Wade's Frustrations Reach New Level After Third ACC Home Loss
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RALEIGH — A narrow 77-76 defeat at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes marked a new low point for NC State in its first year under coach Will Wade. The Wolfpack led by seven with a minute to play, but allowed an 8-0 run to the Hurricanes, letting them steal a crucial ACC road win. It ended up as the third loss in the Lenovo Center since the start of league play.
For Wade, aspects of the otherwise disappointing loss didn't come as a surprise. Still, the coach wasn't pleased with the effort of his team, especially in the first game back from a 41-point drubbing against No. 24 Louisville. The urgency that eluded NC State for 40 minutes earlier in the week disappeared at the most critical time of the game, leaving Wade more frustrated than he'd been all year.
What Wade said after the loss
A tough result to stomach
During his weekly appearance on the "Wolfpack Weekly" radio show, Wade explained that his team faced an identity crisis through much of the season. After being dominated inside by a Miami team that plays with a much clearer and more consistent methodology, Wade's disappointment in his team's mentality came to the front of his mind.
"We're soft. We're a jump-shooting team. That's who we are as a group," Wade said. "I'm not saying we've got soft players, but that's who we are as a group... I've had to embrace that. Miami, they have an identity... We have no identity. That's an indictment on (me). We have no identity outside of making jump-shots and that's a bad way to play."
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— Canes Men’s Basketball (@CanesHoops) February 14, 2026
The numbers backed up what Wade said about his team. Miami outrebounded NC State 40 to 29, hauling in 20 boards on the offensive end. It was a complete mismatch of styles between the two teams, as the Wolfpack entered the game as one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country. It wasn't the fact that Miami controlled the glass in dominant fashion that bothered Wade. It was the fact that his team didn't execute in key situations that it needed to when trying to rebound.
"We spent all week working on free-throw blockouts because they'd get 1.5 a game," the coach said. "They got three on us today, at least that I can remember... It's just who we are as a group and, unfortunately, you can't change it."
Throughout the year, a major point of emphasis continually brought up by Wade and his players has been the Wolfpack's focus on winning the six-minute games, or the final six minutes of the first and second halves. While most of NC State's run to come back and take a seven-point lead occurred in the final six minutes, the collapse came too.
"Every day, we go over the press offense and where we want to throw the ball and how we want to get open," Wade said. "We work on that every day... After we were rattled, we didn't want to throw it into (Ven-Allen Lubin) in the corner... It's something we work on that we shouldn't need to call timeouts on."
It was the most disappointed Wade appeared since the Wolfpack lost earlier in the season to Georgia Tech, a game he's brought up multiple times in the weeks since, including during his team's six-game win streak. Even with the late comeback and the spark his team showed to a raucous Lenovo Center crowd, Wade was almost left more downtrodden by the result because of it.
"This doesn't sit well with me for a lot of reasons. I don't want to get into it in here," Wade explained. "I could see some of this coming. If you asked some of our guys and they were honest, some of the guys that made some major mistakes for us down the stretch, I called out in practice the last two days. I could see the slippage. I could see this coming."
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) February 14, 2026
Wade and NC State need to regroup quickly, as it's far from an ideal time to be experiencing the level of slippage the coach mentioned after the Miami loss. Another massive test is on deck for the Wolfpack on Tuesday, as No. 11 UNC, the Pack's biggest rival, is set to hit the Lenovo Center for a crucial league tilt.
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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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