RALEIGH, N.C. - When Will Wade took over at NC State, he didn’t just build a roster - he built a résumé. From the moment he arrived, Wade made it clear that this wasn’t going to be a typical Year 1 rebuild. Instead, he stacked his roster with players who didn’t just have talent - they had experience, pedigree, and most importantly, they had won.
Look at the names: Darrion Williams (Texas Tech), Ven-Allen Lubin (UNC), Tre Holloman (Michigan State), Terrance Arceneaux (Houston), and Quadir Copeland (McNeese State). That’s not just a group of transfers; that’s a group with real NCAA Tournament mileage. Between them, they brought 549 minutes of March Madness experience - 200 more than any other team in the ACC, according to Wade back in October at the ACC Tip-Off in Charlotte.
That number wasn’t just a stat to Wade - it was a blueprint. “We want to have a team that’s prepared to get to March and prepared to win in March,” he said. And on paper, he had every reason to believe this group could do just that.
But basketball isn’t played on paper.
Fast forward to mid-February, and the reality has been a little more complicated. Despite all that experience, this NC State team has struggled to close out games - especially at home.
Three losses in their own building sting, but it’s not just the defeats. It’s how they’ve happened: tight games, pressure moments, and a team that, for all its March-tested résumés, hasn’t been able to consistently execute when it matters most.
On the road, it’s been more of the same - close calls, near misses, and opportunities slipping away late. The mental toughness and poise that were supposed to be this team’s calling card have been inconsistent at best.
Now, this doesn’t mean NC State is out of the fight - far from it. There’s still time to regroup, recalibrate, and lean into the experience that made this roster so promising in the first place. But the margin for error is shrinking, and the expectations that came with this veteran group aren’t going anywhere.
Wade built a team for March. The question now is whether they can get there - and once they do, whether they’ll be ready to deliver.