Will Wade prioritizes defensive intensity and roster adaptability in 2025.
N.C. State's average player size increased in height and weight under Wade.
Transfer portal recruitment fueled a revamped lineup with scoring and rebounding.
RALEIGH
N.C. State’s upcoming roster for Will Wade’s first season is complete, and he’s ready for the team to begin offseason work.
The Wolfpack hired Wade in March as its new head coach. He’s been clear about his commitment to toughness when it comes to in-game strategy and player characteristics, but everything else is relatively flexible. This is different than what N.C. State experienced under Kevin Keatts, who was more predictable and admitted he “trie[d] not to change” his system, recruiting or routines.
Instead, Wade’s philosophy is more similar to the way women’s basketball coach Wes Moore leads his program. Moore turned the women’s team into a perennial top-25 program and postseason favorite. Wade thinks he can do the same thing on the men’s side.
N.C. State completed its roster this week with the addition of North Carolina transfer Ven-Allen Lubin. The Wolfpack returns just one scholarship player from last year’s team with Paul McNeil, but walk-on Jordan Snell also remained with the program. The Wolfpack ranks No. 13 in the 247Sports transfer portal rankings and No. 14 in the composite rankings.
Wade shared part of his vision for the team during his introductory news conference, saying he wants tough, high-energy players who can overcome adversity. Otherwise, he’s open to leaning on different skills and schemes based on the specific strengths of each roster.
“Offensively, we’re going to play to our strengths. We’ve played fast, we’ve played slow, we’ve played in the middle,” Wade said in March. “Defensively, we’re going to be in your face. We’re going to guard. We had one of the best defenses in the country at McNeese. We had a great defense our last year at LSU, and that’s going to be the staple of what we do.”
The first-year head coach reiterated that in early May during an interview with the News & Observer. Wade said his staff has “prototypical bodies” and numerical benchmarks that it looks for at every position, but there’s flexibility. He ultimately wants to recruit the best players possible who fit the program and what the roster already features, then the coaches can adjust the Xs and Os as necessary. (Though Wade said the staff loves using a press defense, so that’s not going away with Keatts’ departure.)
The numbers back up Wade’s philosophy.
According to KenPom, McNeese averaged a tempo of 65.9 possessions per game in the last two seasons, one of the slower teams in Division I. Wade’s squads at LSU and VCU typically played at faster paces, with the 2020-21 Tigers team averaging nearly 71 possessions.
In the 2020-21 season, LSU featured an elite offense and good defense. It ranked No. 5 nationally in offensive efficiency (120.1) and No. 124 in defensive efficiency (99.8). That flipped in Wade’s final year, when the Tigers ranked No. 89 in offensive efficiency (107.3) and No. 6 on defense (88.7).
Wade led each program to the postseason every season at the helm, including at least two NCAA Tournament appearances at each stop, with the exception of the Covid-19 shutdown.
N.C. State’s Dontrez Styles shoots over Florida State’s Jerry Deng during the first half of the Wolfpack’s 84-74 overtime win on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown kmckeown@newsobserver.com
Incoming roster composition
Wade believes in player development and doesn’t want to rely too heavily on the transfer portal once the program settles from the transition.
He’s been upfront, however, about needing to dip more into the portal, something Wade supports, in the early seasons of his tenure. One of the benefits and challenges of recruiting transfers is the abundance of skill levels, body types and experience available.
“You can get anything you want, but you can’t get everything you want,” Wade said. “You’ve got to choose what you can live without and what you absolutely have to have. Then, you’re going to play to the strengths of what you absolutely have to have and try to work around what you can live without.”
The 2025-26 roster is expected to have another one of Wade’s strong defenses. He said in May that he liked the versatility and size of the incoming players. And that was before signing the final three players.
N.C. State’s scholarship players measure, on average, 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds. Paul Mbiya, Florida State transfer Jerry Deng and Lubin are listed at 6-foot-8 or taller and at least 220 pounds. Mbiya leads the team at 6-foot-10.
Michigan State transfer Tre Holloman is the shortest, listed at 6-foot-2. He and Alyn Breed, from McNeese State, are the only players listed under 6-foot-5.
Last season, N.C. State’s median height was 6-foot-5 and 198 pounds. Breon Pass was six feet tall, and the Pack’s lineup featured four players shorter than its average.
Wade’s first group adds an inch of height and seven pounds, providing more length and bulk to every area on the floor.
“I think we’ve got some toughness. I think we’ve got some winning characteristics, got some leadership,” Wade said. “I like where we are, but we need to finish it off here.”
At the time, the Wolfpack lacked, as Wade described, “offensive punch.” It signed Texas Tech transfer Darrion Williams, who averaged 15.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists last season for the Red Raiders. Lubin averaged 8.7 points last season but ended the year with double-digit scoring in 11 consecutive games and contributing a double-double in four.
Three players on the incoming team averaged double figures last season. Six contributed three or more rebounds per game at their last stop. Mbiya led the group with 11.6 rebounds per appearance on the ASVEL U21 team in France’s pro league. Additionally, three players dished out 3.5 assists or more per game.
“Players win. I say this all the time: ‘It’s the horse. It’s not the jockey,’” Wade said. “If you get good players and you put them in really good systems, and you spend a lot of time with them, and you love them up, good results can happen. I think if we get good players, and we invest a ton of time and we invest a ton of resources into helping those players maximize their ability; when you do that, you have success.”
