Will Wade hopped a plane to Baton Rouge yesterday, and just like that, his long con of NC State was over.
If you want to ask yourself why you didn’t see this coming, it’s because nobody did. We’ve spent the past two days talking to people on the periphery, people within the NC State ranks, people who dealt with Will on the money side, and those who were involved in the day-to-day operations of this basketball team.
The ones that felt like things were off, most of them chalked it up to Wade likely setting up for a big leverage play in an attempt to increase NC State’s NIL budget. All of these people are regular, hard-working people who are used to dealing with other normal hard-working people. The reason this wasn’t sniffed out earlier is that it’s hard to imagine someone you interact with daily is actually a pathological liar and a sociopath of this level. Will Wade spent the last 365 days manipulating everyone around him to get what he wanted.
He chose a desperate fan base who would be willing to see through his lies as he masqueraded as a savior. He posed as our icons, he learned our lingo, and studied our culture. But it wasn’t to fit in with us and join our battle. He was never one of us; it was to use us for his personal gain. To use this program as stepping stone back to LSU.
But did he have help?
As I talked to those who spent time with him, most either said or hinted at this probably being ‘his plan all along.’ Think about that. How far back does this go?
Was this a Schroyer-Wade setup from the jump?
Watch that video above. See the grey-bearded guy celebrating like “We did it, Will! We pulled it off!”
That’s Heath Schroyer. That’s the former McNeese AD. The one who hired Wade to McNeese after he was caught cheating at LSU. The one who was recently hired by LSU and was the reported lynchpin in the deal for Wade to head back to Baton Rouge.
But let’s call Schroyer what he really is, a failed coach.
Schroyer played at DeMatha before jumping into the coaching ranks as a grad assistant at Fresno City College under Steve Cleveleand. When Cleveland left to take the BYU job, Schroyer followed and became an assistant. He then left to become an assistant at Wyoming before getting his first head job at Portland State.
Over 3 seasons at Portland State he went 35-47 (.427). Two horrible seasons and one good one, which he parlayed into the head coaching job back at Wyoming. He failed here too, going just 49-68 overall, finishing 8th twice, and winning just one conference game in his 4th season before being fired.
He dropped down to UT Martin where he actually had two good seasons, which he used to get back to the big leagues. In this case, NC State.
Schroyer caught on as an assistant under Mark Gottfried at NC State, who, after 4 consecutive NCAA appearances, was coming off an awful 13th-place finish. Schroyer came in and did what he was used to doing, he lost. The Wolfpack 4-14 in the ACC that season, and Gottfried was fired. Schroyer was looking for his next stop.
This is where he lands at McNeese St. But before he became AD, he was the head coach. But as usual, under his leadership, McNeese was horrible. In a weak Southland Conference, Schroyer took them to finishes of 12th place, 6th place and 9th place before stepping down to become the athletic director.
Schroyer handed the head coaching duties over to his associate head coach for a season before seeing an opportunity to bring in Will Wade.
So, it’s easy to see now. The whole McNeese St. narrative is bogus, too. From the outside, it looked like Will was given a chance by a small school that welcomed him into their community, and he became family as he helped them win their first NCAA Tournament game in history.
In reality, McNeese was just the platform for a group of guys who had a plan to use each other to climb the ladder.
With those close to Will realizing this was his plan all along, to his infatuation with Heath Schroyer. You have to be wondering. Was NC State actually the target?
Heath Schroyer had been here. He knew the culture and the passion. He knew the desire, but he also understood the desperation. It was rumored on both the LSU and the NC State side that Wade spoke frequently to Schoyer over his tenure with the Wolfpack.
Was the deal simple? Schroyer offers Wade a shot to get back into coaching, and then will cling to him during his climb. Wade get his foot back in the door, and helps Schroyer climb out of mid-major failure, into a big-time LSU payday (where Wade is close with the donors already).
Was NC State the stepping stone? A program desperate enough to hire Wade, give them the contract he needed with a low buyout, competitive NIL and tons of media?
At this point, to me, it looks like we were likely conned in a long game by a former assistant. But hey, that’s just a working theory.
What else are we learning?
There’s a ton still in motion right now, but there are a few things that have become more clear.
– NC State is targeting 3 or 4 coaches initially, but the big money seems to want Josh Schertz. I’d categorize him as the main target right now. The fanbase is split, with some wanting the St. Louis head coach and others ready to take a shot on former PG and Tennessee’s associate head coach Justin Gainey. As for who the other two targets are, we have heard names but haven’t confirmed, so we’ll circle back to those when we can do that.
– Contrary to other reports, Wade is not bringing his entire staff with him to Baton Rouge. We’ve heard that some actually refused to go because of how this all played out. The ones we have full confirmation that did go are Greg Goldin (strength/conditioning), Reed Vial (Wade’s assistant), Vernon Hamilton (asst coach), Nick Flory (operations), Brady Jones (video coordinator), and Isaac Stanbury (assistant analytics). We have not gotten confirmation on Adam Howard (assistant coach) or Brandon Chambers (assistant coach). But do know that Patrick Stacy (Asst. GM) did not follow Wade. Howard and Chambers could be candidates for head coaching roles in the coming weeks, but we’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out. As for Stacy, we’ll have more on his future soon. We do know his behind-the-scenes analytics work as assistant GM was highly valued by everyone in the program.
– GM Andrew Slater will likely not be following Will Wade to LSU (at least initially). In fact, the rumors reported last week about him being let go, prior to all this blowing up, are true. He is gone. He is not part of any transition team (which I’m told is being reported elsewhere). Slater came in with so much hype from the Oklahoma City Thunder, but ended up being a massive miss (in our opinion). His main targets, Rippey and Mingo (both 5 star PGs) went elsewhere, and he was unable to deliver any true talent from overseas. Believe me, I’m going to do some digging here because this guy was supposed to have all of these connections, and did he bring in a single player? Again, more to come here.
– NC State is doing everything possible to hold onto Paul McNeil Jr and Cole Cloer while they find a head coach. Both, as you would expect, are hearing from tons of schools. But both have actual ties to NC State prior to playing, so this isn’t your usual situaiton. I’m not going to put odds on anything right now, but there is a possibility NC State can keep both with the right hire, but McNeil is a HOT commodity, and there are a lot of people in his ear. If you’re a Wolfpack fan and want him here, maybe let him know, because while Wade told Matt Norlander (CBS) that he won’t poach all of State’s roster, he is certainly going to go after Paul.
– We can also confirm Wade skipped his final meeting with Boo, after Boo took the time to put together a new package, and resigned by email. He was never operating in good faith. Not at the beginning and certainly not at the end.
