WATCH: Field of 68 Grades NC State Men’s Basketball’s Offseason Grade (with transcript)

Rob Dauster and Terrence Oglesby broke down NC State Men’s Basketball’s Offseason Grade on Field of 68 on Tuesday. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

RD: Hello and welcome to another episode of Off-Season Grades here on the Field of 68. My name is Rob Dauster. I have with me today Terrence Oglesby, and the only guy that I want to talk to Terrence Oglesby about, the only new head coach in the country I want TO’s opinion on, and no other man is, Will Wade, NC State.

The Wolfpack hired probably what I would say, and you correct me if I’m wrong here, TO, the perfect fit between coach and program that you’re going to find in college basketball, Will Wade, NC State. The roster changes have been dramatic, to say the least.

I believe there was only one player coming back from last season’s Wolfpack team that was coached by Kevin Keatts, but they’ve added Tre Holloman from Michigan State. They’ve added Terrance Arceneaux from Houston. They’ve added Ven-Allen Lubin from up the road in Chapel Hill.

They brought in Quadir Copeland and Alyn Breed from McNeese. They got a couple other transfers. They got a couple of freshmen added to the mix, but the big one, TO, the biggest name, the biggest transfer they added was Darrion Williams from Texas Tech.

Let’s start with this. Will Wade, NC State, what do you like about it? 

TO: First things first, I like everything about the fan base match with Will Wade. I love everything about the university level match with Will Wade.

There’s a toughness about this fan base, and I mean that in the most complimentary fashion, because they’re sick and tired of hearing about Duke. They’re sick and tired of hearing about North Carolina, and they want somebody to do something about it, dadgummit. So, I’m happy for the fan base because now they have something to talk about with consistency, and they have a guy in Will Wade who can really coach, and he’s a guy that really doesn’t give a fiddler’s…you know what about what you think about him.

He’s going to coach, he’s going to recruit at a high level, and he’s going to get guys to play at a high level, and I like the matching of players here. We talk about puzzle pieces all the time, like Tre Holloman, as far as a Will Wade type of guy, he’s going to average close to five assists a game, averaged almost four a game last year at Michigan State for a team that couldn’t throw it in the ocean with their feet in the water, still found a way to find guys’ buckets. That’s a big deal. 

So, you look at all these pieces and how they’ve shot the ball over the past few seasons, I’m optimistic, and I’m also optimistic that a guy like Terrance Arceneaux, who comes from Houston. His offensive game is going to open up a little bit, because he’s going to be playing 1…in a different conference, 2…for a different coach, but he’s still going to have the habits of what Kelvin Sampson had.

So, you look at all those guys, and you already mentioned Darrion Williams. I like where the program’s going. It gives me excitement as a guy who played in the ACC, who lives in ACC country up and down the East Coast. This is going to be a fun team to watch, and they’re going to be competitive immediately. 

RD: It adds to the narratives, the storylines and the intrigue of a conference where it feels like some of that was a little bit lacking this past season, right? Like now, NC State vs. North Carolina games are must-see television, instead of just being interesting in the triangle there in North Carolina, right? Now, when NC State plays Duke, that becomes something that might be for ACC championships within the next two or three years.

And I don’t think that that’s something where I’m exaggerating on that either. So, and the fact that Will is one of these guys that will go into Cameron Indoor Stadium, win in Cameron Indoor Stadium. 

TO: Cause a ruckus.

RD: Yes. And then tell you all about it, let you know about it and talk about it. Like, what did he say about Ven-Allen Lubin? He didn’t play that school up the road, but he’s going to play for us.

TO: Yeah…they weren’t smart enough or something like that. Like, dude, just a wild statement. Well, they’re not stopping me now. Nobody’s telling me to be quiet. I’m just going to keep on going, because I’m firing the people up. Will doesn’t care. That’s first and foremost.

And not only that, like you want to talk about walking into a good situation in year one…I don’t think they play Duke or North Carolina on the road. Like their schedule in year one’s kind of built to win.

So, I’m excited about all those guys. You look up and down the roster…I think the depth sticks out to me too.

Scottie Ebube who transferred from Wyoming, is kind of like this perfect backup five. He’s super athletic. He’s super strong. He’s going to come in to muck it up a little bit, and he’s going to really rebound. I think that’s a really good fit. 

Jerry Dang, who transferred from Florida State, had moments last year for Leonard Hamilton, where he would knock down 3 or 4 threes in a row. So he could be your off-the-bench spark plug on a given night. 

Quadir Copeland, who I call the microphone, whenever he was at Syracuse, goes down to McNeese, has success, follows Will back to the ACC. 

So you have a bunch of guys that are already proven at the level. 

So you talk about what NC state’s going to be here in the next few years.

One, they’re going to be competitive. After they really get going over the next couple of years. I think they’re going to compete for ACC championships. I think they’re going to be that good.

RD: Yeah. As far as this year is concerned, I love the Tre Holloman edition, as you mentioned. There’s a level of toughness that he brings that I think really fits with what Will wants to do.

Terrance Arceneaux and Ven-Allen Lubin, I think are good bets. Maybe being able to provide a little bit more production in a different spot. To me, the two X factors for this team are 1…Alyn Breed’s health. He still isn’t quite back to a hundred percent after dealing with a knee injury at McNeese that took a little more time to heal than maybe they necessarily expected. So getting him healthy is big. He was a guy, that he was when he was healthy at McNeese last year, he was the best player on a team that ended up winning a game in the NCAA tournament, and then he hurt his knee, right? He was the guy that they were excited about before they had a team that was good enough to go win a game in the tournament. 

But the bigger one to me is Darrion Williams, and I’m curious what you think about this, because he is a guy that they are going to rely on to be their alpha, to be their number one, to be the guy that they run the offense through, to be good, to be the guy that they run offense for, right? He needs to be an all ACC 1st-Team, potentially ACC Player of the Year caliber player for NC state to be a Top-20 team this year, in my opinion. And I don’t know if he’s necessarily built for that as much as he is for being the 1A to another number one option, if that makes sense. So his adjustment to being the first guy in the scouting report, being the first guy that a play gets called for and how he kind of adapts to that is going to be the key to whether or not NC state can reach their ceiling this season.

TO: Yeah. I mean, it helps to have a Player of the Year type of guy. I mean, that happens anywhere, but you know, Darrion Williams, I think the habits that he’s going to keep and that are going to hold over…

I look at this team defensively too…and your eyebrows can raise for a second because it’s like, Tre Holloman guards and he’s tough. Alyn Breed, he really guarded at Providence before he was even at McNeese State, and then he got to McNeese St. and he starts scoring a lot. So it was like, oh, that’s great.

Arceneaux. We know he’s coming from Houston. He’s got size and length. He’s going to guard. 

Darrion Williams. He’s going to guard. Ven-Allen Lubin, tough. Did he want to play more at North Carolina? Sure. He’s small at the five. He’s 6’8”. So defensively, is Scottie Ebube going to be able to throw a curve ball at the five position to be able to block shots, and do some of those things. 

I’m really curious to see what they do with their starting lineup, because, Ven-Allen Lubin at the five, that’s going to be tough. Do you start Ebube? They had the kid committed from France, right? That had like a 7’5” wingspan that decommits. I actually thought that was kind of a big loss, because you look at the makeup of the rest of the roster, how is that going to work? I don’t know that Scottie Ebube is a full-time starter. I just don’t.

RD: That was going to be my next question for you. Like who’s at the five. With the way that Will wants to play defensively, there’s going to be some gambles taken. There’s going to be some risks taken, and when you have an eraser at the rim that makes sure that any of those risks that turn into layups get put through the backboard, that changes the way that you can play defensively a little bit. Ven-Allen Lubin is a good player, and has produced at the SEC, and at the ACC level, but he’s not a shot blocker. That’s not what he does best. 

TO: He’s a position guy. 

If you wanted to go huge with your starting lineup, you put Ebube at the five, and then Ven-Allen at the 4…Arceneaux, Williams, Holloman, or you go Alyn Breed. So if Alyn Breed’s healthy, there’s some lineup versatility there.

You look at all these different players…I like the fits between the guys. You look at their three-point shooting percentage, Tre Holloman didn’t shoot a great ball, but he hit a third of them. So like, I’m willing to live with that. Alyn Breed shot 50%. That’s very good.

You know, Arceneaux…34…could be better, but I like, you have a bunch of guys that are serviceable from the perimeter too. Will draws them up. 

So I’m, I’m excited about this team.

Defensively, I think they’re going to be fine. I think they’re going to be right in the mix every game, because I think they’re going to be physical. You know they’re going to play tough, and Will’s going to coach that into him.

You know, another X factor we haven’t really talked about much, you know, Copeland…4.5 assists a game at McNeese. That dude’s got arms for days. He had a dunk a couple of years ago when I was calling Syracuse at Louisville with Wes Durham. He had a dunk there in that game that was one of the most absurd dunks I’ve seen in person. He is a high level athlete. I think he’s a really good player. 

Do you play him at the point, if Tre Holloman starts feeling it offensively? 

So, I like the bodies that they can throw out there on a given night. I like the defensive versatility they have around the perimeter. Who’s their rim protector? Rim protection is something, like if you have all those pieces, there’s still really good offensive players that you’re going to play throughout the course of the season, and you’ve got to have somebody meet them there. If you’re not going to do that, you better be really good at taking charges. That’s really hard to do now, especially with the way the rules have changed over the last three, four years.

RD: If there is a concern that I have for the roster that was built, that’s it. Right. Like when you are at the McNeese St. level…

TO: That might be it. That’s the only thing I can find. 

RD: And you decide that you want to play like 6’2”-6’8” one through five, right, and switch everything. And then you’re playing Christian Shumate at the five, who’s like a 6’4” Power Forward, that works when you’re playing in the Southland, and when you’re trying to sneak up on someone in the NCAA tournament. I don’t know if that necessarily works when you’re playing in the ACC every single night.

So that’s probably the one question…

TO: In a league that still has five men. The ACC still has fives that play that, and they’re still rolling around seven foot.

Even the guys like Notre Dame, who don’t have this like massive five, you know, Kebba Njie…6’10.” Like, you look up and down different rosters throughout the conference, like Henri Veesaar at North Carolina, 7’0,” then they’re going to probably play Stevenson some at the five, 6’11.” So like you look at how big the teams are in the league, the five man matters, like especially in this league.

So curious to see how they’re able to work around that. They’re going to have to do some different things schematically, switch a lot of stuff and then throw extra bodies. But because of those wings that we mentioned, Arceneaux, Copeland, Holloman, Breed, they’re all long.

So, if you’re able to get over and trap quickly, deflect passes, you’re going to be able to negate some of those things. But I still think that five spot is really important. Can Scottie Ebube be that guy for 15 minutes a game that comes over, and blocks some shots and provides some physicality at the five spot?

That’s the only concern I have. 

Scottie Ebube, he’s a big underskilled guy, but he is powerful. So, because of that lack of refined skill, like he dunks hard, he does all those things, more of a dunker. I don’t know how much you can play him, because he doesn’t provide enough offensively on the perimeter to where like you can run some of your actions, but he’s built like a powerhouse. 

RD: Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have a guy where you say, go get the ball, you hit the ball, catch it and dunk it, go set this screen, run him over if you have to. I don’t care. You’re playing 12 minutes a game, go use all five of your fouls. It doesn’t matter to us.

Sometimes it kind of helps to have a guy that can go out there and do that. 

TO: A hundred percent. A hundred percent.

RD: What are the realistic expectations in your mind for NC State this season? I think with a couple of years, we’re going to be talking about NC State the same way we’re talking about St. John’s under Rick Patino. I really do believe that. Year one, I think it’s more like borderline Top-25ish. You get to the tournament, you win a game.

You’re probably happy with that season. 

TO: Are St. John’s fans happy with that now that with what Rick’s doing, just out of curiosity? 

RD: He won the big East. He won the Big East tournament. He made it to the NCAA tournament and they are nationally relevant. That’s what I’m referring to. Not so much like, you know, we’re going to see them ranked at the top of whatever, it’s, they’re going to be right there at the very top of the ACC. When talking about NC State at the very top of the ACC, competing for ACC championships and in the mix for like top two, three, four seeds, where they have a chance to be able to make a deep run in the dance. I think that’s what’s coming in the next two to three years for NC State. This year alone, I mean, seven seed that wins a game in the tournament.

I think that’s a great season for NC State this year. 

TO: I think that’s possible to happen this year. Get to the tournament, win a game, depending on the draw, like it’s all about who you play in the NCAA tournament too, and I feel like they can out tough you, and they’re going to have nights when they can really score. But it’s going to be nights. If that night is on game one of the NCAA tournament, they can win a game, and then over the course of a weekend, get hot. You never know. But you look at what Will’s done over the course of being a head coach, the last six seasons, he’s been a head coach, he’s been in the tournament, one of which made a sweet 16 and then two other years won a game. So I think if you’re a NC State fan right now, with where your program has been, I understand the final four run, I get all that, but it took a freaking miracle to get there.

That’s not a shot. It’s not a shot, but I think if you have consistency there in Raleigh, I think you should be really, really happy.

RD: Yep. That’s, that’s where I’m at with it two. All right. Put a bow on it TO. What is your grade for the offseason for the Wolfpack?

 TO: I’m giving it an A, because you basically had to recycle the whole thing. Plus you had Darrion Williams, by himself that puts you at least a B+.

And I like some of the other additions, bringing along Quadir Copeland, bringing along Alyn Breed…Tre Holloman. I’m giving them an A, because of having to recycle the entire thing. If they were able to hold on to the 7’0” International kid, it would have been an A+, but, with a little bit of a hole at the five spot, and I’m not saying it’s a huge hole, it worries me a little bit, but hey guys, after the dismal season you had, you add Will Wade. You get an A- right there.

You get Darrion Williams. Give me an A. The only hole I can find is rim protection and a five man with significant size that can compete on a night-to-night basis in a league that still uses five men.

That’s the only scare I have, but give me an A for NC state. You deserve it. 

Congratulations. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a lot. It’s going to be exciting.

RD: For a lot of the same reasons, I went with an A-. I went from an A to an A-, because they whiffed on PJ Haggerty, right? Like, I think if you get Paul Mbiya and PJ Haggerty, then it’s an A+, and maybe the best off season that anybody in the ACC has up there with the likes of Purdue and Houston, and some of those guys, but I went with an A-. 

I am a little bit concerned as well, about the guard play, because if Alyn Breed isn’t healthy and Tre Holloman is Tre Holloman, like there’s a little bit of a lack of scoring pop in that backcourt that PJ Haggerty can solve, but it’s hard to complain about a minus, right? 

You go from being a team that’s been right around .500, to being a team that everyone’s like, ‘Hey, you know what? They got a chance to be Top 25 and make the tournament.

That to me, is a pretty good thing.