Get to Know Will Wade Basketball

Will Wade is officially in Raleigh and the head man of NC State Men's Basketball. What an exciting time. Let's meet the man by diving into his teams, their respective statistical profiles, what the tape shows on the offense and the defense, and Wade's fit in the modern era of college sports.

Will Wade has won everywhere he’s been, and not always in the same way. The lack of a consistent profile throughout his coaching stops speaks to an ability to win games in different ways and build teams in different ways. Let’s review some high-level statistical data points for each of his stops before we get into some of the nitty gritty

Wade’s VCU teams were defense-forward units. His 2016 team was solid offensively and excellent defensively. His 2017 team backslid a bit on both, but was still strong defensively, and ironically won more games. Wade’s LSU teams were a total deviation. They played with pace, were elite offensively, and were generally between okay and bad defensively, save his last year in Baton Rouge when the Tigers were suddenly eighth nationally in defensive efficiency. 

At McNeese, he put together teams that were more well-rounded and played at a glacial pace. I suspect the lack of high-level shot makers forced him to rely more on set pieces in the halfcourt as opposed to pushing in transition. The halfcourt offense at McNeese was noticeably more diverse than the LSU tape I was able to watch. 

Wade can structure teams in different ways, but there are a couple of trends that have held true through his tenure, the most notable being that his teams rebound very well on the offensive glass and quite poorly on the defensive glass. Expect State to both produce and allow some second-chance points. Wade teams have also had strong turnover differentials almost every season. 2021 LSU was his most recent team to rank outside the top 20 nationally in defensive turnover rate. 

Will Wade Offense

Wade’s offense has not looked the same at every stop, so it’s hard to say exactly what we’ll see when the ball tips in November. There is a lot to cover from the McNeese tape, though. Like I said earlier, the lack of an elite scoring guard pushed Wade to be more structured. That made it a fun watch. 

The well runs pretty deep for Wade and you see McNeese get into some fun stuff at times. What's more common though is wrinkles on basic concepts. This is where I think State fans will notice the biggest difference in halfcourt structure. You see a lot of ball screen actions and 5-out DHO/zoom actions with Wade, all stuff that NC State has ran before, but you don't see a lot of off-ball players with simplistic space-the-floor roles, nor do you see a lot of terminal actions. Keatts’ offensive philosophy was about maximizing spacing and putting pressure on the rim. He would exchange the weak side at times to manipulate taggers and State would make use of random movement basket cuts, but it was largely spacing based. When Wade gets into similar actions, he's always messing with the off-ball players in some way. Keatts' offensive actions also resulted in a shot or an end of possession, especially prior to 2023. A lot of Wade stuff is series-based and flows into other actions.

Wade makes great use of the flare screen. You see a lot of weak side flare screening to accompany ball screen and DHO actions. Off-ball defenders that have eyes to the ball are the targets of these types of actions. The best screen is the one you don't see coming.

The zoom action is a popular place to see this type of stuff. Below is how Kevin Keatts would commonly run zoom and then 3 different ways that I've seen Will Wade run it.

1 down screens for 2 who gets a DHO from 5. 5 rolls to the rim while 2 reads it out like pick and roll. 1 will often shake back toward the point.

1 uses the down screen from 4 and gets a DHO from 2. 1 can attack the rim here or the possession can flow into the loop action from 3.

1 uses the down screen from 4 and gets a DHO from 5. 5 rolls to the rim and 1 reads it out like pick and roll. 2 screens 3 to the weak side corner.

1 uses a down screen from 4 and gets a DHO from 5. 5 rolls to the rim and 1 reads it out like pick and roll. 3 slips a fake hammer screen for 2 and dives to the rim.

Here is the zoom hammer slip play in GIF form

Note 21 stepping up to set a hammer screen and then slipping to the rim. His cut occupied 1 for Clemson and made it harder for him to help at the rim.

You'll come across these examples of purposeful movement in tons of Will Wade actions that are traditionally two or three-man actions. Below, Wade is going to pair a 4-out ball screen action with a front cut and then an exit to the corner coming from the opposite slot.

This creates what's called a double gap for the ball handler to drive into, preventing a stunt from the defender over there. Put simpler, he's using a cut to open space for the screen to attack. Here it is again.

In this example from the Alabama game, McNeese runs a spread pick and pop action, but the pop man sets a flare or comeback screen for the player in the opposite slot as he comes back to the ball.

The result of this play was obviously bad, but it's the design that we're interested in. I've really enjoyed the film study because of all the different attachments to common actions. There are so many ways that Wade is running the same concepts. The variety stands out. Here is a series from the Alabama game.

This initiates with an elbow curl, flows into a pin screen, then flows into ram pick and pop, and finally flows into a zoom action.

In addition to everything we've looked at here, Wade makes good use of the floppy action, different screen-the-screener concepts, Iverson stuff, and more. The variety and off-ball screening actions will be noticeable for State fans.

I was never a hater of Keatts' base offensive concepts. He ran some of the hardest stuff to guard in basketball, stuff that every team runs, but he ran it without much variety and often ran it with poor fits, resulting in difficult-to-guard concepts translating into easy-to-guard execution. Wade's offensive depth is not only fun, but it also points to a coach that can get into a lot of different things based on how his team is being guarded.

I've made two longer videos on Wade's offense. The below one is free. I watched some of the Alabama game and covered some of the offensive actions.

I did the same for the Gonzaga game for our premium subscribers. If you're not currently a premium subscriber, you can join for just $3 per month.

Will Wade Defense

At McNeese, switching screens was a big part of who this team was defensively. The Cowboys commonly switched one through five. This eliminates the advantage the screen creates, but it also creates mismatches to attack for the offense. It’s common to see team that switch like this get a guard matched up on a big, and they’ll front the post as a result. This burned McNeese against Purdue a couple different times. 

The more you can switch effectively, the better you’ll be. Switching effectively means being long and athletic across the board. Mo Diarra was the greatest switch defender in the history of basketball, capable of picking up guards 30 feet from the basket and guarding in the post. That’s the kind of player that makes you effective at this style of defense. 

Of course, this is just what McNeese did. It doesn’t mean Wade will bring the same process to Raleigh. He notably threw a zone at Clemson after playing little to no zone all season, so he’s not afraid to make changes on the fly. 

Will Wade the Guy

Perhaps my favorite thing about Wade is that he’s not some old grump being dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era of college athletics. We don’t have to like what’s happened to college athletics, but if we care about winning games, we better embrace it. Nobody has publicly embraced it more than Will Wade. 

While coaches across America complain about the transfer portal, and in some cases rightfully so, Wade has embraced it not just as an opportunity for his team, but also a non-threat. Kevin Keatts said he might look to hire a GM this offseason. It was the first thing Will Wade did. It’s a totally different landscape now, and State found a program leader that is on the right side of the adoption curve. 

This hire and the surrounding transformation shifts the whole program toward the right side of the adoption curve for the current collegiate model. That’s the only place you can afford to be if you want to win.

Speaking of modernizing, State's significant increase in NIL budget is probably the single biggest part of this whole transition. Kevin Keatts wanted Ryan Conwell and Ezra Ausar in the portal last year but got outbid by Xavier and Utah. Those kinds of stories should be a thing of the past for State, who is now swimming in a pretty pool, but is itself a solid-sized fish.