When Will Wade sat down for a three-hour breakfast in Las Vegas with former Oklahoma City Thunder scout Andrew Slater, neither could have predicted it would shape the future of NC State basketball. That candid meeting not only solidified their partnership but also set the stage for a bold new era behind the scenes for the Wolfpack.
The Breakfast That Changed NC State’s Backroom
Wade, now head coach of NC State men’s basketball, has built a reputation for strong recruiting and innovative program management, having previously led LSU to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances.
Yet, his decision to bring in Andrew Slater, a respected but low-profile former Oklahoma City Thunder scout, was rooted in a longstanding friendship and a candid conversation over breakfast.
“Yeah, we’ve been good friends for a while. Most people didn’t know that ’cause he kind of operates under the radar,” Wade explained, underscoring Slater’s reputation as a discreet yet highly effective evaluator of talent.
The two met in Las Vegas while Wade was recruiting and Slater was working for the Thunder. Over the course of nearly three hours at a local diner, the pair discussed the possibility of working together at NC State.
“We went to breakfast and we just kind of—we kind of talked about it. We were [at] breakfast probably two and a half, three hours at this diner in Vegas and, um, you know, we talked about it there,” Wade recalled.
While the future was uncertain at that point, the meeting solidified their mutual interest. “I felt like then that, hey, look, if it’s the right place and, um, you know, it’s the right timing, that—that—that he would be—he would be interested and certainly he was somebody that I was extremely, extremely interested in,” Wade added.
Of the more lasting impact was the informal but thorough conversation that bubbled over with enthusiasm and quite possibly laid the foundation for why Slater wound up at NC State: how personal relationships and shared vision can set into motion significant hires actually getting done in college basketball.
NC State basketball has been trending upward in recent years, going from 10th in the ACC in 2021-22 to 6th in 2023-24, and win totals increasing from 15 to 20. The program’s national recruiting rank is now No. 25, which is an emphasis on bringing in high-upside prospects again.
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The addition of Andrew Slater could not have come at a better time. The former NBA scout has a reputation for unearthing hidden gems, and this can only bode well for NC State in getting that much better on the recruiting trail and player development front. Slater has a history of recognizing NBA-level talent that might have been overlooked elsewhere, which fits with the Wolfpack’s trend of trying to exploit ACC competition when it comes to stockpiling talent.
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