NC State beat Texas Southern by a bunch of points, as it was supposed to, and did that without Darrion Williams, but the defensive effort in the second half especially was not good. Will Wade is just a little fed up about watching the same mistakes happen over and over.
Same guys, who make mistakes in shoot-around, who make the same mistakes in practice, make the same mistakes in the game. Same guys who foul all the time because they have no attention to detail and they make mistakes and they just act all shocked when they foul in the game. It’s what we do.
Wade is looking for more toughness and energy from this group, and maybe one of those is fixable—I don’t think a team can just decide that it’s going to be tough. They’re going to have to figure out how to get themselves ramped up for the start of games and compensate by playing harder, and that can make some difference, but if State is going to have to rely on the name on the opponent’s jersey to set its effort level, yeah, that’s a big problem.
I’ve been concerned for weeks. But, I mean, we are who we are. I said it a couple weeks ago. If you’re not physical and you’re not tough you better be alert and aware. And we’re still none of the four.
We’re not physical. We’re not tough. We’re not alert. We’re not aware. If you’re alert and aware you don’t give up five points on baseline out of bounds plays with the clock under three seconds. You just don’t do it.
Wade mentioned attention to detail several times after the game last night and for me that’s been the most frustrating thing to watch this season. All of this points to more trouble around the corner.
The good news is that NC State’s hardly in a bad position, even without some of the wins Wade clearly expected to have at this point. Sometimes you can fumble along for a third of the season and not doom yourselves in the process, but whether or not they’re going to realize what it takes from here on is anyone’s guess, Wade’s included.