Will Wade: “I absolutely love it here…this is the best job I’ve ever had.”

NC State fans have wanted a coach like Will Wade for a long time.

In fact, I wrote about it in-depth when he was initially hired.

WOLFERETTI: The Will Wade hire is the hire NC State fans have been begging for since Jimmy Vhttps://t.co/HwO16qL3jP

— PackInsider.com (@PackInsider) March 19, 2025

Now they finally have him, and if you’re on the outside looking in, or if you’re browsing certain corners of social media, you could say they aren’t appreciating him enough.

But you’d be wrong.

This is how NC State fans show endearment. The amount of passion and pride flowing through is fanbase is unlike anything I’ve seen. There’s no apathy here. This fanbase is so excited about the next chapter, the Will Wade chapter, that they can’t get there soon enough. I believe any negativity you see out there from true state fans, is impatience. We’ve been waiting a long time for someone to come in an turn these things around, and we’re all chomping at the bit.

Here’s the good news. Will Wade is built for this.

He’s not reactionary. He’s not getting his feelings hurt after the media or fans write things online. Heck, he’s providing some of the inflammatory quotes himself in his press conferences.

I’ve always believed this is what Will Wade truly wants here. I believed that he wanted to take on the toughest challenge in college basketball. Walk into UNC and Duke’s backyard like he owns it, and eventually he’ll own it.

Coaches who get their feelings hurt when the fans get mad. We’ve had those guys. They get chewed up and spit out. But not Wade, I’ve always believed that if you look around at jobs, this is the one for him. He doesn’t want to be the next in-line at a Blue Blood. Just another name on a list.

He’s always done things his way, built what he has himself. And I think that’s his goal here at NC State. I think he wants to turn this thing around in a huge way and he knows that process is going to be bumpy and have it’s ups and downs…but he’s here for it.

Two nights ago, on his radio show, what I heard was him confirming all of that in his own way.

Here is the quote…

Question from Mikah Hall: My favorite thing to do on campus is walk around Reynolds and look at the statues of people that helped build our program. When it is all said and done, is NC State where you want your legacy to be held?

Will Wade: Yeah, I mean, but look, I’m not going to supplant a lot of those people he walks around and sees. I mean, look, those are, some giants of the game and giants of NC State. But this is the best job I’ve ever had in terms of the support for basketball and everything that we need to win. And it’s on us, it’s on us to win. And I absolutely love it here and am hopeful that I can be in the same breath as a lot of those people after a long tenure. So, it’s beenawesome so far. And we got a lot of, we got a lot of work ahead of us. And like,  we talked about, we’re just laying a foundation right now. And we want this thing to be built on a rock-solid foundation moving forward.

But this has been, it’s been incredible. And this is, this is, it’s the best job I’ve had. And it’s not often, you know, you get, you get fired somewhere and you end up in a better spot a couple years later. That doesn’t happen very often. So that’s not lost on me. You don’t get to fall up very often.

And so very, very appreciative of, very appreciative of everything here. And so it, hopefully, hopefully we can, reach, reach the heights that Coach Sloan and Coach Valvano and Coach Case and all those guys. So, hopefully, we can add a little bit to the legacy here.

Here is the full radio show…