State Fans Wanted a Fighter

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 went as far as to respectfully inform this individual of that opinion (I was a less judicious social media user at the time), to which he replied that several former coaches in the industry would disagree with me. 

I have, for years, beaten the drum that there is nothing about the geographical proximity of Duke and unc that inhibits NC State’s success. It’s a narrative stood up by laziness and dripping with banality, but its existence, while uniquely vulnerable to critical thinking, proves a separate point. NC State Basketball since the fall of Jim Valvano has listened to other people trying to put guardrails on the basketball program.

This is not a men’s basketball program, or an athletic department as a whole, that needed walls built for it since it sunk into the couch cushions in the late 80s. State was plenty good at getting in its own way. But nevertheless, there’s always somebody there to make the claim that it can only succeed in unorthodox ways. It must hack the system, because it can’t compete within it. State fans are quite familiar with these narratives from people who do not seem to understand why NC State has been bad for the better part of 30 years. 

The national reception to Will Wade’s hiring was actually quite positive, and rightfully so. This man wins, and that’s what will matter as the seasons unfold. In the meantime, Wade has endeared himself to this fanbase quite a bit with his willingness to punch up, and in a world where fans and donors have an increasingly large impact through direct fundraising, messaging matters more than ever. 

State fans want a fighter because the State fan existence often includes the talk track, frequently stuck on repeat, that you’re crazy for wanting more. This insistence that State is doomed to a world of being a third-wheel program, even though it wasn’t that until Jim Valvano was torn apart for misdeeds that pale in comparison to what others have sauntered away from, is incredibly frustrating. Wade understands that frustration and the pain of State’s lost time, and I’d venture a guess that it’s where the idea for branding this season as a reckoning came from. 

State fans see the manufactured ceiling that people, directly or indirectly, create when comparing the program to its neighbors, and they want somebody who feels how much of that ceiling is built of bullshit. It may be a program that has not actually helped itself in decades, but it is not a program that can’t win for some reason outside of its control. If you think mean neighbors are a problem for you as a coach, you’re chickenshit. This is not a place for someone to “obviously want to beat your rival but also have a great deal of respect for them.” This is a place to call them stupid and steal their good players. This is a place that needs someone to fight back and send the message that being less isn’t good enough. This is a place that needs someone who won't play by the unwritten rules.

State needs to hear the voice of someone who is aware of the status quo and wants to break its face. Every coach here has wanted to do that, but Wade understands how to message it and is naturally better at doing it. An individual who talks to his people and simply doesn’t care what others think is an individual who fits right into a fanbase clamoring for someone willing to fight back, not just against the narratives around the program, but against that status quo as it stands. This is not simply about unc or national media coverage or whatever. Even in the schedule, Will Wade is sending a message. No fear, come and get it. He recognizes the potential of this program. There is nothing to be afraid of here. It can be done. From a messaging standpoint, that’s really all this fanbase wanted to hear. State fans, particularly older ones, are still keenly aware of the former stature of NC State Basketball, and they’re tired of being second-rate in a world where that just does not have to be so. 

Kevin Keatts said and did a lot of the right things early on, but there is something about Wade’s branding of the reckoning, his cooking of that 247 unc guy, his Ven-Allen Lubin speech, that feels less like the platitudes commonly heard from coaches. It's brash, a little arrogant, and definitely unique. Wade carries a tremendously ominous aura when he shows up on your street, but the fact that he signed Darrion Williams legitimizes a lot of that threatening persona. The wins and the losses will ultimately decide the fate of Will Wade, but what’s clear early on is that NC State did not just hire a basketball coach. It also hired an agent of change. It hired a fighter.