Will Wade on Copeland’s historic night: “I guess he likes playing to the crowd on the road…”

Will Wade was asked in the post-game to talk about Quadir Copeland’s 16 assists, zero turnover, double-double.

Here is what he had to say…

“I mean, I don’t wanna be, like, hyperbole. But I can’t tell if I’ve ever had 16 assists, no turnovers, double-double with rebounds. I have to think long and hard, so it’s been a while. In other words, if we’d of had better crowds in the Southland (conference), maybe he’d have done it for me last year. , but I guess he likes playing to the crowd on the road a little bit. He’s unique. Our goal, you know, their four losses, every team had sixteen plus assists against them. I told him in the locker after that, I didn’t mean you personally get sixteen assists. That’s nice. I wanted the team to have sixteen plus assists. But even more impressive is, he picked up his third foul early in the second half. We played him for a while with the three fouls, and he didn’t foul the rest of the time. You gotta build a trust there, because we are a different team when he’s not on the court. We know that, you know that, the other team knows that. Everybody knows that. So, I thought that shows some growth for him tonight as well.”

Then, when asked if he ever envisioned this type of game from Q, when he first brought him to McNeese…

“No. Never. I mean, never in a million years. I mean his growth. I mean, look, he still has some moments, but never in a million years could I have imagined he’d be playing this, this…that he’d come on the road against a team that was in the top 25, a great team and have 16 assists and 0 turnovers. I mean, shoot, he couldn’t do that on East Texas A&M last year. I mean, if he couldn’t do it against them, how could I have thought he would do it in the ACC.

Give him credit. He’s worked hard on his game. He’s worked hard on his mental prep. He’s worked hard on a lot of different things. So I give him all the credit. I mean, look, I just give him the roadmap. He’s  got to navigate everything and he’s done it.”

Climbing the NC State Record Books

Copeland’s 16 assists are tied for the fourth-most in a single game in NC State history:

1. Chris Corchiani, Maryland (2/27/91) 20
2. Spud Webb, Northeastern (2/15/84) 18
2. Sidney Lowe, West. Carolina (11/29/82) 18
4. Quadir Copeland, SMU (2/3/26) 16
4. Dennis Smith Jr., Rider (12/28/16) 16
4. Chris Corchiani, Florida St. (12/27/89) 16
4. Chris Corchiani, Alabama St. (12/20/88) 16
4. Chris Corchiani, Akron (11/28/88) 16

Copeland is now one of only five players in school history to record 16 or more assists in a single game.

Those 16 assists directly produced 44 NC State points, meaning Copeland was responsible for 52.4 percent of the Wolfpack’s total scoring output without forcing a single turnover.

Sixteen assists. Zero mistakes. Complete command of the game.