Basketball season is five months away, but the hype around N.C. State men’s team remains high under first-year head coach Will Wade.
The roster was recently completed with the addition of North Carolina transfer Ven-Allen Lubin and the staff is in place. Wade now has a core group of assistant coaches, a front office, strength and conditioning staff, and behind-the-scenes operations and development guys. Most players are on campus for summer workouts already.
The former McNeese State coach, coming off an upset of Clemson in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, has high expectations for the program, and his assistants shared the same vision. In their first chance to speak with the media, they did not shy away from talking about the desire to be at the top of the ACC and a regular postseason contender.
“We came here to win a lot of games and hopefully win a national championship,” assistant general manager Patrick Stacy said.
Assistant coach Brandon Chambers said no one else has higher expectations of the program than those who are in it, and that’s what matters. The Wolfpack doesn’t concern itself with other teams or the opinions of those in the college basketball world.
“It’s funny because people ask us about recruiting in the league or conference, and I know I’ve spoken to numerous people about it, but I couldn’t tell you who a single school has gotten, what they’re doing in their practices, etcetera,” Chambers said. “We just focus on our process and what we do every day, and try to just try to get our guys as good as they can be on the court, off the court.
“And, I can promise you this, there’s no staff in the country that’s exhausting themselves more than us, and pouring more into our players and our program than our staff. That’s our only focus.”
With the majority of N.C. State’s roster on campus and summer conditioning underway, here’s what Wade’s staff said about the team.
It is very early in the development and team building process, but the staff has set a standard for what it wants to gain from the offseason, including practices, individual sessions and off-court work. It wants to see each player not only improve athletically but build toughness.
Every assistant acknowledged there will be hard days and it’s not always going to be “sunshine and rainbows,” as Chambers put it. Vernon Hamilton said there’s no favoritism or getting out of drills, either. But, hopefully, that hard-nosed mentality leads to wins.
“It’s supposed to suck,” Chambers said of the process. “Your ability to embrace it, live in that space, come together, be tighter as a unit and do all the little things — play to your standards, react to your standards — really creates a winning atmosphere.”
For example, the team has implemented what it calls “road games” at the end of each week and they plan on inviting the Navy SEALs for training.
Every player has an individual plan for skills to improve in the offseason, too, Stacy said. These could be anything from improving their efficiency of certain shots, passing rates, leadership or weight gain.
The players will be tested daily, assistant coach Adam Howard added, and they are required to “bring it at a high level every single day, multiple times a day” from their nutrition, recovery, on-court performance and weight sessions.
“We have a plan for every single one of our guys in the offseason,” Stacy said. “Three things that they need to get better at and what them hitting those benchmarks will do for our team; how many points we’ll gain. We’re trying to be a Final Four-level team. Being able to have that stuff to give the development coaches to work with them all summer on is huge. Every day counts and when we can be making incremental gains every day with our guys, it’s awesome.”
Wade is who developed a practice session called “road games,” Chambers said. The idea is that they practice through different situations — such as a less favorable whistle — and try to figure out how to win, how to handle adversity.
Chambers said they typically hold “road games” on Fridays to end the week and have two or three teams. These are high-energy and high-competition practices held on Friday mornings.
“It just builds that road environment,” Chambers said. “It builds us a different type of mentality, a different type of conditioning, to be able to play on the road in the ACC at the Dukes, the Carolinas, the Louisvilles; the heavy hitters in our league. That process doesn’t start when you get to ACC play. It starts in the summertime. First week of June.”
There’s plenty of excitement around the older transfers from major programs, but freshman Matt Able was mentioned multiple times as a player to watch this season.
Stacy and Hamilton said the rookie has lived up to the hype of being a five-star recruit and has set a positive tone early. Averaging 8 points per game is great for a rookie and Hamilton could see him contributing far more. He also would be surprised if Able played all four years in college, as opposed to going pro early.
Chambers, meanwhile, spoke to his IQ and feel for the ball but said, most importantly, Able fits in with the competitive culture the new staff is working to build.
“When you have a freshman come in, he’s the young one, the baby,” Chambers said. “The older guys would try to put him in his place a little bit. To see Matt compete and go right back at them — to show that toughness, that resilience — and give it back to them has been really exciting. I think the special players are the ones that don’t back down from confrontation and meet that challenge head on.”
Read Next
June 5, 2025 3:20 PM
Sophomore Paul McNeil is the only scholarship player left from Kevin Keatts’ tenure, and Wade’s staff believes he can be a regular contributor to this new roster.
In his freshman season, McNeil impressed in his limited outings and should thrive in Wade’s system.
“Paul has a big chance, big opportunity this year to be a very big piece to the puzzle,” Chambers said. “Just with his size, length, athleticism, he can shoot the ball, he fits the Coach Wade mold of what he looks for in a player.”
The Wolfpack features one of the best composite and transfer recruiting classes in the nation, finishing in the Top 15 team rankings of multiple evaluation sites.
N.C. State’s staff believes there’s plenty of individual talent on the roster and the character necessary to win big.
“It means a lot and it shows up every day,” Howard said. “These guys have been great to coach.”
Howard saw several players’ former coaches on the recruiting trail. He specifically recalls coaches for Lubin, Terrance Arceneaux, Tre Holloman, Darrion Williams and Jerry Deng speaking positively about the transfers and asked for updates.
Additionally, the assistants say the group carries itself with professionalism and competitive drive — but still has fun. The players are ready for practice, they go hard but they’ve also bonded over mini golf and meals. They know the goals but are building trust that they believe will translate down the line. It feels like N.C. State has the right mix.
“Every single guy we brought in, we brought here for a reason, and we’re going to win a lot of ball games with them,” Stacy said. “There’s not a specific guy that sticks out more than the rest. We have a lot of guys that are focused on the mission, know why they’re here, and they’re going to do everything they can to bring a lot of wins here.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
The News & Observer