Twitter Gold: NC State’s Will Wade Seems Frustrated

Remember this past spring when NC State fired Kevin Keatts and fans made a big push to hire Will Wade away from McNeese State?

Remember the cockiness he had when he took the job? How he promised, basically, to revolutionize Wolfpack basketball? He made some rather explicit promises…like this one: “Our time is now…When that happens at NC State, it’s going to be a reckoning for the ACC. It’s going to be a reckoning for college basketball. We’re going to be in the top of the ACC and be in the NCAA Tournament next year. We’re going to be very aggressive….This is not a rebuild. We’re going to be in the top part of the ACC next year and we’re going to the NCAA Tournament. Make sure you got that on camera.”

Wish granted, but nine months later, he’s not quite as cocky as he was then. In fact, he sounds pretty worried.

NC State had no real trouble with Texas Southern, but coaches see things fans don’t, and Wade is not happy with his team – not happy at all, in fact.

Check this rant out. Wade basically says he has a soft, leaderless team: “if you’re not physical and not tough, then you better be alert and aware. And we’re none of the four: we’re not physical, we’re not tough, we’re not alert, and we’re not aware.”

Safe to say the bloom is off the rose a bit in Raleigh.

That’s not to say State is cooked. The Pack could still fire up and get things turned around and he does have praise for Quadir Copeland and Ven-Allen Lubin, but no one else. As he also points out, time is running short and State has missed some opportunities, notably against Kansas.

Of course there are new motivational tricks now. Penny Hardaway has found one at Memphis: since his players are earning now, if they don’t live up to standards, he just fines them.