Wade: We played with great effort today. We just didn’t have the attention to detail that we needed to win a game of this magnitude. Give Virginia a ton of credit. They were great. They blocked nine shots. Again, it’s really tough for us to score in the paint against them, but our guys were warriors and tried to gut it out. We just didn’t have enough. But it was a NCAA tournament-type game, so hopefully it’ll help prepare us for moving forward next week.
Reporter (Thomas Hughes): This is a question for either of you. Ugonna Onyenso finished with eight blocks. What made them so formidable to deal with in the post today?
Player (McNeil Jr.): I’ll say his length. That’s what he’s been doing all his life. It was just that we had to try to finish over guys. We couldn’t finish over him. He did his part for his team, and he just came out short.
Player (Lubin): Yeah, what Paul said, just his length, just his presence in the paint. The way he can just be very active around the rim, just blocking shots and just being a defensive presence for them really just deter us from being more efficient on offense. We were capable to get to the rim. We wanted to finish through contact and it was just pretty much that was our game plan. But when we have somebody like that, who’s very active, very disciplined, who doesn’t really sell for shot fakes and anything like that, but has great timing to block shots, it just becomes really difficult.
Reporter: The previous two matchups versus Virginia were blowouts. This one was a lot closer. What was the difference here?
Player (McNeil Jr): We had, I feel like we are, like I said, we peddled twice. We know what to do. We put guys in situations and pick on the matchups and I think this game we was hitting more shots, honestly. I think it was just effort. I think the coaches did a really good job of creating a good game plan. Do a really good job of knowing, just be aware of their plays and everything like that. But it just all depends on how we want to exceed their energy, be able to die for loose balls, win the 50-50 balls, chasing down long rebounds and being able to not let our offense dictate how we play on defense. We didn’t let that happen today because we know we’re playing for something bigger. That’s something that we should have done earlier, but we know that effort kind of covered up a lot of those things. Anything that we do it for 100%, even if we make our mistakes, we can make up for it.
Reporter (Bob Holiday, WRAL): Will, what did you see today that gives you encouragement for next week?
Wade: I thought we played with an edge today. I thought we played with better effort. We just, we didn’t have very good attention to detail. We gave up two loose balls in the first half that led to five points. We gave up the free-throw blockout late in the game, which didn’t give us a chance at a comeback. So, you know, and we squatted on four. There were three-point shots. That stuff just, that stuff bites you when you play a team as good as Virginia. And, you know, we haven’t, quite frankly, we haven’t played with this level of effort all the time this year. So it’s tough to correct all the details, and it’s tough to correct all the little things when you’re coaching effort and trying to get effort from guys. And so hopefully this will be a point where we can, you know, take this film and say this is the effort that we need, and now we can coach some of the details and get better at the details.
Reporter (Frank Maloney): First half, you came out with what seemed like a brilliant game plan, and you had Virginia on their heels a little bit. Talk about what that mindset was.
Wade: Well, I’d hope we try something different after getting our brains beat in twice. So, you know, we tried. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time. We had a better idea of what to do, and it’s just, you know, we couldn’t always get into what we wanted to, but I thought we got the lead to six a couple times in the first half, and then we wasted some possessions. We took a bunch of mid-range jump shots, a bunch of fadeaways. Like, we just, we got bottled up, which is what their defense does, and so that really, really bothered us and stunted us from being able, you know, look, if we were gonna win this game, we needed to stretch the lead, spread our legs a little bit, and sprint, and then, you know, make them try to catch us from behind, and we were never able to do that enough, but look, they’ve got a great team, you know, and, you know, we just, you know, Lewis has killed us every game from three. The only difference is he didn’t make his first one like he usually does, but he’s killed us every game from three, and we just, we didn’t, we weren’t able to stretch it when we kind of, you know, we were ready to play, and we just, we couldn’t stretch the lead enough.
Reporter (David Glenn): Those other two games were quite a while ago. This one just happened. The other two were blowouts. This was in the final minute. Does that improvement reflect what you’ve seen in practice in recent weeks compared to what you saw two months ago?
Wade: Well, we played them about, the second time we played them was a couple weeks ago. Seemed like a month ago, but, I mean, look, we’re not into moral victories. I mean, look, you either get the job done or you don’t, and we didn’t get the job done today. The reality is we should have played more like this the first two games, and so, and we didn’t, and that’s why we were in, that’s why we’re in this, you know, that’s why we were in this position. That’s why we were the seventh seed, so, I mean, that’s the reality of it, and we didn’t get the job done today, you know, and we shouldn’t have, you know, we shouldn’t have gotten beat like we did the first two times either.
Reporter (Connor Vandermark): Y’all kept Virginia contained for most of the first half, didn’t let them go on too many runs, held the lead for the majority of the first half. In the second half, they shot out on a 10-0 run. What did they change in the second half to be more effective offensively?
Wade: Well, I think, first off, at the end of the first half, to play as well as we did, and we were down one at half, to give up the off-the-bounce three there at the end, you know, we got, that was a killer. When you’re, when you play like that, and we’re trying to get some, you know, we were trying to go from, like, hoping we could beat them to, like, some belief, and we had a little bit more belief at halftime, but it’d been better if we had the lead. Like, you need the lead, and the start to the second half, it’s been our problem most of the year. We just can’t get stops to start the second half. We got fouled on our first possession. We made one of two free throws, I believe. And then, you know, they shot, I think they were like eight of 12 to start the half, or they shot 60-some-odd percent, and we just, when the defense isn’t in front of our bench, and the staff and our guys, and we can’t communicate the defensive stuff, it’s just, it’s very difficult for us. We just don’t talk enough, we don’t communicate enough, we don’t fly around enough. In the second half, the defense is away from our bench, and we just, we’ve really, really struggled. So that’s something that we’re going to practice, and try to continue to get better at. But, I mean, Virginia just put their head down, started driving the ball, and creating rotation, and kicking it out for open threes, which is what they do.
Reporter (Shelby Swanson): Just a lot of talk with you, and potential position at LSU. Just wanted to see if anybody from that campus reached out to you, and just give you an opportunity to speak on that.
Wade: No, is the job open there? Huh? No, so why would, I’m not, listen, let me be very clear. I’m excited at NC State. I was hired at NC State to do a job. This wasn’t gonna take one year. I’ve already met with our administration about next year, and some of the changes that we need to make, and some of the things that we need to do to put this program where it deserves long-term. So, I’m not, you know, I’m not on social media, I’m not into gossip, I’m not into any of that sort of stuff. But look, we’re gonna win, and we’re gonna win big at NC State. And that’s what we’re gonna do. That’s what we’re gonna do moving forward. And we have the resources we need, we have what we need, and it’s on me and my staff to get the job done. And look, this year hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to, but we’re gonna rally, and we’re gonna work hard, and we’re gonna have a team next year that’s ready to roll.
Reporter (Dan Tortora): Paul McNeil, not only in this game almost 30 points, but he’s come up big for you throughout the season, and there’s been a lot of moments here at the tournament where he’s come up big. Just what you’ve seen from him and the leadership, and the hopes of next week for you, and what he can do for you.
Wade: Well, he’s been shooting it well all year. I think he’s close to the single-season three-point record for us. So, you know, I think that he’s been solid for us, and we’re gonna need him, and we’re gonna certainly need him next week at the NCAA tournament.
Reporter (Stephen Arthur): This is your first season at NC State. How do you assess your coaching tenure in the ACC so far?
Wade: I mean, look, we wanted to be better. We’re not as good as we wanted to be. So, you know, I haven’t done as good a job as I needed to do with our team, and, you know, we’re gonna get that corrected. We know we’re eyes wide open. We understand, you know, where our positives are, where our negatives are, where our strengths are, and where our weaknesses are, and we’re gonna go attack those this off-season and get ready and, you know, be a little bit closer to where we wanna be.
Reporter (Tim Donnelly): With the regular season and now the conference tournament behind you, what did you learn about the ACC that maybe is different than places you’ve coached before, looking, you know, in the immediate rear view?
Wade: Look, we’ll do an autopsy when the season’s over. I mean, we have some ideas of, you know, look, we gotta, you know, there’s some personnel things in the ACC we gotta get right. And so some of the stuff that’s maybe worked some other places positionally, we need to have some different type of personnel. So we understand our eyes are wide open. We know where we need to improve. Let’s put it that way.
NC State Baseball2 days ago
