NC State head coach Will Wade met with Wolfpack Sports Network to reflect on the past two wins, the bye week, and much more!
We decided Coach didn't have a game this week, so we're going to throw a headset on him and talk about one of the all-time great shooting performances in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference. 19 made threes on the road in Tallahassee, and 113-69 was the final. 19 made threes. Coach, that's about as good as it's going to get, I would think, offensively.
I need to pick your brain about 113 points. You know that tied, well, I shouldn't say this because there's a trivia association. I don't want to blow it. That was a heck of a show.
Five was too many. Way too many. Backed it down to three. 113 points, 113 to 69. I've got all kinds of notes and nuggets, but I do want to ask you, give me your big picture consideration of hitting 19 threes on the road in a league game at Florida State after you won on Tuesday at a nine o'clock tip in Chestnut Hill.
I thought the Florida State game, we got off to a good start, which was critical. We were up five nothing, then up 11 nothing, and then we were able to kind of stretch our legs there. We got off to a good start, which is huge in noon games. You look at somebody like Georgia Tech, who we're playing. Georgia Tech did not get off to a good start last night against Pitt, and it kind of snowballed for them at home.
Conversely, they got off to a very good start at Duke a couple weeks ago, and they played Duke extremely well. So getting off to a good start and setting the tone for the game and making sure the game's played on your rules and on your terms is very, very important, and I thought we did a much better job of that in Tallahassee, but we're in the same spot they were. They had the week off before our game. They were a little sluggish noon game, and so we're in the same spot that they were in.
We've had the week off, and we have a noon game at home, so it's the same spot, and we've got to certainly be better than we were in Tallahassee, but I'm more worried about re-establishing ourselves on our home court. We were embarrassed last time we were at home against Virginia, and so we need to re-establish our home court and re-establish how we play at home coming up Saturday against Georgia Tech.
Was the bye week a bad time? I'm going air quotes bye week. It's a little early. Yeah, but was it a good time in that you've been a little banged up? Was that helpful?
Yeah, Tre's back healthy, so he practiced today full go, so that was good to see. Scottie's not quite back, full go or healthy yet. He's been doing the bike and some other work, but Tre's back, so I do think it helps us in that regard, but we were playing pretty good, so you don't really want a bye week when you're playing well, but we did a simulated game on Tuesday of the bye week just to try to make sure that we were keeping sharp and staying in game shape.
We brought in officials, we brought in officials from outside to be a part of practice and the referee practice, and so that was good. They were division three officials. A couple of our guys were complaining about calls.
I said, hey guys, listen, the same calls that the non-conference officials called, the ACC officials, and we brought in these division three officials, they all see the same thing. It's you. It's not the referee.
It is you. I mean, we had some of our guys with the same reactions. They commit the same fouls every game. Every game they do the same thing, and they just, oh my god, I can't believe they called this, and the division three officials called it. Like, it's a foul. They called it. It's a foul.
You know who did play really well? Terrance Arceneaux played, played really well this past week. He had four steals, which was a team high against the Seminoles on the road. It's been fun to see Terrance reintegrated into the lineup here over the last week, two weeks with, with some of the stuff he's been dealing with off the court. And, but he's been, he's been a difference maker at times this year. He's been good.
He's a low usage guy offensively. He makes open shots and then defensively, he's long, he's athletic. He's somebody that somebody that, that brings a different dynamic to us defensively. You want guys that there's two or three plays a game.
They're the only guy who can make, whether it's deflection or rebound, offensive rebound, a defensive rebound, whatever it may be. There's two or three times he can recover in front of the ball that we just don't have other guys that have that closing speed to take away the three and then play the drive.
So there's times like that, that he, he keeps us out of rotation and keeps us out of some tough, tough situations. And so that's, that's been very helpful to our defense and look, the offensive output he's been giving us, is he going to continue shooting it like this from three? I hope so.
But I mean, we're not, we're not banking on that. That's not as, I mean, his value, that's value added, but the way he guards and the way he's able to cover ground and rebound and get deflections, that, that's really, really where he brings value. And so we're very pleased with, with how he's been, how he's been playing and we got to keep him, keep him playing at a high level like this.
How good was Matt Able in Tallahassee? How good has Matt been over the last couple of weeks?
Matt's been great. The thing I was most excited about in Tallahassee is he didn't start well. The first shot he took, he thought Q was going to shoot it and he was trying to go to the offensive glass and Q hits him and he has to shoot a quick little pull up with two seconds left on the shot clock. Then the second shot he took was a pull up when he had a layup. He could have driven it for a layup and he missed both of those, but then he was able to recover and just bang those four threes.
And so early on in the year when he missed those, it'd have been a pretty, pretty bad night. So I thought there was some real growth in terms of him being able to self-correct in the game and being able to stay confident and stay composed and make a really good afternoon.
And if we can cut back on the fouling, I mean he'd have had, he'd have had, he gave up, Matt played really well, but he had two opportunities where he could have gotten fouled on threes that he, on shot fakes. One in the corner on a baseline out of bounds play, another on a nail pitch play. So that could have been an extra six points. He missed the transition layup. He had two other opportunities where he could have driven it for layups.
Let's say he makes two of the three layups, that's another four points. He could have had a big, big night, a 25 point night. And so that's what I'm trying to get to him to. We got to be better in the margins. The third foul was, he, I mean you could hear it up where you were. I mean he slapped the guy and you got to have, we talk one in, one out with your hands.
We got, got to get those, but he's learning and he gets better. He's one of the, he's the best guy we have that he can watch film and immediately apply it, which is a, which is an incredible skill.
So we, I watch film with him every week, just me and him one-on-one for 30, 40 minutes. We watched it on Wednesday of this week and he can take that and he can go immediately to the court and apply it, which is easier said than done. Especially for a freshman.
So, he's got a lot of maturity in that, in that sense. And that's why he's going to just keep getting better. He's playing really confidently. He's shooting the ball really well. And so he's going to, he's going to keep getting better and very proud of his progress and how he's been playing.
On Matt Able’s Boston College Game...
He said he was able to talk some smack to his Dad after the win at Boston college. Because his dad scored a thousand points at BC. And I said, I just want to circle back. “Were you able to, were you able to let your Dad have it a little bit?” He said, just a little bit, not too, not too much, but he was just a little bit. And he had a big smile on his face when he said that, which is good.
It's, it was good for him to play well at Boston College. It meant a lot to him and his family. And so you want to see him have success in those situations. So I was really excited about that. Then he was able to build off that going to Tallahassee.
On the Boopie Miller SMU buzzer-beater...
We were talking about this, the SMU ending last night. I mean, as soon as that half-court shot went through, the fire went up from the top of the basket. That was incredible.
Yeah, great timing by the pyro folks in Dallas. We'll be looking for that now when we go there. Not that I want that ending, but for fire to rise up from the back of the basket.
No doubt.
I don't know if that's an endgame default, or if someone's got great timing. That was a crazy finish.
Wild finishes.
Boopie Miller, 50-footer for the win in the league.
I was going to ask you later on. It's a good segue. I guess we could do it right now. I'd really like to talk about Georgia Tech, but you bring up SMU as I circle through all these notes here. State of the league. State of the ACC. We're two-thirds of the way through the season. About halfway through the season. A little over that.
Yesterday and Tuesday were the first time I've been able to sit down and watch games. Obviously, I was watching Pitt and Georgia Tech in the 7 o'clock slot, and then I was flipping between games at 9 o'clock watching the SMU-Virginia Tech game and then watch Stanford play. That was the first time.
Then the night before, I was able to catch a couple games. You don't really get to watch all the league unless you're watching. I've watched all the Georgia Tech's league games, all five of their league games. I've watched them play Duke, Boston College, Syracuse,and Miami. Who was the other one I watched them play today? I can't think of the other one.
Watching those games, that's what you get to watch. You don't really get to see a whole lot outside of what you're watching in the preparation. The Pitt game was the other one I watched today. You don't get to watch a lot outside of what you're doing in preparation. I'm not probably the best person to speak on the whole league because I haven't seen a bunch of the teams a whole lot.
I watched half of the Duke game last night and I watched parts of the Stanford-North Carolina game, but I haven't seen them a ton. I don't know enough to make an educated opinion.
On Getting the Most ACC Teams in the NCAA Tournament...
I'm worried about the Wolfpack. We'll make sure the Wolfpack are good, to hell with the rest of the league. They can figure it out.
No doubt. Who knows at the top end, but eight to ten bids. Eight locked in right now and maybe nine or ten bids.
As long as we're one of the eight, I ain't worried about it.
Undoubtedly one of the eight right now.
As long as we're one of the eight and we stay one of the eight. That's all that matters.
Net 29? On KenPom is higher than that. Where does it stand?
25. I check that every day, multiple times a day. It's going to change.
Are you a KenPom refresh guy? Even though it doesn't change until 7 p.m., you're still just confirming?
I refresh it right after the game starts. We had a good night last night with Ole Miss winning in double overtime. Texas getting a big win. It was a good night for our net and for KenPom.
The Ole Miss win was at Georgia? Is that right?
Georgia's had a really nice season. Arkansas, they went above us because they just beat the brakes off South Carolina at home. Maybe South Carolina 40 at home.
Margin affects things in a positive way. So 113-69 on the road in Tallahassee matters.
We moved up quite a bit. We moved up almost nine spots.
That doesn't happen as much back into the year, right?
Correct. You can move a couple spots. We need to move up another six or eight spots, but we're not going to be able to do much more than that.
You want to be in the teens. That's what I'm hearing.
I'd like to be in the high teens. High teens.
By high, you mean like 18. That's what you're thinking.
18 would be nice. 13 would be great, but I don't know if that's realistic. I think 18 would be good. 18's good.
That'd be great. That would lock things in.
There were great games last night.
There were great games last night Stanford beat North Carolina. Ebuka Okorie had just a wild stat line. One turnover. He had 36 points in one turnover.
Nine assists, I believe.
That's a pretty special game.
Nine assists.
Pretty special game.
That West Coast swing is tough. You're there a week. That West Coast swing is tough. Cal, Stanford, Haas Pavilion, and then go to the farm or vice versa, as they call it.
You ever been out there? Oh, that's right. You were at Washington State.
Yeah. I've been there a few times. I have. Yeah. It's a little different out there.
Very different.
Yep. A little bit different, but they've got some occasionally.
When I was at Harvard, we played at Stanford.
That kind of makes sense. That tracks. Kindred spirits of sorts. Yeah.The Harvard-Stanford cross-country swing.
That's right. We played in a tournament out there.
At Stanford?
Yeah.
I didn't realize that was a thing.
They had, like, an MTE out there.
Really?
Yeah. We played out there.
I meant, yeah, no, I'm with you there. But, like, does it help you when we go out there knowing what Maples Pavilion is like? None of that?Nothing?
No. Not at all. But I'm grasping here. I'm trying.
You've got tomorrow to prep for the Yellow Jackets. They really struggled at home against Pittsburgh. Initial observation from that Pittsburgh game, one, they didn't have their second leading rebounder. I don't know if he's going to be healthy or not. Mouhamed Sylla, 6'10", big fella. He's actually their best defensive rebounder.
They have two really quality big guys. And he was out. So that didn't help. They turned the ball over quite a bit. And they are second worst in the ACC in turnover margin. They have their point guard from last year. Pack fans might remember Naithan George. He's at Syracuse now from the game that the Pack played in Atlanta.
Chas Kelly III, who Pack fans might remember also, he was at BC last year. He's now down with Georgia Tech. So they turned the ball over a ton, and that seemed to be an early issue against Pittsburgh.
Yeah, like musical chairs in the ACC. Everybody's just trading guards.
Yeah, that is true. But is that the biggest glaring hole that you saw in Georgia Tech in their loss at home to Pittsburgh?
Like I said, they got off to a slow start. They missed some layups. They missed some bunnies at the rim, which kills you. And so they missed those, and then it just snowballed on them. And it's deflating, kind of what happened to us against Virginia.
When you can't score, it's deflating, and it affects your defense. You don't want it to. But I'm not one of these coaches. All these coaches give you all these clichés.
I've always told my staff this, like we need to recruit offense and we'll teach defense because all these coaches say, well, when your shot's not falling, you've got to really guard. Well, that sounds good, but as a coach, you're more excited when you score, right? You don't see coaches. I mean coaches get way more excited when they're scoring than when they're not, right? I'm like that. We're all like that.
That's just a bunch of BS that, like, you expect the player. Like you've got to score. And so, like, when you miss bunnies and you miss open shots and you do that, like it affects other parts of your game. And that's any team. That was our team against Virginia. That was Georgia Tech yesterday.
They missed three or four shots at the rim, layups, and then Pittsburgh was able to get out in transition. And there's a couple, four-point swings where they missed a layup, and then Pittsburgh would come down and make a layup or dunk it. And when that happens, I mean, those are catastrophic when you're playing league games and you're playing league teams at home.
And so, Georgia Tech just got off to a poor start in that game, and they got off to a poor start at Miami as well. They played Miami pretty even outside of the start, but they've gotten off to some good starts. At Duke they got off to a great start, hit the first three. Duke countered. They came back. They were up six to three, and then they, they had a seven-point lead in the second half, seven-point lead in the second half.
So, I mean, look, they're a team that every week everybody thinks you can just like every day you have a different team. You never know what's going on in some guy's life or this or that. Like every day you have a different team.
And so every game is different. You've got to get into the game and kind of figure out what's what. And every game has a different pace to it and has a different rhythm to it.
And so you can't just look at it and say, well, Georgia Tech got blown out by Pittsburgh. Well, yeah, that's because they got off to a bad start. They got off to a great start. They're a really good team, and they could have beaten Pittsburgh, and they can kill NC State at home.
So, that's the trap that sometimes your players get into. But every game is different, and every day you've got a different team, different group. And so you have to be cognizant of that, and that's why you have to prepare hard and be ready for as many situations as you can be ready for.
They did have some unique players. I mean, Kowacie Reeves and Baye Ndongo are two really athletic guys. Ndongo is, let's see, he's 12 points and nearly eight boards a game right now. One of the league's better offensive rebounders. And then Reeves is their leading scorer at 16 a game, four boards as well.
Yeah, Reeves was at Florida, highly recruited guy, borderline five-star guy, really, really dynamic player. Number 11, Bay, he's one of like five players in the league, averaging 12 and 8. There's only five players in the league doing that, and he's one of those five.
Washington's a good point guard, does a good job there. So they've got good personnel. They're really well coached. Coach Stoudamire's a great coach, and so it'll be a big challenge.
You know, we'll have fire behind us We'll have boys chick working our pit authentic barbecue pyro guy and see how his timing is hit a button and fire So that's what we get. We need to work on that next show.You know, we'll get some fun on you Matt That's right. How great would that be if you walk it? Some fire flames up here Greg's not Greg's not like I think you would love it Have Okay, ask coach wait a question, here we go This is from the red the red reckoners from here and in the pit authentic barbecue.All right So self-named that's what that's correct.
Write-In Questions
What team are you looking forward to playing most and why?
Don't know if I can answer that honestly.
Really?
Let me answer it this way. I understand what games are important to our people. If it’s important to them, it's important to me. It's important to our team.
Coach as a fan I love watching the team play. What's one thing you hope fans notice about how your players are growing this season?
Oh. That's a good question. I mean, I hope we're winning. I do think that our guys are getting a little more used to playing with each other. One thing I like that we do, that I don't think most people notice is when we make an assist at three both guys point at each other. And we've been way more consistent with that.
That's something I'm huge on and so, when we make an assist at three, the guy who makes the three and the guy who assisted both point at each other. If you watch the film you can see us doing that quite a bit more. So little things like that kind of excites me.
All right Okay, questions are starting to really roll in here Terrance Arceneaux, has had his best three-game stretch in a pack uniform. What would you attribute his to what would you attribute to his success as of late?
I think he's just had a clear mind, he's playing with a weighted vest on, and he had a lot of stuff going on. So at the end of the day these these guys are humans they've got other things going on in life and sometimes that weighs them down and some people are a little bit better at putting on their work out hat, and then putting on their academic hat, and then putting on their have fun hat, then putting on their Family hat.
But some people have to stack all those on their head at the same time and it weighs them down and he was just a little weighed down and we needed to relieve some of that and it wasn't his fault. And so we tried to do our best to do that and he's played It's played a lot a lot more freely because of that and when he does that, he’s naturally a very, very, talented player. A very, very, good player. And when he does that, he's able to show that and shine through and that's that's really what's happened
Coach you talked about wanting this team to dominate and we certainly did that at FSU. What should be acknowledged as the way our bench dominated in the FSU and BC games compared to their benches? What have you done to help the non starters continue to improve?
Well, I mean, look, I mean a lot of it’s Matt and Terrance coming along. Musa’s getting more comfortable. We’re playing Musa with better lineups. We had Musa out there with some bad lineups, which didn’t allow him to play how he needed to play or how he was capable of playing.
So I think all of that is—I think all of that has helped. But yeah, I mean, we’ve been getting bludgeoned from the bench. And I think the Virginia game—we scored seven bench points, got outscored like 30, 30-some-odd to 7, 33 to 7, something like that. So, we’ve been a little bit better, a little bit better there, and I think that’s been important because we’re gonna need—we’re gonna need all those contributions moving forward.
I think you answered this or alluded to it at least a little earlier question is what's the status on a boobay? What does he have to do to increase his minutes become more a part of the rotation?
Well, he’s—we got to get him healthy first. So his ankle’s still a little bit, a little bit banged up, and, but he’s—he’s gonna play a role for us. We like playing him around the media timeouts; we can sneak a little bit more extra—we can sneak a little extra rest time for Ven around those.
And so, I mean, to play more, he would need to foul less. That would be a big—good place—that’d be a good place to start. But look, he has a good—he has a lot of responsibility on the team, and he has a good, good part to play with what we do to contribute to us winning, and we just need him to continue to continue to do that.
Our last question here at least for now as these things are rolling in how would you describe Matt Able's progress? Within what y'all want to do offensively.
I think he’s made as much progress as anybody. He’s really got a better feel of picking his spots and when to be aggressive and when to pass and how to get into the game. He doesn’t come into the game just trying to —he eases his way into the game, which is—it just takes some trust. It takes some trust from him that I’m gonna allow him to do that, not yank him if he’s not, if he’s not scoring immediately, and it takes, trust from me to understand that, hey, I got to let him work through a couple—work through some mistakes.
He’s not gonna be perfect. He’s a freshman. But he’s—he’s way more mature than a freshman. He can listen, and he can apply, and he really, really wants to be a good player. He really, really wants to help our team win. He really, really wants to contribute to winning, and he’s—he’s—he’s made major, major progress.
And I think he’s gonna continue to do that, and so we’ve just got to stick with him and continue to encourage him and continue to be there for him, and he’s gonna continue to make progress. And look, the better he plays, the better—the better—the better opportunities we have to win and the better opportunities we have as a team to be successful.
So he’s very, very important to our team as well.
This is the last segment before we get set for Georgia Tech. You go, Georgia Tech here at home after kind of a bye week or an off week, and then you actually head back—some road games—head back to the road. That’s right?
Right.
You’ve got Clemson. You’ve got Pittsburgh coming up after this week against Georgia Tech. This all part of this stretch of the year where, if you back up a week or so, you had six of eight on the road, which is a lot. So you kind of cram in a bunch of your road games here in one slate, which, in and of itself, can be really difficult.
But I’ve sensed a great momentum, frankly, with two road wins against Boston College and Florida State. I did—the team—like you had said postgame to me on the air, you said, “I really wish we had kept playing this week. I wish we keep on rolling and keep this momentum going.
Yeah, I think we found our rhythm a little bit, and we got it—we got to pick it back up on Saturday at noon. And so we’ve got to—we got to pick right back up where we left off because we’re gonna have to play really, really difficult road games after this, and this is going to be a difficult home game. We’ve got to reestablish ourselves at home.
Our last outing at home was embarrassing, and we’ve got to—we’ve got to come back and reestablish ourselves, as a dominant team at home. And so we can’t be dropping home games. We can’t be dropping home games in the league, and so that’s—that’s really important that we get off to a good start and play with great energy, play with great effort, and are able to—able to get rolling here against Georgia Tech on Saturday. Have you found this team to be responsive?
And what I mean is: you had mentioned slow starts against Wake Forest and Virginia. You talked about that, and then—boom—you had faster starts against Boston College and Florida State. So, this team is particularly receptive to whatever the message is of the week.
Yes, most of the time. But I mean, this team—it seems we don't have a lot of carryover. We have to restart; we have to keep reminding them of the message. It's not like you give them the message once and they're like, 'Oh, yeah, I got that,' and we can move on to something else. We have to go back to the same message, back to the same message, back to the same message. Just... just a little frustrating, but hey, that's who it is. And that's who we are.
And so, I can't change that; and so, we're gonna keep hammering the message. And so, that's—that's—that's what we do. And so, we're gonna keep... we're gonna keep hammering that. And I wish we had a little bit more carryover, but we just don't. Are some teams better at noon games or night games, or vice versa, or anything to that? I don't know about that. I mean, sure, you got to play when they're scheduled, so, it’s noon.
The Pack was great in Tallahassee at noon, it's good and they were great 9 p.m. And in Chestnut Hill when you made your own energy.
Yeah, in a quiet building. It was a quiet building—but I mean, look: we got to play it when it's scheduled. It's a big game for us; it's an important game for us. And, at noon we need to be the most excited team, the most fired up team to be there, and, start that way and finish that way.
Have you found something with Darrion at the point?
I hope so. Yeah, I mean, we feel like we have. He’d been averaging—before, before we moved him to the point—he’d had the ball in his hands about two minutes and 15 seconds a game. Since we’ve moved him to the point, he’s... he’s about five—little, five minutes and, I believe, 16 seconds a game now.
So we’ve increased the amount of time he has the ball in his hands. When he has the ball in his hands, good things are gonna happen for us. Not necessarily him shooting, but just, his assists. He’s second on the team in assists; Q’s got, I think, 103 or something; Darrion’s got 50, 59, or 60. And so good things are gonna happen.
And so we’ve been able to increase his time with the ball, and when we do that, it benefits everybody on our team—not just him. I mean, he benefits actually less than some of the other guys on our team, but that’s what we have to do.
And so we’re gonna... we’re gonna continue to give him the ball. He’s gonna continue to play point guard. Darrion’s—part of his personality is he’s not the most...he’s not the most... he’s not like Q. Q’s gonna go take the ball from me and say, 'Give me the ball,' and Darrion’s gonna be like, 'You can have the ball,' and, 'It’s okay.'
Is he passive? Is that the word?' I’m not gonna put a definition on it, but, so sometimes you’ve got to give him the ball and tell him, 'No, you’re getting the ball,' and tell everybody else, 'He’s getting the ball. You guys are not getting it. He’s getting it.' Yeah, and if you don’t like it, well, you can come sit on the bench.
So sometimes you just have to do that. And we tried to, tell Darrion, 'Hey, why don’t you please go get the ball? Be really nice if you go get the ball. We’d really enjoy it if you would go get the ball.' We tried to kind of ask him nicely, and that didn’t work very well. So we went to this method, which is: everybody’s gonna give him the ball. He’s shooting 42 percent from three this year.
That would be fourth-best in the league if he had shot more—if he had qualified. He’s one of the most efficient players in the ACC, and that’s why he’s gotta have the ball. I mean, this isn’t rocket science.
You get the ball to your best players, you get the other team's worst defenders on them, and then you see what happens. I mean, you get—that's what I always say—you get your best players on their worst defenders, and recruiting takes over. Yeah, I mean, just let it kind of naturally... naturally go.
And so, we've been running too much 'equal opportunity.' Were moving that ball and, all five touch it, your best two shoot it. Remember that: all five can touch it, everybody gets to feel that thing and feel a little real good about things, but your best two better be shooting. I love it. We had all five touching it and the bottom three shooting. Now we got a little bit better of an equilibrium to what we're doing.
