Will Wade Quotes You Need After NC State's Exhibition Win

GREENSBORO — While Sunday's 88-86 win over South Carolina was an unofficial start to the Will Wade era for NC State, it had the feel of a tight regular-season battle between two teams hungry to improve.

The Wolfpack escaped the exhibition after sophomore guard Paul McNeil buried a contested three just before the final buzzer in front of a solid crowd of Wolfpack fans.

His coach was happy about the win, but remained focused on the long-term goals for the Wolfpack. Wade spoke to members of the media following the win and discussed what went well for his team and what needs work in the future.

Selection of Wade's Quotes

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."

PAUL MCNEIL JR GAME WINNER!!! pic.twitter.com/wZD3VzAErY
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) 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."

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."

On Darrion Williams' performance in the second half

"We really went to Darrion down the stretch. Look, he's here for a reason and we're going to make sure that we put him in the right spots down the stretch and make sure that we put him in the best positions."

"We really went to him late in the game, and we should have gone to him a little bit earlier as well, but he had those two fouls in the first half... He's going to be a great player for us, and it was good for him to knock some of that rust off, and I know he'll be better moving forward."

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