Will Wade's latest maneuvers at LSU show the circus will follow wherever he coaches

Ouch.

Sporting News

Did anyone really expect Will Wade would not act like a clown when he agreed to return to the circus that is LSU athletics?

We’ve seen how Wade operates when there are restraints in place. In 2023, coaching at McNeese State following his 2022 firing by LSU, he was suspended 10 games and presented a two-year show cause order by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process after the NCAA enforcement staff determined he had “arranged for, offered and/or provided impermissible payments, including cash payments, to at least 11 men's basketball prospective student-athletes, their family members, individuals associated with the prospects and/or non-scholastic coaches in exchange for the prospects' enrollment at LSU."

All of this followed Wade’s recorded comments on a federal wiretap, leaked in 2019, about the pursuit of a Louisiana basketball prospect. His words have become enough a part of the lexicon the Apple TV program “Your Friends & Neighbors” is calling the chain of fitness centers owned by one of the lead characters “Nick’s Strong arse Gym”.

So now we have Wade in an athletic department featuring football coach Lane Kiffin, who walked away from an Ole Miss team still actively competing for the 2025 national title, and women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey, who stands out as the "normal" one despite her curious taste in fashion and, more to the point, public threat to sue the Washington Post even before a planned article about her in March 2024 was published.

And Wade is working in a college athletics atmosphere in which so much is permissible regarding the gathering of talent, and so many of the boundaries that do exist appear malleable. With LSU facing a fairly bereft roster for the 2026-27 season, Wade was going to find a way to at least test what was plausible, never mind how preposterous it might appear.

If it feels ridiculous to us, though, imagine if you’re the person making the donation so the Tigers can pay a reported $5 million to install a 26-year-old freshman at point guard.

Wait, maybe I worded that incorrectly.

Because Darius Garland is a 26-year-old point guard.

That would be a nice get.

Yam Madar is not Darius Garland.

Madar will reach that same age during the course of his first year in Baton Rouge, but that’s the only area in which he’s comparable. Between the ages of 19 and 25, he has been with four different major European clubs, from Hapoel Tel Aviv to Partizan Belgrade in Serbia to Fenerbahce in Turkey to Bayern Munich in Germany. Now back with Hapoel, he hasn’t played starter’s minutes since his first season, 2020-21, when he averaged 16.5 points and 5.2 assists.

In Tel Aviv this past season, he averaged just 10 minutes and 3.2 points in EuroLeague play and 23 minutes and 11.1 points in Israel’s top domestic league.

Consider that Mihailo Petrovic averaged 14.3 points and 7.3 assists for Mega in Serbia’s top league in 2024-25, and this past season with Final Four-bound Illinois didn’t receive double-figure minutes in any game beyond New Year’s Day.

That’s not to say there’ll be a Keaton Wagler to emerge at LSU, or even that Madar will totally flop, as was the case with James Nnaji, who averaged 1.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 18 games after his controversial addition to the Baylor roster last January. It just feels important to note that this could be an unwise investment for LSU.

Wade’s other big diss of the college basketball establishment this week involved enticing former St. John’s star RJ Luis to join LSU on the court – and, no doubt, some sort of legal challenge that will take at least his attorneys into court. Luis signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz last season and then an “Exhibit 10” contract with the Celtics’ G League affiliate. The NCAA has said those players who’ve signed NBA contracts – including two-way deals – are permanently ineligible.

Luis could have spent the 2025-26 season as a senior at any number of high-major programs earning a significant sum as the reigning Big East Player of the Year. But he made the obvious mistake of remaining on the NBA Draft early entry list when there wasn’t much of a market for a 6-7 wing who shot less than 34 percent from 3-point range. He went unselected.

Now, instead of continuing to address his deficiencies as player, perhaps in the NBA Summer League, he’ll be trying to regain that missed college payday.

Center Charles Bediako attempted the same play last winter. He got to compete in five Division I games before a Circuit Court denied his request for an injunction that would have allowed him to continue with the Crimson Tide.

We can see Wade’s desperation in these moves. Perhaps they’ll work: Luis will resume his impressive college career, and Madar will become the best LSU point guard since Tremont Waters. That won’t make Wade any less distasteful. There aren’t enough victories available in the college basketball universe to change who he chooses to be.