UTC Mocs basketball coach Will Wade out of picture for UNC Charlotte job

UTC men's basketball coach Will Wade directs players during the Mocs' SoCon basketball game against the UNCG Spartans on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.
UTC men's basketball coach Will Wade directs players during the Mocs' SoCon basketball game against the UNCG Spartans on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015, at McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball coach Will Wade is no longer a candidate for the head position at UNC Charlotte, a source confirmed to the Times Free Press Friday morning.

The second-year Mocs coach has been linked to the Charlotte job since the university and head coach Alan Major parted ways after the 2014-15 season. The Charlotte Observer reported earlier this week that Wade was going to meet with the university's administration Thursday.

Wade currently makes $187,000 per year at UTC. There would have been a significant bump in his pay had he left for Charlotte, as Major's contract guaranteed him $450,000 per year, and there were incentives in it that could have boosted his pay to more than $600,000.

When Wade was reached Friday morning, he had no comment.

The 49ers compete in Conference USA, which like the Southern Conference had only one team selected for the NCAA tournament -- Alabama-Birmingham, which made it only by winning the conference tournament.

The Mocs defeated UAB 83-67 on Dec. 22.

The 32-year-old Wade is 40-25 in two seasons as the head coach for the Mocs. They went 22-10 this year, including a 15-3 mark in conference play, good for second, but their season came to a disappointing conclusion in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament when they fell to 10th-seeded Furman 69-67.

The Mocs will return 77 percent of their scoring and 78 percent of their rebounding for the 2015-16 season.

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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