McNeese State Cowboys head coach Will Wade is one of several coaches who were punished previously in their career for doing what is now legal across college sports; offering packages to recruits.
While head coach of the LSU Tigers, he was relieved of his duties following a federal wiretap featuring him discussing a financial offer to a player, which was a recruiting violation at the time.
In the name, image and likeness era, offers like that are not only allowed but encouraged. If you are not willing to pay top dollar to star recruits, your team is going to struggle remaining near the top of their sport.
However, money isn’t everything in Wade’s opinion when it comes to building the most successful team.
During an appearance on Wake Up Mintzy, he was asked about the current state of college basketball and what goes into a program finding success.
“Everybody acts like, ‘Ah, the best teams are going to get the best players.’ But to me, there’s a couple of factors,” Wade said, via Matt Connolly of On3. “One, you’ve gotta have the money. Two, then you’ve gotta be able to have the relationship to get the right players with the money. And then three, you’ve gotta have the sense to be able to fit it all together. Just because you have money, money doesn’t solve all the problems.”
Chemistry and cohesion certainly help, but the head coach isn’t naive enough to believe that having deep pockets won’t aid in some fashion.
“Now, don’t get me wrong, having a bunch of money helps. That’ll help,” Will Wade said. “But it doesn’t solve every problem. You’ve still gotta have the relationships to get to the right people to get to the right kids, to spend that money on. Either that or you’re just going to have a bunch of money and overpay for mediocre players.
“So you’ve gotta have a good plan, even though you have the most money. I think if you look right now at what most people consider some of the top spenders in the sport, they’re not performing as well, probably, as what they spent. So you’ve gotta be able to spend it wisely.”
The Cowboys aren’t nationally known, but Wade is looking to change that as he looks to have figured out the formula to finding success on the court.
In his first season at the helm, the team went 30-4, going 17-1 in the Southland during the year and winning the conference tournament. That resulted in them earning a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but their stay was a short one as the Gonzaga Bulldogs eliminated them in the first round, 86-65.
This year he has McNeese State playing at a high level again.
They are currently 15-5 on the campaign and a perfect 9-0 in the Southland thus far as Wade has quickly turned things around after they labored through 11 consecutive losing seasons.
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