Will Wade’s Postgame Press Conference After NC State’s Win Over Liberty: TRANSCRIPT

Head Coach Will Wade met with the media after NC State’s 85-45 win over Liberty tonight. You can read the transcript below, and watch the video above.

Box Score
Quick Hits
ACCDN Highlight Reel & Condensed Game
Lubin, Able & Copeland’s Postgame Press Conference

Is that kind of what you’re looking for out of your team on both ends of the floor?

No, it’s closer, but it’s not where we need to be, but it was closer. I mean, everybody’s so shocked because we hadn’t looked anywhere close to that all year. But, no, it was closer to what we’re supposed to be, but we’re still not there.

So, we’ve got to get a lot better here over the break. Typically, it should get better when we don’t have academics, we don’t have the gym, we don’t have time limits and that sort of thing. So, we can get in there and get better.

So, we have to get massively, massively better, but this was a little bit, this was a step in the right direction.

What has the push been like from you and Brandon Chambers to get this defense back in check and back in order now at this point?

Well, we’ve got problems on offense, too. Our distribution has been horrific on offense.

So, our distribution was quite a bit better tonight. So, the offense helps the defense. We’ve put our defense in some bad spots with some of the terrible shots we take.

We have the wrong lineups out there sometimes. So, we’ve put our defense in some horrific spots. It’s not all on the defense.

You can’t guard transition, you know, 25 times a game. It’s the highest points per possession. So, part of it’s controlling the offense, too. It’s not just the defense. The half-court defense hasn’t been terrible. The transition defense has been horrific.

And we shoot about eight turnovers a game on top of how many other times we turn it over. And so, you know, getting that under control. But just in this game, we had a shooting turnover in the first half. They hit a three. We had a shooting turnover in the second half. They came down and hit a three. Those were two six-point swings just in this game. We limited our shooting turnovers this game because this was a game of limiting possessions. But, you know, we’ve been very dialed in on the defense.

But, you know, the other biggest part of the defense is our press. We have to press to throw the rhythm off, and we sped them up tonight. We had them all sped up tonight. Cleveland was sped up. Those guys were sped up. But you have to press to do that. For whatever reason, we haven’t wanted to press. In the last two games, we’ve been a little bit better in the press.

It all goes together. The offense, the defense. You have to play complimentary basketball. You get into a game like this with these guys, like playing an option football team. They’ll control. They’ll have the ball for 32 minutes. You’ll play defense for 32 minutes if you don’t run good offense, and be spinning like a top. They were one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country coming in.

What do you think kind of helped you guys keep them off rhythm? Outside of just pressing them and finding success there.

I think we sped them up. They’re very based on rhythm and pace. We had them sped up, and we gave up a couple of the flare slips. They slipped us to the rim a couple times, but we didn’t give up a ton of the pin-in threes.

When Matheny hit that step back in front of our bench to make it 6-6, I was like, ‘Oh, here we go,’ but we dug in, and we threw off the rhythm.

They didn’t have enough time to keep hunting the match-ups, and hunting the open shots. So I thought we got 40 deflections tonight, which is a season high. So I thought that helped. Our activity helped defensively.

You talked a lot about needing that effort, and I know that’s something you’ve talked about. I guess where does this rank among the games that you’ve had this season? And is it the best?

I don’t know. I have to go watch the film. It’s probably the best, but that’s not a very high bar to clear to be the best effort game for us. It’s not a very – I don’t want to use that analogy, but it’s not a very high bar to clear, but it was probably up there for us.

I thought we played hard against Asheville. I mean, the thing against Asheville is we practiced for – I mean, we came in at 7:15 in the morning, got taped, and then we practiced the morning of the Asheville game. Like we were doing live practice, good-on-good. I mean, they were worn out when we were playing Asheville. I practiced for an hour and 45 minutes the morning of the game. That was our shirt down. Then we could start correcting some of the details. But we had to coach effort all the time.

You say it’s a step in the right direction. It’s not a high bar to clear. Does that bar change with a ranked team in Kansas coming in on Saturday?

If we play like that against Kansas, we’ll score 45 on them. They have the eighth best defense in the country. I mean, we got blocked by Seton Hall. I mean, Seton Hall was Top-10 in the country. They’re third in the country in blocks. I mean, it’s going to be a totally different deal on Saturday.

We’ll be a big underdog. We’re going to have to play this times about three.

The last four games, Quadir seems like he’s hitting his stride a little bit. The offense is there, but he’s got, I think, six assists in the last three of the four games. What is it like to have him as point guard?

It’s good. Q’s been good.

Now you always have to make sure he stays good. He can get off the rails here quick. So you’ve got to make sure he stays in his lane, but I thought today we did a good job of him and Darrion running parallel lanes. A lot of times when Q’s in the fast lane, Darrion’s in the slow lane. We’ve got to have both of them in the same lane, and we’ve got to divert the other guys to the side streets.

Those are the only two that can be on the interstate at the same time. The problem we’ve had is with Q, we’ve had about four other guys on the interstate with a traffic jam. So that’s been our problem with our distribution of things.

If you look tonight, those two, I think, had 10 or 11 assists, 12 assists between the two of them and two turnovers. That’s what we have to have. It’s not just him. We’ve got to distribute the thing right to everybody else. That’s why Breed’s such a valuable player for us. He’s low usage and gets the job done.

Arceneaux coming on tonight. Arceneaux was great tonight. He’s been struggling, but he’s a good player. There’s nobody on our team that has a bigger difference between how he’s playing, and how he’s capable of playing. He’s also a low usage guy that can play with those other guys.

That’s why Musa’s valuable. Those guys are valuable. You know, when you’ve got a bunch of high usage guys out there, we’ve got to make sure those two are the ones making most of the decisions.

A lot of times when Q’s making all the decisions, we’re in trouble. I mean, that’s great, all those four games. How many of them have we won? We’re 2-2? Right? All right? So the whole goal is to win, right? Not for Q to play great. I mean, we want Q to play great for us to win, but the whole point is to win.

Well, when Q’s the only one there and we’re leaving the second one behind, we’re in trouble.

I wanted to ask you about Matt Able, too. Nice little shiner for him tonight.

Yeah, he got popped in practice. It was good. He actually practiced hard and he got nailed.

Ven-Allen Lubin nailed him. Florida-on-Florida crime.

I was going to say, what does it say about the toughness for him?

I was proud of him tonight. You know, the best play of the game was him shot faking the first drive, and driving it for an and-one. I’ve been begging him to do that, to settle into the game instead of just bombs away from the five-point line. I’ve been begging him to do that.

I mean, the last game, his first three, he was almost standing out of bounds in front of UNC Asheville. It was a pass, and he had #23…UNC Asheville’s a big guy closing out on him. He should have just ripped it and dunked it. He fades away, throwing it off the rim.

So, you know, it was good to see him apply that, and being able to get into the game, do what he’s supposed to do, settle into the game and then the shots come.

So, I was very proud of his progress. He’s going to keep getting better. He’s a freshman. He’s got to learn, but he’s going to keep getting better. We had a spirited one-on-one film session yesterday.

That dunk he had, you called the same play twice.

Yes. If it works…we tend to go back to it.

Coach, you faced this Liberty team last year. Obviously, I know they have a little bit of a different personnel, and it was a different stop for you as well. But what was different about this team? I know they don’t have Taylor and Peter. They have a guy like Brett Decker in that spot. But what did you notice about their team that might be different?

Peter’s with the Pacers, right? I mean, that makes a big difference.

But, look, they’re a good team. I think our athleticism, I think our speed, you know, we were able to pick at the matchups. We got Decker in the post. We got, you know, Porter in the post a little bit. So, you know, I think that we sped them up.

I mean, Cleveland’s a great player. He got his five assists, but he turned it over quick.

They’re a great team, and they’re way better than they played tonight. But sometimes it just snowballs when you miss those threes. They missed a couple open threes at the beginning. I think 11 missed a couple in the corner. You know, if they hit those, it could be a different game.

But they’re going to win Conference USA. They’re going to win 25-plus games again. Look, they’re a great program. There’s a reason I’m the only high major team that will play them. I think us and Dayton are the only two, right? Dayton’s the other team. There’s a reason we’re the only two that will play them.

This is my fifth or sixth time playing them with Coach McKay. I’ve played them twice at VCU, once at LSU. It’s my fifth time playing them. So, I mean, you know, not everybody’s as dumb as me to play them. But, I mean, look, they’re a great team, great program.

You know, I think the biggest difference is, you know, seven killed us last year. The big kid, you know, I think, look, they’ve got a really good team. But I think there’s a difference in some of the front line with Cleveland.

I think seven and eight from last year, those guys were a little bit bigger bodies than nine is this year. You know, and nine can hit threes. He was 10 of 19 coming into the game. But it didn’t look real fluid to us. So, we kind of were going to live off of him. You know, if he hits some threes, it may be a little bit different.

But I think, you know, some of the physicality on the front line is the biggest difference. I’m sure Coach McKay will put that post trap in here pretty quick for conference play. They’ll be swarming people.