NC State Basketball Sends Message in Greensboro Exhibition Games

NC State basketball was back in full swing Sunday, as both the men's and women's programs played riveting exhibition games in Greensboro in one final opportunity to practice before the regular season gets going in a week.

Will Wade's men's team took down South Carolina with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from sophomore sharpshooter Paul McNeil, while Wes Moore's women's program outlasted No. 10 Maryland in a back-and-forth affair.

On this episode of the NC State Insider Podcast, host and lead beat writer Tucker Sennett gives you his take on the slate of games.

Watch the Episode right here

Wade spoke after the game, which was his first unofficial opportunity to coach the team in a real game situation. The new head coach seemed happy to get a win, but provided his thoughts on just how far the team has to go. Read some of those right here:

Selection of Wade's Postgame Thoughts

Oct 8, 2025; Charlotte, NC, USA; NC State head coach Will Wade answers questions from the media at The Hilton Charlotte Uptown. Mandatory Credit: William Howard-Imagn Images | William Howard-Imagn Images

From Wade's opening statement

"I'm obviously happy to get the win. That was a huge shot by Paul (McNeil, Jr.) at the end. We've got a lot of work to do, as everybody can tell. I thought we were very aggressive, particularly to start the game and they sliced our defense up."

"Our press was pretty poor, so we've got a lot of work to do. I appreciate Paul bailing us out there at the end."

EXHIBITION EXCITEMENT!! @PaulMcneilJr with the winner for @PackMensBball 88-86!! He hit the first bucket of the game and the last. pic.twitter.com/QGxnMNOqM7
— Jeff Gravley (@JGravleySPORTS) October 26, 2025

On dominating the final six minutes of the game

"You want to be tough. We work on the six-minute games. We play those two or three times a week. We spend an inordinate amount of time on that because you're going to be in a lot of those, especially when you're playing other high-major teams or you're in conference."

"... Our scrimmage, there was no six-minute game because the margin was a little bit different, so this was good to get some of that on film, but we've got to focus on what we do to make sure that we're not in those situations."

MATT ABLE 😳🙆‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/E1i6II5SBr
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) October 26, 2025

On Quadir Copeland's performance and energy throughout the win

"Everybody feeds off (Quadir's) energy, and he understands what it takes to win. He kept everybody calm, 'Hey, we're going to find a way to pull this out. We're going to find a way to do this.' Q is really mature and he's somebody that a lot of our guys look to to make sure that they get their confidence from him."

"When he's confident and he's calm in those situations, a lot of our guys are, as well. I think that that's something that he feeds down to our players, and I thought that helped him quite a bit today."

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