Will Wade is headed to NC State. Will any McNeese State players go with him?
Sincere Parker doesn’t know what his future holds.
He does know that outgoing McNeese State basketball coach Will Wade is “my guy,” and, if the timing is right, he’d welcome another opportunity to play for Wade again.
“If it’s the best option, you know I’m going with my guy,” Parker said Saturday.
Parker, a junior guard, is one of many McNeese players who face an interesting decision after the No. 12 Cowboys were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Providence, Rhode Island.
Their coach of the past two seasons, Wade, is headed to N.C. State to be the Wolfpack’s next men’s basketball coach, as confirmed by the News & Observer. CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein reported Saturday that Wade will sign a six-year deal with the Wolfpack as Kevin Keatts’ replacement and be introduced next week.
With the NCAA transfer portal opening Monday, N.C. State is expected to have the natural sort of roster turnover that comes with changing coaching staffs. Same for McNeese, which has lost Wade after a memorable two-year coaching run.
In other words, the stars are aligning for a potential Lake Charles, Louisiana-to-Raleigh pipeline — if Wade’s players are interested in following him via the transfer portal, and if he has the roster capacity to bring them on with the Wolfpack.
Parker, who averaged 12.1 points per game off the bench for McNeese this season and had 17 points in Saturday’s loss to No. 4 Purdue, said he’d weigh that option.
“Definitely,” he told the N&O from McNeese State’s locker room. “I really haven’t had time to really think about it. … But Coach Wade is my guy.”
Parker transferred to McNeese after two years at St. Louis and was the team’s second-leading scorer off the bench. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
Speaking after McNeese’s first-round upset win against No. 5 Clemson, Wade said the NCAA Tournament was an opportunity for his players to showcase their skills and pick up more interest from power conference schools.
“Half the kids I recruited, I told them, ‘Hey, the goal is to go Power 5 after this year and some of you guys can go with me,’” Wade told the Field of 68 podcast on Thursday. “We all know what’s up.”
Who could follow Wade to N.C. State?
Outside of Parker, there are number of other McNeese players who were a key part of the team’s 50-9 record and consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances over the past two years who could potentially follow their former coach to N.C. State.
Senior Guard Javohn Garcia was McNeese’s leading scorer this year at 12.6 points per game. He said postgame he has one year of eligibility remaining because of recent NCAA waivers regarding players who competed at the junior college level.
“I don’t know how things are gonna go right now,” Garcia said Saturday when asked about potentially following Wade to N.C. State. “I don’t really know what I’m gonna do. … I’ll take it day by day and see what happens.”
Cowboys starting junior guards Quadir Copeland (9.2 ppg, team-high 4.5 apg) and DJ Richards Jr. (9.9 ppg, 43% on 3-pointers) each have another year of eligibility remaining, too. Wade said postgame that he believes senior forward Christian Shumate (10.6 ppg, 6.4 rpg) is “in line” for one more year because of the NCAA’s JUCO waiver. Copeland already has ACC experience, having spent two years at Syracuse.
N.C. State’s basketball team had seven graduate and/or senior players on its 2024-25 roster, and most are expected to have exhausted their eligibility. Guard and leading scorer Marcus Hill could return because of the NCAA’s JUCO waiver.
Paul McNeil Jr., a rising sophomore guard and former four-star in-state recruit, is considered N.C. State’s top young talent and will likely be a player Wade attempts to retain in Raleigh. The Wolfpack has two top 200 incoming 2025 recruits, too.
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
