‘It's gonna be a reckoning for the ACC': New NC State coach Will Wade says the ‘Pack is Back'
RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) — New NC State head coach Will Wade held his opening press conference as the new leader of the pack on Tuesday, speaking to Wolfpack fans for the first time.
Wade did not mince words in his opening presser and made it clear that he is coming to Raleigh to make his mark.
'It's going to be a reckoning for the ACC. It's going to be a reckoning for college basketball, and it's coming, and it's coming soon,' Wade said about the future of the NC State program.
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Wade further elaborated on the speed in which he anticipates finding success in the ACC stating that he expects immediate results.
'I want to be very clear. This is not a rebuild,' Wade said. 'We're going to be in the top part of the ACC next year, and we're going to the NCAA tournament.'
Wade also made clear his intent to restore pride to a Wolfpack fanbase that is often marginalized in comparison to its Tobacco Road neighbors, UNC Chapel Hill and Duke.
'We want to be a source of pride for everybody. When you walk in the office on Wednesday night after we play, we want you to puff your chest out,' Wade said. 'Let them know, 'yes, we're NC State, and we whipped you last night. You got more of them coming'.'
Later, during the presser, a reporter asked Wade a question about his thoughts on NC State's Tobacco Road rivals, and he referred to UNC and Duke as 'some bully neighbors' and said his goal is for the two blue bloods to 'turn around and be chasing us.'
Wade also called for NC State fans to sell out the Lenovo Center for his first game as head coach.
'We need to send a message. We need to let the state, the ACC, and the nation know that the pack is back, and we are not to be messed with,' Wade said to Wolfpack fans.
To close his opening marks, Wade also touched on a subject that has been a major complaint for NC State fans in recent years — consistency.
Wade says that he is going 'to build a consistent winner that's consistently at the top of the ACC, consistently in the NCAA tournament, and consistently competing for the national championship here at NC State.'
That statement on consistency rang true for Wolfpack fans who have seen the program make two runs to the Sweet 16 and one run to the Final Four in the same 14-year time period that the program has failed to post consecutive winning records in ACC play.
Wade has experienced massive success in all four of his stops as a head coach thus far in his career, despite being only 42 years old.
Wade cut his teeth as an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University and was on staff for VCU's memorable Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2011.
His first career stop was at the University of Tennesse at Chattanooga, where he was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year in 2014 for leading the Mocs to 8-0 start in conference play his first year on the job.
Chattanooga nearly won the SoCon in 2015, and afterward, Wade returned to VCU, this time as the head coach.
Wade spent the next 2 seasons at VCU, making the NCAA Tournament in both years and winning a tournament game in 2016 before taking a head coaching position at Lousiana State University.
Wade inherited a 10-win LSU team and led them to a winning record and NIT appearance in his first season in 2018.
His team took a leap in his second year in 2019, with a 25-5 start that saw the Tigers sitting in first place in the SEC standings.
LSU's promising 2019 came to a screeching halt when Wade was suspended for the 2019 NCAA Tournament and the Tigers went on to lose in the Sweet 16 with an interim coach.
That suspension, along with multiple allegations of misconduct within the program derailed most of the momentum Wade had built in Baton Rouge those first two seasons.
The 2019 suspension was based on an FBI wiretap that allegedly captured Wade referring to a 'stong a** offer' for a recruit, which was not allowed under NCAA rules at the time.
'arranged for, offered and/or provided impermissible payments, including cash payments, to at least 11 men's basketball prospective student-athletes, their family members, individuals associated with the prospects and/or nonscholastic coaches in exchange for the prospects' enrollment at LSU.'
While Wade would go on to be reinstated following the 2019 season, LSU would never reach the heights of that 2019 season again before Wade was ultimately fired in 2022.
According to ESPN, Wade agreed to a new contract that granted LSU the ability to fire him with cause if he committed any Level I or Level II NCAA rules violations when he was reinstated in 2019.
One of the allegations against Wade listed by ESPN alleges that he gave 'impermissible cash payments to the former fiancée of a student-athlete in order to buy her silence regarding prior and current impermissible inducements to student-athletes or prospective student-athletes.'
ESPN reports that the NCAA also accused Wade of violations of ethical conduct principles and failing to cooperate with investigators, 'as well as a number of other allegations the [Complex Case Unit] was ultimately unable to substantiate fully, when he refused to produce all records the CCU requested from him.'
Wade would be hired again as a head coach at McNeese State in March 2023, however, he was given a 10-game suspension and a two-year show-cause penalty for the alleged violations at LSU.
Wade took over a McNeese team that had only won 11 games in each of its previous two seasons when he arrived.
The team had an 8-2 record once he finished serving his 10-game suspension and Wade took over and did what he has done and all of his coaching stops — win.
The Cowboys went 22-1 in their next 23 games, winning the Southland Conference and making the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002.
While McNeese lost to Gonzaga in the first round as an underdog, Wade and the Cowboys found redemption on Thursday as they upset No. 5 seed Clemson in the First Round.
The win was the first NCAA Tournament win in program history and coincided with a second consecutive Southland Conference championship. McNeese then lost in the Round of 32 to Purdue.
NC State fans are hopeful that Wade will bring his winning ways to Raleigh and return the Wolfpack to the ranks of its Tobacco Road rivals in the ACC.
Less than a calendar year after leading the North Carolina State University men's basketball team on a historic Cinderella run to the Final Four, .
How did NC State find itself looking for a new leader behind the bench just 12 months removed from its improbable run to the sport's greatest heights?
To understand how Keatts has lost his job just one year after an improbable run to the Final Four, it must be understood how improbable last year's run was.
After ending their 2023-24 regular season on a four-game losing streak, which included two losses in three days to UNC and Duke, all hope was seemingly lost.
NC State finished the season with a 17-14 overall record and went 9-11 against ACC opponents, good for a 10th-place finish in the conference.
At the end of the season, of NC State head coach Kevin Keatts.
Had the Wolfpack lost in the early rounds of the ACC Tournament, Keatts may very well have been fired. However, what happened next will be the stuff of March legend for the rest of time.
NC State became just the second team in the history of college basketball to win five games in five days completing a Cinderella run to winning the ACC Tournament Championship Game complete with wins over Tobacco Road rivals UNC and Duke.
By winning the ACC Tournament, the Wolfpack earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament that they otherwise did not not have the resume to qualify for.
NC State carried the magic into the tournament winning their first four games of the Big Dance including a second win over Duke in the Elite Eight to qualify for the program's first Final Four since 1983.
After falling to Purdue, in the Final Four and the fog of the historic run settled, NC State found itself back in the same precarious position the program was in prior to the Cinderella run.
A program that had posted only two winning seasons in the ACC since Kevin Keatts became head coach in 2017 and had just advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since his hiring was facing a mass exodus of talent.
NC State was forced to replace five of its top six leading scorers for a team that still failed to post a winning record in ACC play in the regular season despite its amazing postseason run.
The results for the Wolfpack were dreadful as they limped to a 12-19 record overall and went 5-15 in ACC play. The record in ACC play was particularly concerning as the league is considered to be in a down year.
The 12-19 record was the second-worst mark of the Keatts era in Raleigh and the second time NC State had a 12-or-fewer-win season in the last 4 years. NCSU started the season with a 9-6 record before losing 13 of their last 16 games.
The Wolfpack's struggles also carried over to the recruiting trail as they only had 2 commitments for their 2025 class at the time of Keatts' firing, which ranked ninth out of 18 ACC schools and 47th in the nation, .
The 2023-24 season will always be among the fondest memories for NC State fans. Particularly those who were not around to see the 1974 and 1983 national champion teams.
However, in his 8 years at the helm in Raleigh, Keatts failed to get the Wolfpack to ever perform consistently on the same level as its Tobacco Road counterparts as a program.
There were high moments; Keatts inherited a below-.500 team in his first season in 2017 and took NC State to the NCAA Tournament in his first season. That team also finished tied for third place in the ACC standings.
Unfortunately, the program mostly stagnated or regressed beyond that as the Wolfpack finished all eight seasons under Keatts with a minimum of 11 losses and never finished any higher than sixth in the ACC standings after that first year.
Keatts' teams also failed to win any games in the NCAA Tournament with the exception of the 2024 Cinderella run and even that team would not have even made it to the tournament without an unprecedented and likely unrepeatable ACC Tournament run.
With Keatts' near-decade at the helm in Raleigh now at its end, NC State now hopes that Wade is the coach that can bring the school back to the level of its Tobacco Road counterparts, the same as Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano did in the 1970s and 1980s.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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