NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media to discuss the 96-78 road win over Wake Forest.
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch the full zoom call!
Will, you talked this week about wanting to change a little bit of the schedule for this team to be able to prepare for noon games. What all did that entail, and how much do you feel like it paid off today?
Well, I really cut back on some of the practice. I mean, yesterday, well, Thursday, first off, I didn't do morning vitamins. And then yesterday, we were literally, from the minute we sat down to watch film to the minute we got off the court, it was an hour and two minutes.And then this morning, I let them sleep in for an extra 45 minutes, and we kind of changed our morning over routine.
So I was just trying to get us fresh. I thought we got off to a decent start because of it.But I was just trying to keep our guys fresh. And this is the time of the season where, look, everything's pretty monotonous, the way we do things, two days out, one day out.
Everything's very monotonous.So if you can break that monotony and give them a little pop, and they responded well. So I'm proud of them.
You also mentioned that you were frustrated with the way that your team played offensively the last time that you guys played against Wake Forest. I mean, first of all, how did you assess your offense in this game? And then how much have you seen the offense grow in this last month since that last performance?
I thought we turned the ball over 15 times against them the first time. We turned it over eight today. I thought Tre, three assists, no turnovers. Q, 10 assists, one turnover. Thought those guys were tremendous. It takes a second.
We had three turnovers before the first media, just adjusting to their hand angles and some of our passing and some of our hook passing. And so our guys did a good job adjusting, and I felt like we were a lot cleaner with our passing today.
Will, they say it's, very difficult to beat a team twice. You did it on the road by even more points. Could you speak on kind of the improvements that you guys made from the first game against Wake to today's game?
Well, I mean, we weren't very good in the first game against Wake. We were very fortunate to win. They missed a lot of open shots.Our offense was pretty poor. So, I mean, I think that, you want to continue to get better as the season goes on, and hopefully we can continue to get better. We're at the halfway mark now.
I believe we're seven and two here at the halfway mark. So we started with the one over Wake. We ended with the one over Wake. But, the back nine is not easy. So we've got to continue to improve, continue to get better, and continue to do the things that we need to do to allow us to be successful as a team. But I do think we're making progress.
And, I mean, look, you put 96 points up on the road. That's hard to do. So our guys did a good job. And, 19 assists on 33 made baskets is really good as well.
Yeah, Paul and Darrion hit three threes early in the game to kind of get you guys going. How much did that help settle in? And what did you kind of just like from the three-point shooting overall shooting, 57%?
Well, look, we're not going to shoot 57%. We can't control how we shoot it every night. But we can control the quality of the shots that we get. I thought our quality of threes, I can think of two or three that were pretty poor. But all the rest of our quality of threes, I think were pretty good. So, I focus on what we can control, which is the quality of our shots. And I think that our shot quality was solid today.
And then Darrion didn't play the last 11:42 minutes. Do you have an update on him?
Yeah, his Achilles was tight, and it was kind of going up to his calf. We could have played him. He was cleared to play. But as long as we had a double-digit lead, there was no need to do anything, compromising.
Yes, sir. You guys, because of the way you've played since the Georgia Tech game, these February games are going to have high value. First of all, just speak to how happy that makes you to know that your kids responded from the Tech loss. And is their confidence level at maybe the highest point it's been in the season?
I think we found a rhythm. We've got a good rhythm. We've got a good way, about us. And so, look, every season is going to have its up and downs. It took me,as a head coach, it took me a little longer than most years to kind of figure out how to play this group. And we had some curveballs. Some of the things weren't exactly as we maybe thought. And so we found a way, we had to find some ways to play these guys. And so very proud of our guys.
I mean, see somebody like Terrance Arcneaux, played 24 minutes today, scored nine points. But, I mean, he's the only guy we had who could guard Juke Harris. And just the growth he had. I mean, he didn't play for two games. And so just really proud of him for sticking with it and keep working. And, Tre has struggled in ACC play, shooting the ball, and, he was four for eight today from the field, three for six from three.
I think he made maybe four or five threes his entire, the entire ACC season. So that sort of stuff. We've still got, look, I mean, we're not we've still got a lot of room for improvement. Our on-ball defense was horrific today. We tried to trade baskets once we figured out how easy it was going to be to score. And so that's not going to work Tuesday at SMU. But, look, we've got you want to play meaningful games. And so we certainly have those on the on the back end of the schedule here.
Yeah, you have continued playing sort of that tighter lineup. You know, what did you what did you like from the guys that did see the floor and maybe what went into the decision to not play some of the other guys on the bench?
Well, I just think, eight guys gives us a chance to have some continuity, gives us a chance to have some some continuity of lineups. And so everybody knows that they're going to get multiple chances and they're not going to get pulled on their first mistake or they're not going to have something, they're not going to have something happen on their first mistake.
And so I just think it relaxes everybody and gives everybody more opportunity for success. And so, look, this isn't, this isn't the permanent lineup that could change again, probably will change again. But it's working for us now. We're not going to not going to mess with it too much.
What was it? Anything about Wake Forest's defense? You guys went five of eight on corner three pointers. And then was there a strategy about trying to shut down the non-Duke scorers?
That's a very nice question, JC, saying we were trying to shut down the non-Duke scorers. I mean, we couldn't stop Duke. I'd like to tell you there was some wonderful strategy behind shutting down all the rest of them.
But that was just because he took all those, he was taking, he took 20, he shot 25 balls, which he should have. I mean, he played great. But, look, there were some things with some matchups in the corners that we had looked at on film and felt like, we usually have Darien kind of roaming up top.We put him in the corner. We put our shooters in the corner. So there were a few matchup things there.
So before I get off, I do, I know none of you guys were here today, but our fans were incredible. We had more people here than Wake. We had the Wolfpack chant going. So I want to, the weather here is not great. We'll make it back to Raleigh, I hope.
But I want to thank all our fans who came today.I mean, they were absolutely awesome, made it much more of a neutral environment than a road environment. So we're very, very appreciative of all of them for coming out in the weather. And they were a rowdy group, and hopefully they had a good time. And so very appreciative of their support today.
Thanks, Coach. Safe travels.
Thanks, guys.
