How NC State’s recent wins show team’s growing resilience, ability to reset
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wolfpack secured back-to-back ACC road wins, improving to 12-5 overall.
- Wade identifies stopping opponent runs as team’s main issue this season.
- Pack converted defense into offense: 11 steals, 33 rebounds and 19 made 3s
North Carolina State basketball coach Will Wade said on Tuesday night his team’s biggest issue is stopping an opponent’s runs. When a team gets going, when the snowball gets rolling, he said his squad has struggled to remain poised and stay calm.
That has, at times, turned into poor passing, off-balance shots, a rushed tempo, blown leads and panic. In the Wolfpack’s 76-61 loss to Virginia, a lack of poise played a direct role in the Cavaliers’ ability to extend their own lead and hold off N.C. State’s second-half run.
“Our biggest emphasis wasn’t really a basketball emphasis. It was really about: stop, reset, move on to the next play; just having a better ‘next play’ mentality,” Wade said after the team’s win against Boston College. “Very rarely, in the past, have I called timeouts. I’ve used more timeouts in the first half with this team than I probably used in all my other years combined, just because when things start going poorly, we cannot stop it.”
That looks to be improved, at least marginally, after N.C. State went 2-0 on the road in ACC play this week. The Wolfpack led by as many as 13 points against the Eagles in Chestnut Hill on Tuesday, but Boston College cut N.C. State’s lead to three points with nearly 10 minutes to play. A 6-0 run put the Pack back on top by nine points.
The Seminoles started the second half of the Pack’s historic 113-69 blowout win at Florida State on Saturday with an 8-0 run. The FSU surge cut N.C. State’s lead to 17 and it looked like things could get interesting: The snowball could start rolling and gain momentum. Instead, Paul McNeil hit a 3-pointer that stopped the bleeding, and his teammates went on a 21-3 run to retake a 37-point advantage.
“I thought the beginning of the second half was a little bit choppy,” Wade said after the win. “We were in, kind of, the same position last Saturday against Virginia. We were down 20 at the half. Came out, and by the 17-minute mark, we cut it to like nine, or something like that. We knew that they were going to their connected team, they’re a good team. We knew they were going to come out strong to try to make that run. We were able to withstand that.”
Wade admitted he was “really worried” coming out of the half. Alyn Breed, who fouled out, was called for a shooting foul against Robert McCray. McCray made the and-1. Then, his team coughed up a jump ball, and FSU picked up a baseline out-of-bounds call.
“We had some stuff,” Wade said of some of the imperfections. “They cut it to 17. That was as close as they got in the second half, but our guys were able to stretch the lead back out. Outside of that first three or four minutes in the second half, I thought we were really solid.”
N.C. State’s defensive effort included 11 steals, seven blocks, 33 defensive rebounds and 13 total turnovers. It turned that into scoring production, including 23 points off Florida State miscues, and 13 transition points. The Wolfpack’s 19 made 3s are a new record for the team in ACC play.
Darrion Williams scored at least 20 points for the second straight game. He thinks the defense allowed a few open looks that the team is lucky FSU didn’t make, but he’s pleased with the overall performance.
“We just wanted to be more aggressive and set the tone early,” Williams said. “No matter how many points we score, we want to have our best defense.”
The Wolfpack moved to 12-5 overall and 3-1 in ACC play with Saturday’s win. This is just the second time in 11 seasons that N.C. State has started 3-1 in conference play. The last time was during the 2023-24 season, when it won the ACC Championship to make the NCAA Tournament.
This week also included back-to-back ACC road wins for the first time since 2021, when the Wolfpack defeated Pittsburgh, Wake Forest and Virginia in a three-game run.
For Wade, he was mellow after the fact. The wins this week were good, but that’s what he promised. He didn’t promise a middling ACC team. He promised a contender, and losing either game this week would not have pushed the program in that direction.
“We did our job. We went on the road, and we won two games that we needed to win on the road,” Wade said. “This is what we’re supposed to do. This was great. It’s a good win. Florida State’s a good team. They’re going to beat some folks down here, and they play a unique style of play.
“This was a good win for us, but we’ve still got to continue to get better. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We’ve got a big stretch ahead of us.”
