Will Wade is back in Baton Rouge with a very different LSU roster and a very different pitch.
When the Tigers open the season Tuesday night against LSU New Orleans, Wade will begin his second run as LSU’s head coach with one clear theme: balance. He said that’s been the focus as he tries to reshape a program that has swung between strengths in offense and defense over his two stints.
"We've tried to become more balanced," Wade said. "Our first time here (2017-22), we were really good on offense most years and pretty poor defensively. Our last year, we were really good defensively and pretty average on offense.
"To be a championship-level team you've got to have some balance and so we want to play complementary basketball and have a little bit more balance to what we're doing."
Wade’s return comes after a long road back. He was dismissed by LSU late in the 2021-22 season after NCAA recruiting violations led to sanctions for the program and for him personally.
He resurfaced at McNeese in 2023, guided the Cowboys to two NCAA tournaments in two seasons, and then took N.C. State to the First Four last season before coming back to replace Matt McMahon.
The Tigers are starting from a rough spot. LSU went 15-17 overall and 3-15 in the SEC last season, finishing last in the league and landing 14th in the preseason poll this year.
Wade also had to rebuild from scratch at one point over the summer, when he didn’t have a single player on the roster. Since then, he has pieced together a group that includes former UCLA point guard Donovan Dent, who put up 13.3 points and 7.6 assists a game last season.
On the other side, LSU New Orleans coach Stacy Hollowell has spent the last two years trying to do the same kind of roster repair. He inherited a stripped-down group when the Privateers hired him two seasons ago, and that first team went 4-27 overall and 2-18 in the Southland Conference. They made a big jump last season, finishing 15-18 and 12-10.
The school’s rebranding under the LSU System has brought more money to athletics, and that has changed the Privateers’ schedule. LSU New Orleans has only four guarantee games this season after playing nine last year.
The Privateers will also travel to Texas Tech, Arizona and Kansas. Hollowell said some of the drop in high-profile opponents came after teams took note of what LSU New Orleans did a year ago, when it opened the season with a 78-74 road win at TCU.
"That's what happens when you go on the road and pop somebody the year prior," Hollowell said. "It's harder to get games."
In Other News...
LSUs Top 10 Standing Looks Different After A Chaotic AP Shakeup
Week 9 brought a jolt to the AP Top 25, and the ripple effects around the country made LSUs place in the top 10 look a little different by the end of the weekend. Ohio State slipped after a quarterback injury and a rougher stretch of play, Florida and SMU took hits, and other ranked teams such as Arizona and Northwestern either lost or survived in unimpressive fashion, leaving voters with plenty to sort through.
Utahs convincing win over Cincinnati pushed it into the top five, while BYU and Indiana both escaped with victories that did not exactly strengthen their cases. For LSU, the broader shakeup matters because the Tigers are sitting in a poll picture that feels less settled than it did a week ago, with the teams around them wobbling and the path through the rankings getting harder to read. [Read more 🡒]
LSU's Ranking Suddenly Carries More Weight Before A Massive Showdown
A chaotic week around the AP Top 25 has only sharpened the significance of LSUs place in the rankings heading into a massive showdown. Seven ranked teams lost, and the ripple effects were felt across the country, including a notable Ohio State loss to USC that changed the shape of the College Football Playoff conversation in the Big Ten.
For LSU, the timing matters because every shift around the Tigers can change how their own rsum is viewed before the next big test. Teams moved up and down after the weekends results, and a few others are now knocking on the door with votes to crack the Top 25, which only raises the stakes for where LSU sits when the new poll settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Joe Burrow Just Added Another Historic NFL Moment
Joe Burrow kept adding to his growing list of big-stage NFL moments Sunday, pushing the Cincinnati Bengals to a 43-36 overtime win over the Tennessee Titans in a game that turned into a showcase for his arm and his legs. The former LSU star threw for 462 yards and five touchdowns, then finished the job himself with a 9-yard run in overtime to seal one of the leagues most explosive performances of the season.
The line was historic even before the final snap, as Burrow became just the second quarterback in NFL history to post 450 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in the same game, matching a mark set by Norm Van Brocklin in 1951. Burrow also threw three interceptions, a reminder of how chaotic the night was, but the Bengals will take the result and the latest entry in their quarterbacks growing record of rare performances. [Read more 🡒]