Will Wade’s return to Lake Charles comes with plenty of baggage, but it also comes with something else: gratitude.
Tonight, LSU plays McNeese in an exhibition game at 6:30 p.m. in a sold-out Townsley Law Arena, where all proceeds will benefit the McNeese program. It’s a homecoming of sorts for Wade, who has made no secret of what the school meant to him after LSU fired him and most programs stayed away.
“Those folks saved my career,” Wade said Wednesday at a Baton Rouge Rotary Club luncheon at Drusilla’s restaurant. “I owe everything I have to McNeese. They stuck their neck out for me when I was down and out.”
McNeese hired Wade in March of 2023, a year after LSU let him go, and the move came with immediate NCAA scrutiny. The NCAA suspended him for the first five games and handed McNeese athletic director Heath Schroyer a list of restrictions to keep Wade under constant watch. Schroyer, now an associate athletic director and later part of the LSU deal that brought Wade back to Baton Rouge, took the gamble anyway.
“If the NCAA hammers Wade,” he told McNeese donors, “All that will mean to us is we’ll get to keep him longer.”
The payoff was immediate and then some. Wade guided McNeese to a 30-4 record and a 17-1 Southland Conference championship after 11 straight losing seasons and nine losing SLC seasons in that stretch.
He also delivered the program to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002. The following season, he went 28-7, won another league title at 19-1 and led McNeese to its first NCAA Tournament win ever, a 69-67 victory over Clemson, his alma mater.
That success mattered in Lake Charles for reasons that went beyond the standings. Hurricane Laura had devastated the area in August of 2020, damaging McNeese’s arena and leaving visible scars across the city.
Blue tarps still cover damaged roofs around town. Against that backdrop, Wade’s arrival and the program’s rise gave the community something to rally around.
“It’s been a dream season coming off that,” McNeese State Foundation board member and Lake Charles native Billy Rose said as McNeese prepared for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. “Even though we all know he’ll be leaving before too long, he has done wonderful things that people did not expect right off.
He’s a rock star here. It’s such a great story.
He loves Lake Charles”
Rose expects the welcome back to be warm, and loud.
“Will is going to get a huge ovation tonight,” Rose told Tiger Rag on Thursday. “People love him here. He was a rock star then, and he’s still a rock star with McNeese fans.”
McNeese has kept winning even after Wade moved on, with Bill Armstrong, one of Wade’s former assistants at LSU and McNeese, taking over and carrying the momentum. Armstrong went 28-6 last season, won a third straight Southland Conference title at 19-3 and took the Cowboys to a third straight NCAA Tournament.
“We’re very grateful for the opportunity that coach Wade and LSU is providing us to come into our building and allow us to sell it out and have the proceeds go to help our program,” Armstrong said Monday. “It’s a great thing and a huge event for our team, our fans, and the city of Lake Charles. So, we’re certainly embracing that and want to put our best foot forward and give them a show that they deserve, that this community deserves, and that our fans deserve.”
Wade arrived in Lake Charles Wednesday night and attended a dinner with McNeese donors after a golf tournament. Billy Rose said the relationship between Wade and the school remains strong.
“Will Wade has a soft spot in his heart for McNeese and Lake Charles,” Rose said. “He gets choked up when he talks about McNeese.
He knows McNeese hired him when no one else would. Will and McNeese have a wonderful relationship still.
This game has created a large buzz since the summer.”
Even with the buzz, the game offers McNeese a chance to beat a team still being rebuilt. Wade is still putting together his first roster at LSU, and Rose was joking with him about one possible addition.
“This may be McNeese’s best team since the run with Will Wade started,” Rose said. “I texted Will the other day that I know of a possible grad student from San Antonio that he could sign.
He’s got a year of eligibility left. His name is Shaquille O’Neal.”
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