NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media in his weekly press conference to discuss the team's off-week, Darrion Williams' new role, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch the full interview!
What's it been like for you these last two games, watching Darrion and playing this point-forward role when Q's on the floor?
I think it's been helpful. It's been good to see him be aggressive. It forces him to have the ball, forces him to be more aggressive.
So, look, that's what we expect from him. That's what we want him to do. And I think it's helped both him and our team, just like we thought it would.
Just to follow up, he's not the most overly aggressive player on the floor. Do you think this kind of pushes him outside of his comfort zone a little bit to kind of make decisions with the ball a little bit more?
I think he is aggressive when he has the ball, but he's not very demanding to get the ball. And Q is very demanding. And so if you just let everybody's natural personalities take over, Q is just going to go take the ball.
And so, our job as coaches and my job as a coach is to step in and make sure that we balance that out, balance that out a little bit better, and make sure that Darrion gets the ball like Q does.
Will, you guys do not have a midweek game this week. How do you approach that? Do you spend extra time prepping for the team, self-scout? How do you handle that little break in a sense?
Well, I'm recruiting today, as you can tell in the hotel room. But the team was off yesterday. The team's off today.
We're going to actually play like a simulated game tomorrow to make sure we don't lose our conditioning. We're going to, Wednesday we're going to be off. So tomorrow we'll work on ourselves and do a simulated game.
And then Wednesday we're off and then we'll start our prep for Georgia Tech Thursday and Friday. So look, you don't get many breaks in conference season. And so we want to make sure that we've got to get some guys healthy.
Tre's going to do some workouts the next couple of days to see if he can be ready to go. And so we've got to get guys healthy and we want to get our guys who have been playing, we want to get them some time off. But we've got to balance that with also continue to improve and continue to get better.
Will, this time last week we were, I was asking you about Matt Able and if he would potentially get going, how much would it change this offense? How much do you feel like his production, especially with Tre being out, has helped to kind of jumpstart this offense and give it another level?
Yeah, I mean, Matt's a really talented player. I'm disappointed he got in foul trouble on Saturday because I thought he was going to go for a huge number Saturday before he got in, before he got in foul trouble. But look, he's talented.
He's going to continue to get better. He's been shooting the ball really well, particularly these last two games. So I'm really proud of him.
Specifically going to Boston College, that's where his father played. His father was a very good player up there and had a little bit of extra pressure. And I know he wanted to play well up at Boston College and for him to be able to come out and play well on that game and then follow that up with another great game against Florida State, even battling through some of the foul trouble.
But I was really pleased with, he missed his first couple of shots at Florida State and then came back and really, and then just hit just about everything from there. So I thought that showed just some great growth and, it was really, really good for him as we continue to move forward.
As a quick follow up to that too, I mean, you talked about wanting to see more effort early on in the season from the team, especially when you're winning big games or winning games big. I mean, how much did you see that from the team on Saturday, despite already winning, 25 points or leading by 25 points at the half, still coming out with that same energy in the second half?
Well, I didn't think we got off to a great start in the second half. We gave up an offensive or we got a jump ball on a rebound off the free throw for first possession. They cut it to 17.
So look, we've got to clean some of that up. That's part of what we're going to simulate the game tomorrow. But we, I thought our energy to start the game was very, very good, especially for noon on the road.
And, we're able to get a get a get a lead and then stretch our legs from there.
Yeah, well, is there any area where, that maybe y'all struggled in earlier in the season that you're happy with? Maybe you are in terms of where you've grown at all?
Yeah, we struggled, but I was very worried about our defensive rebounding and we're top 25 in the country and defensive rebounding rate. So that was something I did not anticipate. We did not anticipate.
And so I'm pleased with that compared to where I thought we may be.
Will, Terrance, the last two games has really given you a boost. What's it been like seeing him respond? I guess at the start of the season just wasn't kind of going the way that maybe you guys thought it would.
He's finally healthy. He's got some confidence in the killings. He's got some confidence with what he's doing.
He's just playing free. He looks, more free out there. He looks lighter out there. And so I'm very, very proud of him and pleased with him. And I think he's got more in him and it's our job to continue to get him to progress as well.
I don't know how much you've looked at Georgia Tech, but you usually like to look ahead or study a lot of tape. Are they very different when they have the two bigs compared to when Sylla's been injured?
Oh, yeah. I mean, look, Sylla's a great player. And, when they have those two bigs, it's hard to score at that rim.
Very, very difficult to score at the rim. Washington's a good point guard. So they've got a good team.
Coach Stoudamire does a great job with them. And so it'll be a big challenge on Saturday.
