BREAKING: NC State to hire Will Wade

By Sam Federman

NC State will hire McNeese head coach Will Wade when the Cowboys' season ends, multiple reports have indicated.

The Wolfpack fired head coach Kevin Keatts after seven seasons last week, and immediately focused their search on Wade, who has led McNeese to back-to-back Southland Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances.

Wade previously coached at LSU, where he won the 2018-19 SEC Regular Season title and made the Sweet 16, then won 21, 19, and 22 games in the next three seasons before being fired on the eve of Selection Sunday in 2022 for recruiting violations.

He was given a show-cause, and suspended for ten games upon his hiring at McNeese, but has since gone 49-8 over two seasons, including a remarkable 36-2 in Southland play.

Before coaching for five years at LSU, Wade was the head coach at VCU for two seasons, where he made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and went 28-8 in A-10 play. He took that job after two years as the head coach at Chattanooga, where he finished second in the SoCon both years.

Wade was an assistant for Shaka Smart at VCU when the Rams made the Final Four in 2011 on a staff that featured Mike Jones (Radford, UNCG), Mike Rhoades (VCU, Penn State), Jamion Christian (Mount St. Mary's, Siena, George Washington), Mike Morrell (UNC Asheville), and Donny Lind (Mount St. Mary's).

Joe Giglio, who broke the story, added that this was the first time in his nearly 30 years covering NC State that the Pack had hired their first choice in a coaching search.