NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media for his weekly zoom call to discuss the Syracuse game, how to play better at home, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch the full zoom call!
You guys are 4-0 in ACC Road Games this year, 2-0 this past week. What have you been able to learn about your team through this other than just being inconsistent at times?
Sometimes on the road you just get into a routine and you have a good routine and I think that's helped us with some of these games. We've had early noon games on the road, which I think is the advantage to the road team. We've lost our early noon games at home. So, I think sometimes it's just the way the schedules fall in and some of it's just being in the routine.
Is there a way for you to be able to use that routine and things like that to take it at home when there's a little more distractions around and they're going to class or different things like that?
So, we've talked about some of our issues at home and how to rectify those and so we're trying to mimic what we do on the road as much as we can at home.
Will, is there anything, like when you look at the last four or five games, is there one thing that maybe sticks out that you're really, really proud of in terms of what y'all are doing?
We're not turning the ball over. We value the ball for the most part and we don't give up professionally, which is what you have to do if you're not a great rebounding team, if you're not on the offensive glass and you weren't on the defensive glass at Pittsburgh.
And so, that's the only way we can continue to get shots and continue to, continue to give ourselves a chance offensively was to not turn it over. I do think that's been very helpful for us.
Will, we know how important Paul McNeil can be with the ball in his hands as a shooter, but how important has he been for the offensive side of the basketball with the ball not in his hands as a screener and as a guy that's getting open looks?
Yeah, he creates gravity for your offense. It's why we're always better with Paul on the floor because the defense has to account for him, whether we're setting screens with him, running ghost screens for him, running plays for him, whatever it may be, you have to account for Paul at all times.
And, that is a net benefit to our offense when you have to follow him around, chase him around and account for where he is. So he's a tremendous weapon. But even just being out there, he's a great weapon for us because the defense is accounting for him at all times.
In the clutching game against the Alabama because they were so worried about him coming off some pin downs. And so you're just always accounting for him. And that's a benefit to everybody else who's out there with him.
What has been the process in seeing Quadir Copeland become such a good three-point shooter compared to when you first worked with him when you arrived from Syracuse?
It's just like everything. You have to have a little discipline. And so, look, he's, I prefer not to do as many of the off the bounce threes, but the catching shoots he's really good at. I mean, he went this summer and worked with Phil Beckner, who I think is the best shooting coach in the country. He went out to Phoenix for a week. We set that up where he went out there for a week and worked with him.
And, Phil got his shot right and got his wrist stronger and got him moving in the right direction. Phil came back. He's a consultant for us. He came back this fall and did some checkup work on him. Paul was out there with Phil as well. So, it's just excellent. He's had the discipline to shoot a correct way more times than not.
Will. I was just checking to see kind of where you're seeing the progress from a guy like Jerry. He hasn't played in the last eight games. I know he had an injury mixed in there, but, what do you kind of need to see from him to maybe crack the rotation again?
He's redshirting this year.
You talked on Saturday about how the team kind of got out to a slow start. Was there anything that you were able to pinpoint on that or just, kind of what happened?
Lack of energy, lack of effort on the glass. Offensively, we were getting one shot and not a very good shot. And they were getting three or four shots every possession. So, we were playing defense the majority of the time. And so, if we get off to a start like that tomorrow against Syracuse, it's going to be 20-2, not 5-0.
And so, that's a huge point of emphasis for us and something that we have to get better at. You're not going to survive many poor starts like that, especially on the road.
Will, as you approach this season, did you anticipate this freshman class nationally having the impact that it has? I mean, you've seen Peterson in person this season. I'm sure you've seen the ACC freshman on tape as you've scouted. Just wondering if you and your peers anticipated this kind of impact.
I mean, look, there's a lot of talented freshmen, certainly a lot of talented guys. But with as old as every team is, I think it's hard to anticipate just how impactful all those freshmen will be. But when you look at freshmen all across the country, they're having a massive impact. Matt Able, our freshman, is having a massive impact on our team.
And he's playing really, really well and continuing to play well. But there's certainly a lot of freshmen all across the country that have done really good things for the team and are contributing to winning. And you never know how those are going to turn out.
Yeah, Will, you may have already addressed this, but can you just give some quick thoughts on Syracuse and what they present to you guys on Tuesday?
Yeah, I mean, they're uber talented. They've got three really, really good guards with George and Starling and then King, the shooter from Oregon State. And so, I mean, those – and then their front line, Kyle's as good an athlete as you'll see. One, the freshman Freeman, tremendous player. They're a lot better with him. So zero comes off the bench.
I mean, look, they – they are extremely, extremely talented. We're going to have to play one of our best games. We haven't played very well at home. We've been really, really poor at home. We feel really, really bad for our fans who support us. And we've done so bad the last two nights at home. And hopefully we'll play better tomorrow. If we don't play well tomorrow, we're going to get run out of the gym. So we've got to play extremely well and a lot better than we've been playing.
Yeah, Will, are you able to go in a little bit about the decision on Jerry's red shirt and, like, that conversation?
Well, there's some – he's got some off-the-court things going on. He's got some medical stuff going on. And we just felt – we met with him in his camp, and we felt – we all felt like that would be the best course of action for him right now. He's got a lot of things he's working for.
Yeah, Will, you got a chance to see Louisville with Mikel Brown, and we haven't seen that in a long time. How much did he change just the way the game went against you?
We haven't played Louisville yet. We don't play him for a couple weeks.
I'm sorry.
But he's a damn good player. He's a good player. I know that. But we don't play Louisville for a couple weeks at the KFC Yum! Center.
Great. I'm sorry.
Oh, all good.
Looked at the schedule wrong. Thank you.
All good. Oh, shoot. I'm glad we don't play him for a couple weeks.
