Done! Will Wade Exiting NC State To Return To LSU As Basketball Coach, Replacing Matt McMahon

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

In one of the strangest moves in sports history since the New York Yankees repeatedly fired and re-hired manager Billy Martin in the 1970s and ’80s, LSU is hiring Will Wade back as head men’s basketball coach, according to multiple national reports confirmed by Tiger Rag on Thursday morning.

LSU just fired Wade on March 12, 2022, after FBI and NCAA investigations that included federal wiretaps identified Wade as the kingpin of a string of major, Level 1 NCAA recruiting violations while at LSU from 2017-22. He resurfaced as McNeese State’s coach on March 12, 2023, and took the downtrodden Cowboys to NCAA Tournaments in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons before last year taking the head coaching job at North Carolina State, which he also took to the NCAA Tournament this past season in his first year.

And after one season at North Carolina State, Wade, 43, is returning to LSU, according to an SI.com story confirmed by an LSU basketball source.

As we reported on March 13, it’s all still happening – Will Wade potentially leaving NC State to go back to LSU:https://t.co/nsDTDFikCx

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 25, 2026

The FBI, while working on widespread college basketball corruption, focused on Wade’s recruiting at LSU. The subsequent NCAA investigation eventually named Wade 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.

Wade later received a two-year show cause from the NCAA, which meant McNeese State received NCAA violations by hiring Wade. That included another five-game suspension for Wade and various recruiting limitations and safeguards, limited off-campus recruiting, limited official and unofficial recruiting visits and limited recruiting phone calls. An additional NCAA compliance officer also had to oversee Wade to make sure he followed NCAA rules, and Wade had to submit a weekly report on all his recruiting activities to the McNeese and Southland Conference compliance offices.

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.

Meanwhile, LSU has not officially fired current coach Matt McMahon, who went 3-15 in the Southeastern Conference the last two seasons and had three losing seasons in four years after replacing Wade after the 2021-22 season.

Also on Thursday, McNeese State officially announced that its athletic director, Heath Schroyer, was indeed accepting a job as an associate athletic director at LSU, as reported by Tiger Rag on March 13. Schroyer denied that at the time.

LSU Sweetening Pot For Will Wade? McNeese AD Who Hired Wade Is Up For LSU Associate AD Job

Schroyer hired Wade at McNeese State in 2023 – a year after his firing from LSU.

Schroyer has “accepted a job at LSU as senior deputy athletic director/executive director of external relations for the LSU System,” according to McNeese State’s release on Thursday.

Wade had told LSU powers that be that if he was going to accept the LSU job, it would need to hire Schroyer, who helped revitalize his career after the NCAA sanctions and LSU’s firing of him.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision for me,” Schroyer said in the McNeese release. “I love McNeese and Lake Charles. As hard as it is to leave a place I love so much, it’s time for me to move on and take on a new challenge.”

Wade and Schroyer will be reunited with former McNeese president Wade Rousse, who left McNeese to become LSU’s president last November.

Wade guided LSU to NCAA Tournaments in 2019, ’21 and ’22, though he was suspended before the ’19 season for not cooperating with LSU and the NCAA investigations of him, and he was fired by LSU just before the ’22 NCAA Tournament.

Will Wade Eliminated From NCAA Tournament, Now He Can Decide … LSU Or NC State?

Wade went 18-15 and 8-10 in the SEC in his first year in 2017-18 before breaking through in the 2018-19 season at 25-5 and winning the SEC at 15-2. After Wade’s suspension, LSU reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament under interim coach Tony Benford.

After his suspension was lifted later in 2019, Wade and LSU went 21-10 and 12-6 for second in the SEC in the 2019-20 season before COVID canceled the NCAA Tournament. Wade went 19-10 in the 2020-21 season and 11-6 in the SEC for third and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament – Wade’s only NCAA Tournament appearance with the Tigers. In his last season in 2021-22, LSU finished 22-11 and 9-9 in the SEC before losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after Wade was fired.