NC State Must Meet Wade's Standards for Success

RALEIGH — After a pair of home losses, NC State men's basketball returned to the Lenovo Center and walked away with a 20-point win over Syracuse on Tuesday. Most Wolfpack fans who walked out of the building were pleased with the response and performance. Any casual eye would feel the same way.

For head coach Will Wade, this group isn't meeting his standards. The Wolfpack failed to meet its coach's game standards against the Orange. For that, the team ran in practice after the victory, even after a win. While the players might not have been thrilled by that news, it's a sign of Wade's process working. He is rebuilding NC State into the tough, gritty program it once was.

Behind schedule

"I ran our guys today for the Syracuse win because we only got two of our five game standards," Wade said. "We ran three 22s at the end of practice... I don't care about the win. I care how we win."

That last sentence is something very difficult to understand for those on the outside of a basketball program. Wade understands that wins over Syracuse, Florida State and Pittsburgh, teams near the bottom of the ACC standings, build confidence in his group that ultimately won't help much when it faces the cream of the crop in the league and the country.

"That's the problem. You get intoxicated with the final result, just the winning," Wade said on the "Wolfpack Weekly" radio show. "It's how you do it. If we go on the road at (Wake Forest) and get two of our five game standards, we'll probably lose... You have to play to a standard every game... I choose to live in the real world."

Four of the five game standards remain the same from game to game and one changes. Against Syracuse, Wade explained that the Wolfpack needed to get 12 or fewer turnovers (Passed), 40-plus deflections (Failed), win the rebounding battle (Passed), five sets of three stops in a row (Failed) and the final goal was the unique one, which required the Wolfpack to win the transition game by eight-plus points.

"Thus, you run," Wade said after his explanation. "But, I tell our guys I'm fair. If we lose and we get three of the five, we don't run."

The coach remains upset that the Georgia Tech loss set the Wolfpack well behind his goals for the ACC season and that the team is still playing catch-up. Such a loss hurts the tournament resumé and could affect NC State's spot in the standings.

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