NCAA Basketball rewind: Most impactful coaching hires after 2013 season

8. Will Wade (Chattanooga)

Over the years, Chattanooga has actually had a fair amount of success. While the program wasn’t in the best shape come 2013, there was a fair bit of history that showed that this was one of the SoCon’s best programs over the last few decades. The Mocs simply needed the right voice to get the program back on track after a run of less than successful seasons.

They turned to Will Wade, a 30-year old collegiate assistant ready to prove himself on the national stage. Wade had been a student and graduate assistant at Clemson before getting his first full-time job on Tommy Amaker’s staff at Harvard. Wade had then spent four seasons under Shaka Smart at VCU, helping that program make that miraculous run to the Final Four in 2011. Despite his age, he was ready to run his own ship, and he proved it with the Mocs.

Inheriting a 13-win program, Wade made steady progress in his two years in Chattanooga. His team finished in 2nd place in the conference both seasons, winning 18 and 22 games respectively while returning to the postseason. He put Chattanooga back on the winning track; they’d make the NCAA Tournament the following season, but Wade departed to inherit that VCU program he had helped build as an assistant.