Will Wade Adds Assistant Vernon Hamilton, Who Was With Wade At LSU The 1st Time

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

New LSU men’s basketball coach Will Wade has added a fourth assistant coach in Vernon Hamilton, Tiger Rag confirmed on Sunday.

Hamilton was at the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches (LABC) banquet on Saturday night representing LSU and announced that former Tiger Naz Reid was named the LABC Professional Player of the Year. Reid, who averaged 13.6 points and 6.2 off the bench for Minnesota in the NBA regular season, was not at the event as the Timberwolves remain in the NBA Playoffs and play at San Antonio Monday night.

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Hamilton coached under Wade last season at North Carolina State and at McNeese State in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons He also worked at LSU during Wade’s first term as LSU head coach in non-coaching positions as assistant to the head coach in the 2020-21 season and director of player development in the 2021-22 season. He was the director of player development at Georgetown in the 2022-23 season.

A four-year starter at Clemson from 2004-07, Hamilton, 41, played while Wade, 43, was a graduate assistant coach at Clemson. Hamilton was a graduate assistant at Clemson from 2014-16 before catching on with Wade in 2020.

BREAKING: Former LSU head coach Johnny Jones and ex-Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury to be on Will Wade’s staff at LSU.https://t.co/8arUVSwrT6

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 30, 2026

Hamilton joins three previous assistant coaches hired by Wade – former college head coaches Rick Stansbury, Johnny Jones and Damon Stoudamire.