NC State basketball can’t handle Virginia. Observations from the Wolfpack’s loss
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wolfpack collapsed in second half, allowing 58 points and 70% shooting.
- Frontcourt size deficit let Virginia dominate interior scoring and rebounds.
- Copeland’s foul trouble disrupted NC State’s offense and on-court spacing.
In the first meeting with Virginia, N.C. State knew it wasn’t going to win after getting down double figures 12 minutes into the first half. The Cavaliers outplayed the Wolfpack in virtually every way.
Will Wade said UVA `whipped’ his team that January day. He really wanted to see a better outcome on Tuesday in the second meeting between the two programs, but it was not to be. In fact, Game 2 felt like a repeat of Game 1. N.C. State fell to Virginia, 90-61, at John Paul Jones Arena for its third loss in the last four games.
Virginia (25-3, 13-2 ACC), meanwhile, extended its winning streak to nine games.
With the exception of a 10-0 run in the first half — N.C. State cut its deficit to two points — the Cavaliers controlled the majority of the game. It went into the half with a 13-point lead. That only ballooned in the second half, when UVA went up by as many as 25 points. Any momentum from its win over North Carolina was nowhere to be found.
There are a number of things that contributed to the loss, but Wade said it all boiled down to one thing: The Cavaliers are better.
“Virginia can go to the Final Four. They’re a good team,” Wade said. “And they steamrolled us. They’re better than we are. If we played them 10 times, I’m not sure we can beat them. Maybe once — get lucky on a neutral court — but they’re just flat better than us.
“We can sit here and pontificate about anything else you want … they’re flat better than us and they’re better coached. [Ryan] Odom has done a much better job than I have.”
Paul McNeil led the Wolfpack (19-9, 10-5 ACC) with 22 points and added six rebounds. Darrion Williams and Ven-Allen Lubin also contributed double figures. Lubin led the Pack with seven boards.
As a group, N.C. State shot a season-low 29.4% from the field.
“We didn’t move the ball, we couldn’t get clean looks,” Wade said, “and the clean looks we get, we didn’t hit.”
Four Virginia players surpassed the 10-point mark, led by Thijs De Ridder’s 19 points.
The loss does not necessarily put N.C. State out of contention for the double bye in the ACC Tournament two weeks from now. It would like to win its next three, which would include upsetting Duke at home on Monday night. Winning two of the final three regular-season games, with wins over Notre Dame and Stanford, could still position N.C. State in the top four thanks to tiebreaker rules and wins over teams like Clemson and North Carolina.
Here are observations from N.C. State’s second-to-last regular season road game.
Pack’s second-half defense lags
N.C. State’s offense struggled in the first half, but its defense put on a decent performance.
It held the Cavaliers to 32 points and 35.7% field goal shooting. It limited paint scoring and transition opportunities by forcing eight early turnovers. Additionally, the Pack defense only allowed the Cavaliers to grab four offensive rebounds.
Its second half, however, left plenty to be desired. It not only gave up points, but there were a number of players where N.C. State got sloppy and lackadaisical. When it committed turnovers, the Pack seemed to give up in its transition defense.
N.C. State allowed the Cavaliers to score 58 second-half points, four shy of the season-high 62 points against Louisville, and shoot 70% from the field and 50% from 3.
The Pack’s defense has struggled in the second halves of games, but this was the second road game in a row that it saw a total collapse.
Yes, size matters
N.C. State knows it’s undersized in the frontcourt. Senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin is the team’s most-experienced big but listed at 6-9. Freshman forward Musa Sagnia, listed at 6-10, still doesn’t have the same aggressiveness or bulk that opposing players possess.
The Wolfpack has overcome its physical disadvantages at times by forcing steals, hitting 3-point baskets and, at times, sheer will. On Tuesday, however, the Cavaliers’ size made things difficult for the Pack on the interior.
Virginia’s defense shut down nearly the entire 2-point area and was especially effective at the rim. At halftime, Virginia had more blocks (8) than the Pack had field goals (6). N.C. State went 3 for 9 on layup attempts in the opening period.
Ven-Allen Lubin started the game 0 for 4, and three were blocked by a Cavalier player.
N.C. State was instead forced to shoot from the perimeter. Normally, that would be fine — the Pack makes roughly 40% of its 3-point attempts — but UVA’s defense limited easy opportunities. The Wolfpack went 2 of 15 (13.3%) from 3 in the first half and at one point was 1 for 10.
Several members of the Wolfpack fought for positioning and attempted to make up for the sizing issues, but seven-footers Johann Grunloh and Ugonna Onyenso contested everything, pulled down rebounds and generally got in the way. Even UVA’s smaller guards often had size advantages to N.C. State’s backcourt.
The Cavaliers finished the game with 12 blocks and held the Wolfpack to 9-21 on layups and 1-3 on dunks. Virginia also finished with a 32-22 advantage in the paint.
“They were playing volleyball at the basket,” Wade said. “Our lack of size is very evident when we play a team like Virginia.”
It’s possible to win with a smaller team, but the Cavaliers’ height and length were tough to compete with.
Copeland sits with foul trouble
It’s hard to overstate the impact Quadir Copeland has on the Wolfpack’s offensive rhythm. Copeland played just 11 minutes in the first half after officials called him for his second foul with nearly 10 minutes left in the period.
Without the senior guard, N.C. State’s offense looked like it was moving in slow motion and guys got lost on the plays. They turned the ball over, took bad shots and didn’t move well. Copeland started the game, though, and it still struggled offensively to open the game. It would be unfair to pin the loss on his foul trouble.
“Q is definitely our ‘dawg,’” McNeil said. “He’s the leader of our team.”
N.C. State went to halftime trailing Virginia, 32-19, for the fewest first-half points scored by the Wolfpack this season.
Copeland returned in the second half and played with a third foul. His size and ability to command the floor played a difference in the Wolfpack’s ability to create spacing and make shots. It scored 20 points in the first seven minutes of the second half.
The senior is also one of the team’s more aggressive defenders, unafraid to make contact and play bully ball with opposing players.
Copeland returned to the bench with 13:15 left on the clock.
There’s no denying that Virginia limited Copeland, and his foul trouble certainly didn’t help, but the senior needs to be on the floor as much as possible to direct traffic, draw in defenders and provide a defensive spark.
“He’s got to be more disciplined,” Wade said. “When you play the better teams, all the energy and ‘rah rah’ BS, that’s not good enough to beat the better teams. You’ve got to have that with an edge and with discipline. We have all the ‘rah rah’ stuff, we’re good at that stuff. We’re great at that, but you‘ve got to have an edge and a discipline to you, and we’re not very good at that. It starts with him. It starts with me. I haven’t been able to get us to do that.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 9:25 PM with the headline "NC State basketball can’t handle Virginia. Observations from the Wolfpack’s loss."
