Back in March 2019, LSU indefinitely suspended men’s basketball coach Will Wade after a Yahoo Sports report on Wade’s 2017 comments to middleman Christian Dawkins, comments caught on a FBI wiretap. Those comments were about a “strong-ass offer” to recruit Javonte Smart (who did wind up coming to LSU), with discussions of the “piece of the pie” towards the player. That suspension only lasted a month, but it did reportedly lead to changes in Wade’s contract, including the removal of bonuses and the ability for the school to fire him for cause if they found he committed a Level I or Level II NCAA infraction, or if the NCAA infractions committee issued a formal notice to LSU that Wade was involved in a Level I or Level II infraction. Well, three years later, the NCAA issued a formal notice of allegations to LSU earlier this week, and the school parted ways with Wade Saturday:
Sources: LSU has parted ways with Will Wade.
Kevin Nickelberry will be the interim head coach.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 12, 2022
The Tigers also fired assistant Bill Armstrong Saturday. Nickelberry, their interim head coach, was the head coach at Howard from 2010-19, then joined LSU as an assistant. LSU also confirmed Wade was fired for cause. (It’s worth noting that LSU’s current athletic director, Scott Woodward, joined the school in late April 2019, and that the decision to reinstate Wade earlier that month was from his predecessor, Joe Alleva.)
#LSU releases a statement confirming Will Wade was fired with cause, in addition to assistant Bill Armstrong.
They say the firing is not "an acknowledgment of agreement with the allegations." pic.twitter.com/mMoJfBmqV9
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) March 12, 2022
And this came around reports of the details of the notice of infractions to LSU, including “lack of institutional control”:
#LSU slapped with the dreaded "lack of institutional control" and the university, in total, committee eight Level 1 violations and two Level II violations, the NCAA says. There is a pattern of non-compliance and those in authority condoned the cheating, NCAA says. pic.twitter.com/anu85SVTxg
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) March 12, 2022
These moves come after LSU went 22-11 during this regular season and fell 79-67 to Arkansas in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament Friday. The Tigers were seen as a team with a 99 percent chance of making the NCAA tournament earlier this month, and are still projected as a six seed by CBS’ Jerry Palm. So it will be interesting to see, if they are in fact picked, how they do under their new interim head coach.
