AUDIO: Wade, Lubin & Able’s Postgame Press Conference After #23 NC State’s Loss to Seton Hall (with transcript)

Head Coach Will Wade, Senior Forward Ven-Allen Lubin and Freshman Guard Matt Able met with the media after #23 NC State’s 85-74 loss to Seton Hall in their first game of the 2025 Maui Invitational this afternoon. You can listen to the audio above, and read the transcript below.

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MAUI OUCHIE: What went wrong in NC State’s 85-74 loss to Seton Hall?

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What’d you think about your team’s performance today?

Wade: Not a lot. We didn’t we didn’t play very well. Give Seton Hall a ton of credit. They were more aggressive than we were. They were tougher than we were, and you know, we just didn’t do a good job. They killed us in the paint by 14. Outrebounded us. They were just scrappier than we were, and so very disappointing.

Especially having all the fans out here. You know, we just we didn’t play our best today, but we’ve got to turn the page quick, have a next play mentality and move on, because we’re going to play another really really good team tomorrow. Today we were just disjointed and didn’t play to our standards.

Disappointing result, but we need to turn the page and be ready to roll moving forward.

For both of you, facing off with the Seton Hall defense, you knew they were going to try to turn the ball over on you a lot. What led to those issues, and what did you guys try to bounce back from the second half, to be able to figure some things out on the offensive side of the basketball?

Lubin: I think that we were a little bit sped up, and took some forceful shots, knowing that we can get better shots.

We were well prepared, coach did a good job, knowing that they’re gonna be very scrappy, gonna be handsy and do a lot of run and jump, and we just had to continue to stay poised, and I think we didn’t do a good job of that. So that’s something that we’ll recover from, learn from this game and bounce back for tomorrow.

Able: At least for me, staying poised and stuff like that. I had a couple bad turnovers, but I feel like as a team, the coaches told us what it was going to be, and we needed to step up, especially me, step up to the pressure and just be able to face that as a team.

I don’t know if in advanced metrics they have the statistic 50-50 balls, but I noticed on the court that all of those scrambles where the ball could have went your way or the other team, more of them went to Seton Hall than you guys. What could you do? Because those ultimately equal more possessions. Like what can you work on in a short period to make sure that your team actually gets that advantage for the next game?

Wade: Yeah, I mean look, we’ve just got to talk about it, and show it. It’s something you either do, or you don’t. But they deserved to get them. They played harder. They played harder for longer stretches than we did. They were the more aggressive team for longer stretches than we were. They had us on our heels.

I thought we played very tentatively for most of the game, and that showed at the beginning of the first half, and at the beginning of the second half in particular.

You know when you do that, those balls tend, when you play hard and are the more aggressive team, those balls tend to find you, and we had a bunch of loose balls that we just couldn’t pick up today, and that’s not who we’ve been all year. But unfortunately for us today, that’s who we were.

But give Seton Hall a ton of credit. They were better than us today. They were more physical than us today. They were more aggressive than us today. We got what we deserved today. We got what we earned today, and now we’ve got to flip that quickly, and we’re getting ready to play another really good team in Boise or Southern Cal tomorrow. So we’ve got a lot of work to do to flip it here in the next 18-20 hours or so.

Matt, in that first half, you came in and did you see something in the first half coming off the bench, because you came in and you started shooting and getting to the rim a little bit, scored a little bit. Then it kind of changed a little bit in the second half. Were they guarding you differently? Did they change up what they were doing against you, and kind of slow you down? But again, you did come in that first half and it seemed like you saw something that you felt like you could you could exploit out there.

Able: No, I don’t. They didn’t really do anything to change guarding me, really. I don’t feel like. I think I missed a couple easy ones, some free throws and stuff like that. I think I left a couple, you know, small things on the table.

But I don’t think it was anything they necessarily did. I just missed some easy ones that I need to be better at, and make next time.

Ven-Allen, it seemed like points were really difficult in the paint for you guys this morning. Just your thoughts on what they were doing, and what you guys could do better to improve from that moving forward.

Lubin: Yeah, I think that we just had to be stronger with the ball when it’s in the middle of the paint. A lot of guys were crashing down in the paint. So just making quick and easy decisions, whether to go up with force, or kick it out to an open guy.

I think we were kind of juggling the ball a lot in the paint, not really getting a secure catch and a powerful finish. I know I missed some, and that kind of left some points on the table. So that’s something I’ll say I need to get better at, and I think that it just starts the tone with me, you know, once the team sees me doing that, then they’ll continue to carry on.

But I think that’s something that I want to take accountability of, and just continue to do that for the next game.

That preseason tournament in Las Vegas, they’re offering a financial incentive. They have announced a big partnership with the Big 12 this next year. Talk about your experience here in Maui, and what’s it going to take for marquee teams like yourselves to continue coming here?

Wade: I’m glad you consider us a marquee team after that performance.

But, I mean, look, this is a great tournament. It’s a great venue, tremendous place, great tradition, and I think it’ll continue to be a high-level tournament just because of the intimate setting, where it is and just the history of it. You look at the banners and everything. It’s a really, really, really, really cool place and we’re excited to be a part of it. I just wish we’d have represented ourselves a little bit better today.

You mentioned physicality. You mentioned toughness. Some of your guys talk about being tougher with the ball. Is that something you recruit or, is that something you develop?

Wade: A little bit of both, a little bit of both. I mean, you can recruit it, and you can only get them so much better with that sort of thing, but we’ve got tough kids. We just didn’t play like it today. We just didn’t play like it today, and we’re gonna need to be better tomorrow.

Coach Shaheen said after the game that one of his focuses for this one was to stop you guys from being able to shoot from outside. Team finishes 8 of 24, but missed a lot of opportunities kind of late in this game to try to get back. Your thoughts on the perimeter shooting for this team in this game?

Well, the perimeter shooting is a problem, because we don’t ever get in the paint.

Our guards just play east and west. We don’t ever get north and south, and when we do get in the paint, we got the defense converged, and we just throw it up there and get it blocked. We got nine balls blocked tonight, so we didn’t play smart basketball. We played right into their hands.

I mean, they’re one of the best shot blocking teams in the country, and that’s why we don’t get open threes, because we don’t pass it to the guy when they’re open.

But I mean, I appreciate all these questions on our offense. We gave up 85 points. I mean, they drove at will against us. They hit three threes in the last 35 minutes of the game, and just went straight to the front of the rim, which has been a massive problem for us. We gave up 20 points at the free throw line. I mean, we can sit here and talk about our offense all we want.

You score 74 points, you should be able to win. All right, we gave up 85 points. 50 in the second half. They shot over 50% from the game. I believe 52% from the game. I mean, we’re just letting people get in the paint at will. That’s a much, much larger problem than our offense.

I mean, our offense, we’ve got issues, but to get beat like that from 2, and to get beat by 14 in points in the paint, is a much larger issue than us being able to clip off threes, or not clip off threes.

Having said all that, you have less than 24 hours of turnaround. What are the one or two things you try to do in this short period to kind of chip away at what you just described?

Wade: Yeah, I mean, look, I believe in our guys. We’ve got a good group of guys. It doesn’t change how I feel about them. We didn’t play our best today. So we’ve got to get our group to play at the highest level we can play. We weren’t there today, and Seton Hall had a lot to do with that. When we met resistance, we didn’t respond how we needed to. We reacted to it a lot better than responding.

Response is different than reaction. We had too much reacting today, and not enough responding. So that’s something we can talk about. That’s something we need to get better at. But nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us. We’ve got to go do it ourselves, and we’re fully capable of doing it. I believe in our group. I believe in our guys.

Today wasn’t our best day, and you’re going to have some of that, but we can’t let that linger, and we’ve got to respond the right way, which is focus on the next most important thing. We can’t dwell on the past. We’ve got to move on to the next thing, which is the next game, and that’s what we’re going to do.

We’re going to prepare as well as we can on a short turnaround for one of these two teams. We’re going to get our ass up in the morning and we’re gonna get ready to roll, and that’s what we do. We’ve got to get ourselves off the mat, and do what we do. So I believe in our guys. I believe in our team. I believe in who we are, and we’re built for these type things.

Anybody can sail a ship in smooth waters. A skilled sailor can do it when the water’s choppy. The water’s choppy for us now. We’ve got to turn the page, move forward, and that’s what we’re going to do.

I believe the Wolfpack will play a lot better tomorrow, and I think you’ll see a team that has a little bit more of an edge to them tomorrow. At least I hope that’s what it’ll be. That’s what I believe in this group, and I think that’s what we’ll be.