Well, it looks like the Red Reckoning is back on.
After a few tough losses left many fans feeling frustrated with Will Wade’s first season in Raleigh, the NC State Wolfpack men’s basketball team came through in a big way, defeating the UNC Tar Heels 82-58 last Tuesday in its largest margin of victory over the Tobacco Road rival since 1962.
“We just needed to win,” Wade said after the game. “Coming off of what we went through on Saturday [against Miami], we just needed to find a way to win and I do think that it helped that it was North Carolina.”
It was NC State’s first win over the Tar Heels since the 2024 ACC Tournament and only the third home win over UNC this decade.
And at the end of the day, rivalry wins are the best way to get a fanbase behind you.
“I represent NC State, our fanbase, our school and if it’s important to our fans, it’s important to us and important to me,” Wade said. “I know how much it means to everybody, so I’m glad we could put a smile on everybody’s face and make work a little bit easier tomorrow morning.”
For NC State, the win over UNC could also be an important one as the regular season starts to wind down.
The Wolfpack don’t have too many big wins on the resume — the victory was just their second win over a ranked opponent this season — but adding a Quad 1 victory under their belt could be important for a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
NC State has four games left on their schedule, with two coming against ranked opponents, so it’s imperative they make a good impression in this final stretch if they don’t want to be left at home yet again come March.
“We need to close strong here,” Wade said. “We’ve positioned ourselves in a decent spot, but we have to close strong. I’ve talked to our guys this week about sprinting through the finish line and I thought tonight, it was one game and we’ll see if we can carry this forward a little bit, but it was a good step.”
While it was a statement win for NC State, it was a frustrating loss for the Tar Heels, especially given how unengaged the team was for a supposed rivalry game.
Obviously there was an expected drop off in quality with UNC missing the two biggest pieces of its elite frontcourt in both star freshman Caleb Wilson and as well as standout Henri Veesaar, but the remainder of the team just never really showed up.
“Our competitive fight wasn’t there, especially from a defensive standpoint,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis following the loss to NC State. “Our heartbeat, our lifeline, it starts with defensive rebounding. That’s what leads us to really good offense and we just weren’t tough enough, we weren’t good enough on the defensive end.”
However, UNC quickly managed to shake off the loss on Saturday with a 77-64 win over Syracuse, albeit with Veesaar back in the lineup.
“One of the things I talked about with the group was finding a way,” Davis said following the win. “Today, we just kept trying to find ways and at the end, we were able to break away, extend the lead and get a really good road win.”
And with Wilson nearing a return too, it doesn’t seem like the loss did too much to faze the Tar Heels who are looking to prove that they’re one of the top teams in the country.
The biggest shame coming from Tuesday’s game in Raleigh though is that this is more than likely the only time these two teams will meet on the court this year.
With ACC expansion came a restructuring of conference scheduling from 20 games to 18 and that ended up leaving NC State with just a single scheduled game against UNC for the 2025-26 season.
“It’s a great rivalry and I think it means a lot to both fanbases, so it’s a little odd that we don’t play twice,” Wade said.
Despite that sentiment, Wade agreed that it was the “right decision” overall for the ACC to make in terms of getting more teams into the NCAA Tournament.
“Sometimes you have to do what’s best for the collective good even if it’s not what’s maybe best for your program,” Wade said. “That’s part of being a part of a conference and this is one of the casualties of that.”
However, I know people all across the state wish that they could get a rematch of last Tuesday’s game, especially with some of the smack that was talked afterwards by both fans and players alike.
