NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST FOUR

March 17, 2026

Will Wade

Quadir Copeland

Darrion Williams

UD Arena

North Carolina State Wolfpack

Media Conference

Texas 68, NC State 66

Q. Coach, just a statement on this evening's game?

WILL WADE: Yeah, you know, disappointing end to a pretty disappointing season for us, the way I look at it. We haven't been very good in close games. We hadn't earned the right to win in close games and our season ended very similar to the reason we're sitting in Dayton.

You are who you are in pressure moments, and we tried to mask some stuff and we couldn't do it. That's why we're here, and that's why we're heading home.

Q. Quadir, you've been a facilitator all year, but tonight facilitating the three-point just wasn't happening. What was Texas doing to limit that?

QUADIR COPELAND: They were actually just putting me in positions to get to the rim and things like that. I felt like I didn't finish opportunities that I had. I had easy opportunities that was given. They took my shooters away and forced me to get downhill, and I did that; just didn't finish the job.

But hats off to them. They work just how we work, so I ain't got nothing crazy to say.

Q. Coach, what did this group of young men mean to you during this season? What did you learn from it, and how do you go to the next year?

WILL WADE: Well, I mean, look, we've got a lot of things we've got to reset for next year. We didn't have the year that we wanted to have. We've got a lot of things that we need to make sure that we're in better shape for moving forward.

We'll get to work on that as soon as the wheels hit the ground tomorrow.

Q. I know you have a lot of seniors here, so what's the mood here as you watch them move on and move forward?

WILL WADE: Well, they're disappointed, and we'll certainly help them as they move forward, but our focus is going to turn to making sure we get the right guys to come in and help us win in the future.

Q. What did you learn about building a roster out of the portal this season?

WILL WADE: Yeah, we're going to be better. We put this together pretty quickly. We didn't do as much -- we didn't spend as much time on a couple things, we just looked at some analytics, the personalities and some of that stuff is very, very important.

We're going to do much more due diligence this year, and we'll have a better mixture of things moving forward.

Q. Speaking to that personnel that you have on the team this year, why do you think this roster struggled to guard without fouling sometimes?

WILL WADE: Well, we don't have very good length. We're just small. So we don't have length and you're small, it makes defense tough.