'We've addressed it head on': Will Wade confirms he's had discussions with NC State

Will Wade fielded questions about his current team in McNeese on Wednesday ahead of the NCAA Tournament, but his honesty about the open NC State coaching position was what stole headlines.

When asked if he's had discussions with the Wolfpack about the open men's basketball head coaching position by 247Sports, Wade was short and sweet with his response.

"Yes," he said with a grin.

Over the past week, Pack Pride has been able to confirm that Wade has met with NC State on multiple occasions -- at least once in person -- to go over contract talks. But with the Cowboys currently in the NCAA Tournament, those discussions have stayed behind closed doors and nothing has been announced publicly about where Wade will coach next year.

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He hasn't held any information back from his McNeese players about the discussions.

"We addressed it head on. I talked to them Saturday about it," Wade said. "Here's what it is, here is where we are. It was just me and our players and we all talked about it. I'm aware of what I have got going on. They're aware of what we've got going on. You just hit it head-on. We're all on the same page with everything."

Wade is currently in his second year with the McNeese program after taking a year off following his firing from LSU. Though he's taken the Cowboys from a relative unknown in the college basketball world to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths, he has said multiple times that his sights have always been on returning to the high-major level.

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"I'd be remiss if I didn't think about it -- certainly I think about it," Wade told Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. "It's really important to make sure you go to the right spot. I've moved around a lot; my daughter's in second grade. I have more things to take into account now. I've got my staff with families. In the past, I've had a young staff, I've been young, I was married and didn't have a kid. You know how it is with a kid now. [Laughs] I don't want to keep moving my daughter around.

"I want the next move -- whether it's this year, whether it's next year, whether it's five years from now -- I want it to be the right move and somewhere we can stay for a while. And somewhere that we can compete at the highest echelon of the sport."

Wade will begin his seventh NCAA Tournament in his last nine years as a head coach -- the 2020 postseason was cancelled -- on Thursday at 3:15 p.m. when No. 12 McNeese faces his alma mater No. 5 Clemson. Keep tabs of the latest on Wade's connection with NC State on the Pack Pride boards.

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