The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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50 ■ THE WOLFPACKER A Different Coach For A Different Time Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu. PACK PERSPECTIVE BY TIM PEELER I f the arrival of new men's basketball coach Will Wade feels much differ- ent than all the previous introductions, that's because it undoubtedly is. Wade was greeted with great fanfare at Reyn- olds Coliseum on March 25 as the 21st head coach in program history. The 42-year-old Nashville, Tenn., native and Clemson graduate was un- waveringly confident about his ability to restore the Wolfpack, calling it a day of reckoning for the rest of the ACC. I know this message was heard loud and clear, because several of my North Car- olina and Duke friends griped about it at church and at our weekly trivia night. They weren't exactly frightened of the prospect, just annoyed that a new State coach thought he had the chance to be successful here in college bas- ketball's traditional capital, home to 13 national championships, 52 of the 71 ACC Tournament titles and innumer- able basketball stars, from State's Dick Dickey to Carolina's Michael Jordan to Duke's Cooper Flagg. Wade didn't arrive with immediate questions about how he might emerge from the shadows of the legends in his neighborhood like Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge or Roy Wil- liams. Or the Hall of Famers who pre- ceded him at NC State: Everett Case, Norman Sloan and Jim Valvano. In the new world of college basket- ball, when online rosters can disappear one weekend and reappear fully pop- ulated the next, he didn't have to talk about how he would crawl out from the lengthy shadows of all those predeces- sors. He just talked about how he and his team could shine. He didn't shy away from his past, which includes a messy departure from LSU and success at Chattanooga, Vir- ginia Commonwealth and McNeese State. He didn't apologize for being one of the few major-college coaches who didn't actually play college (or high school) basketball. He just talked about his plans for a future that mimics NC State's past success, which began fully when Case left the Navy at the end of World War II and established a base- camp of excellence in Raleigh, North Carolina's and the Old South's birth- place of basketball. So, what makes him different? Because of the evolving rules of the game, expectations aren't the same. There is no program-building, no year- to-year player development, no luxury of waiting until next season. Immediate success is practically required. "You just have to build the best team you can and then turn around and try to keep many of those guys. Then go build the next best team you can the next year around the guys that you're able to build on this year," Wade said. "It's just con- tinually trying to build the best team. We've got a formula. We've got intel on stuff that allows us to do that at a pretty good level." In my lifetime, there have been 10 NC State coaching changes, assum- ing you count the weekend tenure of DeMatha Catholic High School coach Morgan Wootten in the spring of 1980. That little-remembered "strong verbal commitment" between Wootten and NC State athletics director Willis Casey fell apart after Wootten went home and talked with his family about moving from Hyattsville, Md., to his home state. Instead, Casey replaced Sloan fol- lowing his highly successful 14-year tenure at his alma mater that included three ACC titles and the 1974 NCAA championship with fast-talking New York native Jim Valvano of Iona College. Valvano's 10 seasons at State included two ACC championships and the 1983 NCAA title. Every coach that has followed in their footsteps — Les Robinson, Herb Sendek, Sidney Lowe, Mark Gottfried and Kevin Keatts — struggled to build the kind of sustained success State fans have longed for. Keatts came the closest, capturing the school's first league title since 1987 with a miracle run that would have made Valvano proud by winning the 2024 ACC Tournament with five wins in five nights and adding four more victories to reach the Final Four. This past season's collapse, however, exemplifies the difference that Wade now faces as he gets ready to construct a completely new team with a pocketful of NIL money and the transactional use of the transfer portal. It's a new box of Legos every Christmas, a new erector set for every birthday. Valvano used to tell a fictional story about an interaction with a powerful booster at a Wolfpack Club meeting. "We love you, Coach," the booster said. "Yeah, but will you love me if we go 8-22 next year?" Valvano asked. "We'll still love you, Coach," the booster answered. "And we'll miss you, too." That is now the reality of college ath- letics. There is no wiggle room if you can't leverage a previous season's suc- cess to at least another run at a confer- ence title or a sustained appearance in March Madness. In that regard, Wade intends to be different. ■ Wholesale roster overhauls have become common in college basketball. Will Wade's immediate priority at NC State is to build his 2025-26 team via the transfer portal. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE ATHLETICS