service architecture for portal scouting, program fit analysis, player evaluation, and athletic and leadership placement. Built on a multi-model AI pipeline with expert human-in-the-loop review at every stage.

The 7-step process
01
Program Profile
Define system fit, culture parameters, and what a successful placement actually looks like for this program.
02
Portal Intelligence Scan
Multi-model AI sweep of transfer portal data, surface-level performance metrics, and available film.
03
Expert Filter Layer
Human evaluation applied over AI output. The list narrows to players worth the staff's time — not algorithmic matches.
04
Fit Analysis
Detailed program-fit report per candidate: role projection, culture signals, risk factors, upside assessment.
05
Network Activation
25 years of relationships deployed. Calls made, conversations started, information gathered that no database can surface.
06
Evaluation Delivery
Packaged reports, ranked candidate sets, and staff briefings — in whatever format the program needs to move fast.
07
Ongoing Advisory
The relationship doesn't end at placement. Program feedback loops in, the model improves, and the next cycle is sharper.
What makes it different
Multi-Model AI Pipeline
No single model. Multiple AI systems cross-reference data, flag inconsistencies, and surface what a single tool would miss.
Expert Human-in-the-Loop Review
Every AI output passes through a layer of expert review. The machine does the volume work. The expert makes the judgment call.
Program-Specific, Not Generic
No off-the-shelf model. Every engagement starts from your program's identity, system, and what a successful roster addition actually means for you.
Built by a Coach, for Coaches
Not a tech product adapted for sport. A coaching product that uses technology — built by someone who has done the evaluation work at every level.
Beyond Basketball
The same framework extends to athletic and leadership placement analysis and broadcast talent evaluation — any context where identifying the right fit is the work.
Point of
View
A Point of View

I Built What
Didn't Exist.
Because I Needed
to See It There.

01
Reprogram Your Assumptions
The most valuable skill in any era is the ability to question your own requirements — to go wild for a bit, then distill everything into something manageable and articulable. That capacity is rare. It's also exactly what this moment demands.
02
Input, Not Output
Most people are treating AI as output. The opportunity — and the danger — is that we're offloading intelligence and defaulting to what the machine suggests. The people who win are the ones who see it as better input, then create better output themselves. That's the entire architecture of how I work.
03
Signal Over Noise
Do you have a point of view? An opinion that pushes boundaries and makes people uncomfortable? The copies of copies are everywhere right now because it's easy. The rare thing is genuine discernment — knowing what's relevant, what's real, and what actually moves the work forward.
This is why every venture inside Row9 exists — not because I found a market gap, but because I lived inside the problem long enough to know exactly what was missing. And it didn't exist yet.
Kerry Keating · Row9 LLC · Founded 2016
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