NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media to discuss the 70-57 win over Wake Forest in the Wolfpack's ACC opener.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Wade’s statement. Video from the full press conference will be available soon.
Yeah, Will, what's it been like to see Musa's growth and see him put together such a complete game today?
I'm proud of Musa. He played well against Ole Miss, too. It's just a matter of him getting reps and getting time on the court. He's a good player. It just takes some time to adjust.It's a major adjustment. I mean, he got here in a quick, very quickly, and, it's a major adjustment basketball-wise. The way we play basketball over here is, different.
It's taken him some time to adjust to the, I'll say, like the lack of physicality. I mean, there's some, there's some, there's just some major differences. It's taking him some time, and I'm proud of him. He did a good job at the free throw line, staying poised at the free throw line. So there's still certainly some things we can clean up with the turnovers, but he's played back-to-back really good games against solid teams, and so very, very pleased with, very, very pleased with his growth.
How would you assess the performance defensively in the second half? I felt like Wake Forest really didn't give up the other final twenty minutes?
Solid to the last three and a half minutes. I think we gave up ten points in the last three and a half minutes.A couple threes, didn't have our hands down on a couple of their shooters. But, it was solid. We're getting better defensively.So our offense is helping our defense out a little bit, a little bit better than we were before. But it was, it was, it was solid.
What kind of response have you seen since you called out the team after the Texas Southern game, two back-to-back?
I think that stuff gets overblown. We didn't play well. Everybody's saying that they quit on us.I mean, so I don't know. I think that stuff gets overblown, and I don't know if there's been all that, earth-shattering of a difference.
What's your concern level where Darrion's game is?
Absolutely zero. I'm tired of hearing about frickin' Darion. He's fuckin' playing well. All right, it's a terrible question. It's a terrible question. Let me, let me be, let me be, let me be frank with you. He affects winning, and everybody's out here bitching about him and all this stuff. He affects winning. He was plus 13 against Ole Miss and didn't hit a shot.
And everybody's acting like the world's caving in. The guy's a damn good player. What do you, he didn't shoot it well today. What did he have? Who had zero turnovers for us today? Darrion Williams. Six rebounds, four turnovers. I mean, four assists, zero turnovers.
So everybody needs to shut the hell up about him. He's a damn good player, and the shot's gonna fall. I'm tired of answering questions about him. He's really good. We're thankful to have him.
On adding Cole Cloer to the roster and having him on the bench today...
Well, I mean, he can't practice or anything right now. We're rehabbing him, so it's good just to have him around and have him in the, have him in the, have him in the, in the program, in the program, so to speak. So, I think that, I think that it'll benefit him long term, but he's not, he's not healthy enough to do a whole lot right now.
And then you guys without Jerry today, do you have an update on him?
Yeah, he's got a groin issue.
The emotion that just kind of bursted out of you there, where is that?
I'm tired of people picking on the kid, man. All right, I got it. He makes a lot of money for us, but there's about ten other schools that have paid as much or more than we paid for the kid.
All right, the kid's not perfect. I understand that. The kid's not perfect, but he is a damn good player, and we are lucky to have him at NC State. He picked us over a lot of schools with a lot, a lot better situation than we had at the time. He picked us. Let's be freaking appreciative. Let's support the kid. Let's help the kid. And he affects us winning games.
Even when he doesn't make shots, he helps us win. Teams are game planning for him. Yeah, it's an adjustment. Teams didn't game plan for him as much. But he does a lot of winning stuff, and he's taking a lot of unfair heat right now. All right, he does a lot of winning stuff. And so, at the end of the day, it's our job to win for NC State. He helps NC State win. Period. End of discussion.
And all this other stuff is a bunch of noise that people don't know what they're talking about. So I'm tired of this.I had to answer questions after Ole Miss. I got it. He didn't make a shot against Ole Miss.It's the only game in his entire career he hadn't made a shot. Let me be clear about this. His shoulder injury was really bad.
Most kids making the money he would, would have shut it down for five games. He laid it on the line for NC State for five games with a shitty shoulder. It gave us a chance to win some of these games. And people are just piling on his ass. And it's not right. He's a damn good player. He's going to help us win a lot of games in the ACC. So I'm tired of it.
Coach you have some good minutes there from Matt Able, especially in the second half? What have you seen from him in his growth this season?
We got to continue working with Matt. I thought tonight he was more... Look, he does some really good things when he's out there. And I thought tonight he was much more playing within himself. I'm very proud of him.
Look, it's hard to adjust as a freshman. He's a really talented player. He's a good player. He's going to stick with it. He's going to continue to get better. There's going to be ups. There's going to be downs. There's going to be ups. There's going to be downs. As long as he keeps working, stays after it, he's going to be fine.
So, I think that he's going to be in a good place as we continue to move forward. Look, it's an adjustment. It's hard. College basketball is hard. I mean, this is under 24 league now, and he's 18 years old. So, it's a hard adjustment. And, I think that he's making progress. And I think that we're going to continue to see him make progress.
It seems like you shrunk the rotation a little bit today. Are you happy with what you saw?
Oh, yeah. I mean, we need to get some other guys. And, yeah, but with one, two, two, two of our, yeah. I mean, I'm not happy with everything I saw, but rotation is no longer an issue.
On the 11 first half turnovers...
I mean, Wake's aggressive defensively. They really rotate through. They leave the backside guy open. I mean, so they do a great job defensively. So, part of it was just adjusting. We haven't played in 10 days. We've gotten after it in practice a little bit. We haven't played in 10 days. So, part of it's just the adjustment to seeing the pressing and the trapping and the length and the activity.
I mean, most teams that do what they do, do not fully rotate through like they do. They stunt and get back and then kind of recover. So, it's a unique way to do it.And it's a very, very aggressive defense. And it took us some time to adjust. And we threw a bunch of hook passes and hand-level passes. And you do that against their length and their athleticism, that makes it really tough.
