Wiedmer: Will Wade enjoying his new home at LSU

LSU coach Will Wade is preparing for his first season leading the Tigers after two-year stints in charge at UTC and VCU. LSU was picked by media to finish last in the SEC this season after finishing in that spot last season.
LSU coach Will Wade is preparing for his first season leading the Tigers after two-year stints in charge at UTC and VCU. LSU was picked by media to finish last in the SEC this season after finishing in that spot last season.

NASHVILLE - "Quick."

That was Will Wade's description of his whirlwind courtship with LSU before he was hired as its men's basketball coach in March. That ended a two-year tenure at Virginia Commonwealth University that followed two seasons leading the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Wade led VCU to the NCAA tournament each of his two seasons there, with the Rams falling in the first round to Saint Mary's this year.

"We lost in Salt Lake City on Thursday," Wade recalled Wednesday afternoon during the Southeastern Conference's Tipoff 18 preseason media event.

"They called me on Saturday, flew to Richmond to meet me on Sunday, offered me on Monday and I was introduced on Wednesday."

Seven months later, on the day it was announced that LSU was picked by media to finish last in the 14-team Southeastern Conference - which is where the Tigers finished last season - someone asked the 34-year-old Wade why one of the hottest young coaches in the college game would risk his reputation on a school that had just fired Johnny Jones, who was also an LSU alum.

"(UTC women's basketball coach) Jim Foster once told me, 'Never leave for a place that doesn't have any banners hanging," Wade said. "LSU has banners. It's been a while, but they've won 10 league titles and gone to four Final Fours. They also have three of the top 50 players in NBA history in Bob Pettit, Pete Maravich and Shaq (Shaquille O'Neal). There's a lot of tradition here."

It also doesn't hurt that Wade is making $2.5 million per season with a six-year contract.

"For someone with no real basketball pedigree to be a head coach in the SEC really is pretty amazing," said Wade, who actually built quite a pedigree as an assistant at programs as varied as Clemson, Harvard and VCU before taking over the Mocs.

"I'll always love Chattanooga," he said. "Unbelievable place to live. I loved Shuford's barbecue. I'd go there twice a week. And Bluewater. I still stay in touch with some of the fans."

But money - both for his own pockets and his basketball program's budget - forced his hand regarding VCU and LSU. The Tigers reportedly offered him at least $1 million more a year than he was making with the Rams.

Goodbye, Richmond. Hello, Red Stick (Baton Rouge).

"Will's been tremendous," said LSU basketball sports information director Kent Lowe, who is now in his 29th year at the school. "He went out to motorhomes the night before last week's Auburn (football) game to talk about the program. He drove students to class in a golf cart on the first day of school. He's talking about a $1 ticket for the season opener. He really knows how to market a program."

LSU sophomore guard Brandon Sampson said his coach also knows how to build a program through hard work.

"Most running I've ever done in my life," Sampson said. "He wants everybody to bring intensity and urgency to practice every day."

It won't be too many more months before Wade and wife Lauren will be running around their house trying to keep up with baby daughter Caroline Elizabeth, who was born May 1. Of parenthood, Wade smiled wide and said, "It's the best."

How long it might take him to again make the Tigers the SEC's best for the first time since 2009 is another matter.

"Any person could look at this thing logically and say we should be picked last," Wade said of the preseason poll. "We were last last year, and we lost our leading scorer to the NBA. What we have to do is work hard every day to make sure we don't prove people right."

As always with Wade, that hard work centers on conditioning, with the goal to, in his words, "Get ourselves within striking distance in the last six minutes."

He is 91-45 as a college head coach. He knows what he's doing, and he knows what to eat while he's working hard to turn around the Tigers.

"Anything with shrimp," Wade said with a laugh when asked about Louisiana's Cajun cuisine. "Jamablaya. Crawfish. The crawfish boils are big this time of year."

When someone asked him if he'd tried Mike Anderson's, a famous seafood eatery, Wade replied, "I was there just the other night. Chargrilled oysters. Blackened catfish. Fried shrimp."

To help his players look the part when they eat out, he has had them take etiquette classes. Wade has attempted to better know his players' culture by embracing such songs as rapper Future's "Mask Off."

But he knows that ultimately "it's a winner's world. We've got to be more competitive."

But once they are, expect Wade and the Tigers to start hanging more basketball banners in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, which will prove right all the people who ever hired him to be their basketball team's head coach, beginning with UTC.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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