Coach Wade recently spoke on the Wolfpack Weekly Radio Show, talking about the NC Central win, previewing the UAB game, and much more!
Coach, congratulations on 1-0 and a 114-66 victory over the Eagles.
Thank you. It was a good night. I thought our team played well. We played a little bit better. I was worried coming in about our assist to turnover ratio. I think I've been pretty concerned about we were right at 1-1 through those first two scrimmages and we were 3-1 on Monday night against Central, so I thought that was some real progress, but we certainly played better and I was proud of that.
I thought we fed off the energy of the crowd. We fed off the energy in the arena, which was really, really fun, so it was a great night and now we've got to get to the rest of the schedule now that that game's over. We've got a lot harder games on the horizon here.
How'd the team respond on the practice court after the win?
Yeah, we had to motivate a little bit today and make sure everybody understood the opportunities that we have in front of us. We have to turn the page and move forward, and we've got to have a mature and professional approach to what we're doing, and so I tried to impart that on the guys. We need to get back to working on our six-minute game, something we played well against South Carolina.
Even though it wasn't a close game, we lost a six-minute game against Central by three, 14 to 11. We gave up 23 points in the last seven minutes and 20 seconds of that game, and I know we had different personnel in there, but we expect everybody, when they come in, to perform and to perform to a certain standard, so I wasn't real happy about that. So we went to work on the six-minute game today.
We want to have the best plus-minus in the country in the last six minutes of the game. We're minus three already, so that's not a very good start, so we spent some time on that. We're still trying to correct some.
We still gave up six points at the end of the press. We did some bad stuff there. We didn't do nearly as much as we did against South Carolina, so we spent some time correcting in the back end of the press today as well, and hopefully that stuff will be better, and then we're going to play against changing defenses, UAB changes of defenses, about 65 percent man, and they mix in some one-three-one and some tandem front zones, so we've got some work to do there to be prepared against the changing defenses and to flow.
We're not just, against Central we’re not going to be able to get a shot after just a couple of passes. These guys, you're going to have to move the ball and then drive the ball, and so we tried to work against that and got to shore up some of our defensive rebounding. UAB's been top 20 in the country in offensive rebounding the last four years, and so we've got to make sure that we're a little bit cleaner, a little bit better with defensive glass.
We've got to be a little more physical. There's some things we're able to get away with Monday that we won't be able to get away with against UAB, and we won't be able to get away with moving forward when we play good teams, so we've got to get a lot of that stuff corrected in a short amount of time.
You kind of beat me to the punch on one of the questions. I was actually debating even asking at all. You won 114-66. The last question I want to ask is what went wrong? This is a ballgame where you turned it over, what was it, nine times.
That's good. But, I mean, we had three... Now, see, that's what you count as turnovers. We had another three, what I call shooting turnovers. You come in there off one foot, take off six feet from the basket, and we could have sat down off two and kicked it for a wide-open three, so we had three more of those. Three of our nine turnovers are on your stat sheet there.
We had two throwaways, one with Darrion, one with Tre, where we were trying to pitch the ball ahead. That can't happen. That cannot happen in a close game, and then we had one where we just put the ball above our head like we're a middle school team and tried to feed the post guy and domino in our zone offense, and that got deflected, a hand-level pass.
Those three have got to be cut out, and so we watched all three of those, and we've been on that. So, I mean, the turnover number isn't what it is, but we've got to cut the shooting turnovers. We took a terrible layups.
We took two terrible mid-range shots. Now, 90% of our shots were three-year or at the rim, which is really good. That's what we want.
But on the mid-range that we took, we were two of six, 33%, so we shot it almost 50% from three. I'd rather dribble the ball back here and shoot a step back three than that in some of those mid-range. So, we have to correct some of that stuff.
So, all that stuff's within our control. It can get better, but that's going to be a big point for us moving forward, and Central scored off of a play called Salute, where they just ducked us in with number seven, and we didn't stay on top, and we didn't knock back. We didn't do what we were supposed to.
We got messed up on some rotations in our horns defense. There's a lot of stuff like that that UAB runs the same stuff. They run two of the exact same sets, and if we don't get that stuff corrected, you're going to be going against way better personnel doing the same thing.
They're going to whip our tail if we don't get any cleaner with that. So, there's a lot of stuff like that, a lot of little things. We had one guy that was a no-go to the offensive class that was going to the offensive class every time, so he's got to get back.
So, we just had some things like that that we've got to get cleaned up and in a better spot.
So, I've noticed that you were having some civil discourse with some of the officials at some point late in the ballgame. Just kind of a professional discussion, if you will. You acquired a technical foul at one point in the game. The conversation continued a little bit. You may recall the moment that I'm thinking of, and actually, I've never seen, Quadir Copeland walked over and said, “hey, coach, please quiet down.”
And I don't know if he used the word please or not. He said something along the lines of, excuse me, “sir, would you be kind enough to please lower your voice?” I think that's what Quadir said. And you did. And you did. And I've never seen a player get his coach to quiet down quite like that. Do you guys have a unique relationship, you and Quadir Copeland?
Yeah, I'm usually the one telling him to shut up. So I usually tell him to shut up, and he got to tell me that in that moment. So no, it was good, but I was a little frustrated on Musa's fifth foul. I thought, I don't know. I don't want to get you in trouble, the officials.
It's too early to get fined. It is early. We're one game in. We've got many more to go. That's true. But no, I mean, I think that, look, I'm always going to stand up for our players.
We're not going to sit there and take it from, we're not going to take a backseat to anybody. So part of it was sending a message, stand up to our players, send a message that we're going to play this thing until the end just because we're up however many points. It doesn't change anything that we do.
And then the other part is just to let everybody know that we're going to be aggressive. We're going to be out there. We're not just going to let any little stuff go unnoticed or go to the side.
So, one of those things in the moment, sometimes you feel like you've got to do. And then they messed up the substitution after that. They don't think they realized. That's what I was going crazy about after that. They didn't know Musa had the five fouls.
So they had him out there where they were shooting the technical free throws. I told them they couldn't even adjudicate the rule properly. You've got to do the technical. You've got to be able to adjudicate the rule properly. They couldn't even adjudicate the rule properly.
But like, Quadir's a loquacious fellow. He's a talker. You know what I mean? So of all the guys to come over and tell you to calm down a little bit, I thought that was kind of poetic. He also played really efficiently. He didn't miss a shot.
Yeah, a lot of that was empty calories. That was after we were already up big. I thought Darrion got us off to a good start. A lot of Q’s were empty calories after we were up big. He missed two and ones. He had two opportunities and ones and missed both of those. Missed a couple free throws on the end ones.
He picked up, I went ballistic on this today, he had four fouls. He picked up his first foul 92 feet from the basket on just a bonehead play. He picked up his second foul 88 feet from the basket. Terrible fouls.
Terrible. If you're the point guard or you want to be the point guard, there's a difference between being the point guard and playing point guard. They all want to play point guard because they get the ball in their hand all the time, get to dribble around, do all that stuff.
Then I'm going to be a point guard, which requires all the other stuff that comes with it to be a great player and do what you're supposed to. You can't pick up two fouls that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Not very smart.
Not very smart. We've got to clean those up. He's well aware of how I feel about that.
I've gleaned that metrics and data are important to you. They have increased in import over the years in college basketball. I did a little minor dive on KenPom, and I'm trying to get a sense of what Will Wade basketball is.
It's been different everywhere. It depends on how good of players you got.
That's part of my question. In 2019, your offensive rating nationally was 12. Your defensive efficiency was 59. In 2021, your offensive rating nationally was 5.
Our defense was about 120.
The defense was 124. 124, exactly right. In 2022, you flipped it.
That's what happens when you have Cam Thomas.
He's a good player. He's a nice player for Brooklyn in the NBA. 2022, your offensive rating flipped. It was 89. Your defense was 6. Initially, I was doing the dive, and I thought, okay, I guess this is going to be an offensive brand of basketball. Then in 2022, you go to the NCAA tournament, and you inverted that. At McNeese, they were both dead even. They were right in the 50s each year at McNeese. What can I glean from this information as to what your goals are here for NC State basketball this year?
We'd like to be where we were at McNeese, but both of them in the top 20. To win at a high level, win at an Elite 8, Final Four level, you have to have a top 10 offense. Everybody says defense wins championships and all that. It's BS. The defensive numbers for teams that have won are up and down.
They're all over. But every one of them that wins has a top 10 offense. Now, how you get there is different. Florida's offense was really pretty. Houston's offense was chuck it off the backboard and go get it. But they're both still effective because they're efficient.
If you can have a top 10 offense with a top 25 defense, you're going to give yourself a chance. That would be the goal.
Top 20 in both of them. I asked Jerry Deng in the locker room, who's great, by the way. Jerry's super fun to talk to. You've got a smirk on your face.
No, he's a good kid.
Yeah, he's great. Jerry, I asked him, I said, do you think, to what degree...
Jerry's much more offensive oriented than defensive oriented.
Okay, so he's the right guy to ask this question to then. So we're in the locker room after the game. You scored 114 points. You won 114 to 66. I asked Jerry afterwards, I didn't use these exact words, but basically I said, obviously you want to win by this margin...
But I actually want to win by more.
That'd be good too. You win 114 to 66. Is this kind of a taste of what's to come? In your sense, Jerry, do you feel like this is an offensive basketball roster? And he basically said yes.
What did he say?
He said, we can get the quote for you.
No, I don't need the quote.
He basically said, we can really score the ball. And I think he feels confident that he can score the ball.
Oh, he's ultra confident, man. And if you look at our three, our scrimmage exhibition in this game, we've averaged 95.
Our effective field percentage is like 68% in all three games combined. That would be, that dog would hunt. So, yeah, we would be good if we did that. But, we'll see if we can keep it up. That'd be good. That'd be really good.
Other than winning, what can you do, or are you doing, to get state fans in the arena? A great crowd is a sellout in the opener. I know it's hard to fill out because of its size, but attendance has been poor the last few years. For what it's worth, in context, it's the eighth largest building in college basketball.
It's the eighth largest arena. I think it's the eighth largest arena, and I think it's the second largest. It's not on campus. I think some of the other really big ones, I think us and Rupp Arena, and Rupp's right actually, I mean, you can almost walk from the edge of Kentucky's campus to Rupp, but it's in downtown Lexington.
But I think all the rest of the big ones are actually right on campus. I mean, look, I think the number one thing you've got to do is win. I know the question was besides winning, but I think the second part to that is you have to play a way that people want to come see that's exciting or that leaves people wondering what's going to happen.
And then the third thing is as players and staff, you have to connect to people. People are more likely to come if they feel connected.
And if you don't feel connected, you're not going to come. And so that was part of the reason we did the around Raleigh stuff where we went and did the interviews, because I felt like it was a way for our players to connect. Because at the end of the day, the fans come for the players.
They want to see star players. They want to see good players. But they want to see people who are good people, who represent the school the right way, who represent us the right way.
And so I felt like doing the around Raleigh series, we were able to put a human element to our guys. They are human beings. They play basketball, and they're high-level athletes, and they're great players.
But at the end of the day, they're also people. And so I think the more you can put them in that role in front of people, I think, is advantageous. And so hopefully, a lot of those people feel connected with some of the guys.
And that leads to more people coming. The number one thing is you've got to win. If you don't win, you can have all that other stuff all you want.
If you don't win, nobody cares. So that's the number one part, is to win games. And then the second part is just to have that connection and have good people. And make sure the experience is smooth when they get there.
Do you think that if William feels connected enough to the players, we can get him a new hat? Do you think we can get him a new hat here?
Maybe so.
He wants to know where you see yourself in 10 years.
Hopefully sitting right here.
Love that answer.
That's the... Unless they fire me.
I don't think... That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen.
We'll see. I hope not.
I hope not, too. I hope not, too.
This has been great. This is just the start on Monday night. Hopefully we've got a long run in us.
NC State Trivia Game
This single-game offensive record was tied the opening night of 2025's NC State basketball season.
Three-pointers.
Question two. This Pack big man, this NC State big man, played the most minutes in single-game program history in a four-overtime win over Wake Forest in 1989.
When Chucky spoke to our team, we also clinched the ACC regular season. It's the last time we clinched the ACC regular season title is when he did that. I think he played 59 of the 60 minutes. When I introduced him to the team, that was part of the introduction to the team was when we went through that.
That was the last PACK win without hitting a three. There was no ... How about four overtimes? The team didn't hit a three in that game. Chucky Brown scores 34 points, I think it was, in 59 minutes. How dare you sit in there?
We don't want to test that record again. We don't want to try to win without hitting a three. We'll let that one stay in the books. That's right. All right.
We've got four questions here, by the way. Question number three. Music, please. 57 points is the single game scoring record by a PACK player. This Hall of Famer did it against Buffalo State in 1974. Can you name him?
David Thompson. I have a statue in my office.
In your office?
Well, not the statue, the replica of the statue in my office.
Final question for Coach Wade.
Sorry. Boo is texting me. I've got to reply to the boss.
We can bring him on the show.
He's at soccer.
Tell him we all say hi. We love talking to Boo. Boo's great. Okay.
This Atlantic Coast Conference head coach comes from a few prior stops, the last three of which, every stop, this guy won his league at each of those last three stops. Can you name him?
It's a trick question. It's a trick question.
It is Will Wade. Ring it up, Will. He is the answer to the question here at Pit Authentic Barbecue, talking to Will Wade. Answers. Will Wade. I had to do it.
I appreciate it.
I had to do it. It's a great nugget. It's a great nugget.
We're going to make it four for four this year.
Yeah. Yeah. Love that. Love that. Four for four this year.
Get us a ding on that.
Write-In Questions
How important is it to have former players around the program?
It's very important. I mean, I think with our guys, you bring in a bunch of guys, and they see the banners, and they know stuff, but once again, to put the personal touch, the stories behind it, we've had different players. We've had players from every era speak with the team the last month, Reed from my staff who's done a great job organizing that.
We've had videos from certain guys. We just had a lot of different things, and I think it's important for our guys to understand, how the program was built, and, Eddie Biedenbach did a great job speaking to the guys about how we helped form the ACC and how we moved from the SOCON and got the teams to join the ACC. I learned some stuff.
I mean, I learned some stuff listening to them, and, the first three ACC title banners in our practice facility were all when we kind of joined, we kind of made the league. I wish the league kind of still treated us like we made the league. They've got a short memory.
Is that right?
Yeah. They kind of forgot about all that, I guess, that we were kind of the original folks behind it all. Interesting.
But anyway, yeah, I think it's been great for our players and just for them to understand how important it is to a lot of people and how many people are watching and how many people care.
Are you aware of the Press Maravich, Pete Maravich, NC State to LSU tie, but also, like, specifically, the sound meter? I've never been to Baton Rouge. So, the sound meter at LSU's basketball arena, they have someone...
They didn't when I was there.
At some point, they did.
They moved arenas. When Maravich was there, they played in what they called the Cal Palace.
Okay. It was old. It was the Parker Auditorium now, I think is what it was called. Well, at some point... They may have had one in there. Well, that existed, I was told, because Press liked the one in Reynolds. There we go.
And so, we went to Baton Rouge and, Pete played Broughton and then went to Baton Rouge and liked it. And so, when the sound meter came out in Lenovo, I thought, I wonder if...
Did you like the sound meter?
I loved it.
I thought it was cool.
I thought it was really fun. And I thought... I mean, I love the one in Reynolds, because it's like... I mean, Reynolds basically has a museum, outside of it. It's an integral part.
We had to modernize it a little bit.
Yeah. Yeah, and I know one...
We had to use that NC State engineering degree to get that thing up and moving.
No bulbs faltered. Like, it worked perfectly.
I wasn't paying close attention, but...
I took a gander over there. Itook a peek. Chucky was locked into it. Chucky was.
Chucky was?
Oh, couldn't get him off it. Getting a sound meter, first half, second half, every bucket, just... He kept on calling for... He's like, can we get to the top ball? Like, why are we...
We did for the lineup, right?
Oh, yeah. The pyrotechnics also, like, I feel like I'm going to singe my eyebrows. I think it's fun. I mean that in a good way. But like...
Where are the pyrotechnics? The fire... There's like fire on the court. There is. When was that?
Before the game at some point. Everybody here is laughing.
I don't... There's fire on the court. Was I out there?
Yeah, because you're locked... Coach, you are locked in. You're locked in, but I love it. I love...
I didn't know there was fire out there. Reed, there was fire out there?
Yeah. Yeah, Reed, thumbs up. Shout out to Reed Vial, by the way. The guys a stud.
Yeah, I missed that. I guess I'll look for it Friday night.
When is it?
Lineups, right? Starting lineups. Starting lineups. When the lights go down, there's these... They're like rectangular...
Well, I didn't... Sorry. I'll pay closer attention.
I'll tell you what. When you see the fire, turn around. Just give me a thumbs up so I know you're locked in, so I know we're on the same page.
Write-In Questions
Is Darrion Williams that dude?
He better be. He better be. He is. We believe in him. He is. He is.
Chucky mentioned off the top. I keep staring at him, so I keep mentioning him. But he did say that Darrion immediately showed himself as a better passer than maybe even Chucky or, had expected. Like, the way he passed that ball to Lubin at the bucket was really threading the needle.
Put some spin on it.
It was... It was... Is that... Did he really put English on it?
Oh, yeah. Put a little English on it.
I mean, that's hard to do.
He's a good player. I really had... 19 points, 8 assists. Quick, too. Like, 11 quick. And then got other guys involved.
Okay. In the NIL landscape, outside of what's obvious to recruit and retain great players to keep the pack competitive in the national conversation, what are you going to do as a coach to foster an environment that inspires players to stay?
I think the number one thing is you want your guys to have a great experience. And so, not every day is going to be perfect, but the overall experience, the amount of time you spend with them as a head coach, the amount of time you spend with them as a player, as my assistants.
Like, I met with four of them today one-on-one, and we watched some film, but then we spent the rest of the time just talking about, other stuff that's going on. And so, they have to understand that you care for them, you're going to invest in them.
And then part of it is like a player development plan to get them better. They all want to get better. And so, that's one of the good parts about getting transfers is our program is a little bit different, and they tell some of those other guys, like, hey, man, if you leave here, it's not like this everywhere.
Like, this is different. It's not like this. We've had kids that have come from some really, really good programs, and they've told some of our guys, like, hey, man, it's not like this.
Like, you better appreciate this. You better be thankful for this. And, you know, you think the grass is greener, but it's not always greener.
So, you know, I think that, the way you treat them, the way you're with them every day, I look at it like, we're with them every day, so we get to recruit them every day. If they leave, that's on us. And so, we haven't done our job, and something slipped through the cracks, if that's what happens.
But, we don't spend time worrying on that. We'll worry about that at the end of the year. But if you treat them right, put them in good systems, and you can get them better and have a plan for them, most of the time they'll stick around.
I can say this. In my coaching career, ever since Transfer Portal, we've never lost anybody that we didn't want to lose.
And most of the time when we lose them, we, sometimes you've got to nudge them out, and sometimes you've got to do what's best for them. But we've never lost, like, a starter that we wanted to bring back or a big-time kid that we've wanted to bring back. We've never lost one of those.
So hopefully we can keep that streak alive.
Yeah. Would you be able, we were at a charity event together, and you told a great story about expectation setting on the front end of recruiting with Heaven and Hell and all that.
Yeah, I don't know if that's suitable for radio right now.
All right, we'll skip it. But you do think it is important to expectation set on the way in?
Yeah, I mean, you've got to set the guardrails and you've got to set the expectations of this is what it is and this is what it's going to be, and you either like it or you don't. And so, sometimes in recruiting, we lost a kid recently because I was too honest with him.
And I told the kid, this is what it's going to be. And he had somebody who told him something that was maybe a little bit better for him, but he's going to go there and he'll transfer in a year. He's going to call and want to come.
I'm going to tell him to go kick rocks. You told me everything you need to know about what I need to know about you. You told me that way.
So there's no turning back on that. And so, you know, that's part of it. You've got to have the guts to be able to stick with what you're doing and make sure you get guys that are your type of guys.
If you get the right guys, they'll stay.
I feel like not every kid either is prepared to literally crawl through mud with Navy SEALs in their off-season training. Like, that's not embraced and not for everybody.
That was more fun than it looked.
I mean, you're talking to the right guy. You are talking to the right guy.
That was more fun than it looked. Reed, he was running from the mud. Yeah, Reed didn't want to get in that mud. Reed's a pretty boy. He didn't want to get in that mud. I was going to mess his hair up.
He didn't want to get in that mud. He does have it dialed in. He was getting a haircut the day of the game.
How about this? Everybody thinks, like, day of the game. I walk out of my office. What was I doing? Oh, I was taking Darrion to breakfast.
That's good. I think I was. I was going to breakfast, right? I was going to breakfast. So Reed's office is directly across from mine. It's like 10 times a day. I'm like, Reed, Reed. Reed just walks in. We do what we got to do. So Reed's office.
I walk out. I walk into the front lobby. There's a freaking barber there. Wait, a barber.
Hang on now. There's a barber in the Dale?
In the Dale. There's a barber. I'm like, what in the hell is going on? Reed's getting his hair cut. Then some of the players were coming up to get their hair cut.
Then I come back in, and Nick Flory's getting his hair cut. I said, what in the world? I was like, this is how Reed is. He's like, well, coach, the guys all go to barber on game day. I thought I'd just bring them here. Bring them here. Keep it a little thing. I'm like, that makes sense to me.
Okay, well, I got to ask. Did you have a little moment where you went like, all right, I'll sit down for a haircut, too? Did you get a?
No. No, I did not. Brady, did you get your hair cut, too? No, Brady did not. Brady, our video coordinator is here as well.
Brady in analytics is here as well. But he did not.
Well, the guys looked great on game day and they played well, so maybe there's something to it.
All right, you can stop now.
I'm just, I'm just, I'm just saying.
When I walked out, you imagine like, I'm walking out, I'm like, I see the barber, I'm like, who are you? What's going on? And I look in the chair and it's Reed. I guess Reed went first, so if the guy was no good, it was only his that was messed up. I guess everybody else would have been all right.
Did the guy bring a special chair? Was there like a whole set up?
No, I don't think there was a chair. I think he just sat you down. Where'd you sit? You sit. Oh, he sat on the bow. I love that. There's some inside, inside scoop behind the curtain.
Yeah, Nathan's five. And Nathan wants to know what your favorite color is, Coach. That's a key question here.
Red.
You are taking on, in a very unique storyline here, I wonder how many Pack fans remember or know that the head coach of the University of Alabama Birmingham Blazer basketball team was a teammate of Chucky Browns in 1987 here at NC State.
And transferred to UAB from there.
And transferred to UAB.
Let me ask you this. Can I ask you a trivia question? So I've known AK a long time. So my assistant Bill, who's the head coach at McNeese, worked for AK for 12 years. So I've known AK forever. When he chose NC State, what was his other finalist who he chose it over?
That I won't know. I don't know him well enough to know in 87. I mean, in fairness, I was three. But I don't know.
Mississippi State. Mississippi State thought they had him. And then he goes to coach Ole Miss. And then he goes to coach Ole Miss. Went to coach Ole Miss.
Mississippi State thought they had him. I was in a hotel. Chucky was probably the host on the visit.
All right, we got two minutes left here. UAB. We don't have a ton of time. They beat Mississippi Valley State 106-55. We tip off at 9 o'clock on Friday. Andy Kennedy, former NC State player, which is surprising. They have won the fifth most games in the – 11th most games in the country. 125 games over the last five years. They're the 11th winningest program in America.
They played four straight years in their conference title game. Played four straight years. They've won it twice and gone to the NIT twice. So, I mean, look, this is the equivalent of playing a bottom-end ACC team, middle-to-bottom ACC team.
Like, this is going to be a quad two game. This is why we scheduled it. And so this is a big step up for us. We're going to have to keep them off the offensive glass. They're top ten in the country last year in transition scoring, so we're going to have to value the ball, handle the ball. Not give them easy points in transition.
And so it will be a big test for us. They've got good guard play. They've got three or four bigs. They just rotate through. A lot of transfers. One of their bigs transferred from Georgia.
Had a guard who transferred from DePaul. Another guard who transferred from Mercer. A kid from Nebraska. And they've got guys from everywhere.
Kyeron Lindsay-Martin was a teammate of Darrion's in Lubbock. Kyeron kind of in for like a year in 23-24.
That's correct. Chance Westry actually committed to me at LSU before he went to Auburn. He was committed to me at LSU. Then he went to Auburn. Then he went to Syracuse. And now he's there. A lot like Q. Yeah. Been around 30 seconds. So he's been around a while.
So, Rivera was a good player. He was at UMass. And he's tough, played for Coach Martin. So it will be a big test for us, and we're excited about the opportunity.
