Virginia Commonwealth coach Will Wade reacts during the first half of the team's first-round game against Saint Mary's in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament Thursday, March 16, 2017, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)The Southeastern Conference had one new football coach and two new men's basketball coaches earlier this week at the league's annual spring meetings in Destin, Fla.
Yet only LSU basketball coach Will Wade was new to the event, given that LSU football coach Ed Orgeron guided Ole Miss a decade ago and Missouri basketball coach Cuonzo Martin led Tennessee to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 in 2014 before leaving.
Wade has been on a meteoric rise since accepting his first head coaching job in 2013 with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the energy he displayed when taking over the Mocs has not waned as he tries to rebuild the tarnished Tigers.
"It's exciting to get rolling, but we've got a lot of heavy lifting ahead of us," Wade told the SEC Network. "I want this thing done like yesterday, but there are steps involved in this. We don't want to mortgage the long term for a quick fix for the short term."
The SEC spring meetings are scheduled to wrap up today.
LSU finished 10-21 in its fifth and final season under Wade predecessor Johnny Jones. The Tigers were 2-16 in conference play, their worst such record since going 1-17 in 1966-67.
The top forward in the program, Craig Victor, was kicked off the team last December for violating team rules, and the top guard, Antonio Blakeney, declared earlier this spring for the NBA draft.
LSU's top three returning scorers and the likely nucleus of Wade's first team are senior forward Duop Reath, who averaged 12.0 points per game last season, junior guard Brandon Sampson (11.6) and sophomore guard Skylar Mays (8.3).
"We have a tremendous opportunity to come in and make an impact," Wade said, "and you want to go somewhere where you can pave your own road and carve your own path. You don't want to follow the same path all the time."
Wade arrived at UTC after serving as an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth University. He inherited a Mocs program that had gone 24-40 the previous two seasons and guided a first-year turnaround that yielded an 18-15 record in 2013-14 and Southern Conference coach of the year honors.
The Mocs went 22-10 in Wade's second season and wound up 27-7 in league play during his two years at the helm.
When VCU head coach Shaka Smart left for Texas after the 2014-15 season, Wade chose the familiar path and guided the Rams to a 51-20 mark the past two seasons and a pair of NCAA tournament trips. Wade was making $187,000 annually when he left UTC and was making $1.4 million when he left VCU for the SEC.
Now he's reportedly making $2 million at LSU, which has 10 SEC championships and four Final Four trips in its history but is currently at the bottom of the league trying to work its way up.
"This is a great university that has 12 guys on NBA rosters, and those 12 guys have more than $250 million in career earnings," Wade said. "We will play an exciting style of play. We give our guys freedom, but you've got to play hard.
"These past few weeks have been fast and furious, but that's what you like. You like action. You don't like down time."
Ramsey back at UGA
Georgia will have three scholarship quarterbacks this season after all.
A thin but talented position for the Bulldogs strengthened Thursday when fifth-year senior Brice Ramsey decided not to play elsewhere as a graduate transfer. Georgia second-year coach Kirby Smart announced at the start of spring that the departing Ramsey would help quarterbacks Jacob Eason and Jake Fromm in practice, but earlier this week Smart sounded hopeful of him sticking around.
"He has great experience, and we want him," Smart said.
Ramsey has played in 19 college games as a quarterback but didn't get in any last season. He has ended each of the past two seasons as the starting punter, punting 25 times in 2015 and 20 times last year.
Jennings leaves Tide
Alabama linebacker Shawn Jennings has left the program, according to AL.com. The 6-foot-1, 230-pound redshirt freshman from Dadeville, Ala., was a three-star recruit in the Tide's 2016 signing class.
Jennings is the younger brother of Alabama redshirt sophomore Anfernee Jennings, a linebacker who tallied 19 tackles last season and worked with the first team this spring.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.