At season’s halfway mark, what NC State men’s hoops still needs for success
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Opponents praise NC State talent, but the team lacks consistent execution.
- Defense and player poise must improve as six of next eight games are away.
- Wade demands daily consistency; team must convert flashes into wins and resume value.
Virginia’s Ryan Odom, Ole Miss’ Chris Beard, Kansas’ Bill Self and Auburn’s Steven Pearl are among the opposing head coaches this season to compliment N.C. State’s talent or call the Wolfpack an NCAA Tournament team.
On Saturday, however, Will Wade’s squad wasn’t as tough or locked in as it has been in previous games.
“We lost a little focus when they went on the run hitting shots,” sophomore Paul McNeil said of his team’s effort down the stretch. “That’s definitely devastating when you’re trying to come back and the other team makes shots.”
Even though scoring runs are inevitable, N.C. State lacks the consistent execution and energy Wade and his staff expect. That’s been an issue for the program, even before Wade’s arrival, and there was hope that would change quickly under the new regime.
Except the Red Reckoning, as Wade dubbed it when he was hired, hasn’t fully materialized. N.C. State showed flashes — even in the 76-61 loss to UVA — of the kind of team it can be, what this new staff is trying to build.
Almost getting it done, individually and collectively, won’t win games. It doesn’t improve the NCAA Tournament resume. Earlier this season, Wade said the team kept kicking opportunities down the road. It had a chance to win a solid Quad 2 game over a ranked opponent. It kicked that opportunity away, too.
“We didn’t have the consistency that we needed to start the game. We really didn’t have it against Wake Forest, either. Wake Forest wasn’t able to take advantage of those situations like Virginia was today,” Wade said. “It’s hard when you’re playing behind. Give them credit, they had a lot of poise when we made our run and cut it to eight. I think they scored five straight baskets after that. They had a lot of poise and were able to answer our runs. We are still learning to have the proper poise and everything that we need in those situations.”
The Wolfpack’s 70-57 win over the Demon Deacons on Wednesday featured two stretches of five straight missed field goal attempts. Early in the second half of that game, the team missed 11 of 15 shots. It was a good thing the defense helped limit Wake’s opportunities.
Some of the team’s consistency issues can be seen in the results. The team went 2-2 against Power Four opponents in December. It averaged 69.8 points allowed, with Kansas and Auburn the only two teams to surpass 65 points. The stretch included a 26-point swing between its best defensive performance (57 points against Wake Forest) and worst (83 allowed to Auburn).
The Pack offense showed a smaller differential in the four high major games. It scored 73.8 points per game in the final month of 2025. Its best games came against Kansas and Ole Miss, scoring 76 points, and its low for that period was the 70-point outing versus Wake.
“We demand consistency daily. For whatever reason, we haven’t been able to put it together in our high-level games, which at the end of the day, we’re judged on our high-level games,” Wade said. “We haven’t done that like we need to. That’s just a fact, so we’ve got to keep working at it. Eventually, the dam will break at some point. If you keep working, you keep working, you keep working. But we’re not there yet.”
At this point, N.C. State is halfway through the regular season with a difficult schedule coming up. The Pack’s one true road game was at Auburn in the ACC-SEC Challenge. It didn’t perform up to standards. Now it plays four of its next five games on the road, and six of its next eight.
The offense doesn’t always travel, but defense does. And N.C. State needs to have a reliable, tough and disruptive defense to give the team a chance in those games. It needs players to have better poise, so it can “play within the game plan and framework” that has been designed. Right now, that’s not happening regularly.
Following the loss to Auburn, Seth Greenberg and Jay Bilas said the Wolfpack’s defense was the area in which it needed to improve the most. Greenberg previously coached at Virginia Tech and Bilas was a four-year starter at Duke.
The two said they hadn’t seen N.C. State be gritty and disruptive, a staple of Wade’s previous teams. It hasn’t gotten all five players on the floor to play as a unit. It’s been somewhat surprising, but Greenberg said there’s no “magic dust” and some teams take longer than others to figure things out.
Since the two spoke with the media, there’s been more tenacity, but it hasn’t happened for all 40 minutes or carried over from game to game. Basically, the Wolfpack has sort of figured things out, but not completely.
“I think that’s something that will evolve and improve over time,” Bilas said at the beginning of December. “They’ve got good personnel, they’ve got an outstanding coach, and everybody wants to do the right thing.”
That need for consistency will be front of mind for N.C. State’s coaching staff and players in the coming weeks. Even when the team comes home, it has rivalry games that won’t be easy, either.
They know the task at hand. Everyone is just waiting for it to come to fruition.
“Be tougher. Win the race. Start off fast and finish strong,” McNeil said. “[Wade] understands what we’ve got to do, and we understand what we’ve got to do, too.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2026 at 3:41 PM.
