After a 24-point blowout victory, most teams would call it a good day at the office. NC State men’s basketball is not like most teams.

Head coach Will Wade doesn’t simply want to win; rather, he expects to win and sets the expectation for excellence. Turnovers don’t slide, bad shots aren’t accepted and missed defensive assignments are not tolerated. Excellence is the standard under Wade.

When Wade stepped to the podium to answer questions following a 94-70 win over UAB, it was clear that he wasn’t satisfied with the Wolfpack’s performance. Wade was especially bothered by his own team’s repeated mistakes, allowing the Blazers to hang around.

“We had a lot of self-inflicted wounds,” Wade said. “We’ve got to get better at that, that’s not gonna work.”

Of all the mistakes Wade harped on, one in particular bothered him: turnovers. The Wolfpack turned it over 14 times against UAB, making sloppy outlet passes and playing selfish basketball during certain moments. Nothing crushes a basketball team like giving the ball away, and the Wolfpack was fortunate to force 14 turnovers itself and partially negate its offensive mistakes. Making up for turnovers isn’t Wade’s standard, though — avoiding turnovers is.

“I’m not OK with any turnover,” Wade said. “Here’s what our point guards have to understand: when you have the ball, you have our program in your hands, you have NC State in your hands… You owe it to those people to take care of the ball.”

The issues carried over to the defense, where UAB found success blowing past Wolfpack defenders. At times, NC State’s defense looked soft and offered zero resistance to the Blazers in the paint. As a result, UAB scored 44 points in the paint. Once again, NC State found itself in a lucky spot — the Blazers shot just 16% from three, saving an otherwise rough defensive showing from turning into a disaster.

“We have got to guard the damn ball,” Wade said. “Our defenders have to guard the ball one-on-one… Our gap-help gets too extended, and we have to sit in the gaps and rake at the ball and not just straight line drive us to the paint.”

By allowing UAB to get into the paint, NC State opened itself up to another issue: allowing easy offensive rebounds. The Blazers incessantly stole extra possessions with 17 offensive boards, allowing themselves to have more possessions and more shots than their opponent.

Despite the negatives, the sky isn’t falling in Raleigh. Even through the areas that need to be cleaned up, NC State is still winning, forcing turnovers and hitting shots. Most importantly, the Wolfpack is hungry for success, hungry to see the entire team.

“We know we’re a team, we know we’re brothers,” said senior guard Quadir Copeland. “Everybody on this team wants everybody to shine.”

With high standards and a group motivated to reach them, Wade’s transformation of the program is in full effect. Good “enough” and lucky to win isn’t the standard anymore — excellence is the expectation.