By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Will Wade wasn’t in prison during his one-year sentence at North Carolina State, but he sure didn’t like it there, for whatever reason.
He signed a six-year, $17 million contract there last year at this time. He got everything he asked for as the men’s basketball coach. He was in historically the greatest college basketball league – the Atlantic Coast Conference. Basketball is bigger than football in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Wolfpack won national championships in 1974 and 1983 and seven ACC titles.
His roster budget was approximately $12 million for the past season. He took the Wolfpack to the First Four play-in of the NCAA Tournament, but did not advance. In the latter stages of the season with the LSU job waiting for him for several weeks, if not months, Wade lost eight of his last 10 games to finish 20-14 and 10-8 in the ACC.
Even had he done better at NC State and thrived in the future, Wade told friends that no matter what NC State has done or will do, it will forever be No. 3 in the state in the long run behind blue bloods North Carolina and Duke.
Welcome Home, General.
— LSU Basketball (@LSUBasketball) March 26, 2026
Will Wade is the next head coach of your Fighting Tigers!@CoachWadeNCSU | @LSUsports
📄 https://t.co/I0OvLJGqhh pic.twitter.com/e8zubaOlb6
And those close to Wade say he just never felt comfortable at NC State and never liked it. And he just loved his time at LSU from 2017-22. It was his first major college basketball head coaching job after stints at clearly off Broadway Tennessee-Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth.
And Wade – aka The General – won bit at LSU fast – 25-5 in only his second year with the school’s first Southeastern Conference title in a decade in 2019 at 15-2 and its first NCAA Tournament advancement into the Sweet 16 since the Final Four run in 2006.
A 21-10, 12-6 season followed in the COVID year along with two more earned NCAA Tournament appearances in 2021 and ’22. But he was fired for rampant NCAA violations at LSU upon arrival in 2017 right through his exit. And a year later after his banishment, all he could manage to get was the head coaching job at tiny Southland Conference school McNeese State in Lake Charles for two seasons before NC State.
Now, Wade, 43, feels like a free man – and an even richer man with a new LSU contract of $30 million over seven years, starting with a $4 million salary this season after earning $2.8 last year. His contract rill rise to $4.1 million next year and to $4.4 million in 2030-31 before topping at $4.5 million in 2031-32 and 2032-33 seasons.
LSU is also paying the $4 million Wade owest North Carolina State by contract for Wade exiting NC State after just one season. That buyout was originally $5 million if Wade left before April 1, which he did. After April 1, it was going to drop to $3 million. LSU negotiated the $4 million, “get-out-of jail-early” tab.
Wade also may feel like a reformed former “prisoner” of sorts.
“I’ll try to follow more rules this time,” Wade said in classic Outlaw Will Wade fashion as he departed the Baton Rouge Airport in a getaway vehicle Thursday afternoon. “This is our chance to come home to a place that has shaped me, where the passion for basketball runs deep.”
Well, where he shaped himself as one of the more notorious NCAA criminals in history, particularly when based on brevity of time on the job – only five seasons at LSU, where the recruiting violations ran deep. And he will be forever associated with perhaps the most oft-rewritten, caught-in-the-act quote concerning college recruiting cheating of all time – the “strong-ass offer” comment that appeared in a Yahoo Sports story on March 7, 2019, by the best of the best sports writers in the nation – Pat Forde, Pete Thamel and Dan Wetzel.
THE WILL WADE “STRONG-ASS OFFER” STORY
That story began Wade’s steady demise.
“I was thinking last night on this Smart thing,” Wade said in 2017 to a recruiting middle man in a conversation caught on an FBI wiretap about star point guard Javonte Smart of Scotlandville High near Baton Rouge. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m [expletive] tired of dealing with the thing. Like, this should not be that [expletive] complicated. Dude, I went to him with a [expletive] strong-ass offer about a month ago. [Expletive] strong.”
FBI and NCAA nationwide investigations of college basketball soon led to Wade being found as a kingpin in a major recruiting scandal at LSU for most of his time there from 2017-22. Wade was eventually named directly for five major, Level 1 NCAA violations involving paying recruits before players began getting paid within NCAA rules via Name, Image & Likeness in 2021.
And then-LSU athletic director Scott Woodward fired Wade on March 12, 2022 – the day LSU received the notice of allegations from the NCAA that included seven Level 1 violations in all against LSU basketball.
Then-McNeese State athletic director Heath Schroyer hired Wade on March 12, 2023 – not long before the NCAA sentenced LSU and Wade. And Schroyer suspended Wade on arrival in Lake Charles for his first five games of the 2023-24 season for the NCAA violations at LSU.
Schroyer, as requested by Wade, is now LSU’s new debuty athletic director in charge of basketball.
In its final analysis, the NCAA said Wade “obstructed the NCAA’s investigation (of LSU) by concealing evidence and lying to NCAA officials in interviews.” The NCAA charged him with “unethical conduct” that included Wade using his wife’s bank account to funnel money to a recruit.
But that’s all behind Wade now. Maybe he’s rehabilitated. Maybe not. Because most of the rules he broke as a serial cheater are no longer around with the advent of Name, Image & Likeness-related payments in the millions to college basketball and football players that began in 2021.
“LSU represents something bigger,” Wade said Thursday. “It’s about competing at the highest level in the best conference in the country, in front of one of the most passionate fan bases in college basketball. The resources, the commitment and the alignment at LSU makes it a place where we can build something special and sustainable.”
Previous LSU coach Matt McMahon had among the worst resources in the SEC during most of his four seasons as coach. His roster budget was $8 million for the 2025-26 season, but it was only $1.6 million in 2024-25 and even less than that for his first two seasons. His teams also finished last or close to it the last two seasons at 3-15 in the league.
Wade is expected to have a roster budget close to $13 million.
“I’m incredibly excited about the challenge ahead, about developing young men, competing for championships, and representing the state of Louisiana with pride,” Wade said. “There’s a standard at LSU, and I’m energized to embrace it fully. I can’t wait to get home and get to work.”
McMahon was fired without cause with three years remaining on a seven-year contract. He is expected to receive an $8 million buyout.
“I want to thank Matt McMahon for his dedication and contributions to LSU and the basketball program over the last four seasons,” Ausberry said. “He was a tremendous ambassador for the university and cared deeply about our student-athletes and our program. We wish him and his family all the best going forward.”
But in the end, McMahon had three losing seasons out of four at LSU – 14-19, 2-16 SEC, 17-16, 9-9 SEC, 14-18, 3-15 SEC and 15-17, 3-15 SEC. The SEC record of 17-55 for a winning percentage of .300 was LSU’s worst four-year mark since 1956-57 through 1959-60 when it was 9-47 for .191.
“We are excited to welcome Will back home as the next head coach at LSU,” Ausberry said Thursday. “As LSU fans know well, Will is a consistent winner, a diligent program builder and a charismatic leader with an incredible ability to connect with student-athletes and the fan base. We are thrilled to have Will and his family with us in Baton Rouge again.”
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