Terrance Arceneaux had his breakout moment for NC State. Will Wade wants to see consistency

In the days leading up to NC State’s cross-country flight to the Maui Invitational, redshirt junior guard Terrance Arceneaux was cleared by the Wolfpack’s medical staff to return to the court after missing two games due to a sore Achilles tendon.

But just hours after posting a 0-for-2 shooting effort without recording another statistic in an 11-point loss to Seton Hall on Monday, NC State coach Will Wade sat Arceneaux down for a blunt conversation on Hawaii’s second-largest island. The Wolfpack’s first-year coach is unapologetic, and he didn’t hold back in the early-season 1-on-1 meeting.

“I’m tired of waiting around,” Wade recalled telling Arceneaux. “You either do it, or your ass needs to sit. We’ll just say your Achilles is hurt and we’ll move on. Everything’s been cleared, it’s time to play.”

That message seemed to get through to the Houston transfer, who was the most aggressive he’s been since the season started as he scored a season-best 11 points in No. 23 NC State’s 81-70 win over Boise State on Tuesday afternoon at the Lahaina Civic Center. He also added four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and three steals in his 23 minutes on the floor.  

Arceneaux, who previously tore his right Achilles in the 2023-24 season, hadn’t been himself through the first five games. He played 10 minutes against NC Central in the opener with an 0-for-1 shooting effort to go with two rebounds, two assists and three fouls, while he had only scored 3 points, doing so on a 1-of-4 shooting night in the Wolfpack’s 24-point win over UAB just four days later. 

To put it in perspective, Arceneaux had just as many fouls as he did points in his first three appearances, which combined into only 24:30 of playing time. The defensive standout also had just one block and one steal in those games, too.

But the coach-to-player conversation seemed to ignite something within Arceneaux. He went from being nearly a non-factor through his first three appearances to being the sparkplug off the bench for NC State, utilizing his defense — the trait he’s built a reputation on — to get rolling. 

The Beaumont, Texas, native, who played nearly the final 11:30 of the opening half in his first action of the game, posted three steals in a two-minute stretch to assert himself early on. The final of the bunch led to a fast-break layup in transition, which he was fouled on but missed the free throw. 

Arceneaux was able to get to the rim with his slender 6-foot-6 frame with ease, drawing a foul soon after before hitting a layup in the final 20 seconds of the opening half. While the defensive-minded guard thrived on his ball pressure, his ability to play stout defense translated into his shooting, capped by the game-sealing 3-pointer to put the Pack up 13 with 3:40 to play. 

As Arceneaux sat at the postgame press conference, a smile lit up his face. He’s a joyful teammate in general — the attribute that he added to the bench while he missed the team games — but he appeared to be extremely happy to be back on the floor with a significant role. Arceneaux, after all, posted a season high in minutes in the bounce-back win over Boise State.

“It was hard,” Arceneaux said.”I knew what I had to do for myself to get better and coach understood that. It was hard watching my guys go out there and play with me not being able to, but I knew I had to sacrifice a couple games just to get to where I wanted to be.”

Arceneaux’s offensive impact helped pace the Wolfpack’s bench to a much more impactful showing in the win over the Broncos. The reserves, which outscored Boise State’s 28-15 in the win, had been edged in both high-major games NC State had played to this point (a minus-4 showing against VCU and a minus-1 effort against Seton Hall). 

Senior forward Darrion Williams, a Texas Tech transfer that led the team with 16 points against Boise State, is one of the more-confident players on the Wolfpack roster. He has tried to give that same sense of self-belief to several of his teammates, Arceneaux included. Tuesday’s performance seemed to be an example of what he was looking for from his skilled teammate. 

“I’ve been telling him since the summer, coach has been telling him since the summer, just to be confident in your shot and be confident in your work,” Williams said. “I think he showed that today.”

It was what Wade was looking for from Arceneaux. He challenged the guard to prove that he could be a player for the Wolfpack, and the stingy guard was able to do just that. 

But with NC State’s final Maui Invitational game looming Wednesday night (9:30 p.m., ET), Wade is looking for Arceneaux to show him that this game wasn’t a fluke. 

“He did a good job today and now we’ve got to do it consistently,” Wade said. “We’ve got to turn around and do it again tomorrow. We’ve got some work to do on that. Hopefully, we can get him to flip it around and have a little bit of consistency.”