How NC State Can Turn the Page After Non-Conference Play
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RALEIGH — Will Wade's first season with NC State has been eventful. There was an offseason of verbal jabs at rivals, formulating a new roster with advanced analytics and the promise of a "Red Reckoning" for college basketball and the ACC. While sitting at 9-4 at the end of the non-conference slate isn't a total disappointment, it didn't feel like what many fans and pundits expected.
However, the conference schedule offers a second chance of sorts for the Wolfpack. The ACC looks like an improved conference as a whole, with a few truly pitiful exceptions like Boston College and Georgia Tech.
Regaining the momentum of the Red Reckoning
Coming into the season, the Wolfpack appeared ready to completely shake up the power structure of the ACC and potentially college basketball as a whole. Wade and his staff added high-level talent out of the transfer portal like Darrion Williams and Ven-Allen Lubin, with the expectation that the team would compete immediately. The four non-conference losses curbed some of that enthusiasm.
With Duke and North Carolina off to strong starts in the other parts of the Triangle, NC State fell behind in its rebuilding effort started by Wade. However, the ACC season offers a clean slate of sorts for the Wolfpack, with two massive matchups in the first week of conference play against Wake Forest and No. 21 Virginia and Ryan Odom, another coach trying to remake a historic program.
Wade struggled to get the effort he wanted from his group at times during the non-conference slate. His response has been limiting the rotation to just seven key players, with an eighth occasionally getting in the mix for a few minutes to spell one of the more exhausted seven others. Finding a way to get an improved effort and urgency would go a long way in improving the confidence of the group as a whole.
The team's star, Williams, must get things going in ACC play if the Wolfpack is to make a run over the next couple of months. The Texas Tech transfer was hampered by a shoulder injury after the Maui Invitational, but showed his ceiling with a 17-point effort against Kansas in that overtime loss. After he was picked as the Preseason ACC Player of the Year, the already high expectations for Williams reached an even taller peak. It's time for him to show that he can consistently live up to the hype.
Perhaps the most important thing for the Wolfpack to do is to play defense at a higher level. There were some concerns from the general public after NC State's switch-heavy, analytics-focused defense got barraged from 3-point range by teams the staff didn't believe could fire at a high clip from beyond the arc. Things evened out toward the end of the non-conference, but the Pack needs to show more improvement there.
If the overall effort improves, Williams plays to the potential he already showed at times in a Wolfpack uniform and the defense can plug some of the holes, the Wolfpack should be in store for a strong run through ACC play.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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