WOLFERETTI: Time for NC State to tune out the hype and start racking up WINS…starting with Wake

NC State opens ACC play against Wake Forest tomorrow at noon on ESPN2.

I’ve kinda gotten the feeling that this team has dealt with a little overconfidence at times, especially early on. They were getting high on their own supply, buying into the Red Reckoning and all the hype after the first few blowouts.

Then they got karate kicked in Maui, dropping games to Seton Hall and Texas. These weren’t bad losses in retrospect, but at the time, they stung. And the guys came home a little shell-shocked. They then dropped a road game to a ranked Auburn team.

Fans were panicking, but again, they still hadn’t lost any bad games.

Wade then started his much-talked-about “Hostile Takeover” and since then, NC State has been much better.

Over the last 4 games, NC State has an average Adjusted Offensive Efficiency of 125.8.

For context, if Alabama has the best AdjOE in the nation at 131.8. If you wanted to see where NC State’s last 4 games slot in, it would be 6th nationally.

Meanwhile, defensively, they’ve been much better. In fact, 3 of their top Adjusted Defensive Efficiency games have come in that same 4-game span. And we’ve already gone into that in great detail.

Now they’ve had 10 days off over the holidays and come back tomorrow to open ACC play at home vs. Wake.

During that break, the hype train has been chugging along again, and we’re part of the issue. But there’s just been a lot of positive news around the program.

For one, the team has been playing really good basketball, as noted, and over the past week, Copeland has been getting a lot of NBA hype.

This is why it’s important to filter out that noise right now. It’s time for this team to start a new narrative. Less about who’s getting drafted or how good the advanced metrics think NC State is, and more about how NC State is absolutely, mercilessly, burying one ACC opponent after the next.

It’s time to stop talking and start winning. And it starts tomorrow with Wake.

Make their media outlets afraid of posting trash like this…

Posted by @deacon_domain IG…

Man, I hope the players are seeing this stuff. The level of disrespect is crazy. The only way to tone it down is by starting to bury teams on national TV.

Wake vs. State tomorrow at noon on ESPN2.

Let’s start there. pic.twitter.com/FXw1FV3pN6

— Pack Insider (@PackInsider) December 30, 2025

They’ve all heard about the Red Reckoning, but it’s time to make them feel it.