NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media following the Wolfpack's 88-86 win over South Carolina in the Bad Boy Mowers Series exhibition in Greensboro, N.C.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Wade’s press conference.
Opening Statement
I'm obviously happy to get the win. That was a huge shot by Paul [McNeil, Jr.] at the end. We’ve got a lot of work to do, as everybody can tell. I thought we were very aggressive, particularly to start the game, and they sliced our defense up. Our press was pretty poor, so we've got a lot of work to do. I appreciate Paul bailing us out there at the end. We did a good job in the six minute game, something we work on. We're down, 79-70, and walked it down to win, but we've got to make sure we don't put ourselves in that position. Their guards were really good. We couldn't stay in front of Meechie [Johnson]. We left [Eli] Ellis open at the back end of the press a bunch. They were stacking the side on the press, and we were trapping when we shouldn't trap; you've got to drop back. That’s been a problem that we've seen in practice. We saw it in our first scrimmage, so we obviously haven't been able to get that fixed, and that's something that we've got to get fixed quickly so teams can't take advantage of that. We'll get back to work this week and certainly try to improve.
On cleaning mistakes versus the scouting report…
We did a pretty good scout on South Carolina. We did it probably about 80, 90 percent of what we do in a typical scout on this one. Some of us, it's just playing together, understanding the press, understanding when it's a stack side, when it's a single side, when it's a single side with a shooter, when it's a single side with a non-shooter because when [Myles] Stute's in the corner, you can’t run. I mean, there's a lot of different things, and we've gone through it, but the back guy has to communicate it, and we just couldn't get that communication down tonight.
On his confidence in McNeil…
Well, we called the play for him. It's supposed to be a clean look off of a flare down screen, but he made a big time shot. We called the play for him, so we're pretty confident. He's probably the best tough-shot maker that we have. He makes a couple of those in practice every day, just about. I’m very proud of him. I’m very pleased with him. He's grown a lot since last year and grown a lot since we've gotten here. I’m happy that he could have this moment.
On closing out the final six minutes…
Well, you want to be tough. We work on the six-minute games. We play those two or three times a week. We spend an inordinate amount of time on that because you're going to be in a lot of those, especially when you're playing other high-major teams or you're in conference. That’s something that we spent a lot of time on, so it was good. Our scrimmage, there was no six-minute game because the margin was a little bit different, so this was good to get some of that on film, but we've got to focus on what we do to make sure that we're not in those situations. I told our guys, “You can never accept in winning what you wouldn't accept in losing." You win in the margins, and even though Paul’s shot went in, that doesn't change the issues that we have. [If] Paul’s shot didn't go in, we've still got the same issues. We spend also a ton of time on closing out the first half: pitiful. We picked up an offensive foul and took two points off the board. We gamble for a steal, and then we overrun a play, and we give them two free throws at the end. That was a four-point swing. If Paul’s shot doesn't go in, we'd probably like those four points. We're 19-of-30 at the free-throw line. We missed 11 free throws, a couple front ends of one-and-ones. You can't shoot 63 percent from the free-throw line and win a lot of games at this level. Now, give our guys credit for getting to the free-throw line 30 times. That's really good, but if Paul's shot doesn't go in, we'd probably like to have three or four of those free throws back. That’s the sort of stuff that we have to be honed in on and focused in on defensively. I thought we were the aggressors for probably eight of the 32 minutes, probably the first four minutes. I thought [Terrance] Arceneaux did a great job getting us going. On probably the last four to five minutes, I thought we were the aggressors. The other times, we were on our heels, and we were on ice skates out there. They were just picking who they wanted to shoot. We need to, certainly, get some of those things fixed as well.
On the NC State fans in attendance…
It was great. It's great, man. It’s great to have a great crowd. It's way more full than I thought it would be, and our fans were into it, and so we appreciate them. We appreciate all of them who come in and spend their afternoon with us, and I can't wait to see everybody you know next Monday at Lenovo for the real deal. We've got incredible fans. We've got great folks, and it's cool to see everybody here today.
On South Carolina being better than the projected last-place SEC finish…
I think they've got really good guard play. Last year, they had [Collin] Murray-Boyles who was a great player, obviously an NBA player. I don't want to talk poorly about [the others], but their guard play wasn't what it is now. There’s a reason they went and got Meechie Johnson back. There's a reason Meechie had his career year when he was with them the year they won the SEC the year before. Ellis is obviously a tremendous player. He plays well over his age. [Kobe] Knox is really good in transition; he hit a big corner three for him. I think their guard play is much improved. I think they shoot the ball well, and they've just got a flotilla of bigs. He can just truck and try every big out and see which one's working that day, and whichever one works, he can play them. I think they're going to be a good team. One of the reasons we wanted to scrimmage them is what they do offensively, and the way they play the motion and some of that stuff is just about some of the hardest stuff for us to guard. I wanted to get that and see how spread we got. We need to get better. We need to get better there, and so we knew that was going to be a challenge coming in. They do a really, really good job.
On Quadir Copeland…
Everybody feeds off Q's energy, and he understands what it takes to win. He kept everybody calm [like], “Hey, we're going to find a way to pull this out. We're going to find a way to do this.” Q is really matured, and he’s somebody that a lot of our guys look to to make sure that they get their confidence from him. When he's confident and he's calm in those situations, a lot of our guys are, as well. I think that that's something that he feeds down to our players, and I thought that helped him quite a bit today.
On the key to shut down Ellis…
Not leaving him open like we did. We had three breakdowns at the end of the press. We over-rotated on a non-shooter one time and left him open. Once those guys see that first shot go in and get that first clean look in, it's tough [to stop]. Some of those were just straight target practice that any great shooter is going to make, and he's a great shooter.
On the skepticism on Ellis’ potential collegiate success…
Who's skeptical on that? He's a good player, but you can't measure— Look, his dad, Jeremy's a hell of a guy. I've known him a long time, and that kid's made of the right stuff. The basketball skills are one thing, but the moxie, the toughness, the grit, and those sort of things, that's what you have to have, if you're a smaller guard, to make it in a power conference. You’ve got to be able to make shots, and you got to have some grit. He can make shots, and he's got grit, so I think he's going to be just fine.
On Darrion Williams’ performance in the second half…
We really went to Darrion down the stretch. Look, he's here for a reason, and we're going to make sure that we put him in the right spots down the stretch and make sure that we put him in the best positions. We really went to him late in the game, and we should have gone to him a little bit earlier as well, but he had those two fouls in the first half. We played him for a while with two fouls, and we took him out to make sure you didn't pick up a third before halftime. He's going to be a great player for us, and it was good for him to knock some of that rust off, and I know he'll be better moving forward.
On getting Musa Sagnia to play…
It was great. We talked before the game. He said, "Coach, six weeks ago, we were in Madrid.” I was like, "Yeah, we were in Madrid, and who'd have thought we'd be here?” He said, “Now I play college basketball games.” He's an awesome kid. He's why you do it and why you work hard and spend all those extra hours. He's appreciative; that's the number one thing. He's appreciative from where he's been and what he's come from. Any opportunity, he's appreciative of that. It's great to see him out there, and he's going to continue to get better. He was a little bit rusty today. We see a lot better version of that most days, but he's a little bit rusty today, but he's going to continue to get better, and I think that he'll be a really, really good player for us this season.
