RALEIGH, N.C.– Saturday night marked the first opportunity for Wolfpack fans to get an up-close look at the new era of NC State basketball under head coach Will Wade. Hosted by the One Pack NIL collective, the event gave fans an early glimpse of what to expect when the Pack takes the court this November.

Coach Wade addressed the crowd at the Tobacco Road Sports Cafe in Raleigh, introducing his inaugural roster as the Pack kickoff summer workouts and begin laying the foundation for the upcoming season.

Here’s everything Coach Wade had to say:

“We appreciate everybody coming out tonight. We appreciate everybody’s support, our players are working hard. Sorry my voice is a little messed up. I’ve been encouraging everybody all week. So my voice is a little getting back into into coaching shape. I have a lot of our coaching staff here tonight. We have most of our players who are in town here tonight. Matt Able, one of our freshmen, he left this morning for USA Basketball. He’s in Colorado Springs, USA basketball, and hopefully he’ll make the under-19 team, and then he’ll go to Switzerland to compete there. We’re excited for Matt.”

“I’ll introduce the guys first. You’ll need to get a program for the first game, because you’ll not know who anybody is. I have found out you guys are pretty passionate though. You guys follow this stuff pretty closely, so we tried to sneak a few things in there, and you guys catch us every time.”

“Trey Holloman transferred from Michigan State. Tre really helped get everything going. He was one of the first guys that committed to us. For somebody that wants to be a lead guard to step out and commit first and help other guys come along was huge.”

“Quadir Copeland transferred from Syracuse.  I didn’t realize there’s a bit of history until everything happened. Q’s a lot like me. You like him if he’s with him, you hate him if he’s on the other team. That’s why Q and I get a long been a long very well. Q’s somebody that had a couple years at Syracuse. he was really good for us at McNeese [State].”

“Alyn Breed is another transfer from McNeese [State].  We’re we’re excited about him. He got cleared in another two weeks to start working out and practicing for us, and so we’re excited to get him off the injured reserve and get him going.”

“Ven-Allen Lubin. I don’t know where we got him from, we found him on the side of the road. Ven is somebody, the other school was to dumb to play him. When he plays 28 plus minutes, he’s done that in 23 games. He averages 15 and eight. I don’t know why the h*ll they didn’t play him but, we’re gonna play him so, he’s gonna average 15 and eight. We’re excited about Ven.”

“Terrence Arceneaux, transfer from Houston. he has that ‘eaux’ on the end, you should’ve seen the hotel workers face when she handed him the card trying to figure out where he was from and everything. Terrence is a great kid, somebody i’ve known since he was a sophomore in high school from Beaumont, Texas. He’s the 12th best defender in Big 12 history, not just this year but in the history of the Big 12. We’re gonna add a little offense. We’re trying to add a little offense Terrence, and keep the defense the same.”

“Jordan Snell. Snell needs no introduction. Jordan, somebody’s who has been tremendous since the first team meeting. He’s been all on board, very, very excited about things. Jordan’s done a great job.”

“Colt Langdon. It’s important for us to have kids from North Carolina, have folks that are very, very excited about playing for NC State. I don’t know who’s more excited, Cole or his dad, that he’s playing for NC State, but we love the passion and we’re really excited about Colt.”

“Darrion Williams. Transfer from Texas tech. Tremendous player, number one player in the portal. We had to wait through the draft process but the wait is it’s going to be well worth it. He was D5 but he’s going to be number one for us so I guees its D1.”

“Jerry Deng, transfer from Florida State. Tremendous shooter, very good offensive player, trying to teach him a little bit about defense, but he can, he can really, really shoot the ball, so we’re excited about him.”

“Last, but certainly not least, Paul McNeil. Paul was one of the best players in the ACC the last 10 games. He’s had a tremendous start to this summer. He’s getting stronger. He’s really, really doing worked hard in the weight room. Very, very excited, excited about Paul.”

“Our guys have been working hard. Our guys have been putting a lot of time in, its really coming together. We’re in the process of  coming together. We got another couple of guys that will hopefully be here as the summer moves on, so we’re excited about that.”

“Did have a couple of folks ask me about recruiting stories and that sort of thing. So I’ll share one thing. I’ll share one thing with the crowd. This is something I talk a lot about in recruiting. We have kids on visits, when we have folks in. We tell them, they look it’s going to be tough. We’re going to have to work hard. Like this is what we’re about, we’re blue collar, the standards are going to be the standards.”

“I always tell there’s this guy who’s in the gates to heaven with Saint Peter. Saint Peter asked him, he said, Do you want to go to heaven or do you want to go to h*ll? The guy said, Well, I don’t know. I think I want to visit both. I’ll let you know when I get back. So Saint Peter said, do you want to go to heaven first, or hell first for your visit. He says, I’ll go to h*ll first. Saint Peter says, Alright, off to h*ll. Goes to hell. It’s incredible. Beaches, Tiki bars, great look. It’s incredible. Incredible. Comes back to Saint Peter and says, man that wasn’t anything like how I thought it was, it was pretty cool. St Peter says, wanna go to heaven? yea, i’ll go try it out, I can’t imagine what heaven is if h*ll was that cool. So he goes to heaven. Heaven. Very nice, orderly, middle America, nothing over the top. Really, really nice.”

“Comes back to Saint Peter, and Saint Peter says, well, it’s time to make the decision. The guy thinks about it for a little bit. He says, I think I’m going to go to hell. Saint Peter said, are you sure this is for eternity? Guy said, yeah, I want to go to h*ll. Saint Peter says alright, off to h*ll. Goes to hell for eternity, fire, brimstone, the worst nwhen he gets down there. Guy says, man, this is what I signed up for. Guy goes to the next guy and says, Hey, I need to go see the devil. Where’s the devil? He’s around the corner to the right, you’ll see the Devil.”

“Man walks around the corner to the right, sees the Devil and says what in the world’s going on. He said, Hey, man, recruitment season’s over. This is the real sh*t.”

“So to that point, we try to tell them how it’s really going to be when it’s recruitment.We don’t try to trick them, we let them know exactly, exactly how it’s how it’s going to be. We’re really pleased with the guys we got. We appreciate everybody’s support, most of our folks from the collective are here tonight. This collective is unbelievable.”

“You guys are tired of listening to me talk. I appreciate everybody being here. We’re gonna have a great year, we’re going to kick the ACC’s a**. Go Pack”

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NCAA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Michigan Wolverines fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

There’s a new revenue-sharing model for the University of Michigan Athletics Department and all other college institutions following the NCAA vs House Settlement. Michigan will be able to share $20.5 million in revenue with student-athletes. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has said that he expects 75% of that revenue ($15.38 million) to go to football.

Earlier this week, we asked fans how they want Michigan Football to divvy up money to build out its roster, and now the results are in.

45% of fans believe the majority of the money should be spent on recruiting, 36% want the most allocated to roster retention, with 19% of fans thinking the transfer portal should be the priority.

The needs of a team will vary year by year, and thus, how the money is allocated will vary just the same. Perhaps the most proper strategy of all will be balance and making sure the program isn’t lacking in one area between recruiting, roster retention, and the transfer portal.

How did you vote this week? Let us know in the comments and come back next week for another edition of SB Nation Reacts.

Brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook.

Arkansas in the postseason, especially when the Diamond Hogs make it to Omaha, never makes it easy. The Hogs are heading to the losers’ bracket to take on Murray State on Monday afternoon after being shut down by LSU in their first game of the College World Series.

The PTHD (post-traumatic Hog disorder) has hit fans hard, and they’ve taken to social media to list their grievances, make self-effacing jokes, and scream into the void like Grampa Simpson yelling at the clouds. No doubt tonight’s game was important, and the journey to make the CWS final has just become much more difficult. However, some still have hope that the Hogs can overcome this initial error.

The social media reactions below highlight how much of the Razorback nation feels after watching Arkansas lose its first game against the Tigers.

Arkansas baseball vs LSU, CWS: Social media reactions

Starting strong is Hogs fan Randall Hog on X, posting a hilarious meme of the cartoon Bugs Bunny after what looks like a long day. After watching Arkansas baseball come up short in the postseason time and time again, much of Razorback Nation can relate.

HawgSports beat writer Connor Goodson calls back to Arkansas’ recent struggles with purple teams in the postseason. In 2023 and 2024, the Hogs ran into TCU and Kansas State, respectively, in the Regional rounds. Both played a part in knocking the Razorbacks out of the tournament those years.

Razorback faithful and former America’s Got Talent star Tyler Davis makes a joke about LSU owning Arkansas. It would be funny if it didn’t hurt so much.

When Arkansas played Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament, Arkansas’ offense was shut down in a similar way. However, the Razorbackers official X account is already looking toward the future against Murray State.

To add insult to injury, Arkansas lost by making small errors on defense and coming up empty on offense, but Oregon State made comically bad plays against a not-so-great Louisville team and still won. Best of Arkansas Sports contributor Michael Main almost foresees the loss on Friday, posting this video and caption.

Kade Anderson was electric

Even in a loss, you have to give credit where it’s due. LSU lefty Kade Anderson was amazing on the mound. He single-handedly held the best offense in the country to three hits and one run in seven innings, striking out seven batters.

One X user put it bluntly. The Razorbacks just couldn’t beat one of the best pitchers in the country.

Jake Crain of Crain & Co. points out that Anderson had a performance that some people only dream of. Anderson probably did cement his legacy with that performance, and the Hogs just happened to be the victims.

Is Arkansas the Gonzaga of college baseball?

One X user makes an interesting point. The Gonzaga Bulldogs have had one of the best runs under Mark Few, but they haven’t quite gotten over the hump to win a national championship. But is Arkansas really the Gonzaga of college baseball? For how long Dave Van Horn has been on the Hill, one could argue Gonzaga of College Basketball instead.