Will Wade: A Risky Hire But One That Should Help The ACC

Unless of course he implodes again

We wanted to get back to what we were talking about on Wednesday after it became clear that NC State would be hiring McNeese State’s Will Wade to replace Kevin Keatts.

There are two different aspect to that. The first is, is it a smart hire? Our take - no, not really.

The other aspect: will it make the ACC more competitive? And the answer to that is yes, unless he gets himself (and NC State) in trouble. And you can’t rule that out obviously, given his strong-ass past.

But let’s focus on the positive.

Wade is just 42 and he’s been coaching for a decade already. His winning percentage is .700 (243–104). If he keeps winning at that rate until he’s 62 he’ll be getting close to Coach K territory, just 230 games back of his 1,202 career wins. If he figures out the postseason, he could be closer.

And more importantly, as long as he behaves himself, he’ll help the ACC get better. This mediocrity crap has got to go.

With Wade in the fold, here’s where we would rank the current roster of ACC coaches and our rationale:

1. Duke - Jon Scheyer - perhaps the smoothest transition from a legend ever. Currently averaging 28.3 wins a season. That's pretty great.
2. Clemson - Brad Brownell - people don’t get how tough it is to win at Clemson. He can’t get the top-drawer recruits so he has to develop talent, which he’s done brilliantly.
3. Louisville - Pat Kelsey - big success at Winthrop and Charleston and what he’s done at Louisville this year is freaky deaky good.
4. UNC - Hubert Davis - yes he’s erratic, but he’s been to a title game and at his best has been really good.
5. SMU - Andy Enfield - an outstanding offensive coach. A solid addition to the ACC with a great class coming next year.
6. NC State - Will Wade - never had a losing season, just 42 and could get much better still.
7. Wake Forest - Steve Forbes - we’d prefer more NCAA bids (okay, any) but in general, he’s made Wake much better than it was when he took the job and Wake is no pushover. And all of that as NIL and transfer rules have totally changed the game. Pretty good job by Forbes.
8. Virginia Tech - Mike Young - an offensive master who nearly led Wofford to an upset of Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. Wofford! Facilities and NIL may be holding him back.
9. Notre Dame - Micah Shrewsberry - he’s volatile obviously but well-respected by his peers. Injuries really hurt the Irish this year. Next year he has an excellent class coming in, so look out.
10. Georgia Tech - Damon Stoudamire - like Shrewsberry, in his second year and this year, like Notre Dame, was axed by injuries. Handled the situation beautifully. No one wanted to see this team coming.
11. Cal - Mark Madsen - still building his program but Cal shows signs of reflecting his hyper-competitive personality as we saw most clearly at the tail end of the season.
12. Stanford - Kyle Smith - did well in his first ACC season and one of the best at using analytics, applying it even to recruiting.
13. Boston College - Earl Grant - his teams show immense effort but not great talent. NIL may be the issue here too.
14. Syracuse - Adrian Autry - his first year was acceptable but this year was poor.
15. Pitt - Jeff Capel - he’s been at Pitt for several years now and will need to show some progress.
16. Florida State - Luke Loucks - we’ll see.
17. Miami - Jai Lucas - expecting greatness but have nothing to go on yet.
18. Virginia - TBD