Current McNeese State men’s basketball head coach Will Wade has reached an agreement with NC State to be its men’s basketball coach, signing a six-year contract according to Jon Rothstein. Wade will replace Kevin Keatts, who was the coach for the last eight seasons.
At McNeese State for the last two seasons, Wade guided the Cowboys to a 58-11 record, back-to-back Southland Conference Championships and their first NCAA Tournament win in program history. Previously, Wade was the head coach at LSU, VCU and Chattanooga. He’s best known for his time at LSU, where he went 108-54 in five seasons, had three top-12 offenses, made a Sweet 16 and compiled three top-10 recruiting classes.
Wade was fired at LSU for allegedly committing Level I violations, linked to how he recruited his players. But with NIL and revenue sharing set to start this summer, concerns regarding Wade’s past violations seem less pertinent.
In 11 years as a college head coach, Wade has won at least 18 games every season, made seven NCAA Tournaments, won six regular season and conference championships and holds over a .700 winning percentage.
Wade will likely be getting to work right away as the transfer portal opens on Monday, March 24. He is expected to have more NIL funding to work within the portal, looking to build an immediate contender in the ACC, much like Pat Kelsey did at Louisville last season.
NC State currently has seven scholarship players on its roster with remaining eligibility. They and Wade will have to decide in the coming days if they are a good fit together so Wade knows how many scholarship spots he will have at his disposal. Two high school recruits signed letters of intent under Keatts and must also decide if they still want to play for NC State.
This marks the first revenue-sport hire Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan has made with NC State since he was hired in 2019, having retained football head coach Dave Doeren, baseball coach Elliott Avent and women’s basketball coach Wes Moore. During his time as athletic director, Corrigan has hired four head coaches at the Olympic level.
In 2020, he hired Luka Slabe as the volleyball coach, who compiled a 78-55 record and led the Wolfpack to its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance last season before he stepped down. In 2023, he hired Lindsay Leftwich to lead the softball team and, in her first season, she led NC State to a 30-23 record. Last year, Corrigan brought in Marc Hubbard to coach the men’s soccer team, and he led the Wolfpack to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1996. Most recently he hired Garry Higgins to lead the women’s soccer team this fall.
As Army’s athletic director, Corrigan did make two revenue hires in football and men’s basketball. In 2013, he hired Jeff Monken to be the Black Knights football coach, who’s now entering his 12th season. Monken has led Army to five bowl game victories and the American Athletic Conference title last season. Corrigan then hired Jimmy Allen as the men’s basketball coach in 2016 who compiled a 98-112 record before he was fired at the end of the 2022-23 season.
Now the question is, how much will the athletic department pour into the basketball program? There are talks NC State will be one of the few high-major schools that won’t go to the cap in revenue sharing. However, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education from 2022-23, NC State was 18th among public institutions in men’s basketball spending, second in the ACC behind UNC-Chapel Hill. Chancellor-Elect Kevin Howell will most likely play a large role in how many resources the school will commit to the men’s basketball program.
Toward the end of last season, Keatts opened up about the lack of NIL his program had compared to others, indirectly attributing it to his team’s lack of success. Now it’s up to NC State’s donors to fund the NIL collectives and the university to determine how much it will give men’s basketball in revenue sharing.
