Former LSU Coach Will Wade Agrees To 5-Year Deal At McNeese State

Will Wade’s exile from college basketball didn’t last long.

One year after being fired by LSU, Wade has agreed to a 5-year deal to coach McNeese State located in Lake Charles, La., a person with direct knowledge of the situation said. He has already reached out to several former LSU assistants about joining his staff.

McNeese State hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2002, while Wade took LSU to two NCAA Tournaments and VCU to two. LSU made a Sweet 16 appearance in 2019, but Wade was suspended the final five games of that season season. Tony Benford coached the team and was credited with the wins and losses.

Wade is the latest coach involved in the 2017 FBI investigation into bribery in college basketball to find his way back to the coaching ranks. After Arizona parted ways with Sean Miller in 2021, he last year was re-hired at his old school Xavier and led the Musketeers to a second-place finish in the Big East and to the Big East Tournament final, where they lost to Marquette.

Wade and Sean Miller were both subpoenaed in the FBI trial in 2019, but neither ever took the stand.

Kansas coach Bill Self, whose school was also at the center of the FBI investigation, remains with the Jayhawks and won his second NCAA championship a year ago. Louisville fired Rick Pitino in 2017 but he landed at Iona in 2020 and is now the top target at St. John’s. He was exonerated last fall by the NCAA’s IARP of wrongdoing in the Louisville pay-for-play scandal involving recruit Brian Bowen.

One year ago Sunday, LSU fired Wade after the school was with eight Level 1 violations, considered the most serious, including seven connected to the basketball program. One Level 1 violation included a “failure to exercise institutional control and monitor …its football and men’s basketball programs.”

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

Wade, 40, hung on at LSU for several years despite the school being caught up in the FBI investigation.

In taped calls depicted in the two-hour HBO documentary “The Scheme,” Wade discussed with Christian Dawkins, a runner in the basketball world and want-to-be-agent, in colorful language the recruitment of players Naz Reid, Nassir Little and Javonte Smart.

“I went to him with a [expletive] strong-ass offer about a month ago,” Wade said in the call, first reported March 7, 2019, referring to Smart. “[Expletive] strong. It was a helluva [expletive] offer.”

“I think the only way you can interpret someone in a head coaching position saying that they made a strong-ass offer, they ain’t talking about a scholarship offer, bro,” Dawkins said in the film. “One-hundred percent talking about money.”

Dawkins added: “Will Wade is definitely a [expletive] gangster for what he did.”

After the “strong-ass offer” comment became public in March 2019, LSU indefinitely suspended Wade amid the FBI’s probe. On April 14, LSU lifted Wade’s suspension.

As part of his reinstatement, Wade had to make contract concessions, including allowing LSU to fire him for cause if the NCAA infractions committee issued a formal notice to LSU that Wade was involved in a Level 1 or Level 2 violation.

Wade went 105-51 in five seasons at LSU with two NCAA Tournament appearances. After losing to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament, he was asked about the Notice of Allegations.

“I can’t comment on any of that — on any of that stuff, so we haven’t been able to comment on it since everything started,” he said. “I certainly look forward to commenting when it’s all over, but until then, they won’t allow us to comment.”

Wade later spoke to the SEC Network, adding: “We just focus on what’s in front of us. It has nothing to do with any of the kids in our locker room. The bigger the game and outside noise, the more you have to narrow your focus. We’re here to play basketball and represent LSU.”