NC State Head Coach Will Wade met with the media following the Wolfpack’s 68-66 loss to Texas in a First Four matchup, bringing the 2025-26 season to a close.
In a candid and reflective press conference, Wade pointed to a familiar theme that defined the season: an inability to close out tight games.
You can watch the full video above and read the complete transcript below.
Transcript
Wade: Disappointing end to a pretty disappointing season for us, the way I look at it. We haven’t been very good in close games. We hadn’t earned the right to win close games, and our season ended very similarly to the reason we’re sitting in Dayton. You are who you are in pressure moments, and we tried to mask some stuff, and we couldn’t do it. And so, that’s why we’re here, and that’s why we’re heading home.
Question: Quadir, you’ve been a facilitator all year, but tonight facilitating the three-point, it just wasn’t happening. What was Texas doing to limit that?
Copeland: They were actually just putting me in positions to get to the rim and things like that. I felt like I didn’t finish opportunities that I had. I had easy opportunities that were given. They took my shooters away and forced me to get downhill, and I did that, just didn’t finish the job. But, hats off to them. They work just how we work, so I ain’t got nothing crazy to say.
Question: Coach, what did this group of young men mean to you during this season? What did you learn from it, and how do you go to the next year?
Wade: Well, I mean, look, we’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to reset for next year. So we didn’t have the year that we wanted to have, and we’ve got a lot of things that we need to make sure that we’re in better shape for moving forward. So we’ll get to work on that as soon as the wheels hit the ground tomorrow.
Question: I know you have a lot of seniors here. So what’s the mood here as you watch them move on and move forward?
Wade: They’re disappointed, and we’ll certainly help them as they move forward. But our focus is going to turn to making sure we get the right guys to come in and help us win in the future.
Question: What did you learn about building a roster out of the portal this season?
Wade: Yeah, we’re going to be better. We put this together pretty quickly. We didn’t spend as much time on a couple of things. We just looked at some analytics, the personalities, and some of that stuff is very, very important. And we’re going to do much more due diligence this year, and we’ll have a better mixture of things moving forward.
Question: Speaking to that personnel that you have on the team this year, why do you think this roster struggled to guard without fouling sometimes?
Wade: Well, we don’t have very good length. We’re just small. And so if we don’t have length and you’re small, it makes defense tough.