Will Wade Believes NC State Left “Meat on the Bone”
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RALEIGH — NC State finished with a 5-15 record in ACC play during the 2024-25 season, crumbling after a miraculous Final Four run in 2024. When Will Wade was hired to take over the program in March of 2025, he promised that he'd have the Wolfpack competing in the top half of the ACC in his first season. He's lived up to that promise. However, he's unfulfilled.
"I wanted to finish in the top half of the league and all that sort of stuff and we've pretty much done what we set out to do," Wade said on the "Wolfpack Weekly" radio show. "But, I think we've left some meat on the bone and that really bothers me. We've got to get that fixed that quickly."
Getting the Wolfpack back in the mix
Wade has been highly critical of his team since the season started, even after an offseason full of boasting and confidence. For the most part, his criticism has been fair. It's his job to hold his team to a standard higher than one that some fans might deem realistic. He is the first one to admit he lives in reality. However, the turnaround can't be overlooked.
"Fourth is about the best that we can do right now, so we're going to try to fight it out," Wade said. "I don't think we've ever gotten the double bye since it started a couple years ago and I don't think we've ever won more than 12 conference games and we still have that on the table, so we'll try to do that."
The frustration stems from missed opportunities. NC State lost to Georgia Tech at home on Jan. 17. The Yellow Jackets haven't won a game in conference play since, losing nine straight over the last month. That's a loss that stuck with Wade more than any other. The Wolfpack recovered well, winning six in a row, but collapsed late against Miami in the Lenovo Center, putting the race for a top-four seed in jeopardy.
"I won't get too excited about finishing fourth. That ain't very good," Wade said. "Look, that's about the best we can do right now... We don't want to go around patting ourselves on the back."
While Wade refuses to quit on this group, he is battling with the fact that the ceiling of his first Wolfpack team is lower than what he hoped when the ball was tipped against NC Central at the beginning of November. His ability to balance the old version of himself, which could be too fiery at times, has been key in his motivation of the Wolfpack. He was fighting it in Virginia on Tuesday.
"I went into the halftime as mad as I've been all year. I went in there and that was Will Wade from 10 years ago. That wasn't pretty," he said. "After the game, I didn't speak to them because I was going to say something that probably would've been the point of no return. We regrouped and did some individual meetings... And our guys responded pretty well."
The Wolfpack has shown a much better response after losses than it has after victories, with the Virginia loss being a prime example. Wade's goal of pushing for the four-seed in the ACC Tournament starts on Saturday against Notre Dame.
"You can't dwell on the past. You can't dwell on what happened," he said. "We don't have any control over that. We can't go back and get that back. ... All we can do is move forward."
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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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