The usual faces were present as assistant basketball coach Kevin Nickelberry unveiled his recruiting board shortly after joining Oliver Purnell’s Clemson staff.
Tucked away in an office of coaches was Will Wade, a 20-year-old student manager sporting a polo buttoned up to his neck and shorts, his trademark legwear in all weather even 20 years later at LSU.
Nickelberry briefly met the “young kid” during his first day on the job a week earlier, when Wade was running a youth basketball camp for the first-year Clemson head coach.
“He had this outfit with a duck or some type of animal on his shirt, some type of animal on his shorts,” recalled Nickelberry, who eventually joined Wade’s staff at LSU in 2020. “I’m like, ‘OK, who’s this dude?’ ”
The bright-eyed manager was taking notes in a room that Nickelberry wasn’t entirely sure he belonged in. Over two weeks, Wade peppered the new assistant with questions, eager to learn from a coach who had helped UNC-Charlotte assemble top-20 recruiting classes in 2002 and 2003.
Wade also demonstrated his knowledge of a variety of players. Nickelberry wasn’t sure whether this was an intentional effort to get his attention. Regardless, he was impressed enough that when Wade volunteered to accompany him on one of his first recruiting trips in 2003, he accepted the offer. Nickelberry didn’t use Clemson’s four-seat plane because of a fear of flying, opting to take turns driving with Wade.
In their three years together at Clemson, Wade never relinquished the wheel, driving six hours nonstop across states even through the night.
This chauffeur role morphed into a de facto recruiting partner. He combined his knowledge with lessons he learned in relationship building. On trips to secure the commitments of K.C. Rivers in 2005 and Trevor Booker in 2006, Wade was dialed in more than his eventual roles as a graduate assistant and director of operations would require.
“It got to the point where some of my guys, Trevor Booker and K.C., where he even created a better relationship with them than I did,” said Nickelberry, now the vice president of Gazelle Group, an NIL representation company.
Another eventual Clemson commitment swayed by Nickelberry and Wade was Vernon Hamilton, now an LSU assistant coach.
“I got to pick up on his personality and his sense of humor, and coach has always been witty, had quick one-liners,” Hamilton said. “I really thought there was a coolness about coach that people always wanted to kind of gravitate towards him even then.”
Nickelberry’s recruiting stronghold of players from his hometown of Washington, D.C., eventually was rivaled by his protege. He told his childhood friend and then-Harvard coach Tommy Amaker to give the soon-to-be 25-year-old Wade his first assistant job.
“You’re gonna think I’m crazy, I got this kid who will be your best recruiter,” Nickelberry told Amaker about Wade.
Determination, intelligence and charisma transformed Wade from that oddly dressed manager to the LSU head coach motivated to redeem himself in his second go-around at the university.
In less than eight months, Wade has the nation’s No. 1-ranked 2027 recruiting class with four top-30 players, landing his third five-star commitment three days before LSU’s season opener against LSU New Orleans at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The success is a product of the drive that makes him live in the gym evaluating talent and texting his assistants about basketball at all hours.
“There has not been a time in the six years that I’ve worked for him that I’ve messaged him that he hasn’t messaged me right back,” Hamilton said. “It didn’t matter what time of the night, what time of the day. I don’t believe coach sleeps.
“You cannot outwork coach Wade. It’s just a fact.”
Those work habits have intensified as Wade embarks on his mission to return LSU basketball to prominence after it failed to reach the NCAA Tournament in the four seasons after his firing for cause in 2022 amid allegations of multiple NCAA Level I violations.
Wade, 43, was once a high school basketball manager at Franklin Road Academy in Nashville, Tennessee, who went to Clemson intending to use his degree in secondary education to become a high school geography and history teacher rather than pursue a coaching career.
“I wasn’t good at much else,” Wade said. “Most would argue I’m not good at this. I never intended to do all this. I was going to be a high school teacher. My mom was a principal for 30-plus years.”
Nickelberry sees it differently. He said Wade, who landed his first college head coaching job at Chattanooga at age 31, reaching these heights is no accident.
“I don’t think a guy who didn’t play college basketball, who was volunteering all this time, driving me all across the country … got into it not to be where he is now,” he said.
His fervor for the profession helped transform him from a mid-major wunderkind at Chattanooga into a coach who has won conference championships at VCU, LSU and McNeese State. It’s why he owns a .691 career winning percentage and has reached the NCAA Tournament eight times in 12 seasons, a total that likely would have been nine had the 2020 tournament not been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wade toes a delicate line. He doesn’t worry about how people deride him but knows the derision exists. From the ire of betrayed NC State fans who watched him leave after one season to the glee of detractors who enjoyed LSU’s seemingly struggle to put together a roster, Wade is cognizant that many are hoping he gets his comeuppance in the form of a disappointing season.
“You sign up to play at LSU, sign up to play for me, you know there’s going to be some stuff,” he said. “That’s just the way it works.”
Wade hears the skeptics, but their words roll off of him like beads of sweat.
Through the recruiting lens, Nickelberry used to tell the ex-student manager, “If you want to be great, you can’t care what others think.”
Wade took that advice to heart. He’s been hardened from the fallout from an FBI wiretap that captured him discussing a recruiting deal with a middleman, his firing for cause by LSU and more. The only opinions he cares about are those within the walls of the facility.
Another misconception about Wade, according to those close to him, is his treatment of people.
He made sure Hamilton’s Virginia family felt welcomed when they came to see him play at Clemson.
Wade spent extra minutes chatting with gas station cashiers instead of hustling back to the car to attack the recruiting trail with Nickelberry.
“Will Wade treats people that can’t help him better than anybody I’ve ever been around with his stature,” said LSU senior deputy athletic director Heath Schroyer, who hired Wade at McNeese. “He is a phenomenal human being. All the stuff that you might read or hear, I’m just telling you, he is an unbelievable human being.”
His interpersonal strengths make him appreciated by players who say the demanding coach instills confidence.
“He’s gonna let you play,” LSU point guard Donovan Dent said. “You make mistakes, he’s not gonna harp on you. He’s gonna ride for his players. I think that’s one of the best things that we all recognize so far, and that’s really what you want as a coach.”
Hamilton made a mistake early on after agreeing to join Wade’s staff. He said he can’t wait to win as they did before.
Wade corrected him.
” ‘No, that wasn’t enough, Vern. We gotta win more,’ ” Hamilton recalled Wade saying. “That told me right there his expectation for me as an assistant, his expectation for himself was higher.
“I think coach is going to win a national championship one day. I’m pretty confident in that.”
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