After missing the ACC Tournament with a 72-70 loss to last-place Miami in the regular season finale on Saturday, NC State quickly moved on from head coach Kevin Keatts, who led the Wolfpack to the Final Four last season. Keatts had just completed his eighth season at the helm in Raleigh and last year’s magical March Madness run wasn’t enough to save his job.
Despite the disappointment of this regular season, it was a surprising move for NC Stat. However, when a report from Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 podcast surfaced later on Sunday morning, the abrupt decision began to make more sense.
One name that is expected to be in the mix for the NC State opening is McNeese State’s Will Wade, source told @TheFieldOf68.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 9, 2025
McNeese State head coach Will Wade expected to draw interest from NC State in coaching search
Will Wade is a controversial figure in college basketball. He was dismissed from LSU in 2022 after he was accused of five Level 1 NCAA violations and has since resurfaced at McNeese State, turning the Cowboys into a Southland Conference powerhouse.
Wade began his head coaching career at Chattanooga in 2013, staying just two seasons before becoming the head coach at VCU. He led the Rams to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and an Atlantic 10 regular season title in 2015-16 and then made the jump to Power Conference basketball. Wade was hired at LSU in 2017, and in just his second season in Baton Rouge, led the Tigers to a regular season SEC Title and NCAA Tournament appearance with a 25-5 record.
However, Wade was unable to coach his team in the 2019 NCAA Tournament after a federal wiretap revealed the coach discussing a “strong ass offer” for a recruit, something that would be entirely legal now in the NIL era. Despite facing those accusations so early into his tenure and remaining under investigation nearly his entire tenure, Wade remained at LSU for five seasons.
All of the accusations Wade and the LSU athletic department faced at the time of his dismissal were related to the illegal payment of players. Now, under new NIL rules when a “strong ass offer” is the name of the game, NC State and other power conference programs will almost certainly be willing to give Wade a second chance.
He was highly scrutinized for his methods, but Wade has won everywhere he has gone, and NC State may have moved quickly with the firing off Keatts to ensure that it was at the front of the line for Wade, who may have suitors lining up. With Mike Woodson stepping down at season's end, Indiana looms as a potential landing spot for every head coach on the market this offseason, but as the Hoosiers navigate the Big Ten and possibly the NCAA Tournament, NC State will have an opportunity to make a push for Wade.
McNeese State is the No. 1 seed in this week’s Southland Tournament with an automatic bye to the conference semifinals on Tuesday. If he is the primary candidate for the job, the pace of NC State’s coaching search could be determined by Wade’s postseason success in Year 2 with the Cowboys.