"Proud To Call This Home": Justin Gainey's Homecoming and the NC State He's Building

Will Wade stood at a podium in Dayton on March 17, a few minutes removed from a 68-66 loss to Texas in the First Four, and told NC State fans the worst was behind them.

"This will be the worst team we have at NC State right here," he said. "This is the floor of our program."

Nine days later, he was LSU's head coach.

Wade had spent most of his final month in Raleigh fielding questions about LSU, and he answered them the same way every time. After the ACC Tournament loss to Virginia, he pointed toward athletic director Boo Corrigan at the back of the room and said he wasn't hired to do a one-year job. Corrigan said the two of them talked about the program's future on a Tuesday night, and he had no reason to doubt what he heard. By Wednesday, Wade's resignation letter was in his inbox.

Corrigan said he was as shocked as anyone. Some fans went to RDU Airport hoping to catch Wade on his way out of town. The school knocked $1 million off Wade's $5 million buyout so it could start its search a few days earlier, which made it NC State's second coaching search in 366 days.

All of it came a year after the school fired Kevin Keatts, who took an 11-seed through the 2024 ACC Tournament and to NC State's first Final Four since 1983, then went 12-19 (0-11 on the road) the following season.