Pregame Tweak Pays Off in NC State’s Win Over Wake Forest
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RALEIGH — NC State men's basketball became a frequent victim of a scheduling scenario no coach or player in college basketball hopes for. The Wolfpack played several games that tipped off at noon or earlier in the day even. The early start times played into slow starts in games, two of which the team lost to Virginia and Georgia Tech.
Head coach Will Wade sought a solution to his team's early start time problem before the Pack was set for another noon game against Wake Forest, as looming weather issues forced the ACC to push the game earlier in the day on Saturday. Wade's adjustments paid off in a big way, as the Wolfpack throttled the Demon Deacons 96-78 in Winston-Salem.
Nothing like sleeping in
After a lackluster start against Pittsburgh made that win more of a grind than he likely hoped for, Wade began exploring potential changes to his schedule in the coming week to help fix the Wolfpack's early tip-off woes. That process started after the team's win over Syracuse, although the coach did make his team run for not meeting three of the five game standards in that win.
"I really cut back on some of the practice (Friday)... We were literally, from the minute we sat down to watch film to the minute we got off the court, it was an hour and two minutes," Wade said after the Wake Forest win. "This morning, I let them sleep in for an extra 45 minutes and we kind of changed our morning-of routine. I was trying to get us fresh and I thought we got off to a decent start because of it."
The Wolfpack ripped off a pair of early runs in the win, including a 9-0 run that felt fatal for a struggling Wake Forest offense entirely dependent on the play of Juke Harris. NC State showed an alertness and urgency it failed to bring out until late in the Pittsburgh game, and even in the Georgia Tech and Virginia losses.
"It was really just getting extra rest, that's all," said sophomore guard Paul McNeil, who scored 28 points in the win over the Demon Deacons. "We just slept in a little later than usual... We got the win, so I guess it paid off a lot."
The grind of a season can take its toll on each member of the program. Wade sensed that league play was starting to wear his team down in certain areas and the noon start times were helping that wear and tear rear its ugly head in key moments. That made action necessary to ensure his team avoided another slip like the one against Georgia Tech.
"This is the time of the season where everything is pretty monotonous, the way we do things," Wade said. "Two days out, one day out, everything is pretty monotonous. If you can break that monotony and give them a little pop, and they responded well, so I'm proud of them."
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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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