Scanning the comments section on multiple sites after the Stanford loss it is easy to see that the Wolfpack basketball faithful haven’t really changed. Coach Wade has been telling us that it’s a new day, and while the results are more positive than negative, the switch hasn’t flipped because bad results keep happening. The team has been disappointing often, and there has not been a win that that gave us any reason to expect greatness this season. And while I don’t think this season is going anywhere,
I am still very high on Coach Wade and believe this season was close to being really good. But next season will be better.
- Coach Wade Knows We Need Better Talent
In one of his first interviews after being hired, Coach Wade was asked about his roster philosophy and he said generally he would like to retain a third, and get the rest from either portal/international or high school.
In a question and answer portion of his radio show in late January, he was again asked about roster retention. He said, “I suspect we’ll keep a couple off [this year’s team]. It won’t be a third. We have a very clear vision of what we want to do.” “…We have much more time this time around. Our hit rate will go way up.”
2. The Current Team is Not Meeting His Standards
“In his radio show January 29, he said, ”I don’t care about [just] the win, it’s how we win. That’s the problem,” “You get intoxicated with the final result. It’s not just the winning, it’s how we do it. If we go on the road at Wake and only get two of our five game standards, we’re probably going to lose. You have to play to a standard every game.”
Five Games
There were five losses that were a couple of possessions away from being wins. If the Wolfpack wins those games, this is a special season. In each case, the Wolfpack had opportunities to score and put the game away, but did not execute. In the GT and Notre Dame games the Pack was definitely the better team, but just gave them away. In the other three, the Pack just didn’t execute at the end.
3. Coach Wade Knew Early That This Team Was Limited
In his radio show January 22, he was asked if there is something about he and his staff that Wolfpack nation hasn’t see yet. “We haven’t won as much as we’re gonna win yet. I don’t think they’re ready for how rowdy we’re gonna be when we win. We’ve got to be a little bit quiet right now because we’re not quite where we want to be. But in the next year or two, we’re gonna be, I think people are going to be like, “Where did all of these people come from? Who are they?”
