Will Wade Details How the Wolfpack Beat Wake Forest Again
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RALEIGH — The shortened version of the ACC schedule means NC State has fewer opportunities to see teams twice. One of those repeat matchups took place Saturday, as the Wolfpack made the trek to a snowy Winston-Salem for another conference road game and walked out of the Joel Coliseum with yet another road win.
Will Wade's Wolfpack continues to be successful away from the Lenovo Center and has quietly risen toward the top of the conference standings with a 7-2 record in league play. The NC State coach wasn't entirely pleased with his team's first performance against the Demon Deacons, but a 96-78 win in the second attempt was much closer to what Wade was looking for.
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More on Wade's postgame thoughts
In the first matchup with Wake Forest, NC State scored just 70 points and played one of its worst offensive games of the season, despite pulling away for a victory. That win bothered Wade over the next few weeks and the coach wanted to prove his team had another gear than the one it showed in the first go-around with the Demon Deacons. In an effort to create some spark, Wade changed the team's routine ahead of Saturday's game.
"We turned the ball over 15 times the first time. We turned it over eight today," Wade said. "Tre (Holloman), three assists, no turnovers. (Quadir Copeland), 10 assists, one turnover. I thought those guys were tremendous. We had three turnovers before the first media... Our guys did a good job adjusting. We were a lot cleaner with our passing today."
Music to our ears 🔊 pic.twitter.com/SAfMmZtijz
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) January 31, 2026
The team changed up the routine for the week slightly after some difficulties with noon start times earlier in the conference schedule. With the grind of the conference season beginning to take a toll on some of the players on the team, a little extra rest in the mornings and a lighter practice schedule led to some improved early effort from the Wolfpack in Saturday's strong win.
"I was just trying to keep our guys fresh," Wade said. "This is the time of the season where everything is pretty monotonous, the way we do things. 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."
Shooting the basketball played a major role in the victory. NC State buried 16 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, attempting 28 in the game. The Wolfpack shot 54% from the field overall, but the success from 3-point range made any comeback attempt from Wake Forest futile. The Pack pushed its team average to 39.9% from deep so far this season in Saturday's game.
"We're not going to shoot 57%. We can't control how we shoot every night, but we can control the quality of shots that we get," the Wolfpack coach said. "I thought our quality of threes, I can think of two or three that were pretty poor, but all the rest of our quality of threes were pretty good. I focus on what we can control, which is the quality of our shots and I think that our shot quality was solid today."
Can't leave one of the best transition corner shooters in the game open... pic.twitter.com/KxKRpopuIr
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) January 31, 2026
Wade and NC State stuck to a firm eight-man rotation once again, leaning on scoring from Darrion Williams and Paul McNeil, who combined for 48 points. With Holloman back in the starting five, McNeese State transfer guard Alyn Breed appears to be relegated to more of a reserve role and logged another game without entering. For Wade, the thinner rotation is a fairly simple decision.
"I just think eight guys gives us some continuity, gives us a chance to have some continuity of lineups," Wade said. "Everybody knows that they're going to get multiple chances and they're not going to get pulled on their first mistake... I just think it relaxes everybody and it gives everybody more opportunity for success... It's working for us now, we're not going to mess with it too much."
The Wolfpack enters a crucial stretch throughout February, as the schedule begins to ramp up. Wade's team will need to continue this forward momentum if it wants to survive a stretch against some of the best teams in the conference. For now, the Pack appears to have hit its stride at the right time.
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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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