Why NC State is disappointed in loss to Kansas but still hopeful about the season
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wolfpack show urgency but remain winless vs Power Four and high majors.
- Coaching cites steady internal growth and expects improvement by season end.
- Nonconference window narrows as program misses out on early marquee wins.
There’s a difference between pressing the panic button and having urgency. N.C. State men’s basketball has urgency, but it isn’t panicked.
Will Wade, sitting in his postgame news conference Saturday night, wasn’t angry after the team’s 77-76 overtime loss to Kansas. He wasn’t particularly emotional. For a guy known for his large personality, he seemed uncharacteristically placid.
The Wolfpack remains winless against Power Four and high-major basketball programs, losing to Seton Hall, Texas, Auburn and now the Jayhawks. Wade admits time is running out on non-conference opportunities. The program scheduled the way it did to help its NCAA Tournament résumé, but that was with the assumption the team would win a couple of these games.
It’s one thing to play a difficult schedule, it’s another thing to actually put wins on the record when it matters. N.C. State has fallen short thus far.
“We haven’t won some of these bigger games that we’ve scheduled. That’s just a fact,” Wade said. “We haven’t won those, but I do think we’re close to winning them. I don’t think that every game’s a referendum, but we certainly got to start winning some of these. We let an opportunity slip by today.”
Wade, Ven-Allen Lubin and Darrion Williams all said they think the team has improved drastically since its trip to Maui. It’s better than it was when it lost at Auburn a week and a half ago. Rotations are more settled and there’s a better idea of how guys need to play alongside each other.
The growth hasn’t shown on the scoreboard yet — Wade said the results are lagging behind the work — but the Pack is confident everything happening behind the scenes will show up. And, it will continue to take steps to improve even after the results begin to arrive.
“We’re a third of the way through the season. Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not,” Wade said. “I appreciate our fans today. I thought the crowd was phenomenal. Fans were absolutely awesome. I’m disappointed for them. I’m disappointed that we have been able to put a better product out there for them, but we will. We will. I feel like in short order, this team is going to continue to get better, and we’re going to continue to move forward.”
One positive that can be taken from the game, despite the result, is the effort.
In previous games, the losses often came down to the team’s energy. This time, the loss came down to execution. Its defense held Kansas to 30 first-half points, but it gave up 47 in the second half and overtime period. The Jayhawks shot 19 of 35 (54.2%) from the field after the break, including 7 of 12 (58.3%) from the perimeter.
It let Melvin Council score a career-high 36 points on 9-of-15 3-point shooting, a single-game record in the Bill Self era and the second most by a Kansas player in school history. The Pack tried to make some adjustments, but he still knocked them down.
A missed free throw and a pair of missed 3s on offense, meanwhile, hurt the Wolfpack’s chance at winning its first marquee game.
“I think even though we didn’t get the results we wanted, I feel like we show ourselves that we can compete with anybody,” Lubin said. He recorded his eighth straight double-digit game with 16 points. “I think we did a really good job of making some good steps on offense and defensively. We can’t really hang our heads too low from the results. All we can do is just look back at this, learn from our mistakes down the stretch that cost us the game, but I think we did some good things.”
Self said he can’t say what the ceiling is for N.C. State since he’s not in practice with the team every day. From scouting and being on the opposite bench, he thinks the team can have a good season.
“People should be excited about the Wolfpack and their team,” Self said. “If you really look at their team, they can stretch it from four spots. They’ve got good guard play and good length on the perimeter, and the big fella’s [Lubin] having a really nice year. They’re going to have a good season. We’re fortunate they didn’t shoot the ball tonight like they shot it against Liberty earlier in the week.”
Wade has had teams in this position before. Last season at McNeese State, the program started 5-5 and won the Southland. It defeated Clemson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. When Wade was at LSU, he guided the Tigers to the 2018-19 SEC regular-season title. That same season, it had a stretch in the non-conference season when the team went 5-3, including two losses to ranked teams. LSU did not beat a major program until beginning conference play.
Teams can splinter when they’re going through losses like N.C. State has, but Wade doesn’t think his group will do that. It will continue to work, just like his prior teams, and can still do great things.
“If we keep making progress, I feel really good about where we’ll be at the end of the year,” Wade said. “I think it’ll be good. I think we’ll like where we are, and we’ll appreciate the struggle. Sometimes to get to that side, you’ve got to go through some struggle. And that’s certainly what we’re doing right now.”
