{"id":689646,"date":"2026-03-31T10:15:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/689646\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:15:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:15:36","slug":"will-wade-outlines-lsu-basketball-plan-for-staff-and-roster-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/689646\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Wade outlines LSU basketball plan for staff and roster | LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

In one breath, Will Wade<\/a> dropped a playful quip about returning four years after he was fired as the LSU men’s basketball coach.<\/p>\n

Not long after, he became serious when discussing his goals in Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n

\u201cLSU and Louisiana deserve a winner, and that’s what we’re going to deliver, and we’re going to deliver that in short order,\u201d Wade said at his introductory news conference<\/a> on Monday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.<\/p>\n

Making LSU a perennial winner is the focus for Wade, and he’ll get his shot when the transfer portal opens April 7. Before that, Wade will have to get a few assistant coaches, which he said will happen by next week. He also explained why he\u2019s not a believer in having a large coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaffs have gotten so big now,\u201d Wade said. \u201cWe’re not going to have the biggest staff in the world. I don’t want to have 100 people running around and walking on top of each other. But we’re going to have our shell recruiting staff in place here in … hopefully by the first of next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade didn\u2019t mention any coaches whom he intends to hire. Once he gets his first few assistants on staff, he said he\u2019ll fill the other staff openings in about six weeks.<\/p>\n

Wade made it clear that he\u2019s essentially the \u201chead coach and the general manager\u201d at LSU right now, and any final decision on who dons a purple-and-gold jersey will come from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll get input from everybody else, but it’s going to be me,\u201d Wade said. \u201cThat’s my job as a head coach. They’re not paying me all that money to have other people make decisions on things. I think that I’m going to have a heavy hand in what we’re doing and deciding who we take and what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade, who coached LSU (2017-22) to three NCAA Tournament appearances in five seasons and an overall record of 105-51, said completing his staff isn\u2019t something he\u2019s in a rush to do. He said he had 182 text messages relating to people wanting to join his staff the last time he checked his phone.<\/p>\n

LSU will be in the nationwide race to recruit players in the transfer portal starting next Tuesday. Wade said that he\u2019s had conversations about the budget for players with the LSU athletic administration, naming athletic director Verge Ausberry, president Wade Rousse and senior deputy athletic director and executive director of external relations for the LSU System Heath Schroyer, who he reports to directly.<\/p>\n

Wade said he was instructed to craft a roster that allows LSU to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s spend until you feel like you have a good enough team to compete in the SEC,\u201d Wade said.<\/p>\n

It was reported by The Athletic<\/a> that LSU can spend \u201cat least $12 million to $15 million \u2014 between revenue-sharing and NIL \u2014 on player payroll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade predicts the total cost of players in his first season will be higher than in future years because most of the roster will come from the portal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to have to go get a bunch of new players, and the new players and the good players cost,” he said. “They ain’t cheap.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first year, yeah, there may be some sticker shock, but we’ve got a good plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wade has confidence that once a player is at LSU, he\u2019ll have an easier time retaining them.<\/p>\n

Four players from last year’s roster already intend to enter the transfer portal: guards Dedan Thomas, Ron Zipper, and Mazi Mosley and forward Jalen Reed. There are five remaining players on the team with eligibility, including freshman point guard Jalen Reece, who was in attendance at Wade\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n

Wade said he\u2019s had one-on-one meetings with \u201cfive or six\u201d players. In those sessions, he brought up his experience coaching former LSU player and second-round NBA draft pick Skylar Mays, who stayed with the program after his initial coach, Johnny Jones, was fired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose conversations will continue,\u201d Wade said. \u201cWe’re going to support the guys, whatever they want to do. If they want to stay here at LSU, we’re going to support them and find a role for them. And if they want to go somewhere else, we’re going to support them in that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one breath, Will Wade dropped a playful quip about returning four years after he was fired as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,5498,4258,8981],"class_list":{"0":"post-689646","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-lsu","11":"tag-lsu-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116323269079483296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}