Analyzing the National Outlook for NC State Men's Basketball

With just a few days until NC State takes the court at the Lenovo Center for the first time under head coach Will Wade, pundits and analysts around the sport are making their final claims before basketball is actually played.

Wade has talked at length about rebuilding the reputation of NC State as one of the premier brands in college basketball on the men's side. Wins will earn respect and Wade plans on winning games early and often with his Wolfpack squad.

On this episode of the NC State Insider Podcast, we discuss the national perspective of this NC State team and what it means moving forward.

Watch the Episode here

Wolfpack fans got their first look at the 2025-26 version of NC State basketball on Sunday in Greensboro. Wade and his team took down South Carolina 88-86 behind a clutch 3-pointer from Paul McNeil. Find out what Wade had to say about the game and the progress of the team before opening night right here:

Wade Transcript

Oct 8, 2025; Charlotte, NC, USA; NC State head coach Will Wade answers questions from the media at The Hilton Charlotte Uptown. Mandatory Credit: William Howard-Imagn Images | William Howard-Imagn Images

From Wade's opening statement

"I'm obviously happy to get the win. That was a huge shot by Paul (McNeil, Jr.) at the end. We've got a lot of work to do, as everybody can tell. I thought we were very aggressive, particularly to start the game and they sliced our defense up."

"Our press was pretty poor, so we've got a lot of work to do. I appreciate Paul bailing us out there at the end."

PAUL MCNEIL JR GAME WINNER!!! pic.twitter.com/wZD3VzAErY
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) October 26, 2025

On dominating the final six minutes of the game

"You want to be tough. We work on the six-minute games. We play those two or three times a week. We spend an inordinate amount of time on that because you're going to be in a lot of those, especially when you're playing other high-major teams or you're in conference."

"... Our scrimmage, there was no six-minute game because the margin was a little bit different, so this was good to get some of that on film, but we've got to focus on what we do to make sure that we're not in those situations."

On Darrion Williams' performance in the second half

"We really went to Darrion down the stretch. Look, he's here for a reason and we're going to make sure that we put him in the right spots down the stretch and make sure that we put him in the best positions."

"We really went to him late in the game, and we should have gone to him a little bit earlier as well, but he had those two fouls in the first half... He's going to be a great player for us, and it was good for him to knock some of that rust off, and I know he'll be better moving forward."

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