Will Wade Shares Honest Thoughts After Wolfpack’s 94-70 Win

RALEIGH — While the Wolfpack took care of business in the second game of the season, NC State head coach Will Wade wasn't totally pleased with the effort of his team in the 94-70 win over UAB.

The Wolfpack got impressive performances from guard Paul McNeil and Quadir Copeland, who each scored 18 points in the win, but suffered from costly turnovers and some defensive deficiencies.

Wade spoke to members of the media following the game and shared his frustrations and praise of his team for its performance in the win.

Watch Wade's Press Conference

Quotes from Wade

UAB scored 44 points in the paint against the NC State defense tonight. Will Wade: not happy about it. Here are his thoughts:

(@jwatsonfisher with the question) pic.twitter.com/sSabVS88b0
— Tucker Sennett (@SennettTucker) November 8, 2025

On the paint defense and allowing UAB to score 44 points in the paint

"We've got to guard the damn ball. Our defenders have to guard the ball one-on-one. We gave up 44 points in the paint tonight... Now luckily, they shot four of 25 from three, but we just got blown by, blown by, blown by. Started subbing guys out as they got blown by."

"We've got to be able to sit down and guard the ball and our gap help gets too extended and we've got to sit in the gaps and rake at the ball and not let them just straight-line-drive us to the paint. It was 44-44 in the paint..."

On Darrion Williams being the team's extra playmaker and facilitator and the team's turnover woes

"We should probably let him handle the ball more. He doesn't turn it over as much and (Ven-Allen Lubin's) turnovers killed us. We had a chance to run away there in the first half... Two cross-court outlet turnovers and they stayed back..."

"... We just made some mental mistakes, but in big games, all those mistakes add up. So we've just got, we've got to be way cleaner on those details. We've got decent attention to detail. But if you want to be a championship-level team, you have to have obsessive attention to detail. You have to have obsessive attention to detail in everything that you do. And ours is just fair to middling right now and we've got to be better than that."

DYNAMIC DUO 🐺🔥
Paul McNeil Jr. & Quadir Copeland each drop 18 PTS as NC State rolls past UAB! 💪

📊 McNeil Jr.: 18 PTS (6-11 FG, 3-6 3PT), 4 REB, 2 AST, STL
📊 Copeland: 18 PTS (5-7 FG, 2-3 3PT), 5 AST, REB, BLK@PackMensBBall | @PackAthletics | #GoPack pic.twitter.com/92iIAyyD6d
— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) November 8, 2025

On the shooters bouncing back after a poor first half from three

"We'll keep firing. Look, we've got good shooters. We've got really good players. We needed to improve our shot quality and I thought we did that. It was big in the first half, Paul (McNeil) kind of got the lid off of it for us, but it's just little things. We were supposed to have a clean look on the second play of the game for Paul on a gut screen and we didn't screen."

"... That's in the margins right there. The game could go a lot different if we set the screen at the proper angle and we hit the guy, Paul gets a clean look and maybe that goes in and we can make 20 threes... We had to play at their pace for a while, which was difficult."

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