NC State delivers blowout win over No. 16 UNC

By Noah Fleischman

Will Wade had an unlikely player stand in front of his team to deliver a speech as to what the NC State-North Carolina rivalry means to the program Monday. The Wolfpack was just over 24 hours from playing its biggest nemesis, one that made just a 22-mile drive from Chapel Hill to Raleigh, so the program’s first-year coach turned to someone who bleeds love for the team.

Senior walk-on guard Jordan Snell was his pick.

The only fourth-year player on the roster and the final remaining member of NC State’s 2024 Final Four team knows a thing or two about the antagonism between the two programs. He was the last player to touch the ball in the Wolfpack’s ACC Tournament championship win over UNC in Washington, D.C., two seasons ago, while he grew up surrounded by an intense dislike for the Tar Heels with his father serving on the Pack’s coaching staff from 2020-25.

It was an easy choice for Wade, looking to get his roster to fully grasp what it was going to walk into inside a sold-out Lenovo Center against the team clad in Carolina blue. The transfer portal era has made rosters a revolving door of players, leaving built-in knowledge of the rivalry sparse. Snell, an outgoing personality with an infectious positive attitude, delivered a passionate speech to his teammates, one that left a mark on those in the room.

“We’re just going to pack our bags and go home if we can’t win,” Snell told those in the meeting room.

After all, not only was NC State playing UNC, but it was looking to snap a two-game losing streak after it was blown out by 41 at Louisville last Tuesday night and blew a seven-point lead in the final minute against Miami on Saturday. There was plenty riding on the rivalry bout with the Tar Heels, and although the pressure of righting the ship as soon as possible was palpable, this matchup provided an opportunity for the team to snap into focus. 

Wade needed his team to play with a sense of urgency and toughness that was non-existent in its last two losses. For a team looking to earn a double-bye at next month’s ACC Tournament, doing so against an undermanned UNC squad that was missing its top two leading scorers — Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar — in the post set up the perfect opportunity. 

And, well, that’s exactly what happened. NC State delivered a 40-minute bludgeoning of UNC, breezing past the 16th-ranked Tar Heels 82-58 on Tuesday night in front of a raucous crowd of 19,367, which was mostly clad in the Wolfpack’s red and more than hostile to the visitors. 

“I thought we played with more of an edge today,” Wade said postgame. “I thought our guys were locked in and ready to go. I felt that the last couple of days. We had a couple good days of prep. The guys got off the mat. You’ve got to do your best work in tough circumstances, and our guys certainly did that. I thought we played with way more bite to us today.”

NC State didn’t have that same focus or attention to detail in its last two times out. It was run off the floor at Louisville and squandered a critical résumé-building win over Miami, both byproducts of a “loosey-goosey” bunch, as Wade called it. 

But in the 48 hours leading up to the bout with UNC, a switch seemed to flip in the Wolfpack’s minds. Its two practice sessions had a different vibe, one that Snell called “refreshing.” It led to success right away as NC State jumped out to a double-digit lead within the first eight minutes, and it never looked back after that. 

Senior guard Quadir Copeland, who led the way with 20 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds in 32 minutes, felt like the team more than rose to the occasion. And it did so based on its past two days of resetting itself to be ready for the opportunity.

“I think the best way we prepared was not getting too big in the moment,” Copeland said. “At the end of the day, we knew we had to get a win, due to the circumstances we put ourselves in the last game. We understood that we needed a win.”

The Wolfpack played desperately. It never took its foot off the gas pedal, shooting 48 percent from the field with 9 made triples. Its biggest improvement, however, was in the turnover department with just 4 after it had 2 costly giveaways inside the final minute in its collapse against Miami.

That, in itself, was a positive development. And so was its dominating result, one in which UNC led for just a meager 30 seconds.

NC State’s 24-point victory was more than a pedestrian hold-on-for-dear-life-type win. Instead, it was a beatdown. It marked the largest margin of victory in the all-time series since 1962, and it was the biggest point differential for any Wolfpack coach in his first-ever meeting with the Tar Heels to begin his tenure. It was also the fourth-largest margin by NC State over UNC in program history.

It takes a special performance to deliver the level of history that NC State did against UNC in one of college basketball’s storied rivalries. But the Wolfpack was able to do just that after it responded well to its lowest point of ACC play. 

The players were prepared for a “belt to ass” performance, as they put it, bringing a bedazzled NC State belt into the postgame press conference. It was an homage to Wilson, who went viral with his comments in a preseason social media clip.  

“I don’t like Duke, I don’t like NC State, I don’t like Wake Forest,” Wilson said in the video. “This year, we’re putting belt on everybody. I’m talking a real belt, sparkled, bedazzled.”

NC State, well, it kept a receipt of that to bring back out in the rivalry victory.

“They were talking a lot of, you know, ‘North Carolina schools this, North Carolina schools that,’” Copeland said. “It’s crazy how fast some tables turn. We bedazzled our belt for them, too.”

Senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin, who scored 12 points with 6 rebounds in his first game against the team he spent last season with, took it one step further.

“It’s what we left on the court out there,” Lubin said. “It just represents what we’re going to continue to do to the rest of the teams this season.”

NC State took its losing streak personally. It also made the rivalry matchup with UNC personal, too. That combination led to the Wolfpack digging deep to power itself out of its rut in dominant fashion. 

Wade’s group hadn’t shown that yet this season, so its ability to prove that is a positive sign of growth with four regular-season games remaining. If it was going to come together, it was now or never with the postseason approaching. And the Wolfpack pulled through.

Now, it’s a matter of making it a consistent approach and attitude moving forward with matchups against No. 14 Virginia and No. 3 Duke looming over the next two weeks.

“It’s just one game,” Wade said. “Let’s see if we can carry that forward a little bit. It’s a good step tonight.”