NC State Coach Will Wade Leaves After One Season to Return to LSU

Will Wade boarded a private jet out of Raleigh on Thursday and drove onto the tarmac in Baton Rouge amid boos from NC State fans who had tracked his flight in real time, completing one of the more jarring one-season coaching exits in recent ACC memory.

Wade posted a statement to X on Thursday confirming he was leaving his job as the men's basketball coach at NC State to return to LSU. Less than two weeks earlier, he had seemed to dismiss any possibility of leaving, telling reporters, "But the opportunity to return to Louisiana State University is deeply personal. It's a chance to go home — to a place that means a great deal to me and my family."

NC State went 20-14 in Wade's lone season in Raleigh. The Wolfpack lost eight of their final 10 games, including a last-second loss to Texas in the NCAA Tournament's First Four. Notably, NC State stood at 18-6 overall and 9-2 in the ACC as of Feb. 7 before losing six of seven to close the regular season, including a 41-point loss at Louisville and a 29-point loss at home to Duke.

NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan did not hide his frustration at a Thursday afternoon news conference. "I would commiserate with fans in terms of feeling lied to," Corrigan said. "And I'd let them know that I'm as surprised as they are by what's gone on." The resignation, Corrigan noted, arrived as an email from Wade's agent. "I'm disappointed in how it went down. I really am," Corrigan added.

LSU will pay NC State a buyout of $4 million, Corrigan confirmed, negotiated down from more than $5 million. Under the original terms of Wade's six-year contract, that figure was scheduled to drop further to $3 million after April 1, giving NC State financial incentive to accelerate the split and begin its coaching search immediately.

Wade was introduced as the Wolfpack's head coach 366 days ago. NC State had hired Wade to much fanfare after firing Kevin Keatts, who led the Wolfpack to the 2024 Final Four. The program now faces a second consecutive coaching search.

Wade's departure lands on familiar terrain for anyone who followed his career closely. He was fired at LSU in 2022 after five seasons, dogged by FBI and NCAA investigations. After stops at McNeese and NC State, the 43-year-old is returning to Baton Rouge with no formal barriers in place. It is the first time a Division I men's college basketball program has rehired a head coach it had previously fired since 2007, when South Alabama reunited with Ronnie Arrow.

LSU's courtship of Wade played out before the school formally fired coach Matt McMahon, a move that came Thursday. McMahon, who was saddled during his first two seasons by NCAA-approved scholarship reductions stemming from the Wade-era allegations, went 60-70 at LSU; this season the Tigers finished 15-17 with a last-place 3-15 record in the SEC.

The path back to Baton Rouge for Wade was paved in part by LSU president Wade Rousse, who had hired Wade at McNeese after his NCAA issues, and by the hiring of McNeese athletic director Heath Schroyer as senior deputy director of athletics at LSU. Schroyer will serve as Wade's direct supervisor, effectively separating LSU basketball from the rest of the athletic department in Baton Rouge.

Wade's own words in the weeks before the move made the reversal all the more striking. After NC State's ACC Tournament loss to Virginia on March 12, he told reporters: "We're going to win and we're going to win big at NC State. That's what we're going to do moving forward. We have the resources we need. We have what we need, and it's on me and my staff to get the job done." It was less than two weeks later that Wade was gone.

Corrigan and NC State will now embark on a coaching search for the second consecutive year.