After decades of being the premier conference in men’s college basketball, the ACC is fighting an uphill battle to reclaim its prestige.
With hall of fame coaches such as Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams recently retiring, there’s a new set of coaches ready to lead the ACC. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer and Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey are already winning big, but for the conference to take a step forward, it needs more.
That’s where new NC State men’s basketball head coach Will Wade comes in.
Wade has all the makings to be the next great ACC coach. At just 42 years old, Wade has plenty of time to rack up accomplishments. He’s already coached for 11 seasons, compiling a 246-105 career record, leading three schools to the NCAA Tournament and winning six combined regular-season and conference tournament titles. It’d be tough to find another coaching hire this offseason with the amount of success as Wade.
“I’ve been fortunate to know him for a pretty long time,” said ESPN and ACC Network commentator Wes Durham. “He knows what he’s doing. He’s very good at it, voracious recruiter, competitive guy, wants to win, wants to do it the right way. … I think that’s exciting for NC State, and I think it’s really exciting for the ACC too.”
Adding a coach like Wade to the ACC is one thing. However, bringing Wade to Raleigh, where he’ll coach a storied program that’s been lost in the wilderness for the last three decades, may be just what ACC men’s basketball needed. While the Pack has seen an occasional strong moment, such as last year’s run to the Final Four, there hasn’t been sustained success or any signs of alignment within the program. With seemingly everyone excited about the hire, that very well could change under Wade.
“For the first time in nearly 30 years, everybody at NC State for basketball seems to be on the same page,” said Joe Ovies, co-founder of OG Triangle Media.
In the current landscape of college basketball, it’s more important than ever for programs to be on the same page. Whether it’s fans and donors contributing to NIL to fund roster construction or the athletic department equipping coaches with resources, everyone has a role to play in building a winning program.
“If there’s an investment in some of the resources needed to be in the game now, in Raleigh, [NC State] is going to be a wheel in the portal,” Durham said. “That’s the optimism for what he’s going to do.”
Money talks, specifically NIL dollars, when recruiting players, but it’s not the only part of talent acquisition. Coaches have to know which players have the talent to succeed and the drive to hit their potential. At LSU, Wade identified and secured several players who went on to be drafted into the NBA. Meanwhile, NC State hasn’t had a player selected in the first round of the NBA Draft since 2017 when Dennis Smith Jr. was picked by the Dallas Mavericks.
“Don’t ever forget that he had Naz Reid and Cam Thomas on those [LSU] teams,” Durham said. “He had real players who were really good players. So I think that’s one thing to remember is that he can recruit high-level talent.”
With his past success, the standard will be high in Raleigh. Wade’s history of winning and competing at the highest level is no secret. With everything he needs in place to win — very similar to Kelsey at Louisville last season — there’s an expectation for NC State to win now, rather than waiting through a rebuild.
“The bar has already been set by what happened under Pat Kelsey at Louisville,” Ovies said. “I don’t think things got as bad for Kevin Keatts at NC State like it did for Kenny Payne at Louisville. So if Pat Kelsey can take a program from ‘Man, this looks bad,’ to making the NCAA Tournament in the first year — well, that’s the expectation for Will Wade, and it’s the expectation that Will Wade also set in that press conference.”
If Wade does win, especially early, it may help the ACC too. Teams never stay stagnant when their peers start winning. They adjust and try to find their own way to replicate success. Louisville didn’t tolerate losing after last season and drastically overhauled its program. Now NC State’s doing the same thing, and if the Wolfpack wins, then somebody in the ACC will almost certainly try to follow in NC State’s footsteps.
“The reason the ACC became the best conference for basketball in the country is because Everett Case came here,” said former Technician Sports Editor and current NC State Communication Strategist Tim Peeler. “He dominated. He forced North Carolina to get a better and more exciting coach, for Duke to get a more exciting coach and more successful coach, who forced Wake Forest to do that. There is a synergy to the success that people have when you’re competing against each other.”
Without a doubt, Wade coming to NC State is bigger than just one school. It’s a move that impacts the entire ACC. If successful, the Wolfpack will be an annual powerhouse in the ACC, relevant nationally going into March every season. If Wade wins big enough, he could be the domino that forces programs to adapt. With his ability to win big, watch for Wade to be one of the faces of ACC basketball moving forward.
