Quad Games and Wins Tracker for NC State men's basketball's 2026 season.

NC State's 84-83 win over SMU is immediately one of my favorite basketball games in recent memory. The shot making from both teams hit an extreme, and there isn't much more entertaining than watching your team get on an absolute heater and beat a good team on the road. Because I'm a huge nerd, a number of adjustments and key schematic wins stood out from the second half rally and eventual close. Let's take a look at a key defensive adjustment and two key offensive sets that h

NC State is on a four-game winning streak and is off to its best start in conference play since 2003. It hasn't been a consistent ride or one free of strife. The enormous expectations this team carried didn't necessarily help that, but State continues to be an efficient offensive unit that is doing enough to win almost every game it's in. All of the Wolfpack's goals are still very much in tact because it has the right pieces. What wins basketball games? Coaches coaching? Play

Quad Games and Wins Tracker for NC State men's basketball's 2026 season.

Will Wade’s first NC State team is defined by how hard it is to define. Variance is the term of the year for Wolfpack basketball, both as an input from State's opponents and an output from the Pack itself. NC State held Liberty and Wake Forest to their lowest offensive efficiency outputs of the entire season. Ole Miss posted its second-worst effort against the Pack. At the same time, Boston College and Texas have both had their best offensive efforts of the entire season aga

Updated look at NC State men's basketball quadrant wins, with comparison to the rest of the ACC.

One of the more fun components of the Will Wade offense is the use of Paul McNeil. As we discussed on this week's Lotcast episode , McNeil is a getting a lot of volume simply from being around Quadir Copeland , and his gravity as a floor spacer creates tons of conflict for defenses. That's not the only way he gets shots, though. Today, we're looking at three set pieces that led to Paul McNeil triples. Veer A veer screen is an off-ball screen set by a player who has just set

NC State Quad wins tracker, and the path they need to take to secure a 2026 at-large NCAA tournament bid.

NC State's offense currently ranks 20th nationally in total efficiency, 17th in effective field goal percentage, and despite some regression, is still shooting almost 40% from three as a team. The offense has done a lot of things right to this point, and the Pack is having fun compressing defenses and zipping the ball around the perimeter to its squadron of shooters. Let's hope it continues into conference play. The pieces have fit together well. Even with Darrion Williams st

You’d never know it if you simply measured the sentiment around it, but NC State enters conference play with a top 50 defense. Will Wade’s first Wolfpack team, which was rightfully lambasted for its early defensive efforts, has quietly pieced together a nice four-game stretch to wrap up its out-of-conference slate.  Three of the team’s four highest-rated defensive games per Torvik have come in the last two weeks (Liberty, Kansas, Ole Miss). Over the four-game stretch since 12

Of all the players I wrote about in the offseason, which was almost every one State added in the portal, Quadir Copeland was the one I really got wrong. The senior Will Wade product has been the team’s best player and its primary drink stirrer.  Copeland’s skills as an operator have always been intriguing. He’s an at-the-rim scorer who sparks a lot of ball movement. Playing with ball-dominant foul merchant Judah Mintz at Syracuse didn’t land him in as many on-ball situations,

NC State is now part of a small group that has traveled to Hawaii and not enjoyed itself. The Pack's pass at the Maui Invitational was less pleasant than expected, and while these aren't catastrophic developments or panic button moments, they did expand on some negative trends. Texas scored 102 points behind a 16/32 effort from beyond the arc. Seton Hall was the reverse, ripping off a 65% effort inside the arc despite not lighting the world on fire from three. The Pack's defe

Making shots is very important in basketball. Fortunately, this is something NC State has been excellent at through three games. Wade's first offense has started off blazing, shooting over 44% from three and almost 70% on twos. The three-point percentage is particularly impressive considering the volume. State has shot 102 threes so far while averaging 15 makes per game. This level of shooting is obviously not sustainable, but State is pretty demonstrably a team that you won'

Listening to the way Will Wade has talked about the NC State program immediately took me back to an interaction I had with an unnamed national ESPN college basketball personality just before Kevin Keatts was hired. This individual posited that NC State’s way forward in a neighborhood owned by Duke and unc was to take a page out of UVA’s book. Do something different and find a unique way to counter the shadow that looms over them. I found this take to be quite stupid, and I we

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