My Two Cents: One Good Reason For Me to Have Dissenting Opinion On Will Wade
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — McNeese's beatdown of Clemson in the first round of the NCAA Tournament was very public on Thursday, and controversial coach Will Wade enjoyed every minute of it. He beat his alma mater, got McNeese its first-ever NCAA Tournament win, and jumped into the arms of his athletic director in a frenetic postgame celebration.
Wade and his players did their press conference, and his unabashed behavior continued. Which is no surprise because that's who Will Wade is. He was brutally honest earlier in the week that he had been contacted by North Carolina State for their coaching job, and he was just as honest that he was going to take it.
People consider that behavior abhorrent. He was roasted on social media by all the keyboard warriors and mommy's-basement trolls. They weren't alone, as many national basketball columnists ripped him, too. The old-school guys say this behavior is not allowed, that he should have waited until the season is over.
He's hurting his players, they say. He's quitting on his team, they say.
I say that's laughable and naive. This is 2025 and, sadly, this is college basketball in the modern era. I have no problem at all with what Will Wade has done for one simple reason — his players.
They say this was the plan all along, and they have no problems with Wade leaving for NC State. They love their coach, and they are happy for him.
And that's all I need to hear.
Good on you, Will Wade.
I've said it for years that I care much more about the opinions of the players and coaches in the game that I cover so proudly than the Twitter trolls and Facebook swill that spend all day whining about everything. And it's the same here, too.
I care much more about what the McNeese players say about Wade than I do what the dweebs on social media think.
Take, for instance, McNeese senior guard Brandon Murray. Wade recruited him to LSU five years ago, and he's bounced around since then, playing at four schools in four years. It didn't work out at Georgetown or Ole Miss, so he hooked up with Wade again at McNeese last summer, agreeing to come to Lake Charles, La., for one reason — and one reason only.
It was all about ONE YEAR with Wade and the teammates Wade brought it. It was about doing something special THIS YEAR, and then all of them would move on.
Hi and goodbye.
"We talked about it this summer, and we've talked about it every day ever since. This is all about right now,'' Murray told me in the McNeese locker room. "Look, this is what college basketball is now. Look at me, four schools in four years. We all know how great of a coach he is, and we all knew if we won that he'd get a bigger job.
"Look, he's earned it. A lot of the guys, when we got here, they're saying, 'Coach, when you go Power 5, take some of us with you.' That's the reality these days, and that's the truth everywhere. You have a good year and you look for a better deal. Any college player who says they don't think about it are liars. That's the game these days, you make the most you can.''
Wade is so transparent that he doesn't hold back on any it. Outside the McNeese locker room with a handful of us, he admitted as much that Murray was right. The players will all be looking for the next move too, but they are still 100 percent focused on making history in THIS tournament,. Beating Clemson was just the first step. They plan on beating No. 4 seed Purdue on Saturday, too.
And they're doing it despite being recruited by other coaches right now in the middle of the tournament. That's so wrong, but it's Wade who gets ripped. That's so missing the point. These McNeese players are raising their value every minute of this weekend.
"You know how many schools are in these guys' DMs right now?" Wade said. "I mean, damn, this is great for them. Their market just went up in the transfer portal.
"And there are five coaches right now negotiating with other schools. Right now! I mean, c'mon, It's true. Villanova is trying to hire a coach out of the NCAA Tournament right now.''
That's why I take Wade's side in all the personal attacks against him. It's 2025 and college basketball has changed. This is no longer a sport built on four-year cycles with high school recruits who never leave, play four years and walk away with a degree. Purdue's is becoming the outlier these days with players who stay year after year to play for a coach, Matt Painter, who's been in West Lafayette as a player or coach for more than 30 years now.
Now it's all one-year deals. For almost everyone.
With NIL and the transfer portal, it's the way it is for players. And it happens to be the way it is for coaches, too. NC State didn't do anything wrong in reaching out to Wade's agent. They want the best coach possible, and they'll work as hard as they can to get their man.
It was no different at Indiana, where athletic director Scott Dolson hired a search firm and started reaching out to potential candidates through back channels in the middle of the season. That's why he touched base with Darian DeVries' people at West Virginia, and why he reeled him in as soon as he had the chance.
It's no different. The same thing is probably happening at Iowa and Minnesota and Villanova, too.
Welcome to the sleazy side of college basketball. It's the norm now in 2025.
Wade is more than happy to talk freely about his players and how close they all are,. There was no negativity to what went on this week about him being so open about the NC State opportunity.
"People don't know how we operate," Wade said. "We operate really well when the chips are down. We operate well in chaos because we just narrow in. We operate well when there's outside noise that, 'Oh, you're not going to be focused, you're not going to be prepared.' F--- that. We're going to be prepared. We're going to be focused. We're going to be the more focused team.
"We're not worried about any of that stuff. I mean, here's the thing: We can sit here and lie about it, but it is what it is. Our guys aren't worried about it, I ain't worried about it, none of our administration's worried about it, nobody's worried about it. We've been honest with everybody. It's great. Keep winning, keep going.
"I could have gone in there (to the press conference) and lied to everybody. If you don't know how we operate day to day, then you can't judge how we how we do things. And so we have a transparency that most people don't have."
The biggest point here is that if you don't like how Will Wade acts, that's too damn bad. He doesn't care about you. He cares about his kids, and they've all been on the same page since the beginning.
That's all that matters to him. And all that matters to players.
So I'm glad. That's really all that should matter. Go wipe your tears elsewhere.
"You may not like what I've got to say but I'm going to tell you what I think," Wade said. "Our guys know that. That's what (Qadir) Copeland was laughing about in the press conference. Sometimes he tells me, 'My man, can you sugarcoat the truth a little bit?' Like, it's just too direct."
Guard Christian Shumate, a Chicago native who's spent four of his last five years of college ball at McNeese, says they're all good. He'd tell all of you to shut your yaps while taking shots at his coach.
"I think when you're in the loop and both ends are transparent about things, there's not too much room for conflict," Shumate said after the Clemson win. "Everybody is aware of everything that's going on, and when there's a clear understanding, everybody keeps the same angle in the front of mind. We'll worry about all of that stuff later."
It's very clear the McNeese players aren't wasting any time with all that social media drivel. They won a game Thursday, and they've got another game to win Saturday. That's what this year was all about — from the beginning.
They want to make history, and they're doing it. And then whenever it ends, they'll all move on and be happy about it. They're making their memories together, and they'll love Will Wade forever.
They aren't asking you to love them. Or him.
And you know why? Because they don't care what you think.
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.