Head Coach Will Wade met with the media this afternoon after NC State defeated Ole Miss 76-62 in Greensboro Coliseum for his postgame press conference. You can listen to the audio above, and read the transcript below. Make sure to check out the links to the box score, quick hits and highlights as well.
Box Score
Quick Hits
Highlights
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Paul McNeil Jr. having back-to-back performances shooting well from three…
Yeah, not only that, he started off 0-3, and he was able to reset himself, which was really good. So, very proud of him. I think he had 6 against UNC-Greensboro, and came back and had 0 against VCU, so we made a big point of staying consistent in routine. You’ve got to be grounded in your routine when things are going well, and when things are going poorly. The routine’s what keeps you anchored. So, very, very pleased with him.
I thought we had good balance today, led by him. I thought Q (Quadir Copeland) set the tone early in the game, did a good job, was really unselfish.
I thought Tre (Holloman) played one of his better games. A couple mistakes, but I thought he played well.
So it was one of our better performances.
First half, one of the more efficient offensive performances you guys have had all season. Second half, Ole Miss outscores you. I mean, just your thoughts on what the difference was between the first and second half?
Yeah, I mean, look, I’m trying to have a good Christmas, so I don’t want to get too…there’s a lot of stuff…there’s a lot of stuff on that.
But, I mean, the short answer is our offense wasn’t as efficient. We didn’t get on the offensive glass. We weren’t able to stir up the defense enough. We took some quick shots, which led to their…the other part of it is, they played more of their shooters. They had us more spread out in the first half. We could sit in the gaps on those drives, which is why they were turning it over, and they were shooting a bunch of mid-range jump shots that we could rebound. When they went to those shooters and had us spread like that, it was a lot more difficult, a lot more challenging for us to guard them.
Going into this season, you had absolute belief that you would get the sophomore-year Tre Holloman from three-point land. Now, how much does it add when he’s 44 percent now, playing off of Q in the offense?
It makes a huge difference. You know, it makes a huge difference. His shooting’s kind of been, you know, propping him up in terms of being an efficient player for us. That’s why it’s so detrimental when he has non-efficient games like he did against Kansas, because the shooting is really the separator for him, and for our team and so on.
But Tre’s been working. He gets in the gym, works hard, does what we ask him to do. And, I’m proud of the way he’s responded, too. I mean, taking him out of the starting lineup and coming off the bench, it’s allowed our flow and some of our stuff to be a little bit better in terms of the subs. The shooting is a huge piece. I mean, look, we shoot the ball well. That’s kind of what we’re built on.
I was proud of him, how he’s been shooting and how he’s been working as well.
Darrion Williams was 0-8 today. How’s he doing in terms of his shoulder and all of that?
His shoulder’s fine. So, look, we’re not going to win many games with him going 0 for 8. We’re certainly going to need better than that. But the shoulder was fine.
Walking back into this arena, did you get any flashbacks, a little bit, of how much the team has changed since the South Carolina game?
Not really, but that’s a good point. I mean, we’ve gotten better. We’re not where we need to be. We’re not where we want to be. But we’re better than we were. We’re not who we’re going to be. But we’re better than who we were.
Thought defensively in the first half, we were really good outside of the last three minutes. But that was our offense, once again, turned the ball over. They did a great job. They scouted our end-of-half play. So it’s a read-option-type play, and they scouted that, and they ran through the pass. That was great coaching on their part.
But, I mean, look, we’ve made progress. But, they all count from here on out in the ACC. So we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us within the league.
Is there a sense of relief…(didn’t finish question)
No. There’s no relief. No, we’ve got 18 league games and zero relief. I mean, look, we’ve got to play better than we played today. We’ve got to get better every day.
Look, I’m happy we won. It’s great. But when we get back on the 26th, I mean, we’ve got massive amounts of work that we’ve got to do. We’ve got massive amounts of improvement that we have to make.
And, I mean, look, we’ve put ourselves…you always want to try to win double-digit non-conference. We fell short of that. We’re 9-4. So you want to try to win 10.
But, look, we need some guys to step up. I mean, that’s just what it is. We played seven guys, basically, today. I played the seven guys I feel most comfortable with. The seven guys that give me confidence. The seven guys, basically, that I trust. You know, hopefully Santa brings me an eighth man for Christmas. That would be nice.
There was one year at my previous job, we played in a high major league. We came in second in the league, won a ton of games and played six guys. We had four of the top five in minutes. We played our best player…he played 40 minutes for eight straight games to end the year. So I’ve got no problem playing seven guys.
We played Scottie (Ebube) a little bit, but we need an eighth guy to step up. We need an eighth guy, and that starts with practice, and allowing us to trust you in practice. Then when we put you in the games, producing in the games.
So that’s really what we need to continue to take a step. We’ve got to have these other guys play at a high level, because what happens is when you do this, you can’t let Alyn (Breed) get comfortable. because he’s feeling good about himself. You can’t let Tre, like, you can’t let guys get comfortable…Ven (Allen Lubin) never gets comfortable, because that’s just how Ven’s wired. But we’ve got to keep those guys playing at a high level. We’ve got to bring another one…I mean, I’d love to play nine. But I’m just begging to get eight right now. But we’ve got to get that right.
What do Terrance Arceneaux and Jerry Deng need to do in order to build that trust with you, and get those minutes?
Be more consistent and practice better.
Having coached in the SEC, what are some of the things stylistically that Ole Miss does that can help you guys for ACC play?
Well, they’re physical. They have a flotilla of bigs. They have four guys that roll in there, and just see who’s playing well. They’re physical. They’re athletic. I mean, we couldn’t reverse the ball against them. I mean, Dia does that every game, and we went over it, like, ten times.
And just ran through the passes. So, I mean, they’re big. They’re physical. They’re athletic.
But I thought we were able to keep their guards in front, which was critical.
Q plays with so much fire and passion out there. How can his personality inject some life in, and get some more guys to step up? Can he inject any more life? Is it possible?
You guys get to see him twice a week. I’ve got to deal with him every day. You know, the referee talked to me today, I said, “Yeah, you see him once a month. You know, you get to see him once a month.”
Oh “I love the energy.” Okay, yeah.
You know, he’s like that at 7 o’clock on a Tuesday morning, too. Which there’s a lot of value to that.
I mean, look, we’d be in real trouble without him. I mean, he’s been better and more than I could have ever thought when we brought him. I mean, quite frankly, just being frank, I mean, he’s playing a role that I didn’t envision when we brought him with us from McNeese. You know, and you could argue that’s part of the reason we struggled…is he’s playing a huge role. But that wasn’t what I envisioned.
But give him credit, man. I always tell him all the time, he’s like a cockroach. Like, he’s hard to kill. Every time you write him off, or every time you let him…he just comes back and comes back. He keeps coming. He’s got an unbelievable level of persistence to him.
Look, he’s been great. He translates the stuff for the guys for me. I think I said it after the last game. I think we’re getting everything we can out of him. I think we’re getting everything we can out of Ven-Allen Lubin. I think the last couple games Paul’s played, you know, but outside of that, we got more in a lot of those guys, and we got to squeeze every bit out of the tube that we can with those guys.
But Q being our point guard, you know, what did he have…9 assists today? Three turnovers? His assists/turnover ratio for the season is darn near 2.5. I mean, we can’t ask much more from what he’s doing from a basketball standpoint and from a just energy, I don’t want to call it leadership, but energy and effort standpoint. So I’m very proud of him.
NC State Baseball3 days ago
