WATCH: Will Wade pleased as Matt Able continues growth for the Wolfpack

Will Wade met with the media earlier this week and had a lot of good things to say about Matt Able, who has come alive the past two games. |

 

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“Matt’s a really talented player. I’m disappointed he got in foul trouble on Saturday, cause I thought he was gonna go for a huge number.” He’s he talented and he’s going to continue to get better.He’s been shooting the ball really well, particularly to beat these last two games. So I’m really proud of him.” Wade said.

“I was really pleased. He missed his first couple shots in Florida State, and then he came back and then just hit just about everything from there. So I thought that showed some great growth.”

Able went 5 consecutive games where he didn’t reach double digits in scoring, and his minutes went from around 25 per game earlier this season to under 20 during that stretch. However, the last two outings things started to click.

Wade talked about ‘taking the restrictor plate’ off of Able prior to the BC game, letting him play through some mistakes and play a little more freely.

That seemed to work as the 5-star freshman has gone 8-11 from 3 the past two games and 9-18 from the floor. He scored 11 vs. BC in 32 minutes and 15 vs FSU in 24 minutes.

This is a kid who NC State was counting on to be a go-to scorer this season, and it looks like he’s starting to scratch the surface of that potential.

Like we said, Able is still a freshman and this is kind of what you expect from first-year kids. When we say there’s an adjustment period, we mean it. Able has been working on learning better shot selection (fewer floaters and long 2s), more rim attacks, and 3s. As well as learning when to gamble on defense and when to stay put. These are all things you don’t really get taught on the AAU circuit.

It was only a matter of time, but Will Wade and company hope that Matt Able has finally arrived.