Will Wade's Motivation Helping NC State Find Its Identity

RALEIGH — Will Wade promised NC State fans a "Red Reckoning" for college basketball and the ACC. After starting the season 9-4, the process of getting to that point felt well behind schedule. However, the coach's spirited speech in a postgame press conference following the team's win over Texas Southern seems to have gotten through to the Wolfpack, even if he downplayed the impact.

The Pack opened up ACC play with a 70-57 win over Wake Forest, playing some of the most frenetic and effective defense of the season so far. It marked the second win with overall better urgency from the team since his speech.

Creating a sense of urgency

NC State head coach Will Wade went on a spirited rant about his team’s struggles with correcting issues and attention to detail.

Here is part of his postgame press conference following the 108-72 win over Texas Southern @WolfpackOnSI: pic.twitter.com/WPAEiQBak4
— Tucker Sennett (@SennettTucker) December 18, 2025

While Wade's press conference made the rounds on social media, other cogs in the machine were already in motion. Senior guard Quadir Copeland took an even larger leadership role over the last few weeks, sensing the team needed a spark. Both his voice and the mature and confident leadership of Ven-Allen Lubin helped get the Wolfpack back on the trail, as evidenced by the team's play and Wade's own statements.

"I think we also knew that we had to pick it up," Copeland said after the Wake Forest win. "We were having our own team meetings and things like that, to pick it up ourselves, we knew what we had to do. But coach always finds a way to put a battery in our back, so 1,000% that definitely motivated us more."

For the coach, that was business as usual. Wade speaks his mind when he feels it's necessary. He sensed the team got comfortable after the 4-0 start and failed to react in the way he knew it needed to throughout the rest of the non-conference campaign, so he took action. However, he disagreed with his own player about the effect of the statements on the team.

"I think that stuff gets overblown," Wade said. "If we didn't play well, everybody would say that they quit on us... I don't know if there's been all that earth-shattering of a difference."

Dec 6, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; NC State Wolfpack huddle with head coach Will Wade during the second half of the game against UNC Asheville Bulldogs at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images | Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

While he might not always take it easy with his players, Wade obviously cares deeply about his guys, as evidenced by his reaction to a question about his concern with the play of Darrion Williams of late. What Wade did looks to have driven the group together, at least in Copeland's opinion. A connected group could be even more dangerous than the ceiling the Wolfpack showed early in the season.

"We're getting comfortable, we're getting used to each other, and we're just playing much harder. We're playing like we all got a battery in our back," Copeland said. "We're playing like everybody's against us, and I think we all love to play like that."

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