NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media today and discussed a variety of topics including his roster, expectations for the season, and much more.
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference with Coach Wade.
Opening statement
Thanks everybody for coming. So we're excited. We're excited to get rolling. Our summer program's off and we're moving into, building the foundation for the for the season. And so very pleased with our progress. I think we're ahead of where I thought we would be at this point. Last time we met, we weren't all that healthy. We're as healthy as we've been, and we'll be able to practice with 14 of our 15 players today, which is critical.
The only one who isn't cleared right now is Darrion Williams. He's going through concussion protocol. He's on the back end of that and we'll continue to monitor his progress, but we anticipate having him in the middle of this week if he keeps hitting all the markers. That's something you don't want to rush anybody back from. And so he's the only guy that's out right now. Everybody else is available. And so very very pleased with our progress this summer.
As I mentioned our strength and conditioning staff and our nutrition staff with Coach Goldin, Coach Soltysiak and Allison Wade, they did a phenomenal job. On average each kid decreased his body fat by about 2%. We increased our lean muscle mass about 7%. Then our lower body strength u which is the thing that is the lifting part that most correlates to win shares uh is lower body strength through deadlifts and those sort of things. We increased that by 65%. That was a huge point of emphasis for us moving in and so our strength staff did a great job. We have an average deadlift of 772 lbs. Increased our bench press by about 30 lbs each. So pleased with that.
On the court, I really like where we are. Particularly on offense. We're tracking about three percentage points ahead on our three-point shooting. We had 848 live, five on five threes this summer and we shot those at 38% which is about three percentage points higher than where we thought we'd be with the roster we assembled. So, that's tracking at a good number. We have four guys shooting over 40% from three, which is huge. Led by Paul McNeil on 112 threes on 112 attempts. He's made 46% of his threes, which is phenomenal. So, hopefully he can keep that moving.
And the other part of threes is being able to get the ball to him without turning it over. And we're at about a one and a half to one assist to turnover ratio, which is solid. Kind of tracks where we need it to be. But I'm most pleased our point guards, Tre and Q are at 2:1 and Darrion is at 3:1. And he kind of plays a little bit every play point guard, he can play the one through the four. He can play everywhere, but he has the ball in his hands a lot. Him being able to make good decisions is critical. uh for us and so we're very pleased with his three to one and the two point guards being at two to one is is also also very very good.
So I like where we are. I like where I like where we're we're uh the work that we put in this summer. I think our players are in a really good place. We're healthy and we're ready to get rolling with the first practice today.
Got to ask you about the team retreat this past weekend. Obviously, a little bit different than what some coaches might do. You might say, "Hey, let's go have some fun right beforehand." You guys– “We did have fun.”
Yeah. But Navy Seal training, I mean, what went into the thought process there? And how do you feel like the team came out of that?
Well, the retreat's much more than the Navy Seal training. So, the Navy Seal training is on, we did a we got there on a Friday, we got there Friday. No cell phone reception except you got Wi-Fi in the camp mess haul, but outside of that, no cell phone reception at the cabins or anything. So the bigger part is our guys staying together, our staff staying together. We had a session that night where we went over our team goals.
We went over our team identity. We did some things like that. Then we did a night session with the Seals. The next morning we wake up, we do a morning session with the Seals. Then we have a whole day worth of programming. We had different speakers come in. We did some different things for our guys to get to know each other, for our staff to get to know each other. So we did all that during the day on Saturday. Then at night we divided up into teams and we did like a hostage kind of mission where you all had to work together for about two hours.
So and then Sunday we did another morning session with the SEALs and then we and then you know we we closed out our programming. So it's more than just the it's more I mean the Seal stuff is a part of it but it all works together that's not the only part of it and just like the classroom part's not the only part of it and so all of that works together but you know I learned that our team I knew that but our team's got really really good fiber. It was a great retreat, I mean it was emotional.
We had guys up there crying and talking about things. I mean, so it was really good for our group and I've been doing retreat a long time and I have one staff member that's been with me on almost all of them and we both he came to me afterwards and he said, "What do you think?" I was like, "I think it went very well." He said, "It's the best one we've had." I said, "Well, I agree. I just didn't want to say that." And so, I think that, we're starting to build some fiber with one another and everybody's starting to see some commonality, which will really help us as we move forward here.
So, I was very, very pleased overall, with the retreat, although I'm getting a little old to keep doing all that stuff. So, my body's hurting today. I had to get treatment this morning. No, I'm just kidding. But, you got to lead from the front. So, it only works if I'm out there working with them. So, we tried to get Ben up there to do something, but he couldn't. He wouldn't do much.
How did Darrion end up in concussion protocol?
He got uh he got uh hit in practice with a with he fell down on an elbow and so that happened early the previous week uh in practice. So he, you've got to clear the testing and then you have a five-day return to play and he's in, I think, day three or four of the return to play. So he'll be back midweek, barring nothing else happens.
You mentioned his ability to play different positions and do different things. What is his primary role do you see? And how important is it to be able to bring in a guy of that stature for future recruiting and and and just--
I mean it's good to bring in a guy of that stature because he's a damn good player. I mean that's the most important part. And so look he's somebody that can play everywhere. I mean look when the ball's in his hands good things are going to happen. He can either make a shot, he can either make a pass and find the open guy. Like good stuff happens when he has the ball just like is when Tre has the ball and when Q has the ball like good stuff happens.
But Darrion has incredible incredible feel and he's somebody that I mean we have him bring the ball up the court we move him around he's somebody that we can play a lot of different positions he can play all five spots on the court and being able to do that and manipulate matchups and manipulate things with him I mean he makes the game easy u the biggest thing he can do in Q’s like this as well.
They can both put the defense in rotation without an on ball screen with their pos-tup game and you either, if you don't trap them, they're both going to go lay the ball in. If you do trap them, they're both good passers and can pass out and then we're playing four on three and the dominoes are knocked down and we're off to the races. And so, everybody works on ball screen coverage and that sort of thing. Well, when you got on ball screens and then you can put them in rotation in other ways and Darrion does a tremendous job of that.
You talked earlier in the summer about Q's ability to sort of translate the things you wanted to do to this new group.
By the way, you were right on something we talked about.
I'm curious what it is.
You're not always right, but you were right on you were right on something. You were right on something we spoke about. I remember what you were talking to me about, but All right. No problem. Sorry.
But having Q you talked about having Q sort of a translator in some ways, a guide. Has he filled that role the way you hoped?
More than I hoped. Quadir's been incredible. The biggest thing he does is he gives everybody confidence when he's out there. Now, he's talking a lot. But I mean, he gives guys, I told the media staff, we can't do the mic’ed up with him or they're going to run out of they're going to run out of bandwidth on whatever they're storing it on. He gives guys confidence when he's playing with them and he understands what we're doing. He did a great job leading the retreat. He under he knew the Seals.
We used the same guys for years. Like, he knew those guys. He did a great he does a great job leading and and and he you know I have to be careful because he prepares the guys sometimes you know they zigg and I like to zag so he he kind of keeps me on my toes having him around because I can't use some of the same tricks all the time. But he's he's grown so much. This time last year, he he was hardly even in the rotation at McNeese and now he's I mean, he's firmly in our rotation and going to play a major major role and have a lot of responsibility for our team and our program. And that just is his continual growth. and couldn't be more proud of him and more pleased in what he's done.
At Syracuse, especially in some of these games against trial teams or big games. He had an ability to sort of get under the opposition's skin, we'll say. Do you encourage that or I mean, can you use that as a weapon or do you have to reel him in a little bit sometimes?
Well, you'd rather tell somebody woah than go. I'd rather back somebody up than try to get them going, right? So, I mean certainly there's a fine line. I look at it like it's a volcano. It builds up. You just can't have it overflow. You can't have it explode, right? So, we we we want to encourage him to be himself and we don't want to take him away from being himself, but certainly sometimes, guys being themselves, not just Q, but anybody that can cross a little bit of a line and we don't want him to we don't want him to to cross that line. And so that's something that we certainly talk with him about, but he hasn't done that yet. And look, he's one of those guys. Our fans are going to love him. I know they didn't love him when he was at Syracuse, but you love him when he's with you. You love him when he's with you and and he's with us and he's excited about being here and we're we're excited about having him.
Speaking of guys that get under the opposition's skin, Tre Hollowman tends to do that a little bit too and has some toughness about him as well. I mean, a lot of toughness. What have you seen from him so far? And how has he fit into this program as well?
Yeah, Tre is one of three guys who haven't hadn't missed any workouts, anything, and he's one of those three. He's been just like an iron man. He shows up, does his job, he's reliable, he's dependable, he's pretty consistent. There's some things we're still trying to build on with him, but Tre brings an edge to us that you need. And, he's a hard worker. He's shooting the ball much better. He's shooting it much more like he was as a sophomore than as a junior, which is what we were banking on, when we took him. And so he's been really good, but he brings an edge to us and he's got a, he's got a lot to prove. He wants to prove that that he can play a little bit a little bit more how he wants to play and how he sees himself and still be on a team that wins at a really really high level. So, I like that chip that he has on his uh chip that he has on his shoulder and he's got a really good way about how he disseminates that down to the rest of the team. I think he certainly brings something to us. It's a little bit different.
Who were the other two that haven't missed any practices?
Colt Langdon has been like he's like an absolute he's like an absolute iron man. I know people don't talk about him much, but I mean he's he's been uh he's been incredible. He’s been absolutely incredible and he's gotten he's reshaped his body maybe as much as anybody in our program. He's been all in on everything that we're doing. You talk about a kid who loves NC State. Just just absolutely loves NC State, loves Raleigh, loves being here. And he's somebody that can be able to help us. And so I've been. I've been really really really really pleased with him and with his um with his with his work ethic.
You mentioned his shooting. What's it been like seeing his development over the summer?
Incredible. I'm very uh proud of Paul both on and off the court. I think Paul's shown a ton of growth on the court and off the court. One thing that's unique about Paul that's really such a great skill is a lot of your best shooters you have to run offense for. You got to run beer screens, you got to run you got to run a bunch of sets. Paul gets a lot of his shots just in the flow of the game and they're very very good shots. He can make contested tough ones too. There was a stretch in practices where this probably tells you more about our defense, but there were stretches in practice where there were three straight practices where he got and one threes. He got fouled on threes.
And so he's been really matured, you know off the court. I think he learned a lot from his freshman year and credit to him for taking the right lessons from his freshman year and understanding what college basketball is about. And I thought the previous staff did a great job with him. They had to be patient and help him grow and learn through the year. And we're the beneficiaries of that. We kind of get to pick up where it left off when it left off on a high note. And I'm very very pleased with him. I think him just being more rock solid and and and being having more of a foundation off the court has really really helped him on the court. And so, um you know, he's excited about the year. He's excited about being here. He loves the pack. And so, we're very very pleased with his progress and he's going to have a huge huge season for us.
Will, what's your assessment been of Matt Able to this point and how he's kind of adjusted to being around some of the older guys?
Yeah, I mean Matt's mature. Sometimes you get a freshman and they're 18 going on eight. Sometimes you get a freshman, they're 18 going on 28. He falls in the 18 going on 28 category. And so Matt played for a great high school program the last year at Sagemont under Coach Roe. They did a great job with him, prepared him well. His father was a high level player, played at Boston College, played professionally, and played in the Baltimore Catholic League, which is one of the toughest leagues in the country. And so his father you know has an acute sense of his mother was a very good tennis player.
So there he just grew up in an environment that allowed him to to to be, a little bit further along in the maturation process. And when you have that and you've got talent, which he's got talent, you know, we always say there's a difference between talent and talented. And he's talented.
He's got the talent and then he's kind of got the extra dimension or whatever you want to call it of the of the of the of the background and the family and being able to being able to, being able to process things at a quick in a quick pace. And so he's earned everything he's got. He's been great for us. I'm very pleased. Everybody talks about basketball. His body has changed tremendously. When you see him, think they're coming to practice, right, for a few minutes.
Yeah. So, No, I agreed to it. I agreed. Craig asked. But um when you see him, I mean, he doesn't look like a freshman. Like, if you see him, he doesn't look like a freshman. He's done a great job with Allison and nutrition. and he's done a great job with Greg and Steve over in strength and conditioning and so I'm very I'm very pleased with him and he's going to have a great year and he's played against high level competition in high school.
He went to USA basketball just high level competition. He went to these camps where he was playing against pros and older college players and he obviously played very well. That's why there's a lot of people talking about him. And so and so you know I think that he's positioned himself well and we're excited uh we're excited to see what he does this year.
Last time we were here you wanted to add another big man. You did that with Musa.
Yes we did.
What was it like getting him and what does he add to this team?
I'll say this. We've been in a lot of uh we've been in a lot of different recruiting battles and a lot of different recruiting stuff. This is this was an alltimer. We got him here by about 12 hours and it was a team effort. Our academic people led by Katie and those folks, they did a phenomenal job. Our administration Boo and Michelle our international office with Miss James over there that they I mean like it was like it was wild and everybody did everything they could to to make it work and we're unbelievably appreciative.
But one of the reasons it's so great is he's maybe one of the nicest and most appreciative kids you'll ever meet. He's very soft spoken. But he's one of the most appreciative kids. He's always dreamed of playing division one basketball. He's always dreamed of being able to go to college, the opportunity for him to go to college. He's got six siblings back in Gambia and and only one of them played junior college basketball here in the United States, but the rest of them are still like he's so appreciative of NC State. He's so appreciative of what everybody's done. He's been best friends with Kayla and Sierra over in academics the first couple weeks trying to get caught up on everything.
But, luckily he speaks good English. Gambia was colonized by the British, so English is the first language over there, which was helpful. Come for the basketball, stay for the history lesson. But he's going he makes it. Look, he's a good player. I mean, here's the thing. The first the first practice a couple of our players were like, golly, he was like, "Guys, did y'all Google him or anything?" And they're like, "Well, yeah." I was like, "Did you see he declared early for the draft and did like five NBA workouts? Like this kid's a real player. Like we didn't just go, we weren't dumpster diving. We didn't just go find him, off the trash heap.
Like this guy's a real player. And I think our guys were a little bit surprised. He measured in, just shy of 610. He's a little bit bigger. He's a little bit bigger and uh he can play he can, he can play the wing, he can play the four, he can play the five. We can use him and move him around, but he is an elite elite elite defender. I mean, Terrance Arceneaux is one of the best defenders in the country and Musa is every bit as good a defender as Terrance is.
And so, we are I feel like it kind of completed our team. We had a little bit of a void there. And a lot of times when you add a kid late, you kind of know what the talent you're adding is, but you want to make sure you add a great person and somebody that fits within your team and somebody fits within your standards and what you're what you're about. And he checks all those boxes and then some. And it's a good perspective for our guys. I mean, this kid's played professionally in one of the toughest leagues in the world. and to see how appreciative he is to be here. I mean, he thanks everybody every day after we eat.
He's just so appreciative of everything. And that's a good perspective for our guys because sometimes we lose perspective. We got a lot of these guys transferred from other high majors. Oh, I should get this. I should get No, like let's show some appreciation for what we have to see somebody that's played in the Spanish ACB league and that's played at the highest levels in the world. We got guys on our team that'll go play professionally that won't sign in as good a league as he played in. Right. and to see him come to college and how much he appreciates college and appreciates the college experience and appreciates everything NC State's done for him and all the people that have worked so hard to allow his dream to come true is really something unique and something pretty special.
I want to ask about Ven-Allen Lubin. Obviously, you had some comments that kind of made the rounds on social media in the offseason about just how he was being played at UNC. How have you um I guess just through this kind of process early in the season gotten a sense of maybe the role that he will take on for you guys?
Yeah, Ven's a tremendous tremendous player. Somebody that we're going to utilize and play to his play to his strengths. He's somebody that has an incredible finishing ability around the rim. If you look back to when he was at Vanderbilt, he made about a third of his threes at Vanderbilt. We're going to allow him to step out and shoot some threes. But he's somebody that's a good rebounder for his size. He's somebody who finishes well around the rim.
He's somebody who's an extremely extremely efficient player. He's always around the play, but he's never in the way, which is hard to be, especially as a bigger guy. Usually, they're in the play, but they're also in the way. So, he's somebody who's who who who knows spacing. He understands things. He's he's extremely uh he's extremely mature. He just recently got engaged. He's just a really really good person. We got great people all up and down our roster. and he's somebody that's going to play a major major part in our success this season.
Coach, what's been the most unique thing about your recruiting pitch when it gets to getting players into your system? Whether that's not making any promises and having them understand that everything is earned and not given in Raleigh.
Every kid is different. Every situation is different. And there's not a one-sizefits-all. And I don't look at recruiting as like I'm not not I don't look at as like I'm giving a recruiting pitch. I look at it like look here's who we are. Here's what we can do for you. Here's what we think you can do for us. And let's see if this works. I don't feel like if you're pitching something, you're trying to sell them a dream that's not realistic.
I want everybody to come here with realistic expectations of what they're getting into. And so we talk about hard work. We talk about the road games that we do in the summer. We talk about the retreat and what we do. Like we're not trying to get everybody here and they go, "Man, this is totally different than what we thought about in recruiting." Like, we want everybody to know what they're walking into.
Everybody has to come in with eyes wide open and understand what they're getting into. So, I look at it as we see what the player and their family wants out of the experience. We'll see what we want out of the experience. And if those things merge together and those things fit together, then we're then it usually works.
And so, we don't try to be anything that we're not. We don't try to sell you on something that we're not. We are who we are. We're not for everybody. And if you don't want to come, go somewhere else. We’ll just kick your ass. But, you're welcome to go somewhere else. And you know if you do want to come then we're going to work with you and develop you on and off the court and help you become the best version of yourself you know basketball-wise and and and socially.
You have a couple of international guys. Is all of the visa stuff settled or is that like a concern in Zakielle's heads with any administrative changes from politicians?
Our international guys are all good. Everything's Everything's good on that end.
You talked about the process of getting Musa here. What did that kind of look like to be able to get him in right under the buzzer?
I mean, it was tight. We were dealing with the visa. We were dealing with some of the visa deadlines and and some of those things, and then our academic calendar, we start school a little bit earlier than most schools and, we're, we're an excellent academic school. So, there's other schools that, you can start classes in October. We can't do that at NC State. It was just a matter of, getting, getting the timing down.
And look, I mean, we had when I tell you we pulled every resource we had. We had some of our boosters helping with politicians to get politicians. I mean, we had we pulled everything everything we could. Because young man, he had earned this opportunity. He deserved it. We knew he was appreciative. I mean, look, at the end of the day, he's also a very good player. We're not naive, right? This is, this isn't the YMCA.
You running a highly competitive basketball program, but it was just everybody coming together and working. I mean, look, our international office, I mean, they're emailing at 12:30 in the morning here, which is 6:30 in the morning over in Spain. I mean, like they they they were working, uh, overtime. We had a we had a little lunchon for them to thank them uh, a couple weeks ago. And so, like, look, everybody everybody worked hard and pulled together. And I think I think it showed, I told the kid, I mean, he was just so appreciative. I think it showed who NC State is. I think that's what we do.
Like we pull together. It may not always be pretty, but we we figure it out. And I think that's kind of how Boo runs the department. I think a lot of it comes down from him at the top and we just figured things out. May not always be pretty. It may not always be seamless, but we're going to get it done. We got the job done. And there's a lot of people that helped get that done. And he's going to be the difference in us winning two or three games this year. And there's going to be a lot of happy people. and and we're very very appreciative of everybody's dedication and hard work to make it happen.
Where do things stand for Alyn Breed heading into day one practice?
He's cleared for practice. He's been working out. He's only been cleared about a week. He looks good. He's moving good. The main thing is we don't have any swelling uh with the knee right now. He's got to wear he's not wearing a brace. He's wearing a sleeve. I always joke with him. He looks like that copper fit like the old man? He always looks like he looks like he's a retiree uh walking around with the sleeve on his leg. But it's credible the technology.
You don't have to wear a bulky brace. He can wear the sleeve and so he's been moving well. He's been shooting it well. We got to get his conditioning right. Obviously, the timing is going to be a little bit different just getting back in and how fast the pace is and and how quickly you have to move and make decisions. We feel good that he'll continue to make progress. We're six weeks out from the first game. And so we've got to continue for him to progress for him to progress through things, but uh we like where he is now.
He's got a great attitude. Kind of, it's been hard. He hadn't played in a while. And, him being able to practice has given him a little bit of a second wind. And kind of given him a little bit more pop to go out there and and um he can see the finish line now. A lot of times he couldn't see the finish line. It was so far in the distance. And I think that's really helped expedite things the last month or so.
Will, we've seen a lot of the red reckoning branding from the athletics department and such. What does that mean to you and how have you kind of seen your players adopt that demeanor on the court?
Yeah, I think I think the red reckoning is that this is about everybody being in it together. And I think when all of us are in it together, NC State's a force multiplier. When I mean in it together, it mean starts with our administration. They're all in. They want to win. Then it goes to our players and our staff. We're all in. We want to win. Then it goes to our fans. They're all in. They want They've been all in. They want to win. All right. And all of us together are a force.
We're NC State. We're red. You know, blood's red, right? Not blue. Blood's red. So, red. And then it's going to be a reckoning for the ACC and for college basketball. You're going to have to deal with this. You had to deal with this because we hadn't always always been on the same page. This is about all of us tying in together, all of us being on the same page, all of us rowing in the same direction. All right. This isn't the Will Wade Wolfpack. It's not the Boo Corrigan Wolfpack. It's not the F I mean, this is all of us together. This is NC State. This is NC State. And so, this is all of us working together. And we have an incredible administration.
We got incredible players. We got a great staff. And we've got one of the best fan bases in all of college athletics. And I think we have one of the best fan bases in college basketball. We just haven't always been aligned. and on the same tune. We're aligned now, and when we're aligned, there's nothing we can't do. There's nothing we can't do. And they're gonna see November 3rd, that thing's gonna be sold out. We're about a week away from selling that deal out on November 3rd.
We're almost at 10,000 season tickets right now. Like, it's coming. And people are going to have to deal with us. And people are going to have to deal with us a lot sooner than they think because our team's a little bit better than I thought. We got a damn good team. All right. And so people are going to have to deal with us here real quick. And they're going to see when we're all aligned and we're all as one and we're all moving in the same direction, better get the hell out of the way.
Where's the team further along than you thought to this point?
I mean, our team cohesiveness. Look, we do profiling and recruiting. So we have and we've got one of the best in the country with Andrew Slater, our general manager at Drew does a great job of I mean we know stuff they don't even know about themselves. So you know we we we and our assistants do a great job and Adam and and Brandon and Vernon like they've all like they all do a great job of doing that and Patrick you know we pull all the resources.
So we have a pretty good idea like one of the traits we look for in recruiting is resilience. We want guys who are resilient, guys who have overcome some adversity. I've had to overcome some adversity. We want guys because if you've done that, you're more likely to overcome adversity when you get to college. And college basketball is tough. It is a tough deal. It's a competitive world. I feel like that our guys have all seen the adversity.
There's a respect and a care and a togetherness that sometimes, sometimes takes some takes some time. And I told our guys at the end of the retreat yesterday, like we can have a special season and we've got to continue. We got to put into action what we've been talking about and I've seen good u I've seen good signs and positive signs that we're putting it into action, but we've got to put this into action. We can have a special season. We've got talented guys. We got a really good roster.
We got really really good players. Adding Musa has allowed us to give us the frontline depth that we really really need. So, we have everything that we need. If it ain't if it doesn't get done, that's on me. I mean, I got everything I need. I ain't complaining about nothing. We had the NIL backing that we need. We have the revshare backing that we need. We got the staff that we need. It's on us to deliver, on me to deliver, and we're going to deliver.
But our guys have come together. Our guys have connected in a way that you just know when you set it up that the profiling says that all this is going to work. But you know that's on data that's not the real world and the data is happening in the real world. And it's fun to see. It's special to see. And I think that gives us a chance to really, really move forward.
You've taken over a team that's had one of its best seasons and one of its worst seasons in the last two years. Now that you've had the offseason, try to figure out your roster rotations. What's the message you want to send to Wolfpack nation?
I mean, I think I just said it. I mean, we're good. We got a good team. A lot of coaches get up here and badmouth their teams like we're damn good. We got a good team. We're gonna play hard. We're going to be fast and physical. We're going to get after you on both ends. We're going to be the aggressors on both ends. We're going to play for NC State. And we're going to be, we're going to be, we're going to be consistent. That's the biggest thing.
We hadn't had the consistency that we need around here. That's what you said. Like this Dow Jones, we're up down up down up down. We're like the stock market. Like we've got to be a consistent stock that that there's small growth every year, but you know what you're getting. And that's what that's what we're going to be. and we're going to lay the foundation for that uh this season.
How did Mikey Wilkins perform this summer and with so much experience on the roster, what do you expect from his freshman year?
Mikey, we're excited about what he can become. He's way behind right now. He's somebody that got here a little bit late. He had some academic things to finish up over at Christ School. We are working daily to get him in shape. He's somebody that can really help us. He's got a great feel. He moves really well. But there's a lot of things that we need to polish off. But he's going to be a special special player for us. He's going to be a very very good player for us, in time.
Right now our focus is on helping him adjust to college as a freshman. I mean, he comes from a small rural community in western North Carolina. This is a, there's more people on our campus than are in his town. So, I mean, this is a big adjustment for him. And he's going through the learning curve of that right now, and we're hand in with him helping him. He made unbelievable strides this weekend at our retreat. He he got one of the medallions from the Seals. They picked two people. He faced some of his fears of the water. he faced some of his fears. Like I thought there was real uh progress with him this this weekend.
But he's somebody that's going to be a long-term stock. And we're going to have to grow it. We're going to have to know the seeds planted. We got to water it and get it going. But we really believe in him and I think he's going to be a really good player in due time.
Let me talk about Snell.
Yeah. And the significance of him staying with the program.
Snell's incredible. So, this is what I'm talking about when I say we got a special group. Snell may not, hopefully we're blowing some people out and we get Snell in the game. All right. Now, he's as vital a part of our team as anybody. In fact, today, if we had to send a team captain out there, it'd be Jordan Snell. He's held this thing together, and he loves this place. He's our representative on every board known to man. Him and Ven are our sack representatives.
Snell is somebody who has an incredible presence to him, never has a bad day, is always excited, gets our other guys excited, and is somebody that has unbelievable leadership ability, leadership qualities. Our guys look to him. He's like a big brother to a lot of our guys. We've had a guy who was sick who stays and he stayed with Snell. Snell took care of the guy. Like he is, he's an incredible person. He's like everything has to fit. Like if you're putting together a big picture, right? Or you're putting together a big puzzle. Every piece has to fit.
Without one or two pieces, the puzzle's not whole. Like the puzzle's not whole. If one or two pieces are missing, your big picture is no good, right? Snell's a huge part. Everybody's a huge part. Our managers, we got an incredible manager group. Like we didn't even talked about them. Like all that stuff is important and you got to have leadership within those groups. Like Bryson and Chandler had our manager group.
Like those guys are important. Snell is just as important. Without his piece, our puzzle is not whole. And his piece is just as important as Darrion Williams's piece and that's the way our programs run. And he's somebody that's going to make a major impact on us winning. Just the juice he brings on the bench, the juice he brings every day to practice. There's incredible incredible value in that. It's a great question.
All right. With walkons kind of going away in the near future, do you miss a guy like that with walk-ons kind of possibly going away?
Well, you can still have walkons. It's all on your roster limits. So, you can still have walk-ons, but we'll find we'll find some good guys. It's a followup on Snell.
