RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Will Wade stood on stage, hearing the applause from Wolfpack supporters enthralled with his vision of turning a tradition-rich men’s basketball program back into a consistent Atlantic Coast Conference winner.
The appreciation was mutual. Three years had passed since Wade's firing at LSU over allegations of money-fueled recruiting violations, which came amid a federal corruption investigation into the sport that had coincidentally entangled N.C. State among multiple programs nationally.
Now, he's back in a power-conference job, this time in a very different college landscape.
“I’d be lying if I told you I thought three years ago that I knew an opportunity like this would come again,” Wade said during his introductory news conference Tuesday. “I did not, I did not. I'm thankful."
There’s never been any questioning the coaching chops for the 42-year-old Wade, who started as Chattanooga’s head coach at 30 and has seven NCAA bids through eight tournaments in stops at VCU, LSU and McNeese. His ouster at LSU, however, offered baggage that made him a pariah as he sat out of coaching for a year, then served a 10-game NCAA suspension to start his McNeese tenure.
In that regard, there were two elements that stood out Tuesday for Wade, who stood on the Reynolds Coliseum stage in a gray suit sporting a red-and-white striped tie to go with a Wolfpack lapel pin. There was still brash confidence, sure, with promises of next-year success.
There were also offerings of humility and contrition. He thanked McNeese for taking “a chance" on him. He promised a passionate approach here “without all the arrogance that got me in trouble," adding N.C. State would “get the best version of me.”
"I paid for it"
During a later interview with The Associated Press, Wade also refused to use today's changed climate in the sport — with allegations of payments tied to Wade's LSU ouster essentially legal now with college athletes allowed to profit from their fame — as a pass.
“That to me is a cop-out," Wade told the AP. “When I was doing that, it was illegal. Just because it’s legal now doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do then. And I think that’s the way that some people rationalize some things, but that’s not the reality of what it was. It wasn’t right to do then and, you know, I paid for it.”
Specifically, suspicions of wrongdoing had followed Wade since 2019 reports about leaked excerpts of an FBI wiretap capturing Wade speaking with a person convicted of funneling illegal payments to the families of recruits. In transcripts, Wade discussed presenting a “strong” offer to an apparent third party who represented then-LSU player Javonte Smart.
Wade said during his news conference that the LSU aftermath forced him to have “some hard conversations" with himself. Wolfpack athletic director Boo Corrigan needed to hear about those, too, when he met with Wade in Houston during the search.
“To hear him be repentant for what occurred, to hear him own what occurred, to hear him talk about what he’s learned,” Corrigan told the AP. "Think about it: how hard is it when you’re 35 years old, you’re making millions of dollars, you’ve never lost and everyone’s on you saying how great you are. Imagine your ego gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
"I think it’s one of those (things) that he’s learned it’s not him, it’s what he does and everyone around him. ... He was just really, really good when we were there.”
Regardless, Wade's self-belief remains intact.
"You've still got to have the same confidence, but it’s not a cockiness or an arrogance to the sense of you’re never going to get caught or nothing’s ever going to (happen),” Wade told the AP. “That’s where the line is.”
Pushing the Pack
The Wolfpack announced Wade's hiring Sunday, a day after his McNeese team fell to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament after a first-round upset of Clemson. It completed a smooth search process for the Wolfpack and Corrigan, who replaced the fired Kevin Keatts with a coach with a vocal top-choice backing among N.C. State fans on social media — down to it's meant-to-be mentions of the fittingly named Wade Avenue running right by the Wolfpack's home arena in Raleigh.
N.C. State had three NCAA trips in eight seasons under Keatts, and was positioned for another before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament. And Keatts last year directed the wildest of rides, with N.C. State improbably winning its first ACC Tournament title since 1987 and its first Final Four trip since the late Jim Valvano’s “Cardiac Pack” did it in an improbable 1983 NCAA title run.
But this year's season was a 12-19 crashout, a continuing trend of the program being unable to sustain consistent success. And it comes within the tough-neighborhood dynamic of building a winning program in the Triangle region in North Carolina, where UNC, Duke and N.C. State — boasting a combined 13 NCAA championships — share the 919 area code and are all within a half-hour’s drive of one another.
Wade isn't deterred by that challenge. And when it came to on-court topics, Wade had the select group of Wolfpack donors and supporters attending the news conference downright bubbly.
“Everybody’s singing from the same sheet of music,” he said during his news conference. "When that happens at N.C. State, there’s going to be a reckoning for the ACC, there's going to be a reckoning for college basketball. And it’s coming. And it’s coming soon.
“I want to be very clear: this is not a rebuild. We’re going to be in the top part of the ACC next year and we’re going to the NCAA Tournament.”
Supporters broke into immediate applause and yelps of glee. Then Wade pounced on the chance to double down.
“Make sure you got that on camera,” he said.
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