Will Wade Is Returning to LSU as Head Coach After Just One Season at NC State

BATON ROUGE, La. (103.3 The GOAT) — Will Wade is going back to Baton Rouge.

According to 247Sports, Wade confirmed Thursday he is leaving NC State after just one season to become the next head coach of LSU men’s basketball. LSU is simultaneously parting ways with Matt McMahon after four seasons and zero NCAA Tournament appearances.

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Wade boarded a flight to Baton Rouge on Thursday afternoon. It wraps up one of the stranger offseason sagas college basketball has seen in years, one that played out over just a matter of days and involved two buyouts, a new LSU president, and a former McNeese athletic director working the phones behind the scenes.

How This Came Together

This did not happen by accident. TigerDroppings reported that a central piece of the deal was LSU bringing in McNeese’s Heath Schroyer as Senior Deputy AD and Executive Director of External Relations for the LSU System. Schroyer hired Wade at McNeese back in 2023, and sources confirmed Wade was not returning to Baton Rouge unless Schroyer came with him.

FLASHBACK: What It Will Take to Get Will Wade Back to LSU

New LSU President Wade Rousse, who also has McNeese ties, was the other driving force. College basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported Wednesday that Rousse and Schroyer were already working to bring Wade back before the job was even open. McMahon was still the head coach at that point.

That changed Thursday. McMahon is out, and Wade is in.

The Cost of Bringing Wade Home

This reunion is not cheap. LSU is on the hook for two significant buyout payments.

McMahon had three years left on his contract, putting his buyout at roughly $8 million. Wade’s buyout at NC State sat at $5 million, though that number drops to $3 million after April 1. The timing of this deal was not coincidental.

Beyond the buyouts, LSU will need to fund a roster budget that can actually compete in the SEC. Reports suggest Wade would want somewhere in the $12 to $13 million range for his roster, compared to the $8 million McMahon was working with this past season.

What Wade Did Before, and Why LSU Wants Him Back

Wade’s first run in Baton Rouge went from 2017 to 2022. He walked into a program that had just gone 10-21 and built it into an SEC powerhouse. By year two, LSU was the SEC regular-season champion at 26-5 and playing in the Sweet 16. He finished with a 105-51 record overall, 56-33 in SEC play, and three NCAA Tournament trips in five seasons.

Then came the wiretap.

NCAA enforcement found that Wade had arranged impermissible payments to multiple prospects and their associates in exchange for enrolling at LSU. He received a 10-game suspension and a two-year show-cause penalty in June 2023. LSU fired him in 2022 as the violations piled up.

What he did next is probably what got him this job. After one season in the NBA, Wade went to McNeese State in Lake Charles, won 57 games, went 36-2 in conference play over two seasons, and knocked off Clemson in the first round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. That run turned him into one of the most wanted coaches on the market last spring and landed him the NC State job at $17.25 million over six years.

At NC State, he got the Wolfpack into the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed in year one, losing 68-66 to Texas in the First Four in Dayton. The team went 20-14 overall and 10-8 in the ACC, though it dropped six of its last eight games.

What This Means for LSU Basketball

McMahon went 17-55 in SEC play over four seasons. His only winning record was a 17-16 finish in 2023-24. This past year the Tigers went 15-17 and 3-15 in conference play, finishing dead last in the SEC. LSU has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2022.

Wade walks back into a program that needs significant roster work and fast. LSU guard Dedan Thomas Jr. has already been reported as planning to enter the transfer portal. With the portal window opening April 7, there is no time to ease into this.