To the UVA Basketball fans who thought they wanted Will Wade over Ryan Odom, and you know who you are, Wade not only already lost his way out of his first NCAA Tournament at NC State, with last night’s last-second defeat in the First Four, but he’s also a loser.
“We put this together pretty quickly,” Wade told reporters after the 68-66 loss to Texas in Dayton on Tuesday, advancing the narrative that he’s been building up the past few weeks, as it became abundantly clear that his first year in Raleigh was beginning to fade.
“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,” Wade said.
Wade’s State team was, on paper, primed for success – KenPom gave the Pack a Top 40 rating preseason; Odom’s Virginia team was barely Top 60.
Wade’s team hit an early-season rough patch, losing three of four in the last couple of weeks of November into the first week of December, to Seton Hall, Texas and Auburn, before rebounding with a 13-3 stretch that had the Pack at 18-6 overall, and 9-2 in the ACC, on Feb. 7.
It would all come tumbling down, starting with a 118-77 beatdown at Louisville two nights later, and then Odom’s ’Hoos put a 90-61 whuppin’ on State on Feb. 24, as the Pack lost seven of nine heading into Selection Sunday.
ICYMI
- UVA Basketball: ‘Hoos humble Will Wade, NC State, back to the Stone Age
- Scott German: Will Wade proclaims Virginia ‘Final Four’ team after streamrolling
It’s one thing to lose, and another thing to be defeated – and Wade’s comments to the media, and the way he approached his team, spoke volumes about where his head was during the rough closing stretch.
After the loss at Virginia, for instance, Wade told reporters that his team was “not built to beat a team like Virginia,” and that was just for starters.
“Unfortunately, sometimes you get a report card on where you are, and it’s kind of where we are,” Wade said in an interview with the NC State radio network after the game. “We can compete with some teams in this league, but not the upper crust of this league. We’re not there yet. And tonight, it was very, very obvious.”
There was more.
“If we played them 10 times, I’m not sure we can beat them. Maybe once, get lucky on a neutral court, maybe once. They’re just flat out better than us,” Wade said. “We can sit here and pontificate about anything else you want. They’re flat out better than us, and they’re better coached. Odom has done a much better job than I have. They’re better than us. From the bench to their team, they’re better. I don’t know how else I can put it any more simply than that.”
Which gets us back to last night, and Wade backing the bus up to run over the kids he recruited to play for him one more time.
“Disappointing end to a pretty disappointing season for us, the way I look at it,” was how Wade began his postgame presser. “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.”
The first question from the peanut gallery was an attempt by a sympathetic reporter to get Wade to talk about what his players meant to him.
Keep that in mind when you glance at the answer.
“Well, I mean, look, we’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to reset for next year,” Wade said, making it clear – his players meant nothing to him.
“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,” Wade finished up the answer there.
Another reporter tried to give Wade some rope, asking him his thoughts on his seniors.
This is not a gotcha question.
“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,” Wade said.
Translation: the seniors sucked ass.
That guy is who some of y’all wanted.
Video: Will Wade is a loser
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Chris Graham
