Say what you will about Will Wade, and goodness is there plenty to say, but he’s unapologetically himself. He hasn’t changed, and doesn’t intend to change.
Wade, 43, stole the Sweet 16 spotlight on Thursday by announcing a return to LSU, the same LSU that fired Wade for cause in March 2022 due to multiple NCAA Level I violation allegations dating back to 2017, including failing to report NCAA violations, failing to cooperate with an infractions investigation, providing (then) impermissible cash payments to players as well as others to impede disclosure of information of NCAA violations in contradiction of NCAA unethical conduct legislation, and failing to promote an atmosphere of compliance with NCAA rules within the men’s basketball program at LSU.
In other words, Wade wasn’t dismissed from LSU simply for making a “strong-ass offer” to then recruit and later LSU star JaVonte Smart or for paying players, even though both of those actions were against the rules at the time Wade engaged in that conduct.
Writing off Wade’s conduct as merely “paying players” is an incomplete statement at best and a naive view at worst.
No, Wade was fired for repeatedly making “strong-ass offers” to players, paying people to not talk about the fact he was paying players, actively refusing to cooperate with an NCAA investigation, obstructing an NCAA investigation and his school’s ability to cooperate with the NCAA, and openly flaunting NCAA rules.
The gravity and frequency of Wade’s unapologetic rule-breaking resulted in a 2-year show-cause penalty for the young coaching star and, once hired at McNeese State (now McNeese) in March 2023, a 10-game suspension. In a different era, that would have been that for Wade, at least at LSU, an institution that saw its reputation and name dragged through the mud as a result of Wade’s unscrupulous conduct.
At one point, Wade not only violated NCAA unethical conduct bylaws when he made payments to his former fiancée in direct proximity to her requests for money to avoid disclosure of potential impermissible benefits and activities, he was dishonest to LSU about whether that happened. Worse, by the time the FBI college basketball investigation wiretaps were released and the NCAA’s investigation into LSU was underway, Wade delayed full production of records and documents and knowingly provided false or misleading information regarding his knowledge of and/or involvement in possible violations of NCAA legislation.
Hiring back a person who engaged in this type of recklessness in your employ would be virtually unthinkable in any other line of work. Imagine an AmLaw 100 law firm hiring back a hot shot young partner that bribed witnesses not to talk, obstructed or impeded case investigations, and played by a different set of rules than every other opposing lawyer, and then openly lied to the firm about it once caught?
It wouldn’t happen, and for good reason. After all, once someone shows you repeatedly who they are, is there really any reason to look them in the eye, shake hands, and trust again?
The difference in the billion dollar industry that is college basketball, of course, is that Wade wins enough to forgive and more importantly, forget, all manner of past sins.
At McNeese State, Wade won 58 games in 2 short seasons, romping through the midmajor ranks of the sport and winning a NCA A Tournament game over Clemson in 2025, one of that March’s marquee upsets. Throughout last spring’s run with McNeese, Wade was lauded for his candor and honesty as rumors swirled that he’d get another Power 5 coaching spot.
“We’ve addressed it head on,” Wade told the media before McNeese played and won its first round NCAA Tournament game. “We’re all on the same page.”
Days later, after McNeese lost to Purdue, Wade departed for NC State and Bill Armstrong, one of Wade’s longtime lieutenants at LSU, took over at McNeese.
Redemption earned? Not quite.
Wade inked a $2.5 million contract at NC State (well over what the Pack initially paid Final Four coach Kevin Keatts, who was fired prior to Wade’s hiring) and was provided with a NIL budget over $11 million to build the Wolfpack into the consistent winner that Keatts failed to deliver, despite the memorable Final Four run. Wade failed, going just 20-14 with one of the most expensive rosters in college basketball before flaming out against a smaller, less-talented, less-expensive Texas Longhorns team in the First Four in Dayton.
NC State started the year 18-6 before losing 8 of its final 10 ball games, an epic collapse which came, coincidentally or not, after LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry publicly suggested LSU may move in a different direction than fourth year head coach Matt McMahon, who was under .500 at LSU, at least in part due to a rash of unfortunate injuries and a NIL budget that pales in comparison with league powers like Kentucky, Arkansas, and defending national champion Florida.
Perhaps Wade was distracted. Perhaps NC State just didn’t get the roster build right. Either way, the buck stops with Wade, who wasn’t good enough in Year 1 in Raleigh given the resources and roster at his disposal.
LSU, though, remembers a different Wade, one who won a SEC Championship in 2019 (prior to a suspension for cheating) and reached a Sweet 16 in 3 NCAA Tournament appearances.
At a program that’s been in the doldrums of the SEC since unceremoniously and absurdly firing head coach John Brady in 2008, just a year and a half removed from a Final Four appearance, the risks of a second go-round with Wade outweighed the irrelevant nature of the program’s present.
After all, no one cares about paying players or strong-ass offers in the NIL era. On the contrary, that’s part of the job description.
Wade’s undoubtedly a winning coach.
He’s built winners at Chattanooga, VCU, LSU, and McNeese, and taken 4 programs (VCU, LSU, McNeese, and NC State) to the NCAA Tournament, even if he’s just 5-8 in tournament games as a head coach.
The Tigers also appear to have meticulously planned to make Wade’s return comfortable. Wade was welcomed Thursday by a familiar face, LSU’s new president, Wade Rousse, formerly at McNeese, and Heath Schroyer, who hired Wade at McNeese, was named the deputy AD at LSU in charge of the basketball program. These realities, coupled with a promise to dramatically increase LSU’s NIL for basketball to a figure of $10 million or more, suggest an administrative alignment and commitment to Wade that was never afforded to Matt McMahon. McMahon, by the way, was left hanging in the breeze for 2 weeks while LSU waited to pluck Wade from Raleigh– a dirty way to get rid of one of the best people in the sport, but just one more sordid detail in this whole messy affair.
Will it work?
If you are LSU, and you’ve hired a guy whose recklessness and lack of scruples dragged your institution through the mud once, it better.
There are red flags, though, and they extend beyond the long shelf life of the loud criticisms of Wade’s character.
For one, even if LSU spends north of $10 million on NIL, that would be less than what NC State spent this year, where Wade struggled in a weaker ACC.
The facts suggest that Wade’s best coaching jobs have occurred either at the mid-major level or at his peak at LSU in 2019, when Wade was paying players and operating under a different set of rules in acquiring talent than the majority of the programs around him. The NIL era removes that edge from Wade, and programs like Kentucky, Arkansas, and Florida all spend more on basketball than SEC and will continue to do so even if LSU’s rumored increased financial commitments come to fruition.
Beyond the financial aspect, Wade now joins a vastly improved SEC than the one he won where he won the league title in 2019.
It’s no coincidence that Wade’s last 3 teams at LSU, while all NCAA Tournament-worthy, were less good than his SEC title winner. That’s in part due to the influx of elite coaching in the league, notably Alabama‘s Nate Oats and Tennessee‘s Rick Barnes, both of whom remain fixtures at the top of the league standings. Throw in Bucky McMillan, who has a head start and better resources at Texas A&M, Sean Miller at Texas, and Chris Beard, a Final Four head coach already at Ole Miss, and you get an idea of how competitive it will be for Wade.
And all of that is before you mention Florida’s Todd Golden, who at 40 is a national title winner already and one of the top 5 coaches in the sport. Put plainly, even with additional investment, Wade will be battling against stormy headwaters from Day 1 in Baton Rouge.
That’s a different scenario than the one facing Lane Kiffin, the football coach LSU plucked away from Ole Miss in a month-long melodrama last winter. Kiffin, after all, has proven adept at dominating the portal era, building winner after winner at smaller programs and justifying his bravado and bluster.
Wade?
He took a massive amount of money at NC State, promised Year 1 would “not be a rebuild”, and then unraveled and berated everyone from reporters to players for wondering why results weren’t better in Year 1. Then, as recently as Thursday, Wade looked NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan in the eye and discussed what he’d need to be competitive next year in Raleigh.
A day later, Wade resigned at NC State via an email from his agent, the latest example of Wade simply failing to meet the truth head on with an institution that placed him in a position of trust.
Meet the new Wade. Same as the old Wade.
Now, the new Wade is back at his old job, LSU, hoping to reclaim old glory. Expectations to achieve what he did before, and perhaps greater, will be higher than ever.
The chances it all ends in undignified humiliation?
If you ask NC State, they’ll tell you the chances humiliation happens when you trust Wade are high.
If you ask LSU, the risk of the Will Wade experience is worth it, as long as it comes with winning.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
