Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports
By Hunt Palmer
While the nation scoffed, LSU basketball raised its floor.
That floor is low. Really low.
Trent Johnson hit it at 2-14 and 3-13. Johnny Jones hit it at 2-14. Matt McMahon went 3-15 in back-to-back years. LSU is quite capable of a last place SEC finish on the hardwood. Football hasn’t done that since 1992, and it’s not happening in baseball any time soon.
It’s not happening under Will Wade, either.
Wade will don his black hat again when in front of the masses. Bolting after a year on Tabacco Road makes him and LSU the villains once again. But his track record is crystal clear. He’s had limited success in the NCAA Tournament, but he consistently wins.
At Chattanooga, he went 27-7 in conference to propel him to VCU. There, he posted back-to-back 14-4 conference records and reached the NCAA Tournament in both seasons. His LSU journey is well documented. He took the reins of a program firmly planted on that submarine-level floor and beat Michigan, the eventual national runner-up, in his third game in Maui and made the NIT in year one. The next year he won the SEC and went 37-23 (.617) over his final four years in league play. LSU qualified for three NCAA Tournaments in five years and would have in the 2020 canceled season.
If you give him a bid in 2019-20 canceled by COVID, his Tournament rate is 80% at LSU and 8-of-9 between three schools. He’s qualified for seven straight with the COVID asterisk. LSU’s rate in the non-Wade seasons since 1993 is 21%. The Tigers don’t even qualify every presidential term.
After his show cause lapsed, Wade went 36-2 in Southland Conference play at McNeese and parlayed that into the NC State gig where he went 10-8 in the ACC and again made The Dance.
Sure, some of Wade’s work was in a different era, but above all else he’s shown the ability to adapt.
Winning at Chattanooga is not the same as winning at LSU. He did both. Recruiting Tremont Waters and Naz Reid is not the same as assembling a transfer portal roster at NC State. He did both. Working deals in the shadows and allocating shared revenue are not the shame. He’s done both. One was illegal, but I’m more surprised those throwing stones regarding that era of college basketball could free their hands of the pearls they’re clutching to cast such dispersions.
Wade’s won in different eras, and he’s done it different ways.
Of course, he won the SEC in 2018-2019. His 2020-2021 team led by Javonte Smart, Cam Thomas and Trendon Watford ranked No. 10 in the country in offensive efficiency. The very next season, he coached Tari Eason, Xavier Pinson, Brandon Murray and Eric Gaines to a No. 4 defensive efficiency.
He adapted.
He got players to LSU pre-portal. He got Eason and Pinson to LSU in the portal. He embraced NIL and revenue sharing over the last three seasons when high profile coaches complained about it and even retired. He’s performed in ever-changing circumstances despite his relatively short career.
None of that is debatable.
No pundit or Tiger fan is under the impression that LSU has landed the next Tom Izzo or Mike Krzyzewski. Wade has reached the Sweet 16 once and wasn’t allowed to coach it. His eagerness to get back to Baton Rouge after a scrutinized tenure and unceremonious dismissal speaks volumes about his commitment to the state and school.
Men’s basketball can get shoved in a closet by the LSU athletic department and fan base. Football runs the show. Baseball stands alone atop its sport. Women’s basketball and gymnastics currently outdraw men’s basketball in its own building. Wade kicks that closet door down and demands attention at the very least. The SEC title he won suggests there can be more.
He’ll light up the phones in 11 days to assemble his first/next LSU roster via the transfer portal. Soon, those shoes will be squeaking on the Assembly Center Floor.
It’ll be raised.
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