First-year coach Will Wade and NC State men’s basketball are off to a decent start in 2025, with an 8-4 record and its only losses to high-major programs Texas, Kansas and Auburn, along with Seton Hall.
And despite the Wolfpack defeating Texas Southern 108-72 on Dec. 17, Wade went on a lengthy rant diving into his concerns with his team.
‘We have a 3.0 GPA,’ Wade told reporters after the game. That’s wonderful, if we’re running a daycare. We run a competitive basketball program. We’ve got a lot of casual personalities on this team.’
Wade continued:
‘(Expletive), it’s concerning it’s taken this long and we’re not there,’ Wade said. ‘And we got all high-major games here on out. Kindergarten’s over. … Yeah, it’s concerning. I played some of those kids tonight, made their Christmas. It’s going to be miserable for me, I made their Christmas, they got their Christmas present a week early playing some of these guys.
‘I’ve been concerned for weeks. We are who we are. I said it a few weeks ago, ‘If you’re not physical and you’re not tough then you better be alert and aware.’ And we’re still none of the four.’
Wade led McNeese to the Round of 32 last season in his third season with the program. The 43-year-old prior coached at Chattanooga, VCU and LSU, where he was fired in 2022 for recruiting violations.
Wade briefly praised McNeese transfer Quadir Copeland and North Carolina transfer Ven-Allen Lubin, touching on their evolving leadership qualities, before going back in on his rant.
Paul McNeil Jr. scored a whopping 47 points with 10 rebounds in 27 minutes, hitting 11 of 17 3-pointers in the win. He also made 12 of 12 free-throw attempts.
‘Casual, lack of attention to detail, lack of focus,’ Wade said. ‘And that’s great when somebody sets the ACC record for made (3-pointers) and the school record for made (3-pointers) in the first half, but we’re relying on hope that one of these cats is going to go ballistic every night. That’s why we rely on, just hope. And hope is a bad strategy in my book.’
Wade, regarded as one of the best hires in the offseason coaching carousel, has a talented roster of transfers, with seven ranked four stars or better by 247Sports, including Williams, a five-star transfer portal prospect.
It appears the first-year NC State coach is attempting to set the tone for the rest of the season, with a matchup against Ole Miss on Dec. 21 before ACC play starts.
‘We got a lot of casual personalities on our team,’ Wade said. ‘We don’t have people that are revved up and ready to go. I had one of the kids come to me, ‘I’m tough, I’m tough.’ I said, ‘(expletive) you’re not in the top 50 of toughest players I’ve coached.’ Not even in the top 50. I don’t want to hear that, you ain’t tough.’