NC State Gets Blown Out at Louisville, and Will Wade Owns Every Bit of It
There are tough losses, and then there's what happened to NC State at Louisville - a 118-77 defeat that left no room for interpretation. Head coach Will Wade didn’t sugarcoat it.
No excuses, no spin. Just raw honesty after his team was steamrolled from the opening minutes to the final buzzer.
“We got torched,” Wade said postgame. “There’s no other way around it.”
And he wasn’t wrong. Louisville’s backcourt duo of Skyy Clark and Ty-Laur Johnson combined for a staggering 76 points, turning the game into a one-sided showcase. NC State never recovered after falling behind 14-4 early, and from there, it was a downhill spiral that exposed just about every defensive flaw imaginable.
Defensive Collapse from the Jump
Asked what went wrong defensively, Wade didn’t hold back: “Everything.”
Louisville attacked off the dribble, picked apart mismatches, and found rhythm early - and NC State simply couldn’t stop the bleeding. The Wolfpack were consistently beaten off the bounce, late on closeouts, and out of sync in their rotations.
It wasn’t just a cold shooting night or a few bad bounces. It was a full-system breakdown.
“We gave up 76 points to two players,” Wade emphasized. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that.”
Clark and Johnson Took Over
Louisville’s guards didn’t just score - they dictated the game. Johnson, known more for his slashing and playmaking, was aggressive from the jump, while Clark got rolling with a corner three right in front of the NC State bench. From that point on, he was in full rhythm, hitting contested shots, pull-ups, and step-backs like he was in a solo workout.
“We just never made them feel us,” Wade admitted. “It was just them and the rim.”
That lack of defensive pressure gave Louisville the confidence it needed. And when a team with that kind of offensive talent starts feeling itself?
It snowballs - fast. NC State never found a way to slow them down, and the result was one of the most lopsided losses of the Wade era.
“Good Medicine” for Struggling Shooters
Clark came into the game shooting just 27% from deep. He didn’t look like it Monday night.
“He hadn’t seen our defense yet,” Wade said, half-joking, half-frustrated. “You can add him to Melvin Council from Kansas. He torched us too.”
That’s been a troubling trend for NC State - allowing struggling shooters to find their stroke against them. Wade acknowledged it with a dose of sarcasm but quickly pivoted to reality: Clark is a lottery-level talent, and once he saw one go in, the floodgates opened.
“We let him get in rhythm,” Wade said. “When you’re as talented as he is, you can give up those type nights. And that’s what we did.”
Moving Forward - Because They Have To
So how does a team bounce back from a 41-point loss?
Wade doesn’t have all the answers yet, but he’s been here before. He referenced a similar blowout loss earlier in his career - one where Alabama set an SEC record for made threes - and used that experience as a reminder that one awful night doesn’t define a season.
“We’re still an NCAA Tournament team,” Wade said. “It’s not like the season ends tonight.”
That’s the challenge now: flushing this one and focusing on the next. NC State has Miami coming up, and while this loss will sting for a while, it only counts as one in the standings.
“It’s an embarrassing loss. It’s a terrible loss,” Wade said.
“But it’s one loss. It’s not like you get three losses for tonight.
We probably should, but you don’t.”
Some Bright Spots - Even in the Blowout
It’s hard to find positives in a 41-point defeat, but Wade pointed to a few individual performances that stood out - even if they were buried under the avalanche.
Matt Able, Tre, and Ven all had moments, showing flashes of efficiency and effort. But as Wade made clear, it wasn’t nearly enough.
“We’ve been making progress with some guys,” he said. “We’ve got some guys that are very good players. We just didn’t play to our capabilities tonight.”
And that’s the part Wade took most personally. He didn’t blame the players. He put it squarely on himself.
“I didn’t have us prepared. I didn’t have a very good plan, and I didn’t have a very good pulse of our group tonight,” he said. “That’s on me.”
The Bottom Line
This wasn’t just a bad night - it was a gut-check moment for NC State. A game that exposed defensive vulnerabilities, tested leadership, and left a stain on the season.
But as Wade made clear, the story isn’t over. What matters now is how they respond.
The Wolfpack don’t need to be perfect. They just need to be better - and fast.