NC State head coach Will Wade met with the media to discuss the upcoming game at No. 14 Virginia, maintaining momentum during the off week, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video player above to watch the full Zoom call!
Coach, when you look at the matchup you got tomorrow at Virginia, a team that I believe is 13-1 at home, only allows about 68 points a game. And from your first matchup, what have you learned more about your team going into this matchup tomorrow night that you think they'll be the difference maker in coming out with a victory?
But Virginia's playing great, got great personnel, they're huge. They're kind of the opposite of who we are. Their physicality poses a lot of issues for us.
So this will be a monumental task tomorrow, and hopefully we can play better, get off to a better start than we got off to in the first game, and we've got to not let our offense, because it's going to be tough sledding, they’re the best defensive team in the league.
And we can't let our offense affect our defense, because any chance we have, we're going to have to be better defensively and get a few more stops than we've been getting.
Yeah, hey, Will, I'm just wondering with UVA, are there any big differences that you see compared to when you saw them the first time around, as you scouted them for this matchup?
I mean, the first time around, they didn't have [Jacari] White; he was out. So he's kind of value-added; he's made them even better. He's instant offense; you could argue he won him the Florida State game with how he played, did the same thing against Miami as well.
So it's another player that you've got to really, really account for. So I think they're even better than the first time we played them.
And then Sam Lewis played well against you guys the first time. He's kind of come on even more for them lately. What makes him a tough guard?
We had five threes against us the first time. So I mean, you start with he can shoot, he's physical, can finish inside. Good offensive rebounder, just does a lot of winning things.
So does a good job in transition, getting to the rim. So he's just an all-around very, very good player, very, very efficient player.
Will, on your side of things, what do you feel like has changed about your team since that last game? Obviously, that came very early in the ACC season.
Well, we'll see tomorrow. I mean, I don't know. Everything's in theory until we see if we can do it tomorrow.
But I mean, we have to match or exceed their physicality. I'm very worried about that. They're extremely physical.
They're one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the conference. They're number one going into the Miami game in offensive rebounding. And that's defensive rebounding, certainly an area that we've struggled.
And Will, another aspect I wanted to ask you about the last week, is having the full week off. What types of things did you guys do to prepare for keeping them on track with a full week off from the court?
Well, we didn't do what we did the last time we had a week off. So hopefully, we'll try something different, and it'll help us out. We tried to simulate a game last time, and then we came out, and we're awful against Georgia Tech.
So hopefully, some of the changes will work a little bit better this time around.
What's it been like for you seeing Matt Able coming to his own, especially in ACC play?
We expected it. He's a great player, he works hard, and he's diligent. He studies film, and he does everything that you ask him to do.
And so you knew it was common. It's just a matter of him growing throughout the year. But give him credit, man, he's stuck with it.
He's had some really, really good times the last couple of games. We had some really, really low moments earlier in the year. And I'm sorry, I couldn't help him earlier in the year.
I think we'd have gotten to this point a little bit quicker. But I'm glad we're here now, and I expect him to continue to build, continue to grow, and be able to finish the season strong for us.
And then just to follow up, what's the biggest thing you've learned about him or his mindset, ability to bounce back from things like that, and be able to click at the right time?
Got incredible mental toughness. He's got an incredible ability to be able to move on to the next thing. Be able to not let what happened in the game before, the day before, the play before bother him, and just stay in the present moment, which is really, really a superpower.
And he's got that, and he's had that long before we got him. And so it's a credit to his parents and his upbringing and just the way that he's been developed basketball-wise.
Yeah, Will, it seemed like you guys were better on the offensive glass against UNC. Was that a point of emphasis? Has that been something you've been wanting to improve on or focus more on down the stretch?
I wish. I think the balls just fell into our hands against those guys. I mean, we're just not a very good offensive rebounding team.
So I wish we were better. I wish we could be better, but we just are who we are. So we're not gonna grab a bunch of them. Ven works his tail off down there. But outside of that, we just don't have a lot of help. Terrance flies in there when he's in there.
Musa gets a couple. But to be a good offensive rebounding team, you gotta have threes and really twos and threes. If you're gonna send four, you gotta have guys that can go in there and get it.
And we don't have that, so we kind of put a premium on getting back and trying to stop the ball and transition a little bit more than worrying about offensive rebounding right now.
Yeah, Will, the last time y'all were on the road was the Louisville loss. Have you seen a sense of urgency to kind of respond with another win on the road and kind of get back in the win column in that respect?
I don't know, really, in the respect of Louisville being our last road game. I mean, that was a while ago, a couple of weeks ago. This is NC State versus Virginia.
Virginia's a great team. They're in second place in the league. And so this is more about just us preparing to play a great team.
And look, when you go on the road, and you play really good teams, Louisville's a great team. Sometimes, different things can happen. So all we can control is our preparation.
Hopefully, we'll be prepared tomorrow when we get up there.
Similarly, you guys have this stretch here of four of the top teams, really, in the conference. Did you sense that your guys were, you know, up for this little stretch and particularly here with Carolina-Virginia back-to-back?
I don't even really look at it that way, Mike, until you just said that. I mean, look, every game's independent. Every game's different.
And so, we certainly know that the back half of our schedule is a little tougher than the front part of our schedule. But just take it a game at a time, and we'll play. And the one we got in front of us is Virginia tomorrow night.
And Virginia's bench has been so effective for them, and they do some different things. They bring some different guys off that bench. What's the challenge of facing a team like that that can really kind of change the look of the game with their substitutions?
Yeah, and they did that against Miami. They were down 11 and came in and made some threes and got going offensively. They've got a great team.
They've got great depth. They've got great pieces and parts. The team fits together really well.
It looks like they've got really good connectedness and chemistry from what I can see on film. And those bench guys are, you know, those guys could start at a lot of places, and they've bought into their role. And, you know, they can come in and change the game.
You certainly have to pay attention to everybody who's on the scouting report.
After the first time you played Virginia, you talked about the hammer pass with Sam Lewis in the corner. How do you kind of take that away?
We've got to work on their baseline drives. I mean, they just got mismatches and drove us and beat us 1-on-1. They did a lot of stuff driving at baseline, like I said, throwing the hammer, and then playing out of that.
And so that's something that we certainly are going to have to be aware of and have to do a better job with.
