having a coach leave like this just confirms the decades long Little Brother Syndrome that generations of our fans have

I personally don’t think it’s worth freaking out over, but totally understand why people are freaking out about it

3/25/2026 2:13:50 PM

My biggest issue with it is the hiring options this year will not be as good for us as they were last year and if this does drag out past the first of April for buyout reasons then we will be even further behind. We're gonna end up gambling on Gainey or settling for Mike White type hire.

3/25/2026 2:16:39 PM

Apparently 3mil buyout after 1 year is low...maybe we should have made it higher

3/25/2026 2:17:55 PM

I’d be totally fine with Gainey.

3/25/2026 2:18:45 PM

Quote :

"I get that and I get the appeal for Wade. I just don’t think this is some “burn it all down” moment if he leaves"

Maybe not burn it all down, lol. But it would be very concerning if we lose a guy to what is effectively a lateral basketball move after 1 year. We've been wallowing in mediocrity for like 40 years now. And there was definitely something wrong with the admin side of it for a long stretch of that. We had years of the academic side squeezing too tight, and years of borderline incompetent athletic department management.

Debbie Yow seemed to put the non-revenue side of the athletic department back on the right track, and I *think* the academic side isn't holding things back. But basketball still seems to struggle. I don't entirely buy that a guy would leave largely because he likes the admin at another school *that* much better unless there were some serious headaches created by our own admin. He didn't even work for those McNeese guys that long AFAIK.


^ Agreed on that point. Unless the admin saw this coming and have some other homerun type candidates in mind/on the phone already, I think Gainey is exactly the guy to give a shot to now. With our luck, this all will go down and then Tennessee will make it to the final four.

[Edited on March 25, 2026 at 2:30 PM. Reason : .]

3/25/2026 2:28:05 PM

Disappointing that he bolted at first opportunity….yeah. But I just keep coming back to these Mark Gottfried ass results he had this year. It’s not that hard to find a coach that can do what he did this year. Maybe I’m too hard on him and it’s only year 1. But I’ve just been wholly unimpressed with year 1 and it’s easy to see a scenario where we’re right back here next year. The results (granted only 1 season) haven’t been worth the headache

3/25/2026 2:39:31 PM

It is weird to me to judge his first year so harshly when the prior 10 years, we only made the tournament 3 times. Outside of COVID, dude's teams have only missed the NCAA tournament one time in his last 9 tries. His only miss was the first year at LSU.

3/25/2026 2:49:08 PM

I agree. I'd like a bigger sample size than just 1 year

3/25/2026 2:53:42 PM

I’m willing to admit that maybe I am being too harsh. I was just thoroughly unimpressed with what I saw this year.

3/25/2026 3:10:30 PM

3/25/2026 3:40:37 PM

if he leaves, we should go after the Davis guy from UNC

3/25/2026 4:12:11 PM

Naww, give me Bobby Hurley

3/25/2026 4:19:05 PM

Is Goodnight one of Wade's main national guys? He's hinting that the fat lady has not sung and Wade is weighing the options.

3/25/2026 4:48:15 PM

Not pretending to have any actual info but the whole “if State can match LSU’s offer then he might stay” feels like horseshit. Seems clear Wade prefers LSU to State. But publicly giving State a chance to counter (and counter an already suspiciously high number for LSU basketball) just feels like he’s trying not to look like the total villain here. And also maybe pump up his LSU offer and NIL package. “See I wanted to stay but State just couldn’t get me what I needed to win and LSU could, I’d be a fool not to take this”. This has been off and on publicly been playing out and speculated on for like 6 weeks or more now. It was in the works. He’s not just now getting around to seeing if State and Boo have a counter. Probably buying time to negotiate a buyout or see if they can truly wait it out till 4/1. Wade can kick rocks. It was fun for like 9 total games I guess.

Legitimately one of the least fun seasons in a long time and I’d be happy to just turn the page on this season/era/chapter.

3/25/2026 8:08:39 PM

I think at this point he's home and the administration should make him come out and make it official so his buyout doesn't drop.

3/25/2026 8:28:10 PM

He’ll also be able to recruit/admit dumber student athletes at LSU so that’s probably a huge load off his plate. I think this ball started rolling right after he was hired when that Aura Khan dork couldn’t get accepted and had to stay and get his degree from some shithole school.

3/25/2026 8:49:15 PM

^^ The whole "home" in Louisianna angle is weird by itself though. LSU kicked him to the curb and he only knew these McNeese dudes starting like 3 years ago AFAIK. Dude grew up in Nashville, and went to Clemson and his wife is from Charlotte and went to UNC. Heck, their daughter is named Caroline*.

*i don't know if that's actually because of the UNC/NC connections, but it is still kind of ironic if they don't view the Carolinas as "home" enough.


[Edited on March 25, 2026 at 8:52 PM. Reason : .]

3/25/2026 8:50:40 PM

RIP DEADENING

3/25/2026 8:59:45 PM

Let me just say,

You hate to see it. . .

3/25/2026 10:35:26 PM

Btw i meant to say gone, not home. Stupid autocorrect

3/25/2026 10:36:15 PM

^oic

Found another tidbit:
https://www.sportscasting.com/news/fire-matt-mcmahon-lsu-basketball-fans-call-for-coach-buyout-after-four-losing-seasons/

LSU is going to have to pay 8mil to buyout McMahon and another 2mil for his staff. LOL. Obviously, that's assuming he doesn't immediately get another job.

[Edited on March 25, 2026 at 10:55 PM. Reason : .]

3/25/2026 10:52:46 PM

I started looking up literal train wrecks for another Will Wade Ave picture , but I lost the motivation

3/26/2026 12:43:29 AM

Extremely not credible

3/26/2026 1:16:50 AM

https://www.tickcounter.com/countdown/9826672/will-wade-to-lsu

3/26/2026 8:09:58 AM

If the talks were unproductive, hopefully they lock him out of the building until next week

3/26/2026 9:06:06 AM

Quote :

"LSU is going to have to pay 8mil to buyout McMahon and another 2mil for his staff. LOL. Obviously, that's assuming he doesn't immediately get another job"

This is all just a drop in the bucket compared to what they paid to get rid of Brian Kelly.

3/26/2026 9:15:56 AM

3/26/2026 9:35:13 AM

I'm sure we paid a consulting firm $200,000 to tell Boo that Wade should accept a $6M salary to coach at LSU.

3/26/2026 9:37:27 AM

Quote :

"I want to be very clear, this is not a rebuild. We're going to be in the top part of the ACC next year, and we're going to the NCAA tournament. This is not something that's going to take a while. Make sure you got that on camera. This is going to be done and done the right way, and this is going to be done quickly."

From his press conference last year. It was definitely done quickly! It all happened quickly. And we technically were top part of the conference by finishing 7th. Promises made promises kept.

Quote :

" We're going to play aggressive on both ends of the floor. We'll play aggressive offensively, aggressive defensively. I'd rather tell our players woe than go. We're going to get guys that are ready to go. We're not going to prime the pump in the morning. They're going to be ready to go, and they're going to play extremely hard. "

Definitely didn’t have to prime the pump with this years team. They always showed up for games. They were at the arena every time we had a game. With their jerseys on. They were generally dressed and on time for the games…literally ready to go. More promises made. More promises kept.

Quote :

"Defensively, we're going to be in your face. We're going to guard. We have one of the best defenses in the country, at McNeese. We had a great defense our last year at LSU, and that's going to be the staple of what we do, and that we're going to win a lot of the lot of the games within the games, try to squeeze out three to five extra possessions every night."

Ok I really don’t have anything for this. To be fair “in your face” wasn’t very exact in terms of just how closely or not we were gonna guard.

3/26/2026 9:44:01 AM

https://archive.ph/73GqL

Quote :

"The expectation among NC State’s top donors and officials is that head coach Will Wade will leave for LSU, barring something unforeseen, sources tell On3. The two sides met on Wednesday night, and no agreement was reached. As of publishing time on Thursday morning, LSU has yet to formally notify Matt McMahon of his future with the Tigers, sources tell On3’s Joe Tipton. But there is an expectation among sources that McMahon could be notified on Thursday. The Tigers have worked to position themselves to land Wade by working to hire McNeese State athletic director Heath Schroyer. Sources also told On3 on Thursday morning that Wade has begun having conversations about planning ahead for next season in Baton Rouge. On3 reported on Wednesday night that NC State was expected to have to pony up in NIL dollars to retain Wade. The Wolfpack spent roughly $10 million on this season’s roster; sources expected the ask to be between $12 and $15 million for the 2026-27 season. Wade has relationships with the LSU administration, specifically with new LSU president Wade Rousse, who was previously at McNeese State. Will Wade was hired by McNeese State in March 2023, leading the Cowboys to two consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. "

3/26/2026 9:52:38 AM

^^my joke post in the other thread, also true

Quote :

"NC State coach Will Wade said changes were coming "up and down the program" after the First Four loss, "like for example, at the top, the head coach will change bc I am going to LSU""

Quote :

"This will be the worst team we have at NC State right here. You just watched it. This is the floor of our program, "

True!

3/26/2026 10:04:30 AM

I think we knew who Wade was when we hired him. We just hoped more winning would happen before he did the scummy stuff. But LSU and Wade both look insanely scummy letting all this play out so publicly while LSU literally still has a head basketball coach

3/26/2026 10:14:27 AM

what a piece of shit

at least he’s found a home with other pieces of shit, Governor included

[Edited on March 26, 2026 at 10:24 AM. Reason : .]

3/26/2026 10:15:17 AM

He used us like a cheap hooker

3/26/2026 10:24:54 AM

-1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

only thing he did was beat a terrible UNC team without their two best players. we would have probably lost by 29 if UNC had their two best players.

on to the next coach and credibility watch thread.

3/26/2026 10:27:25 AM

I mean, this is kinda hilarious. I know this is the nature of college basketball today, but still, what a scumbag.

3/26/2026 10:30:57 AM

^^ yeah. Best wins were uh…SMU? Clemson? A half of a UNC team? A truly forgettable season even before the Wade drama. Especially forgettable now.

3/26/2026 10:34:08 AM

Pieces of shit flock together.

3/26/2026 10:40:11 AM

Is that AI?

3/26/2026 10:53:20 AM

No this is AI

3/26/2026 11:16:06 AM

3/26/2026 11:18:01 AM

^^getem

I'm just saying that's not what will wade looks like

3/26/2026 11:19:14 AM

^^^^ YEAH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Wade#LSU_(second_stint)

HA!

3/26/2026 11:23:30 AM

I would update his page with that pic, but I’m IP banned from editing Wikis until 2027

3/26/2026 12:18:41 PM

Quote :

"@mattnorlander 6. One NC State source told me Wade has communicated that he's not going to poach all of State's roster and he wants to soften the blow on NC State as much as possible (lol??) in the wake of what's undeniably a messy and highly criticized decision to bail after Year 1. /fin"

lol glad he’s not poaching our roster that he openly criticized all year

3/26/2026 1:28:31 PM

"yea I'm going to soften the blow, probably just take one player that I choose at random eenie meenie minie McNeil"

3/26/2026 1:31:13 PM

On the plus side, this probably means Breed won't be back here!

I would be mildly shocked if McNeil followed him, but not entirely surprised. The only one that would be truly shocking would be Able, some6 it was pretty clear by the end of the season that he was not enjoying the will wade experience

3/26/2026 1:37:32 PM

(first 'some6')

But also

3/26/2026 2:10:49 PM

^^Able’s dad was openly questioning (low-key bashing) the staff’s usage of him on social media this year

3/26/2026 2:18:22 PM

Funny how Wade was praised for his honesty and candidness last year while at McNeese and to basically do the exact opposite this year. He went from villain at lsu to redemption story at McNeese and State and then back to villain lol. All of his own doing. Oh well. Just wished we had a better season to enjoy before he bolted.

3/26/2026 2:57:52 PM