Will Wade on What Fueled NC State’s Win Over Pitt
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CHARLOTTE — Will Wade and NC State dug deep and snapped a four-game losing streak, surviving in a high-scoring affair in the second round of the ACC Tournament. The Wolfpack scored 98 points to outpace the 15th-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers, another team fighting for very different reasons than the Pack's in the postseason, but desperate nonetheless.
While the pressure of getting a 20th win in his first season ended when the horn sounded in the Spectrum Center on Wednesday, Wade and his Wolfpack don't want to settle for one win in the tournament. The coach broke down his team's performance and how it was able to surge past the Panthers in the second half of a shootout.
Wade's postgame thoughts
The Panthers and the Wolfpack played a very different game back in January, beating each other up inside as Pitt hauled in over 20 offensive rebounds but still couldn't win. On Wednesday, the Panthers shot the leather off the ball, knocking down 12 triples for the first time in an ACC game all season. Still, Wade was proud of the way his team managed to control the flow of the game as the shots fell.
"We had to weather the storm a little bit. They hit some tough ones. They hit one off the bounce, they hit one at the end of the shot clock," Wade said. "But we had to weather the initial storm. They were shooting almost 70%. I think they were 8-for-12 to start the game, and they finished 4-for-15. We were hoping for some regression back to the mean, and they started playing more through Corhen, who was obviously tremendous for them today."
Wade's relationship with senior guard Quadir Copeland was a storyline throughout the entire season. The savvy point guard found new college basketball life under Wade at McNeese during the 2024-25 season, but took things to another level with the Wolfpack. He helped his coach out with 24 points and eight assists in the win over the Panthers on Wednesday.
"He's tightened his life up off the court, which has allowed him to tighten his game up on the court," Wade said of Copeland. "Everything was loose. That's why he left Syracuse. You say I chose him at McNeese. There weren't a lot of options for him. It was like Last Chance U down there, so we took him, and he's matured. You've got to give him a ton of credit. You've got to give him all the credit. He's wanted to change his ways. Is he perfect? No, but he's a lot better than he was, and I'm very proud."
Having secured that 20th win, the Wolfpack's NCAA Tournament résumé received a nice boost. While a win over 2-seed Virginia in the quarterfinal would go a long way in improving it further, Wade felt confident about his team's standing following the win over Pitt.
"You never know. But our metrics are really good. Everything is really good," he said. "We needed to avoid a tough loss today on top of some of the other ones. Certainly, I'd like to have a couple more wins. ... We're not going to take anything for granted. We're going to put everything we have into seeing if we can find a way to chip away at Virginia tomorrow and see if we can hang in there for a little bit and see what happens."
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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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