Will Wade, his wife and daughter followed a drum line and Mike the Tiger mascot dressed in his “General” persona Monday and made their way through the fog and pyrotechnic flame columns Monday and back onto a familiar court.
LSU president Wade Rousse and athletic director Verge Ausberry presented the once-again Tigers men’s basketball coach with a No. 26 jersey before beginning a rare re-introduction press conference.
Wade, who had been fired from the position by a previous administration in 2022, joked that the jersey should have read “22/26” as one of a teeming roster of high-comedy moments in a high-energy event that detailed the unusual circumstances and laid out expectations that the program would reach new heights.
“We’re coming back to make history,” he said. “We’re gonna make history one way or the other. We’re coming back, like Dr. Rousse said, to try to hang a banner and win a national championship or I’m gonna be the first coach fired by the same school twice. But one way or another we’re gonna make history. And it’s gonna be a fun ride one way or the other. Ain’t no doubt about that.
“But we’re very, very excited to be back. And, look, these last four years, you’re not getting the same coach you had four years ago. These last four years have humbled and changed me. You’re getting a better coach, a better leader this time around. Now, I’ve got the same urgency. I’ve got the same fight. I’m the same feisty guy that you’ve always known. But we’re gonna be better. And I want everybody to know with LSU Basketball, our time is now. I didn’t come here to reflect and talk about the past and any of that stuff. I came here to win, and we’re gonna win immediately.”
Wade led one of the most successful five year stretches in program history from 2017 to 2022, compiling the program’s fourth-highest win total all-time and the highest winning percentage of any of its coaches during the past century.
The Tigers reached the NIT in his first season, then were positioned for the NCAA Tournament each of the next four years — which would’ve marked only their second such run and first since Dale Brown’s teams in the 1980s and early 19990s — if not for the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling the 2020 postseason.
But alleged recruiting violations stemming from an FBI investigation into the spirit led to a drawn-out saga for more than half his tenure, including a suspension, a restructured contract and an eventual termination following an Independent Accountability Resolution Process and resulting formal NCAA notice of allegations.
“We were running the program at about 60%, and we were still going to the NCAA Tournament in a tough league and not operating at our full capacity,” he said. “We didn’t have our full capacity of assistants. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff that we were not operating at full capacity those last three years, and we were still going to the NCAA Tournament and competing at the top of the SEC. But it would’ve been a very, very hard reset with the situation and kinda where we were. So I think this gives us — there’s definitely a break-off point, and now this gives us a new launching pad and new starting point. And I think the runway is certainly more clear this time, and we’re really, really excited about the opportunity that we have.”
Wade emphasized that, despite not being a Louisiana native, “make no mistake this is home” after a mutual appreciation fostered during five seasons at LSU and then another two at McNeese State.
Because of the way his previous time in Baton Rouge played out, he said part of him felt he owed something to the program — or, more particularly, the fan base and the people whom he said make the place special.
“I’ve never connected with a fan base and with people like I have with LSU and Louisiana,” he said. “I feel like we left the book open a little bit. We left some chapters out there, and we left some chapters unfinished. To have the opportunity to come back and finish that off and to bring pride and joy to people that I care about and people that mean a lot to me, yeah, I feel a heavy burden towards that. That’s a big reason I came back.”
He later added: “You can win a lot of games a lot of places. We can take our program and move it a bunch of places, and we’ll be able to wing games. But there’s nothing like the meaning of winning with your friends and meaning when you feel like you’re playing for a bigger power, for lack of a better term, and you have more purpose to you. You have a bigger purpose. A lot of my best friends are sitting in this room right now. A lot of my best friends are down here in Louisiana. I feel like we have a greater purpose with this program than anywhere I’ve ever been. At the end of the day, that’s why I came back.”
Wade thanked LSU’s university and athletic administration, including Rousse and newly hired senior deputy athletic director Heath Schroyer, both of whom he worked with during his time at McNeese State and whom were instrumental in bringing him back to Louisiana after a year at North Carolina State.
Ausberry thanked coach Matt McMahon for his four years as “a great ambassador for our department and a role model for our student-athletes,” but said in a mission to revitalize a program that had appeared in a single NIT game since Wade’s departure that “there is only one coach we targeted, one coach who we spoke with, one coach who made sense at LSU, and we got him.”
“We have Kim Mulkey. We have Lane Kiffin. We have Jay Johnson. We have programs that are getting stronger all the time, and now we are bringing Will Wade home,” Ausberry said. “What’s that saying, ‘strong hearts can’t lose’? That’s what we have here across every building on campus, president Rousse. I have no doubt that coach Wade will once again have success in Baton Rouge. In this new era of college sports, he understands the ever-changing dynamics of talent, recruitment and retainment, of player development and the game of basketball.
“It takes a big personality to coach in the SEC, and especially under the spotlight of LSU. We want coaches who embrace the expectations and want them. Will is here for the challenge.”
In fact, he feels he has the blueprint.
Wade said he felt the Tigers were “just on the cusp of really breaking through” during his previous tenure before its unceremonious end and that, with some lessons long the way, the same formula that made McNeese State “a regional power” during his historic two-year run in Lake Charles can make LSU “a national force” with the greater resources and financial support available.
“Our first time here, we had some top-10 offenses, we had some top-10 — well, one top-10 defense. We’re more offensive oriented,” he smiled. “But we were a little bit all over the place. But now I know the formula, and we’re going to come back and we’re going to have a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense at the same time, which will allow us to compete at the level we want to compete at. Defensively, we’re going to be disruptive. We’re going to play aggressive defensively and be disruptive. Offensively we’re going to be relentless, attacking the paint, attacking the rim, then we’re going to have the details and the discipline with our special teams.
“We’re going to build a winning program, and we’re going to build this thing quick. This is not something that’s going to take long. We’re going to get in that portal when it opens next Monday, and we’re going to put together a winner because everybody in here deserves a winner… I remember this building when it was rocking. That Tennessee game the year we won the SEC, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anything so loud in my life. The energy and the pride and how hard it is to play here when LSU basketball is right is unmatched anywhere in the country, and we’re going to give you a team that you can be proud of and that we can pack the PMAC every night.”
Ausberry emphasized that the university is committed to supporting more sustained success in men’s basketball, which has often fallen behind not only football and baseball, but women’s basketball and gymnastics in the local and national sports consciousnesses.
He felt Wade’s hiring helped send that message. And indications are that the NIL support in building the Tigers’ roster should speak even louder volumes.
Wade expects to have two or three assistants in place by the start of next week — with SEC head-coaching veterans Johnny Jones, Wade’s predecessor in Baton Rouge, and Rick Stansbury, who led Mississippi State from 1998-2012 already being reported by Tiger Rag — to hit the transfer portal running when the 15-day window opens Tuesday, April 7.
“We’ve had some conversations (on roster budget) — I’m not going to share that — but this is LSU,” he said. “Verge, Heath, Dr. Rouse, everybody has said, ‘Look, coach, go build a roster that will help us compete.’ We’ve never put a number on it. We’ve put a roster that’s going to help us win and help us compete, and whatever that number is — look the first year, it is going to be a little bit higher. We’re going to have to go get a bunch of new players, and the new players and the good players cost. They ain’t cheap.
“The first year, it will be high. But once you get them in and you can retain them, retaining guys is a lot easier than going to get them. So the first year, yeah, there may be some sticker-shock, but we’ve got a good plan. There hasn’t been a number put to it. It’s not like, ‘This is what you’re going to spend.’ It’s ‘spend until you feel like you have a good enough team to compete in the SEC.’ At the end of the day, that’s what we’re going to do.”
This article will continue to be updated with further details and quotes…
WILL WADE CAREER HEAD COACHING RECORDS
Season — University —— Overall —— Conf —— Postseason
2013-14 — Chattanooga —— 18-15 —— 12-4 —— CIT – first round (0-1)
2014-15 — Chattanooga —— 22-10 —— 15-3 ——
2015-16 ——— VCU ———— 25-11 —— 14-4 —— NCAA – Round of 32 (1-1)
2016-17 ——— VCU ———— 26-9 —— 14-4 —— NCAA – appearance (0-1)
2017-18 ——— LSU ———— 18-15 —— 8-10 —— NIT – second round (1-1)
2018-19 ——— LSU ———— 25-5 —— 15-2 ——— NCAA – Sweet 16 (2-1)
2019-20 ——— LSU ———— 21-10 —— 12-6 —— (COVID pandemic)
2020-21 ——— LSU ———— 19-10 —— 11-6 —— NCAA – Round of 32 (1-1)
2021-22 ——— LSU ———— 22-11 —— 9-9 —— NCAA – appearance (0-1)
2023-24 — McNeese State —— 22-2 —— 17-1 —— NCAA – appearance (0-1)
2024-25 — McNeese State —— 28-7 —— 19-1 —— NCAA – Round of 32 (1-1)
2025-26 —— NC State ——— 20-14 —— 10-8 —— NCAA – First Four (0-1)