Former LSU men’s basketball coach Will Wade is expected to take the same job at McNeese State early next week, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
Wade, 40, emerged as the leading candidate to take the reins of the McNeese program after its season ended with a loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the semifinals of the Southland Conference tournament on Tuesday night.
McNeese athletic director Heath Schroyer, a friend of Wade’s from his days as the Cowboys’ head coach, fired John Aiken on Wednesday morning after Aiken compiled a 22-45 record in two seasons.
When contacted Saturday, McNeese athletic department officials had no comment on the matter.
Aiken went 11-22 in 2022 and 11-23 this season, though the No. 8-seeded Cowboys got within a game of the Southland final and a shot at an NCAA tournament berth.
Schroyer picked Aiken to succeed him after moving into a full-time job as its athletic director. Schroyer seemingly zeroed in on Wade quickly.
Wade was fired with cause by LSU on March 12, 2022, four days after the university received a notice of allegations from the NCAA Complex Case Unit of the Independent Accountability Resolution Process.
The notice of allegations, which still hasn’t been resolved, spelled out 11 violations against the LSU football and men’s basketball programs — seven of them tied to basketball.
Six of the infractions cited in Wade’s program were Level I, the most severe.
LSU suspended Wade at the end of the 2019 regular season after the coach declined to meet with school and NCAA officials over alleged recruiting improprieties. LSU reinstated Wade, who signed an amended contract that allowed LSU to fire him if the school received an NOA containing Level I or II charges.
Because the NCAA’s alleged violations against Wade remain unresolved, he’s allowed to return to coaching as long as he doesn’t receive a show cause when the case is completed.
Wade has a 196-96 record and a winning percentage of .673 in nine seasons as a Division I head coach.
He went 105-51 (.671) in five seasons at LSU, during which time the Tigers won a Southeastern Conference regular-season championship and qualified for three NCAA tournaments.
The Tigers, who also earned an NIT bid in Wade’s first season in 2018, were a lock to make a fourth NCAA tournament in 2020 before the event was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patrick Magee contributed to this report.
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