NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media following the Wolfpack's 88-68 win over Syracuse Tuesday evening.
NOTE: Click on the video in the player above to watch Wade’s press conference.
Opening Statement
Before we get into the game tonight, I want to address my comments on our retro uniforms and logo usage. I never intended for this to get out of hand. I appreciate our fans. Our fans are incredible. Their energy is their passion. There's nothing like it in college athletics and college basketball, but the attacks on our strategic brand management staff, there's no place for that. These people are doing their jobs. I apologize. I texted every one of them and apologize privately. I'm apologizing publicly now, but we need to stop. This is their job. Whatever anybody thinks, this is their job, and it's our job to do what's best for university, and what's best for the university is our Tuffy logo and moving forward with that. I urge our fans: these folks are good, hard-working folks who are doing their job. We don't need to attack anybody. You want to attack somebody? Attack me for starting this and saying something that I didn't realize was going to set this off. These are hard-working, good folks. They don't need to be dealing with this. They don't need to be dealing with this. They've been great to work with. They've worked with us on many other issues, and they've been very, very good to work with. They're great partners with us on campus, and we don't need that. We don't need that. These folks work extremely hard and want to advance NC State, just like all of us do. Like I said, I appreciate our fans' passion. I appreciate just how passionate they are about everything, but we've got to stop this. These are people. These are human beings that are doing their job. All right, they're doing their job, so let's put a stop to that, and let's move forward with NC State and keep winning some basketball games.
On Quadir Copeland’s performance…
Better than I expected. He was good. He stayed under emotional control for the most part: nine assists, 19 points, four turnovers. A little sloppy with the ball, but the four steals did a great job. We talked every day. I'm very, very proud of him.
On Darrion Williams’ fast start and 23-point performance for his best ACC home performance…
I thought it was good. I thought him getting off to the quick start with the five points [was good]. He had a few too many turnovers, but I thought him getting off to the quick start helped us.
On the team’s best ACC start in 20 years…
My thoughts are we should be 7-1, so I'm not real pleased with 6-2. We should be 7-1, not 6-2, but I guess it's good. I guess that's something you guys can write about, but I'm not very pleased with where we are. I think we should be better than we are. I guess 6-2 beats 5-3. The Georgia Tech game just still makes me pretty upset. Look, 6-2 is not bad, I guess, but I strive for a little bit higher and better than that. Virginia just whipped us. We weren't beating Virginia. They just whipped us, but the George Tech game is a game we could have won. We had a big lead in the second half, nine-point lead in the second half, and we blew it. We want to be better than that.
On the players’ response to him wanting to play better at home…
We were better. Look, we flew back from Pittsburgh. We went straight to a hotel. We were in hotels all day Sunday and Monday with the team, Saturday night and Sunday night, and we came over here Monday and practiced. We did everything in a ballroom on Sunday, so I was proud of our guys for how they adjusted. I appreciate them letting us stay, our administration, compliance, everybody working together to make all that happen. I told our guys we look to our fans; man, these people pay a lot of money to park, tickets, seats, all that sort of stuff, and we've been terrible at home. We owe it to at least play with some effort and play well for these folks. We played with a little bit more of an edge tonight. I thought that was good. Fifteen offensive rebounds, that’s pretty good for our bunch. We turn over 11 times; we've been keeping our turnovers in single digits. You turn over a lot of times, you’ve got to make up some of those possessions with some offensive rebounds, so that was progress tonight: Ven[-Allen Lubin] with five offensive rebounds. Tre [Holloman] had three, Musa [Sagnia] had three. Terrance [Arceneaux] came in and gave us two. Musa had a career high in points tonight and followed his best practice of the year yesterday. I’m proud of him. Matt Able had his career high in rebounds which was good, so it’s a lot of good stuff from those guys.
On the depth of the front-court…
Oh, the front court was, I believe, 13-for-14 from the field. Musa's getting better. It just takes some time to adjust. Like I said, he had his best practice yesterday. He had a great workout this morning at nine with Coach [Adam] Howard. I think that he's going to continue to improve, continue to get better. Our metrics say we’ve got to play him more, and so we've been trying to do that. We didn't get to play him as much as we wanted to at Pittsburgh because he got the foul trouble, but we need to play him more.
On Williams’ physicality…
I liked it. Look, the threes are the threes. He was 5-for-9 from three, whatever. He makes them some days, [but on others,] he doesn't, but I thought his finishing was better. He drove. He was way more physical around the basket. I've been on him about, “Layups, you've got to put high on the backboard.” Our whole team [has to do that]; it's not just him. We just throw these layups. We miss him on the underside of the rim which is just [bad]. We hit the flange. We do all sorts of terrible stuff on layups, and so we've been working on getting our layups up, and I thought he hit first and got them higher on the backboard. I was really pleased with that today.
On the call Williams received about his lack of toughness earlier in the season…
Darrion doesn't like that pad. We've been hitting with that pad. We've kind of let him do stuff against the air before. Sometimes, you’ve got to touch him up a little bit with that pad and feel that pad a little bit, so we're trying to put that pad on him some.
On the attention he’s received for off-court comments…
Look, I said something I shouldn't have said. I didn't realize what a hot-button issue it was. Look, I'm learning too, and so it's a learning process for me, and I feel bad that there's innocent people that were affected by my comments. We've got great fans, and our fans care. That's the main thing, and we'd rather them care than not care. The last thing you want is apathetic fans, and so we certainly do not have apathetic fans. I've learned that. Hey, that's good. Look, train it at me. I make a lot of money. Some of these folks they're going after [don’t]. Train it at me. I can take it. I've been through a lot worse. I've had a lot of bad stuff written about me which is fine, I'm cool with it. That’s part of it. I probably need to adjust a little bit how I maybe should not be as forthright in all my thoughts. Give some truth, but maybe not the whole truth, how about that? It won't be as much fun for you guys. It could keep us calm. I thought Craig [Hammel] was going to have to get a drink before he came to the press conference today. He was searching for a drink in the coaches locker room there.
On the defensive rebounding…
It was better. You know, our guards rebounded down better. Matt getting six defensive rebounds was huge. Darrion had some big rebounds. 'm telling you, Terrance played 15, 16 minutes tonight. Terrance made a huge impact for us on both ends, especially defensively with his activity. He was guarding the ball. We did a good job kind of wearing [Naithan] George out a little bit. They didn't play him as much in the second half because we were picking him up full court, and Terrance did a great job with that. Look, our defensive rebounding was better, but it’s something we’re going to have to get fixed.
On the temporary restraining order on players with professional experience…
You’re testing me quickly here, huh? Look, if they're eligible, and somebody says they're eligible, you can play them. That's my take on it, and I think people are up in arms because some of this is G-League and NBA guys. Well, a lot of these Europeans that have been coming over are way more pros than some of these G League and NBA guys. They've played way more professional basketball than that. It's just a matter of what we understand and what we don't understand. Look, any coach is going to do what they need to do. It's my obligation to make NC State basketball the best we can make it however we need to do that. It's my obligation within the rules. If it's within the rules, people are going to do it. Shoot, Alabama raised their ceiling dramatically by getting [Charles Bediako]. That was their one weak point: defense and rebounding. He raised their ceiling. Any coach in the country would do the same thing.
