Will Wade’s tenure as LSU’s men’s basketball coach was strange.

So it’s appropriate that when the university finally – inevitably, really – fired Wade on Saturday, it too seemed strange.

It was almost exactly 3 years ago that Wade was suspended after it became publicly known that the FBI had a taped phone conversation in which the coach told a “recruiting broker” about a “strong-ass offer” Wade had made to a recruit.

The only reasonable interpretation of Wade’s comment was that he had offered money and/or other benefits to the recruit or someone close to him in violation of NCAA rules.

The suspension seemed an inadequate punishment given Wade’s de facto confession to serious NCAA violations, but the university and former AD Joe Alleva stopped short of a firing – what with the Tigers being on the verge of winning an SEC regular-season championship.

Of course in America we prefer to assume that those accused of wrongdoing are innocent until proven guilty. If one had chosen to believe that Wade’s statement fell short of being proof of guilt, they presumably would have turned to the coach for clarification of how the “strong-ass offer” could be anything other than what LSU and countless observers construed it to be.

But Wade offered no such clarification.

In fact he refused to meet with Alleva and other university officials to discuss the suspicions even though his contract required him to do so. Wade even had the arrogance to publicly demand that the university reinstate him.

Eventually Wade was reinstated but only after the 2018-19 season ended and after agreeing to changes in his contract that made it easier for the university to fire him for cause.

LSU knew a day such as Saturday was bound to come, and Wade, for all his bluster, knew he had little choice but to accept the university’s less-than-strong-ass offer.

Shortly thereafter Alleva moved on and was replaced by Scott Woodward and eventually LSU President F. King Alexander was replaced by current President William Tate.

That meant no one among the LSU brass had any ties to Wade, and Woodward and Tate inherited the persistent dark cloud that hovered over the men’s basketball program and grew to cover the entire athletic department when an NCAA investigation into Ed Orgeron’s football program was merged with that into Wade’s program.

On top of that, even regular trips to the NCAA Tournament and even the occasional trip to the 2nd or even 3rd round only go so far while waiting for the NCAA to land on your program.

The NCAA hasn’t landed on LSU yet, but it’s getting close. And that brings us to Saturday.

In a better late than never move if ever there were one, the university chose to fire Wade less than 24 hours after the 5th-seeded Tigers were bounced from the SEC Tournament in the quarterfinals and barely 24 hours before the team learns its place in the NCAA Tournament field.

The firing came just a few days after LSU received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA. The notice, which LSU released Saturday, includes 8 Level I violations (the most severe), 2 Level II and 1 Level III.

LSU also released a letter explaining the termination of Wade and associate head coach Bill Armstrong, but the university wasn’t much better than its former head coach at explaining stuff.

In the letter, the university said Wade was “terminated for cause.” It noted that after receiving the notice the university “took several days to fully evaluate it and engage in deliberate and thoughtful discussions about our next steps.”

It also said, “Notably, our decision to terminate Coach Wade and Coach Armstrong is not an acknowledgment of agreement with any of the allegations. The University will determine its positions on the allegations after an exhaustive and objective examination of the relevant facts and applicable NCAA regulations.”

Got it?

The university studied the allegations thoroughly, drew no conclusions about them, then fired Wade and Armstrong because of them.

It pointed out that for more than 4 years LSU, while operating “under an exhausting shroud of negativity,” has “patiently” waited for the investigation to run its course and allowed the NCAA investigative process to unfold, making sure “the evidence collected was as thorough and fair as possible.”

To be sure, LSU has been patient – way too patient – but it chose to operate under the cloud that formed years ago.

“We can no longer subject our University, Department of Athletics, and – most importantly – our student-athletes, to this taxing and already-lengthy process without taking action,” the university continued. “Our responsibility to protect and promote the integrity and well-being of our entire institution and our student-athletes will always be paramount.”

It may well be several months before we have a final resolution of this case.

In the meantime, it’s up to Woodward to find a coach who can restore the good name of the men’s basketball program as Brian Kelly has been charged with doing with the post-Orgeron football program.

The expectation of significant sanctions likely will hinder Woodward’s ability to find a men’s basketball coach with comparable stature to his previous hires – Kelly, women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey and baseball coach Jay Johnson.

But firing Wade was the necessary first step – albeit 3 years too late and with a murky explanation.