Will Wade: "We've Got A Solid Team"

NC State men's basketball coach Will Wade met with the media today and he discussed several topics, such as roster construction, revenue sharing, NIL, and much more!

NOTE: Click on the video above to watch the press conference with Wade.

Opening Statement...
How y'all do this? Y'all want me to make an opening statement or we just ask questions? Huh? I was gonna let Grant go first. Is Grant here? You seem to be all concerned about our recruiting class. You seem to be all worried about our recruiting class and everything. The Grant guy from 247, he didn't show up today? Damn, he spent a month concerned about everything we're doing in the transfer portal and recruiting. He didn't even show up. That's some shit. I'm shocked. Who wants to start? Since Grant's not here, who wants to start? I thought with all his interest, he'd for sure be here. 

On what it’s like to see having the new team on the court… 
Well, we hadn't had everybody. We've been injured. So, we've had one day where we've been able to play 5-on-5. So, I really don't have too much of an answer to that. So, hopefully, we can get a couple guys back. Nothing earth-shattering or nothing that's been major, but a lot of just nagging stuff. So, I really don't have a clear answer on how we've been because I haven't seen us. 

On paper, how do you feel about it? 
I think we've done a solid job. Look, we're still looking. We'd like to add another big or two if we can find the right guys. At this point, you need a little bit of luck, whether it's a foreign guy or some other things that happen. But we have our antennas up and are looking. But I feel solid about what we've done. We've got a solid team. I think with another piece or two, it could be a really, really good team. But we'll see what happens between now and August 17th.

What's your pitch when you go out and talk to players about NC State? What is your pitch to them? 
Well, it depends on the player. It depends on the situation. A lot of it's just about, I mean, first off, you talk about our history. You never want to go somewhere where there's not banners hanging. If they hadn't hung banners before, you're not going to be the first to do it. So, talk about our history in terms of team wins. Talk about our history in terms of individual players, NBA players, that sort of thing. And you talk about your personal history with NBA players and winning and your background. And you try to mesh all that together to where it resonates with the kid and the family. 

On having the chance to build new history…
Well, you've got a chance to, this is a unique situation where you've got a chance to put your mark in a new way on an historically significant program. And so, I look at it like we're trying to bridge the old school to the new school. And you've got a chance to really put a stamp on that. And I think that resonates with a lot of kids because it's very rare you get to do something. Everybody likes to do things that have already been done. It's very rare you get to do something that hasn't been done or you get to be a part of something that's new and unique. And I think that this program right now gives that opportunity. 

When you talked previously, you talked about guys coming in that just didn't have a chance to get as much playing time or show what they could do in more time. When we talked to the assistant coaches, they talked about some of the metrics that they use to try to find those guys. As you're scouring the country trying to find an entire new team, how much are you relying on those metrics, those analytics, to at least narrow the pool of what you guys are looking for? 
Yeah, the metrics are important. They lead you, look at the metrics like GPS. It'll lead you to the neighborhood. And then sometimes you got to get off and go, all right, look, I know this is a little quicker than how GPS is telling me to go, right? Because GPS is going to put you at the front door with your,  getting out of your car. So you got to go around the clock. I mean, you got to go around the block and get out, get out where you're, you're on the right at the door. So sometimes, the GPS leads you to the general, the general vicinity, which is what the analytics do. And then once you get that conglomerate of players in the general vicinity, you got to watch the film, you got to crunch the numbers, and then say like, all right, this fits best for us. And we're going to do this. And this doesn't fit as well, even though the numbers look good. And we're going to, we're going to throw this out. And so I think that the analytics do a good job of whittling the field down to a workable number. And then you've got to go in and, and still got to use your instincts and your, and your, and your, and your know-how once you, once you get to the, once you get to that data set. 

Is there a certain number you look at, one? And then two, when did you become sort of a convert into that? 
We have an overall analytic stat that's specific to our program, that it's a final score. So we, we look, we look at that and we know how we want that to add up. And we know where this team is and we know there's, so sometimes you're dealing in imperfect options. You're not dealing with perfect options, right? Especially in the, in the, in the, in the transfer portal, right? I mean, there's really good players in there. There's some lemons in there too. I mean, you don't get to kick the tires on everybody and check the oil. I mean, you've got to, sometimes you got to make decisions pretty, pretty, pretty quickly. So you got to, first off, you got to understand what imperfections you're willing to live with. If a kid's a little bit shorter for his position, we're willing to live with that. I think we have one of the best strength and conditioning programs in the country. We have two strength coaches, one of the few schools in the country that has two strength coaches for men's basketball. We have great nutritionists. So we're willing to deal with a kid who's a little bit skinnier because we feel like we can, so we understand what imperfections that we're able to, that we're able to deal with. And so I think that the data helps you, helps you whittle through that. But we look at our main score and how much we want to add that up. And then also when you're dealing with the imperfections, I'm wheeling around to get to the answer. When you're dealing with the imperfections, you also want to figure out which of the ones you can fix quickest. And so, hey, he may be, our rating system goes to an eight, but this kid may be a 5.4, but he's maxed out at a 5.4 and he's going to cost X amount. This kid may be a 4.8, but we see with a couple of tweaks and a couple of things that we've been pretty successful at, by the time the season starts, we think we can get him to a 5.8 and he's a little bit less. All right, well, we're going to take that kid. So it allows you to, it allows you to, to see through that. I mean, it's not just strictly a numbers grab or a money grab because you've also got to understand where your development strengths are, where your program strengths are, and what you can, what you can fix and what you can't fix. 

Now that you've had a chance to see him, what are your thoughts on Ven-Allen Lubin? 
He's been great. He's very, very consistent. He's, he's reliable. He's consistent. He's everything we thought he would be. His three-point shot's getting better. I think he'll revert back to how he was when he played for Coach Stackhouse at Vanderbilt, where he had his best, best year statistically, shooting it from three. But we got to give him a little more help down there. I mean, look, he's, he's, he's, he's done a great job. He's been a warrior for us, but we got to, we got to get him a little more help.

You've mentioned the frontcourt a little bit. You've already had the shift, the soft season there. You know, can you take us through the process of having to shift what you guys were doing there, bringing at Scottie? 
Shift in terms of?

Kind of just, you brought Scottie in, you had Paul signed.
Yeah. So yeah, Paul's a great kid. He's going to Kansas and we wish he was here, but he's going to Kansas, but it's not his fault. It's not Paul's fault. I want to be very clear about that. It's not his fault. It's our fault. And so, but we'd be a little better off with him. But look, we've got to go out.

Yeah, we shifted to Scottie. I think Scottie's going to be a good player. He's been, he's been banged up. But I think Scottie, look, he has an 18% offensive rebounding rate. That goes to your question. Some of the stuff we've been good at is offensive rebounding. He's one of the elite offensive rebounders in the minutes that he's played. So he's got one discernible skill that can help us. Now we've got, he's got a high foul rate too. He's got, he's got some other stuff that we've got to, that we've got to work around, but I think he can, I think that he can, I think that he can, he can help us. But I mean, going into a season that thin on the front line is very, very tough when you're in a power conference and asking those guys to, to, to play at a high level for 30 plus nights is tough. And, and so we, we need to get those guys, you know, we've got a scholarship or two left and, you can always open up, open up one, if you can find a third. And so we need to, we need to get those guys some help. 

Just talking to your assistants, going back to something Brian asked, they emphasize winning. You talked about the metrics and the analytics, but sometimes being a winner is kind of hard to quantify to be other than the record. How do you kind of goabout seeking out winners? 
Well, the analytics doesn't do that, but when you get it down into that, when you get it down into that group, then you look, all right, well, this kid was at Houston, so he won, he played in the national championship game. This, I mean, that's, that's pretty, that's pretty simple for, I'm not very smart, but that is pretty simple to, to figure out once you get it into the group, if you like the numerics, then you can, then you can say, all right, well, this guy came from Michigan state who went to the elite eight, this guy came from, then you can start looking in there and say, all right, we value the winners in this group. Let's kick out some of the guys who haven't won as much.

Now let's all things being equal, we're going to tilt towards the guys who have won. 

And then you look at like the teams that were in the final four in the national championship, like, you know, five stars with Houston, Florida, I don't know if it's fair to compare to them yet, but like, you look at that. 

I mean, look, I mean, I think that's a, I think that's a BS narrative. A lot of people put, look, talent wins. Yeah. All right. And you can say what you want, but like, there's a lot of luck involved in the tournament, but the team who shows up with the best players usually wins. And if the team that shows up with the best players is coached worth a damn, they're going to win a lot. All right. And that, I mean, that's just the way it works. And, you know, that's a nice narrative that they put out there. But that last year was also the oldest year ever in college basketball because of last year with the COVID and that sort of thing. So to think that you're going to be able to build teams like that moving forward is a false, is a false premise. And so you've got to have talented freshmen. I mean, that sounds great. But Duke had two freshmen drafted in the top 10 and they were in the final four, weren't they? Huh? 

Yeah. 

All right. So, I mean, where are we going to talk about that? You go get two top 10 freshmen, you go to the final four. I mean, all right. That's a false narrative, too. But that's all the same. And so, I mean, Houston does it a certain way. But, I mean, Houston has Chris Cenac Jr. this year. He's a five-star freshman. They've got Flemings. He's a five-star freshman from San Antonio. I mean, look, I mean, anybody's going to tell you you got to have. Look, it's the horse, it's not the jockey. So you've got to have I mean, you've got to have the you've got to have the right guy. You're not winning the Kentucky Derby on a donkey. All right. So, I mean, you've got to have you've got to have you've got to have thoroughbred racehorses to win. And, I think that it just so happened that that's that that's that that's what happened. But make no mistake, Houston had really, really good players. I mean, L.J. Cryer, I recruited him. He's from New Orleans. He was Katrina displaced into Houston. I recruited him when I was at LSU. Like he's a damn good player. He went to Baylor and he's a really good player. He's a borderline, he's a four high and four star kid. And when you have a high and four star kid who's in his sixth year, I mean, I would argue that's a five star. I mean, they are going to beat most of those guys. So, I mean, there's a lot of different ways to do it. But make no mistake, we want the best players we can get. Talent wins. There's no substitute. There's no substitute for that. And so, we're going to try to go get the best players and compete for the best players. 

We're going to just address the situation with Paul as you guys’ fault. Is there anything that you can learn going forward with that situation? 
Oh, I mean, look, I mean, I say it was our fault. I'm saying the kid wanted to come. We couldn't, we couldn't facilitate it happening. All right. And so it's not the kid's fault. He's a great kid. His people overseas are incredible people. His agents are really good people. All those folks are great, great people. And they handled it way better than I would have. And so, look, you have to make tough decisions sometimes. And the tough decisions hurt individuals. But you have to make the best decisions for your program. And so we were in a tough spot. And, you know, some tough decisions were made. And it was unfortunate with Paul. But we wish him. I mean, I still talk to his agent and his people. And, I wish him nothing but the best. And I think he's going to be a very, very good player. 

As for dealing with players, one of the narratives about the NIL era going into it was, oh, if some players get more money than others, it'll destroy chemistry, which obviously doesn't happen in the pros. But that was one of the arguments against.  How has how you interact with the coach or deal with players changed in this era?
No, I mean, there's still it's all the same. I mean, damn, they're getting paid before. I mean, it's all it's all it's all the same. There's no there's no there's no there's no there's no difference in any of it. I mean, look, I guess what you're asking is, listen, if you try to coddle them and be nice to them and give in to everything they want, they're still transferring. So you might as well coach them how you want to coach them and play them how you want to play them. And then at the end of the year, we'll figure it out. But I mean, if that's what you're asking, like if you're trying to do that. But the thing with the money is the mark. Look, I’d pay every kid on our roster three million dollars if I could. All right. But that's not what the market bears. This is America. It's the free markets. All right. So the free markets determine what the kids value. And then the schools or the programs pay what the market value is. And so when you try to cap markets, I mean, that's what's getting ready to go on right now. That's why they still need congressional help, even though the House settlement passed, because what they're doing is illegal. They're trying to cap the markets. And that's why they're still trying to go to Congress to get help. And until there's collective bargaining, it's you got to let the free markets reign and they're trying to cap markets. So my point being. The kids can get upset all they want, but they still decided to sign for that amount of money with whatever school they went to. And that was their market at that time. And hey, look, some of their markets are going to go up. Some of their markets are going to go down. That doesn't mean you get to renegotiate in the middle of the year based on, that's great. You had a great game. OK, you want a little, you want more money, OK? I mean, next time you have a bad game, I can take money from you. No, that's not how it works. That's why you have a contract. And so, I mean, that's that's the way that's the way things that's the way things work. And so, look, I haven't changed what we do. We do what we do and take it or leave it. 

Well, you mentioned the house settlement. How did you guys sort of anticipate that? Was it because it made material changes so far? And so how are you approaching it now? And you guys interact with the clearinghouse? 
We have not done anything with the clearinghouse yet. I was on the forefront of the other NIL movement. I'm trying to lay back on this and and and and let some others learn their learn their learn their thing. So we have not done any deals through the Deloitte clearinghouse yet. We've done all of ours straight through revenue share. We will, but we're going to let that thing even out. We're not going to be the first to try any new things. There's a lot of stuff floating around out there that people are doing or people are attempting to do. And, some circumvention methods, if you will. But we're not, we're not all of our stuff is straight from the NIL contract. And it was paid out before July one or rolled into a rev share contract. And the rev share will be paid out throughout the year. Now, I would assume as we go along, we will put some things in the clearing. Obviously, we'll put some things in the clearinghouse. But, I think I read something where, I think like 80 deals have been passed through or something like that right now. They've got 300 deals. But to Luke's point, they're still dealing with a bunch of legal ramifications. They've still got to get the plaintiff's attorneys to agree to some of them. And there's a lot of other stuff. So now, August 1st, they got to start reporting what's in that thing. So we'll have a better sense. We'll have a better sense of what the market is. But I still believe it goes back to what I was saying. I mean, you have a hard time. I think the numbers are going to come down some. I don't think it's going to come down as drastically as everybody thinks. Now, the market was up almost 180 percent this year. Now, I don't think it's going to stay where it is now, but it's not going to come down as much as I think everybody's hoping, where it's just the rev share, where it's just the rev share cap. I mean, it's going to be the rev share plus some NIL. But until we, like I said, I go back to this, we can talk about this all we want. Until there's collective bargaining, none of this matters. They're going to keep getting it's going to keep happening. So, I mean, that's the only way. We wouldn't be running to Congress for help if everything that was happening was legal. Right. You don't need to go get antitrust protection if what you're doing is correct. Even with the house settlement, you don't need it. Right. Because what you're doing is within the law. Well, when it's not, then you got to do that. So you're going to keep you're going to keep. Running uphill against that until you get some parameters.

You talked about pre-July 1. Was there a lot of frontloading going on with your guys as well? It sounds like it's happening all over the country. 
Yes. 

House lets you get 15 scholarships. You mentioned one or two. Are you guys going to get 15 or are you going to stay at 13? 
So yeah, we did frontload. We frontloaded like most. A substantial portion of the money we frontloaded. But as it relates to the 15, we've got 13 on scholarship right now. We've got one walk on. But so we've got some wiggle room on that. Now, if you use the extra scholarships, it comes off your rev share. If you use up to the 15 scholarships, we could technically use two more because our walk on Jordan is grandfathered in on the roster limits. He's part of the things that everybody's seen with it. Yeah, he's a designated student athlete, as they say, a DSA. So, we could technically go up to 16 on this year's roster, with him. So that's where we get the two. And then there's some other things you can maneuver with some of the other guys to potentially get another one or two. 

So have you seen enough of these guys get to know who the leaders are starting to emerge? Was that still a developing process? 
It's developing. We're in the forming stage right now. We're not very far along. We've been together. Today's our 39th day that we've had most of the guys here. And so we haven't had we haven't had we just haven't. And we've had them here 39 days. But we've had one day where we've been able to practice five on five. So we're still forming the team. We're still forming. And we did our team Tuesday yesterday and some leadership. And so we're still in the forming process of all that. I think it's way too early. Now, I would say, Quadir Copeland, who came with me from McNeese, who was at Syracuse. He knows what we're doing. Like he understands things. He's been around. He's had a really, really I mean, he's loud anyway. But he's had a good voice with what we're doing. And I've been very pleased with him. He's, you know, one of the reasons I brought him was he's a good player. I don't want to minimize a very good player. But I also knew he could kind of translate what I'm doing to everybody else. Say, all right, look, guys, a little nuts. But hey, look, here's what happens. This is how it's going to work. And so he's been able to do that. So I think he's done that. But that's almost by default because he's been around and he knows he knows he knows what we're doing. 

It's still the first week of July. But the fact that you only practiced once, you've lost some time. Is that a setback?  And if so, how much of a setback is that to try to recover? 
It's concerning. It's very concerning as you're bringing a whole new group together. We need as much time as we can possibly have. And, you know, we haven't, we just haven't, we haven't had that. So yeah, it's a big concern. Something that I'm worried about keeps me up at night. But we got to, we got to look, we got to play the cards. We're dealt. Can't ask for a redeal. We got to play what we're dealt. And we'll go from there.

More on the current team...
I don't think we talk about ourselves. We don't I mean, we don't talk about anybody else. I mean, all we can control is what we do in this building every day or what we do in the gym every day. And so, I don't I don't I don't get a lot of bandwidth worried about other folks or talking to other folks. And so, I think that I think that, you know, your guys react how you do it. You worry about stuff and they're going to worry about stuff. That's not not important. If you just move forward, then they'll do the same.

What are some of your takeaways of the schedule you've built so far? I mean, with NC Central coming in there first. 
Yeah, I don't know which games have been announced, Craig. I don't even know. Central, Auburn, Kansas and Maui. So six, OK, we got the whole schedule done. What games have y'all foyered? What else do y'all know about that? 

You're the ACC, but we know about Ole Miss. Yeah, we know about Ole Miss. And VCU, and Liberty.  
Asheville and Greensboro.

So what are your thoughts on the schedule? 
I don't know the dates. If I had the dates, I'd give them, but I don't know the dates. Huh? I don't know if all the contracts, sometimes they get a little wonky. I don't know it, but we've got Asheville and Greensboro. Well, first off, I want to say I think look when you. Oh, and we got Texas Southern. That's the game in Reynolds. 

How important is scheduling that? 
So, oh, Oh, I got all their tweet and shit now. All right. I'm sure I left the game out, but we'll leave that for another day when they release the schedule. So I will say this. On the buy games, you talked about Central. Your question was Central. I went way off kilter here. But your question was Central. We got Central, we got Asheville, we got Greensboro. There's a larger point to all that. I think it's important for our fans that we play as many of those local teams as you can. I mean, look, I'm good friends with the coach at Greensboro and the coach. I mean, I've known LaVell since he was, I've known LaVell forever. He's the first one that called me when I got the job. Mike Morell and I at Asheville worked together. And Mike Jones and I, one of the best people I've ever worked with at Greensboro. So those guys call and want to play, we're going to play. And I think it makes sense. If we're going to ask fans to come to Lenovo, we're going to ask fans to come to the games. We at least need to have teams that they're familiar with or that people that are. So we try to do that as much as we can within the area. And then you're also looking for, I mean, UNC Asheville's at the top of the Big South every year. So they're going to win a bunch of games. UNC Greensboro's been at the top of the SOCON. Central's been one of the best teams, you know, one of the best teams in the MEAC. Texas Southern's been one of the best teams in the SWAC. So you want teams that are going to run up wins within their league as well. So you're trying to balance, hey, look, local teams. And you're also trying to balance teams that aren't playing a bunch of other ACC schools so that you can't, so that you don't pull from the same numerics in the net. And so there's a lot of that stuff that you're balancing when you're doing that. And then, I mean, look, the high-major games are the high-major games.

I'd have loved to have done a home-and-home with Ole Miss. Y'all talked about that one. The reality is, us and Ole Miss and the net, where we are, it makes way more sense to do neutral-neutral to ensure that both games are quad-one. And we were actually not going to play Ole Miss. We were going to play another buy game. And then when I got the ACC schedule and saw that our permanent opponents were Virginia and Wake and kind of who our home opponents were and whom our road opponents were, it skewed the math on how many quad-one games we had. And I thought we had to go get another quad. We didn't have enough quad-one games within our league. So I felt like we had to go get another quad-one game. And that's when we went and scheduled Ole Miss. And we talked initially with Beard about doing a home-and-home. But then it was like, well, look, our numbers are a little shaky. Your numbers are better than ours. But let's be really, really safe. And let's make sure it's quad-one because they want a quad-one game, too. We both need it. So I was like, all right, we'll play in Greensboro. And then we'll return it to South Haven or Tupelo, wherever they decide. And so, that's the mechanisms of how you do it. But I feel good about our schedule. It's going to be tough. It'd be a tough non-conference schedule. But we have to, with the league's only going to give us so much right now. And so we've got to go make up. It's, we're the fools if we don't go, look, we can sit here and complain about this and that. They tell us on the front end who the teams are we're playing. You can project out how many of those games are going to be quad-one, quad-two, quad-three. All right? Then you know what an average NCAA tournament resume looks like and how many quad-one, quad-two, quad-three games they play. Then you just do simple addition and subtraction. The league's going to give us seven. We need 12. We got to go get five. I mean, it's simple. You got to go do it. 

You're known for your big public personality. But your assistants all have talked about, there's like a gentler side to you. Is that something that you've developed? Or is it something that, you've always, that you've been able to connect with people all your life? 
No, I mean, I think, look, I've long ago quit caring what the public thought, all right? And so I do care what the people who are around me every day think because they see me every day.

You guys come in here to a press conference. We talk for 30 minutes. We all go our separate ways. We'll see each other again in six weeks, right? Then we'll see each other again every day, every week for a couple months. And then we'll move on. You'll have a better sense of things then. So, what's thought here doesn't really affect me. It used to bother me, used to bother me, but doesn't anymore. But I do care what our people every day think. And so, it's my job, I'm the leader of the program. So it's my job to serve all of our folks, whether that be our players, that be our managers, that be our assistants, that be our support staff, whoever it may be, they're dependent on me. I'm dependent on them to a big extent as well. But it's my job to serve them. And, you know, whatever hat that is that I have to wear, I mean, we came in here, what is it, 10.30? We did the press conference. I've already, I've already worn like eight different hats this morning with different people. But that's part of, that's part of what it is. And I enjoy that part of it. Look, you do this for people. You do this for the relationships. That's what it's all about. And I said this before, but like, yeah, you gotta have good players, but you win with your people. I've got great staff. I've got great people. And that's how you win. And, you don't have to have the most money. You don't have to have the nicest facilities. You don't have to have the newest stuff. If you've got great, great people, it gives you a chance. And that's what we've built all of our programs on. It's having really, really good people. And I'm very, very loyal to them. And they've been very, very loyal to me. And, I think that's why it works. 

Speaking of loyal, Greg Goldin kind of followed you almost everywhere you've been. What sets him apart? 
He's incredible. Best in the country. He's incredible. I'm very happy to have him back. I couldn't afford him at McNeese, but he's our Director of Pack Performance. He oversees our entire performance operation from our mental performance team, athletic training, strength and conditioning and nutrition. He oversees all of that for me. Look, I hire really good people. There's stuff that's not my area of expertise. All right? That's not my area of expertise. So I hire really good people and he can put it in data that is very, very simple for me to understand. And I know this, our guys are strong. Our guys are well-conditioned and we don't have soft tissue injuries. And so, that's a good sign. But that's a good sign that we've got a good, really, really good program. And he's, he just has a real depth of knowledge. It takes a lot of stuff off my plate, that one, I'm not all that interested in and two, I don't know anything about. And so, you know, you gotta have experts and stuff. I don't know everything. And as a head coach, you're pulled in a lot of different directions. You want to do the stuff that gives you energy and you want other people to do the stuff that gives them energy, that would drain your energy. So he, a lot of the stuff that would drain my energy worrying about, he loves it. Have at it, buddy. Just update me and let me know. 

How do you kind of manage not having him for two years at McNeese? 
Well, Steve, who's with us here and Steve did a great job at McNeese. That's why I brought Steve. And so those guys are kind of the tag team here. And, I've always had really, really good folks but Greg and Steve knew each other. That's why I hired Steve at McNeese but Steve was a little more economical. And Steve does a great job. And he, I mean, Steve did a phenomenal job for us at McNeese. And that's why I brought him here. And I thought it was important that we had both of them. 

What was it you said about the buy-in for NC State to go out and not only hire a GM but an assistant GM, not only go out and hire the strength coach but hire somebody that can help fill in? 
Well, I think, I mean, look, I think a lot's been made of that. I mean, first off, everybody has that now. If you don't have that, you're dead. And second off, like we haven't really added any position. We just changed some titles. Like there's people in, we got the same number of people sitting in the same number of desks. We just rearranged the desks. So it's not, it's not like it's been some like, just massive or just dropping people off everywhere, right? So, I mean, I think that, look, the way I go about things is different than maybe the previous staff went about things. And I want to say this, Coach Keatts did a good job here now. This is, the more I'm here, like he did a good job. I know, it didn't end how he wanted it to end but there'll be a bunch of high major schools that want to hire him again. And he did a much better job than he's given credit for. Took this program to the final four, took this program to the NCAA tournament about half of his years, if you count the COVID years. That ain't bad with some of the resources and some of what he had. He did a damn good job. And he doesn't get the credit, he doesn't get the credit that he deserves. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that, but he did a damn good job and our fans should be appreciative of him and our folks should be appreciative of him. And he's going to, he'll land back on his feet and he's going to win. He's going to win. He's going to win. 

There was a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement. Is that still going on in your interactions with the public? And when you interact with folks and you, maybe have a state recruit, do they, how are they reacting to hearing from NC State? 
Well, first off, I don't go out, I'm pretty much in the office and go home every day. I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm not, I'm not out and about a bunch. And usually when I'm out, I'm out recruiting, but I do see, the fans are, I was in, I was at a function in Palm Beach, Florida last month. And the waiter came up to me and was like, I grew up in Raleigh. I'm a huge NC State fan. I was in Palm Beach, Florida at a restaurant and I gave him my number. He actually texted me since then. He's going to come to a game. So that was exciting, but his family is still in Clayton. So that part was cool. So yeah, I mean, I see, you know, when I'm going through airports or, wherever, you see a bunch of NC State folks. So, that part's, that part's been cool. We're everywhere, which is, which is good. Thanks, Coach. What? That's it? No, thank y'all.