Quadir Copeland notches near double-double in SU revenge game
Quadir Copeland tallied 19 points, nine assists and four steals against his former team as NC State cruised to a blowout win over Syracuse. Courtesy of Alex Manuel | Technician
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Quadir Copeland flexed his muscles, stared into the TV camera and showcased the “NC State” across his chest after getting fouled and converting an inside look.
In the final minutes of the game, Copeland walked from the baseline toward Syracuse’s bench and stared at the back of Adrian Autry’s head. He then screamed in excitement as he walked toward midcourt before again flaunting the “NC State” across his chest.
It was that kind of night for Copeland and the Wolfpack.
In his first game playing against Syracuse since transferring after his sophomore season, Copeland registered 19 points, nine assists and four steals in NC State’s (15-6, 6-2 Atlantic Coast) 88-68 win over Syracuse (12-9, 3-5 Atlantic Coast). Before facing SU, which lost its fourth consecutive game, the senior said, “It’s definitely gonna be personal.”
He delivered by further crushing the Orange’s — at best, slim — hopes of ending their four-year NCAA Tournament drought and delivering another blow to Autry’s job status in a potential make-or-break year.
“The plan to go in there and win,” Copeland said postgame. “And my teammates helped me every way possible.”
Copeland opted for taking the high road after the loss, letting his game do the talking. In a Zoom interview on Thursday, Copeland said he wanted to bet on himself to find a situation where he could play point guard for a coach who believed in him.
Against his former coach — whose program hasn’t received the production it’s hoped for out of the point guard position in Jaquan Carlos and Naithan George over the last two seasons — Copeland showed why EvanMiya’s Bayesian Performance Rating rates him as the best guard in the ACC.
“He’s probably playing at an all-conference level right now. He’s a lot to handle,” Autry said after suffering his 21st double-digit-point loss as the Orange’s head coach.
Will Wade, NC State’s head coach — who Copeland followed from McNeese State after spending his junior year there — said Copeland isn’t the same person or player that he was at Syracuse on last week’s ACC Coaches Zoom.
While at SU, Wade said Copeland had outstanding academic obligations, adding that he was in a crunch because he was “missing stuff for a while.”
In the summer before Copeland, Wade and Co. embarked on a March Madness run that included winning the program’s first NCAA Tournament, Wade temporarily kicked Copeland out of the program for 10 days.
It’s a stretch Copeland attributes to helping him understand how to play the game, go about certain things and be coachable. In Wade’s eyes, Copeland has since grown most in his reliability and dependability.
On the court, Copeland’s maturation has entailed going from barely playing his freshman year, to ACC Sixth Man of the Year runner-up, to key starter on a March Madness squad and now to elite player on an NCAA Tournament hopeful.
It was all on display against SU.
“Today showed my growth, to be honest, because I didn’t let this game get to my head,” Copeland said. “All the stuff I’ve been working on, my maturity, trying to let things go, just be a better player, so I can be a better person, to be a better basketball player. I think it all showed up today.”
As the Wolfpack are soaring toward meaningful games in March, Syracuse is digging itself into a deeper hole after every passing game.
If the Orange had a guard playing at an all-conference level, like Autry claimed Copeland is, maybe that wouldn’t be the case.
Instead, it looks like Syracuse let one get away as the program continues to reach new lows.
