re: Wade??? I would pass.

Look, an established coach at a major program would only come to LSU or some other program in the shape we're currently in under essentially four scenarios:

1. He's on his way out where he is/has gotten stale/wants to start over with less expectations.

2. He doesn't get along with the administration for whatever reason.

3. He's a mercenary and you can straight up buy him.

4. He's an alumnus or a local boy and he's "coming home."

Scenario 1 is essentially Tom Crean, and his situation is #1 on steroids seeing as though he got fired. People in such a scenario tend to be a bit hard to get excited about - obviously their flaws are apparent, and nobody likes apparent flaws in their coach.

Scenarios 2 and 3 should also make one nervous, as in #2 you might be getting someone who's impossible to please and will never stop making demands and threats to leave, and in #3 you're taking a coach in the knowledge he's gone as soon as somebody waves more money at him.

We don't have a Scenario 4 and haven't had one essentially since Joe Dean wouldn't throw the bank at Tim Floyd when Dale Brown retired.

Given that, the most likely hire is a coach at a lower-profile school who wants a more lucrative job at a program with top-flight resources. That means you're looking at schools like Tulsa, Western Kentucky, VCU, Butler, St. Mary's, Rhode Island, Tulane, Rice, Central Florida and Charlotte, to name a few at random.

And of the coaches at those schools, there are few who fit the bill of the young up-and-comer with unlimited potential better than Wade does.

Is he a risk? Sure he is. He could be Sean Miller or Mike White, or he could be Buzz Peterson. It's impossible to tell. But he's won at two different programs, his current VCU recruiting class has been rated as high as No. 18 in the country and he's been lauded as an excellent game planner and floor coach.

At this point, LSU doesn't have anything to lose. Unless you want to say waiting a week or longer for Chris Holtmann at Butler to come available or trying to offer Archie Miller $3 million and change to take the job are better options than Wade - and I am more than willing to engage in that discussion, because credible arguments can be made that those guys are better coaches than Wade - I really don't get the idea that he's an unacceptable risk. There were people pushing Rick Stansbury for this job for some reason, and Will Wade isn't qualified?