It’s been one week since head coach Will Wade’s shocking departure back to LSU, but the drama has anything but calmed down as his name has become taboo in Raleigh.
On Monday, Wade made his first public appearance as the head coach of the Tigers, speaking about his plans for the future with the charm and dignity of a used car salesman, but it wasn’t until nearly 40 minutes into the event that Wade finally addressed his betrayal of the Wolfpack.
“I’m at peace with how I left, I’m at peace with what we did,” Wade said. “They’re pretty mad for a coach they didn’t think was very good.”
But Wade had it wrong. It was never about thinking he wasn’t very good; it was about the empty promises and hollow words he left while wearing an NC State logo. Wade came into Raleigh and charmed everyone with his ‘plans’ for a reckoning, not just for the ACC but for college basketball.
Now, he’s back in Baton Rouge, making the same claims he made a year ago to the Raleigh faithful. So instead of being blinded by his words, let’s dissect the abnormalities in Wade’s opening press conference in the purple and yellow.
“NC State was great to me,” Wade said. “I think some things have been mischaracterized on how I left. The people who need to know, know.”
Apparently, nobody in red and white was on a need-to-know basis, as even McMurray Family Director of Athletics Boo Corrigan — the same man who brought Wade to the City of Oaks in the first place — was blindsided by his move.
“I would commiserate with [the fans] about being lied to,” Corrigan said during an emergency press conference just hours after the announcement of Wade’s departure.
In fact, Corrigan was so insignificant in Wade’s plans that he couldn’t even tell the man in person, but rather through an email from his agent before jetting off to Baton Rouge just a day later.
So, what exactly has been mischaracterized? Was it the part where Wade decided to abandon the six-year contract that he had signed just a year earlier, or maybe the part where his only acknowledgement of Wolfpack fans was in an AI-generated goodbye letter on X?
To those left behind in Raleigh, the only thing mischaracterized may be Wade’s version of events.
“We’re gonna build a winning program, and we’re gonna build this thing quick,” Wade said. “This is not something that’s gonna take a lot of time.”
Sound familiar? It should, as it’s borderline the same thing that Wade said to Wolfpack fans just a year ago.
“I wanna be very clear, this is not a rebuild,” Wade said last March. “We’re gonna be in the top part of the ACC next year and we’re going to the NCAA Tournament. This is not something that’s gonna take a lot of time.”
It didn’t take a lot of time, because Wade never planned on giving NC State much of it.
Seventh in the ACC, a First Four appearance and losses in eight of the last 10 games — sure, that’s marginally better than a rebuilding year, but the promises hinted at more than that. At the end of the season, none of it even mattered.
Not because the rebuild was finished, but because he wasn’t planning on sticking around long enough to see it.
“Now I know the formula,” Wade said. “We’re gonna have a top 10 offense and a top 10 defense at the same time, which will allow us to compete at the level we want to compete at.”
Wade must’ve found the magic formula sometime in the two weeks since the Wolfpack’s First Four loss to Texas, because that formula clearly wasn’t used throughout the 2025-26 season.
At the end of the season, NC State ranked 24th in offense rating in the KenPom rankings — not the top 10 Wade spoke of, but top 25 is still acceptable.
The problems come in on the defensive end, where NC State ranked 77th in defensive rating in the KenPom rankings. There are 69 schools in Power Four college basketball, meaning the Wolfpack ranked behind plenty of mid-majors on the defensive end.
If that was the formula, someone might want to check the math.
“The decisions on the roster are ultimately going to come down to me,” Wade said. “That’s my job as a head coach.”
If those are the job requirements of a head coach, consider the job failed in Raleigh.
The roster was fundamentally flawed from the beginning. The starting five man was an undersized 6-foot-9 Ven-Allen Lubin, and the bench held two more undersized big men — one who had never played American basketball and the other who didn’t have enough consistent collegiate playing time.
In today’s era of college basketball, you need reliable big men. You need seven-footers. You need paint protection, all of which was lacking from the roster.
Having almost full control of NC State’s roster, Wade can also take responsibility for all of the holes in it.
“Our team is gonna represent the W – Our team is gonna represent Louisiana the way it should be represented,” Wade said.
The cherry on top, Wade himself couldn’t even keep up with his own lies. He nearly slipped up and said Wolfpack instead of the team that he had called home just 20 minutes earlier.
Wade has moved around so much in the last year that he can’t maintain his falsities. What does that mean for recruiting? Who will want to play for a man who lied to an entire program for a calendar year, who hasn’t shown an ounce of loyalty in the last two weeks?
“The Wolfpack ain’t for soft people,” Corrigan said.
It couldn’t be more accurate. When the going got tough, Wade ran as fast as he could back to the school that trashed him just four years earlier.
Louisiana State fans better brace themselves. There’s a reason that society frowns upon getting back with your ex.
