WATCH: Goodman, Childress & McCall Rank NC State Hiring Will Wade at the Top of their Coaching Carousel Rankings (with TRANSCRIPT)

Randolph Childress, Jeff Goodman and Matt McCall broke down the best hires of the 2025 Men’s Basketball Coaching Carousel, and NC State hiring Will Wade was at the top of their lists. You can watch the video above, and read the transcript below.

Randolph Childress: When I say best coaching hire of the cycle, I always look at fit. Right now everybody’s undefeated. Everybody looks great.

But I got a couple of guys. I thought one, I thought Will Wade going to NC State. I don’t think you can get a better match than those two, right now for what they’re trying to do.

I like Will because he’s coming into a league and he’s trying to establish something there, but he’s a defensive guy. And we know he can recruit and work his tail off.

Getting to know him, Jeff, and I’ve gotten to know him through you, he’s a different guy.

I found myself defending him and people that want to crush him and say things about his past. I thought it was just a testament to him when he was so humble and acknowledged his arrogance, acknowledged his mistakes, and he was humble in who he apologized to, everyone else. But basketball-wise, man, I mean, he’s grown so much and I think he’s a hell of a basketball coach.

NC State will give him the resources to compete. I think they feel they need to get back into that and for a guy, he has an identity of his style of basketball that will be successful. We’ve seen it in a tournament last year with him beating Clemson.

Hell of a coach, and now he gets the right job that I think fits him and that style of play will fit with him perfectly.

Jeff Goodman: For me, I’m with R.C. here.

I mean, Will Wade at NC State, you are not going to find a better fit, right? Those fans are out of their minds. They want somebody who’s going to fight Jon Scheyer, who’s going to fight North Carolina, who’s going to come out and say some crazy shit and then try to back it up.

Will Wade’s already got, Tre Holloman, good, solid pick. Veteran guard coming in. Terrance Arceneaux, talented kid who never got really, you know, a full chance at Houston because there was so much talent and he got hurt. I think they’re going to get PJ  Haggerty as well.

I would think, to me, it’d be hard to argue with Will Wade being the best hire of this cycle because, again, of where NC State is and where they could be with him.

Matt McCall: Well, and Goodman, too, they let a coach go that went to the Final Four. So you have to, like, if you’re going to hire somebody after this guy just went to the Final Four, you better hire the right guy.

And I’m with you. When you go through something as a coach, you lose your job. Whatever happened, you didn’t win enough games, allegations, whatever it may be, you lose your job and you take a year off. I mean, Will Wade moved to Chattanooga and helped start a trucking company there. Like, he was out of it.

And he goes to McNeese. Not the easiest place to go and turn a program around in Louisiana. It’s not. When I was an assistant coach at Florida Atlantic, I had a game there. I’m sure they’ve made some upgrades.

But the authenticity, too, during the whole process of, ‘Of course, I’ve talked to him. Of course, I have. I’m not hiding behind it. Yes, I have talked to him. And you know what else I’m doing? I’m communicating that to my team.’

I thought that was big time. But when you go through something where you lose your job and you have to kind of reset and hit reset.

And he didn’t sit out. But he goes to New Mexico after everything that happened at Minnesota. He loses his job.

There’s a lot of things you find out about yourself when you lose your job. And it helps humble you. And it helps make you a better coach.

And that’s exactly what happened to him. Will Wade, you know, to take a year off and then go to McNeese. That’s, come on, man. And go to back-to-back NCAA tournaments.

So, I like that hire a lot, too,