UTC Mocs start search process for Will Wade’s successor

Will Wade walked out of the Chattem Practice Facility on Tuesday afternoon, gave a teary-eyed wave and hugged a few people before jumping into his truck and leaving the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

He will be introduced as Virginia Commonwealth’s head men’s basketball coach this morning at 11.

The 32-year-old Wade, who was an assistant at VCU for four seasons, is the successor to Shaka Smart — Wade’s former boss who took the head coaching job at Texas last week.

In two seasons at UTC, Wade was 40-25 overall with a 27-7 record in the Southern Conference, and he was named the conference coach of the year after the 2013-14 season. He was making $187,000 a season at UTC, but there is a report that he could see a jump in salary to $850,000 at VCU.

Smart, who was 163-56 in six seasons with the Rams program, was making $1.5 million before leaving.

UTC athletic director David Blackburn said Tuesday that the process to find a successor would begin “immediately.” There will be no timetable on naming the next coach, he said.

Blackburn said he had met with the team earlier in the day and that the players were “tremendous.”

The 2014-15 Mocs were 22-10 and were second in the SoCon regular season with a 15-3 record. They split with regular-season champion Wofford and were a popular pick to win the conference tournament, but they lost 69-67 to 10th-seeded Furman in the quarterfinals.

The next coach will inherit a roster that could return 78 percent of its scoring and 77 percent of its rebounding. Casey Jones, who will be a senior, is a two-time all-conference selection. Justin Tuoyo, who will be a junior, was also all-conference and was named the SoCon defensive player of the year this past season, while classmate Greg Pryor — one of the conference’s most improved players — was a third-team all-conference selection by the media.

Rising senior Eric Robertson led the conference in 3-point accuracy at 46.8 percent.

“Obviously, it’s hard for them to know that their coach is moving, but the team seems very vested in Chattanooga,” Blackburn said. “They’re proud of their accomplishments — they’re not pleased, but they have the drive to get better and improve, which is what we’re always looking for and striving for as we embark on a new coach search and ultimate hire. That’s important to convey to the candidates out there, that they have a great chance to build upon, improve and make this program stronger immediately.

“That’s our hope and our intent.”

Guard/forward Dee Oldham transferred into the UTC program from UT-Martin in December. He will be eligible after the first semester and will have three semesters remaining. Four recruits — point guard Austin Donaldson, wings LaMarcus Lee and Zaqwaun Matthews and 7-foot center Trey Kalina — can come in and help as well.

“Our program looks extremely bright,” Blackburn said. “We’re poised to have a really good season next year, as well as subsequent years. This gives us a chance now to be in a little bit better of a situation to hire a coach to further advance the program.”

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