re: Sauce Team - what’s the word on next LSU basketball coach

NOT
A
CHANCE

There was a group of politically connected donors that wanted LSU to rehire Wade at the end of last season. There was a behind the scenes push to make that happen (which Wade was not opposed to considering), but Tate and Woodward were adamantly opposed to it. They weren't going to rehire Wade. End of story. THAT is why with 3 weeks left in the season a report suddenly came out that LSU was "deficient" in its NIL spending and the plan was to retain McMahon and increase his NIL budget. While LSU wasn't spending with the likes of Kentucky and Arkansas, it wasn't bottom of the league over the course of 3 years low either. It was bullshite PR thrown out their to justify keeping the worst coach in the SEC for another season because they could not report the REAL reason for doing so....Tate/Woodward were not going to make the LSU job open while Wade was at McNeese and people were pushing LSU to rehire him. That got Tate and Woodward crossways with the connected donors...connections going all the way to the Governor's mansion...and ultimately led to Tate and Woodward being pushed out. With them also went the last real remnants of support for McMahon. Barring some sort of flukey run like (ironically) NC State had two years ago, McMahon is done. The program is dormant. The PMAC atmosphere is dead. And the donors don't have any faith McMahon can produce even marginally good results.

All of the "anti-Wade" factions that were previously employed by LSU are now gone. There is zero impediment on LSU's part to bringing Wade back. That's why LSU will make a push at the end of this season to rehire him. The President is obviously fine with him. The donor network he built when he was at LSU still likes him. And the AD knows the fans (absent the few contrarian virtue signalers who pop up here and on social media to defend these last 4 years of futility) would be excited to have him back. He will be the primary target similar to what Kiffin was in football. Book it!

McMahon is being paid more now than what NC State is paying Wade. That means Wade's current contract won't be a big hurdle to overcome. NC State will certainly fight to keep him. But LSU is going to put the ball in Wade's court.

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WW but don’t know if he is willing to come back

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That will be the question.

FWIW, he has multiple people on his staff who were with him at LSU...including Shaw Eddy who had been a trainer at LSU for nearly 30 years until Wade hired him away.

People just flippantly say "LSU" won't hire him and he won't want to be at "LSU".

LSU is simply an entity...run by people. The people who represent LSU today are not the same ones who represented LSU when Wade was at LSU and, ultimately fired by LSU. Those people (namely the President and BOS) like Wade and have no "bad blood" with him for circumstances that happened well before their arrival. As for Verge, he's basically a "yes" man. If the donors want Wade back and are willing to pay the necessary cost, Verge isn't going to stand in the way. He just watched, in part, his boss get fired for doing just that.

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Who is James Madison ad - he’s nailing all coaching hires

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he was until he hired Napier

Wade isn't coming back. The admin isn't gonna let him back. Yall are crazy to even think otherwise. He's gone.

I like the cut of the jib of this Mallet fella. Someone wanna tell me who he is?

We could see a move this week or next depending on how the next 3-4 games go btw.

Which is the better job?

NCST has more historical success and is a more basketball rich state, but it also completes with two blue bloods.

I've never been to Raleigh but I'm sure it's nicer than BR.

Would be hard to pull him imo.

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NCST has more historical success and is a more basketball rich state, but it also completes with two blue bloods.

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Wade is competitive and has no fear. I doubt competing with Duke and UNC would play a huge factor. Likely will all boil down to which school he feels would make the bigger commitment and investment in his program. LSU is under new leadership, but Verge would have to do one hell of a job in selling Wade on what changes LSU will commit to for MBB to warrant him returning.

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NCST has more historical success and is a more basketball rich state, but it also completes with two blue bloods.

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NC State has the two championships....from 40+ and 50+ years ago. No one can obviously dispute that. Otherwise, the program's success is not all that different from LSU's. As I've said before, their average finish in the ACC...not nationally...since 2000 has been 8th. That's not great success. To people who don't really follow basketball much the groupthink is it is a great program. What's more accurate is NC is benefitting from Duke's and UNC's great success from a perception standpoint.

Now, it's not a job that a coach just packs up and leaves as soon as another opportunity comes along. It's a desirable job. But it's not so desirable that a competitor school couldn't pull a coach away from with the right offer. Particularly, in this instance, the competitor will (a) likely be able to offer more money because (b) it's in a more financially rich conference, one that (c) the HC already knows well because (d) he's already coached and had good success at the school that would be trying to hire him.