NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media following the Wolfpack's 76-62 win over Ole Miss Sunday afternoon.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Wade’s press conference.
On Paul McNeil, Jr. finishing today with six threes after a strong performance Wednesday night and a slow start against the Rebels…
Not only that, [but] he started off 0-for-3, and he was able to reset himself which was really good. I'm very proud of him. I think he had six against UNC Greensboro and came back at zero against VCU, so we made a big point of staying consistent in routine. You've got to be grounded in your routine when things are going well and when things are going poorly. The routine is what keeps you anchored, and so I’m very, very pleased with him. I thought we had good balance today, led by him. I thought [Quadir Copeland] set the tone early in the game. He did a good job. He was really unselfish. I thought Tre [Holloman] played one of his better games. He had a couple mistakes, but I thought he played well, so it was one of our better performances.
On the differences between the first and second halves…
Look, I’m trying to have a good Christmas, so I don't want to get too [upset]. There's a lot of them [like] the baseline [turnover] out of bounds. There’s lots of them, but the short answer is [that] our offense wasn't as efficient [in the second half]. We didn't get on the offensive glass. We weren't able to stir up the defense enough. We took some quick shots, and the other part of it is they played more of their shooters. They had us more spread out in the first half. We could sit in the gaps on those drives which is why they were turning over, and they were shooting a bunch of mid-range jump shots so we could rebound. When they went to those shooters and had us spread like that, it was a lot more difficult and more challenging for us to guard them.
On Holloman’s efficiency playing alongside Copeland…
It makes a huge difference. His shooting's kind of been propping him up in terms of being an efficient player for us. That's why it's so detrimental when he has non-efficient games like he did against Kansas because the shooting is really the separator for him and for our team. Tre’s been working. He gets in the gym, works hard, and does what we asked him to do. I'm proud of the way he's responded, too. Taking him out of the starting lineup and coming off the bench. it's allowed our flow and some of our stuff to be a little bit better in terms of the subs. The shooting is a huge piece. Look, we shoot the ball well. That’s kind of what we're built on. I was proud of him, how he's been shooting it, and how he’s been working as well.
On Darrion Williams’ struggles…
His shoulder's fine. We're not going to win many games with him going 0-for-8. We're certainly going to need better than that, but the shoulder was fine.
On reflecting on the team’s progress since the South Carolina game…
Not really, but it was a good point. We've gotten better. We're not where we need to be. We’re not where we want to be, but we're better than we were. We're not who we're going to be, but we're better than who we were. I thought, defensively in the first half, we were really good, outside of the last three minutes, but that was our offense. Once again, we turned the ball over. They did a great job. They scouted our end-of-half play. It’s a read-option-type play, and they scouted that. They ran through the pass. That was great coaching on their part. But look, we've made progress, but they all count from here on out in the ACC, and so we've got a lot of work ahead of us within the league.
If there’s any sense of relief knowing—
No, there's no relief. No, we've got 18 league games and zero relief. We've got to play better than we played today. We've got to get better every day, and so, no, there's no [relief]. Look, I'm happy we won. It's great, but we get back on the 26th, we've got massive amounts of work that we've got to do. We’ve got massive amounts of improvement that we have to make. You always want to try to win double-digit non-conference [games]. We fell short of that. We're 9-4; you want to try to win 10. We need some guys to step up. That's just what it is. We played seven guys, basically, today. I played the seven guys I feel most comfortable with, the seven guys that give me confidence, the seven guys basically that I trust. Hopefully, Santa brings me an eighth man for Christmas. That would be nice. There’s one year in my previous job [where] we played in the high-major league. We came in second in the league, won a ton of games, and played six guys. We had four of the top five in minutes. We played our best player; he played 40 minutes for eight straight games to end the year. I've got no problem playing seven guys. We played Scottie [Ebube] a little bit, but we need an eighth guy to step up, and that starts with practice, allowing us to trust you in practice, and then, when we put you in the games, producing in the games. That's really what we need to continue [to] take a step, and then we've got to have these other guys play at a high level because what happens is when you do this, you can't let Alyn [Breed] get comfortable because he's feeling good about himself. You can't let these guys get comfortable. Ven[-Allen Lubin] never gets comfortable because that's just how things wired, but we've got to keep those guys playing at a high level. I'd love to play nine, but I'm just begging to get eight right now. We've got to get that right.
On what Terrance Arceneaux and Jerry Deng need to do to gain his trust…
Be more consistent, and practice better.
On what the Rebels do that will help the Wolfpack prepare for ACC play…
They're physical. They have a flotilla of bigs. They have four guys that roll in there and just see who's playing well. They’re physical. They’re athletic. We couldn't reverse the ball against them. [Malik] Dia does that every game, and we went over it like 10 times, and he just ran through the passes. They're big. They’re physical. They’re athletic, but I thought we were able to keep their guards in front which was critical.
On Copeland’s energy…
You guys get to see him twice a week. I’ve got to deal with him every day. You know, the referee told me that today. I said, "Yeah, you see him once a month." He's like that at seven o'clock on a Tuesday morning, too, but there's a lot of value to that. Look, we'd be in real trouble without him. He's been better and more than I could have ever thought when we brought him. Just being frank, he's playing a role that I didn't envision when we brought him with us from McNeese. You could argue that part of the reason we struggled is he's playing a huge role, but that wasn't what I envisioned, but give him credit, man. I don’t want to say what I was going to say, but I’ll say this — this is somewhat clean – I always tell him all the time: he's like a cockroach; he’s hard to kill. Every time you write him off, or every time you let him [off the hook], he just comes back and comes back. He keeps coming again. He's got an unbelievable level of persistence to him, and he's been great. He translates the stuff for the guys for me. I think I said it after the last game: we're getting everything we can out of him. I think we're getting everything we can out of Ven-Allen Lubin. I think the last couple games, Paul's played [well], but outside of that, we've got more in a lot of those guys, and we've got to squeeze every bit out of the tube that we can with those guys. Q being our point guard, he had nine assists today and three turnovers. His assist-to-turnover ratios for the seasons is darn near 2-1/2-to-1. I mean, we can't ask much more from what he's doing from a basketball standpoint and from an energy and effort standpoint. I'm very proud of it.
