Running Through the Statistical Start for NC State Basketball

After the first two months of the 2025-26 season, NC State sits at an imperfect, but solid 9-4. The Wolfpack failed to win a game against Power Five opponents before finishing off Ole Miss in the final matchup of the non-conference schedule.

While the defensive statistics haven't been strong for the Wolfpack through the start of the year, the team has made up for it with a potent offense capable of firing from beyond the arc with efficiency.

On this episode of the NC State Insider Podcast, host and lead beat writer Tucker Sennett runs through the critical aspects of the Wolfpack's start to the season from a statistical standpoint, analyzing both individual and team stats.

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Wade's thoughts on the start to the season

While NC State head coach Will Wade likes to focus on analytics and data when it comes to his preparation, the Wolfpack's leader was forced to throw the data out the window after the team got off to the defensive start that it did. What NC State lacks, at least in Wade's eyes, is a rotation beyond the top seven players he trusts.

"We need some guys to step up. That's just what it is," he said after the win over Ole Miss. "We played seven guys, basically, today. I played the seven guys I feel most comfortable with, the seven guys that give me confidence, the seven guys basically that I trust. Hopefully, Santa brings me an eighth man for Christmas."

The Wolfpack fell short of its scheduling goal as well. Most teams with tournament aspirations try to schedule 10 wins in the non-conference slate. Now, the importance of the ACC schedule will weigh even more for an NC State team that entered the season with massive expectations from the fan base and from Wade himself.

"There's no relief," he said. "We've got 18 league games and zero relief. We've got to play better than we played today. We've got to get better every day, and so, no... I'm happy we won. It's great, but we get back on the 26th, we've got massive amounts of work that we've got to do. We’ve got massive amounts of improvement that we have to make. You always want to try to win double-digit non-conference (games). We fell short of that."

NC State needs players like Quadir Copeland and Ven-Allen Lubin to continue producing at the high level they have been throughout the first two months of the season, but it also needs more production from other members of the roster like Darrion Williams. Wade knows his group has another gear, but it hasn't gotten there yet.

"We've gotten better. We're not where we need to be. We’re not where we want to be, but we're better than we were," Wade said. "... But look, we've made progress, but they all count from here on out in the ACC, and we've got a lot of work ahead of us within the league."

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