WATCH: NC State Head Coach Will Wade Sits Down with Andy Katz (with transcript)

NC State Head Men’s Basketball Coach Will Wade met with Andy Katz for a lengthy interview yesterday. He was extremely vulnerable about the mistakes of his past, what he learned, how he has changed and the accountability he has put in place. He also answered questions about the current state of NC State basketball and potential in the future. Wade broke down some of the incoming transfers, non-conference opponents, and some of the recent rule changes, as well as potential ones.

You can read the transcript below, and watch the video underneath.

AK: I’m Andy Katz and Will, love this move for you. You’re right in the center of Tobacco Road in between Duke and Carolina. It’s exactly what NC State needs. When this was all going on, you were successful with McNeese, winning a game in the NCAA tournament, things are happening. What was it about this job that intrigued you so much? Because I know you really liked being at McNeese and rebuilding that program. What was it about this one that pulled you away?

WW: Yeah, I mean look, I was very content at McNeese. It was a tremendous situation with our athletic director and president and everything. But you know, you want to get back and compete at the highest level and NC State gave us an opportunity to do that and they gave us resources that I think are good enough for us to win at the highest level.

It’s one thing to be at the highest level. It’s another thing to be there and be able to compete and win and follow through on what you want to do. So I think we have everything we need here.

We just haven’t been very consistent. We’ve been really good in pockets with the Final Four a couple years ago. We just haven’t been consistently where we’re at the top of the ACC and consistently competing at the top of the league.

That’s our charge is to add some consistency to the program and continue our winning ways.

AK: So you have this trajectory, you’re going up, climbing the mountain, you get to LSU and the SEC wasn’t, I mean it was really good, but it wasn’t as good as it was obviously last year when you were there. Then that goes a little sideways, you end up at McNeese.

WW: Way sideways, Andy, way sideways. Way sideways. Way sideways, like upside down.

AK: No need to rehash.

WW: It’s all good. No, it’s all good.

AK: So I don’t want to rehash, but what was it about McNeese? I know your former boss, but what was it that you were like, you know what, I was here at a school like LSU. I’m now in a league that’s mostly one bid. What was it that said, you know what, I could stay here if the right opportunity isn’t out there the way the NC State one obviously popped up?

WW: Really the people.

I mean look, when you’ve been through some adversity, you’ve been through some stuff, you really want to be around good people. So I think that that’s important. You want people that you trust and that you trust being around.

At the end of my LSU tenure, a day before I got fired, one of the upper level administrators, ‘Hey, you got nothing to worry about. Everything’s good. We got it handled.’

And boom, they fire you the next day, which that’s fine. That’s their right. I’m cool with that.

But you can’t trust people like that. And so when you’re at a situation where you’ve got a high level of trust with your athletic director and with your school president, you want to leave for a really, really good spot. And then I felt, I have a lot of, not a lot, but I have some mutual friends with Boo Corrigan, our AD.

So I felt comfortable with that. The president, we had the same president at NC State for 14 years. He just retired.

We just have another one who was an athlete at NC State and worked at NC State for a while and then went into, worked in the North Carolina health system, then came back. And so we have some stable leadership. You look at kind of what goes on at some of the other universities around us and we don’t have that issue with the board and with our leadership here at NC State.

And so I think that shows some stability that’s important. And early in my career, I didn’t worry about that stuff. I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just go in there and we’ll win and everything will take care of itself and we don’t have to worry about all that.’

But now I think that stuff’s really, really important. I think Kelvin Sampson said it, ‘Coaches win games, administrations win championships.’ I think that’s his quote.

I don’t want to misquote him, but something along those lines. And there’s a lot of truth in that. And look, we were going to keep being able to keep winning championships at McNeese, but I feel like we’re at a point where we can, we can step in and compete and win championships here at NC State as well.

And so that was important when making the move is that, hey, we were going to be somewhere that we could step in and compete and win at a high level.

AK: And I should, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say his name. Heath Schroyer, you know, obviously doing a great job at McNeese and helping with that program and ultimately hired you.

And obviously it was aligned there. Every person, let alone coach, journalist, you name it, you know, we all grow, we all mature. Like how have you changed now at NC State, at this point in your career and life at the ACC versus when you were in the SEC?

WW: Yeah, I think that, look, you get fired and you said, I mean, look, we were climbing the ladder pretty quick and then boom, you get knocked off that thing.

The ladder just comes out from underneath you. And you have to look in the mirror. I mean, the first thing you had to look at yourself, like we made mistakes.

I made mistakes and, you know, I paid for the mistakes that I made. There’s a difference between confidence and arrogance.

And, you know, I was very arrogant there. I think arrogance is, ‘Hey, look, I can do whatever I want and it’s just going to work and we’ll figure a way out of it.’ I think confidence is, ‘Hey, we believe in our abilities. We believe in our job and we’re so good at what we do. We don’t need to do some extra things.’

And I think that, I think that that was something that I struggled with and still struggle with, but I think I’ve changed the components of my staff a little bit to have some people from the outside that can check me and regulate a little bit.

And our administration’s very active here and it’s going to do the same thing. And so it just felt like the difference between the confidence and the arrogance is that you learn from mistakes. I mean, you don’t want to make the same mistakes.

And I’m not one of these guys, I hear it all the time. ‘Oh, well, you were just ahead of your time with NIL.’ Well, look, what we were doing there, just because we were ahead of our time with NIL, just because they changed the speed limit and you sped the week before, it doesn’t mean that what you were doing the week before was right.

And so, you know, I’m not one of these guys that ascribes to, ‘Well, you’re just two years ahead of your time.’ Well, I think that what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong and the rules and the spirit of the rules are the same. And so we’re getting ready to have this cap put in and people are going to try to find ways around the cap.

There’s no doubt about that, but arrogance is, ‘Hey, we’re going to figure out a way around the cap and we’re not going to have any repercussions and we’ll just keep moving.’

Confidence is, look, ‘We’re going to go right up to the cap and we trust what we do and trust our systems and trust what we do enough that we’ll be able to win.

AK: Well, I’ll tell you, right off the bat, I love the way you’re just being very transparent and honest about this, that I think when we’re all younger, I mean, I know I made mistakes as a younger journalist and all that. How much do you feel that you got sort of caught up in the, ‘Oh, we’re in this big time place, you know, football’s off the charts at LSU and everything’s, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And you got to climb up and you sort of get enamored with everything that’s happening and you get swallowed up by it. I mean, how much was that at play then that obviously isn’t now. The rules have changed, but you also have changed.

WW: Yeah. It’s intoxicating. I handled my leaving VCU poorly. That’s why I tried to change how I handled leaving McNeese. It was a lot different.

I mean, I met with the guys real quick at VCU and I was out. I tried to handle my exit at McNeese a lot differently, but it certainly is intoxicating when you’re in a competitive environment, like you are at LSU. One thing we’ve tried to do here is go a lot slower and we’ve taken our time and we’ve made sure that everything we’re doing is right.

And what’s best for NC State and what’s best for our program. When I got to LSU, let’s just win, win, win.

I was 35 years old. I was one of the youngest coaches in the Power Five, if not the youngest coach. It was just win, win, win, win, win…and let’s win immediately. Now it’s like, ‘All right, look, we’ve got some time. Certainly. We want to get off to a great start. Certainly. We want to have a great first season, which I think we’re going to have, and we’re going to be really good.’

But you know, if we don’t win the national title in the first season, that’s okay. We’re going to have to build for two or three years. We’ll be all right.

We’ve got to build it. There’s some steps that you have to take.

And I think at LSU, I was intoxicated in all that and trying to skip some of those steps. Now I understand that there’s a stairwell that you have to climb. There’s steps that you need to climb.

We’re going to be a part of that process and patient with that process. Now we certainly, you know, feel like we’re going to have a competitive team this year and an NCAA tournament team this year and depending on how everything shakes out, maybe a little bit better than that.

When we were there, that’s basically what we were setting out to do, and then I also got caught up. You’re in the media. You climb so quick and everybody writes good stuff about you. I’m not on Twitter anymore.

You can write a hit piece on me. I don’t care. You could write that I’m Father Flanagan. I don’t care.

You know, nobody would write that, but you know it doesn’t bother me. I worry much more about what everybody who’s with me every day thinks. I’m much more worried about that than what happens externally, whatever you want to think about me or us or whatever extra, I used to spend a lot of time worrying about the external stuff.

It doesn’t bother me anymore. The people who touch us every day, the people who are with me every day, the 30 or so people in our building, as long as they’re good with what we’re doing and they’re fine with who we are as people and how we operate…I’m cool.

It used to not be that way. That’s a big change.

AK: So what’s interesting about NC State, and there was one point where they tried to get (Coach) Cal. They’ve tried to go for the big splashy name. They’re always obviously trying to figure out where they fit with Duke and Carolina. It’s interesting what you said before about confidence and arrogance, because I think you have to be confident in NC state. You’ve got to be sure of yourself because of what’s around you right there within a few miles. So how do you walk that line of not being arrogant, being confident, but being right there with, you know, two of the brand names in the sport?

WW: It’s a great question. I think the number one thing is we’ve spent a lot of time at NC state worried about those other two.

We need to focus on ourselves, but we got great stuff. We’ve got great fan base.

We’ve got a great arena and we got better stuff. We’ve got some better things than a lot of our peers, whether they’re close to us or whether they’re far away from us, we’ve got a lot. And we’ve spent so much time targeting and worried about other folks.

Let’s worry about ourselves. Let’s see how good we can get. Like we spend too much time on the external stuff.

Let’s focus on the internal and let’s make sure that we’re doing everything that we can internally to maximize what we’re doing at NC State. If we do that, I think the sky’s the limit. I mean, I think nobody’s going to want to mess with us.

We need to spend our time focusing on being the best NC State we can be. And if we’re that, people are going to be adjusting to us and chasing us, rather than us trying to chase other folks.

AK: One last thing you said about checking on you. Who’s there, you said, I need people to check me. Is that just in general?

WW: Like staff, you know, like, ‘Hey, look, coach, that’s a bad idea.’ We’ve done some things in some staff meetings where you’re like, ‘Coach, let’s chill out on that list. Let’s not worry about that.

I think that’s important to have that balance on your staff. Before, I listened to one or two people. Now I’ve got a group of people. I listen to all those people and I’ll say, ‘You know what, you’re right.’

AK: Roster management. That’s what everyone’s dealing with now. And I know as we’re talking here, it’s not done for next season, but to this point, third week in May, tell me where you are in terms of how you feel about the roster that you were able to put together thus far.

WW: We feel good about it. I feel really good about it. I think we’re going to have a roster that can compete at the top of the ACC. I think we’re going to have a roster that can get to the NCAA tournament and hopefully, you know, win a game or two and maybe get to the second weekend.

That’s the goal of what we’re trying to build, and I think that we’re close to building that.

We’ve got kids who have come from winning programs. We’ve got kids who have been around winning, and I think that’s important as we try to build this into a winner and build this into who we can be and what we can be. I feel really good.

My staff’s done a great job. My general manager, Andrew Slater, my assistant GM, Patrick Stacy, like they’ve done a great job of managing everything. And I feel very confident about where we are and I think we’ll be better as we move forward here.

AK: I’m thinking of two guys right off the bat. I mean, Arceneaux from Houston, Holloman from Michigan state, they won conference championships.

Obviously Arceneaux played for the national championship against Florida. Everyone looks for different things in the Portal. Where was that winning quotient for you on your pecking order of what you wanted to find?

WW: Much higher because we haven’t won.

So you’ve got to bring guys that have won. I mean, we brought guys that have won 11 NCAA tournament games so far. Seven conference championships.

You count the couple of kids I brought with me from McNeese with Arceneaux, with Holloman, a couple of the other guys.

Winning teams win for a reason. Winning leaves clues and losing leaves clues too. Right.

You want guys that come from winning programs. Tre Holloman was a captain for Tom Izzo at Michigan state. I mean, what more of a statement do you need to make in college basketball? Right. Arceneaux played three years at Houston for Kelvin Sampson, one of the best coaches in the history of college basketball and one of the top active coaches right now.

We’re very fortunate with both of those guys and we’re excited to help them continue their careers.

AK: Schedule. As you navigate now, the ACC went to 18, which I think will help with the non-conference. So how are you managing this first year of a schedule in the non-conference? And by the way, I will see you in Maui. So you got that right off the bat. It’ll be interesting, certainly there. I know Sean Miller will have a squad with Texas and Eric Musselman with USC. So that’s going to be interesting. But besides that with Maui, what else you got?

WW: Yeah, we started a home and home series with VCU.

We’ve got them coming. We’ve got Kansas with a return game here. We’re on the road in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

Then we’ve got some really good games. We’ve got a really good Liberty team coming in here. Who Ritchie McKay always does a phenomenal job.

In the process of finishing off a couple others. We don’t have the ink dry on the contracts yet, but we’re going to have a good non-conference. We’re going to have probably eight or nine, well, at least eight, maybe nine non-conference home games to go with nine ACC home games. So it should be a great schedule at Lenovo and something that our fans will be excited about.

AK: Last couple of things, are you okay with 18 versus 20?

WW: Yeah, I like 18. I like the flexibility of 18.

AK: Halves or quarters? It’s not going to happen yet, but it’s on the docket maybe in two years. Where do you stand?

WW: I mean, everybody else plays quarters. I just assume we go to quarters. I don’t know why we wouldn’t go to quarters.

I think we should go to quarters and I think we should be able to advance the ball at the end of the game. Look, this is about entertainment at some level. And, you know, I understand the argument that, ‘Hey, the other team didn’t get a stop. So why should they be able to advance the ball to half court?’

Well, we copy everything else the NBA does. I don’t know why we wouldn’t copy the quarters and the advancement.

I think the challenge this year is going to be positive. I think it’s going to speed up the end of the games a little bit.

So I like where the game’s heading. We’re keeping better players.

We’re in a good position and hopefully we’ll make a few more tweaks.

AK: Last thing for you, Will, any managers in the portal that you brought?

WW: Yeah, Amir got in school the other day here. So that was good.

We weren’t sure about that, but he got in school at NC State. So, we’ll see what he decides, but I feel confident in our recruitment.

AK: All right. So the boombox will be back.

WW: Boombox will be back.