Clemson dodged a bullet with Will Wade

Clemson athletics dodged a huge bullet when alumnus Will Wade decided to take the head coaching job at LSU in 2017.

Clemson basketball coach Brad Brownell has been on the proverbial hot seat for quite some time. There were a lot of internal talks about getting rid of Brownell after he led the Tigers to a 17-16 overall record and a 6-12 record in ACC play after the 2017 college basketball season.

You remember that season, it was supposed to be one of the better years under Brownell. Jaron Blossomgame came back for his senior year, Gabe DeVoe was a junior and Donte Grantham, Marcquise Reed and Shelton Mitchell were all ready to go.

What a disaster that season turned out to be.

Early season losses to Xavier and Oklahoma really set the tone for the rest of the year. The Tigers would open up ACC play with a win at Wake Forest but then lose six straight conference games.

At the end of the year, Clemson reached out to see if Will Wade was interested in leaving VCU and wanted to come home. If you don’t know, Will Wade was a basketball manager under Larry Shyatt and Oliver Purnell. When he graduated, Purnell gave him a grad assistant opportunity and he worked his way up from there at several other programs.

He was among the hottest commodities at the time as he had turned UTC basketball around and kept VCU rolling after Shaka Smart left for Texas. The big boys in college basketball wanted him bad.

According to sources in 2017, Will Wade initially accepted the Clemson offer to become its next head coach but at the last minute backed out because LSU was offering more money and Clemson would not match the offer.

If this is true, it was the best decision that the Clemson athletic department has ever made.

Clemson athletics would have been turned upside down

This morning ESPN published a story that the NCAA has accused Wade of offering illegal benefits and payments to “at least 11 potential recruits”.

"Wade “arranged for, offered and/or provided impermissible payments, including cash payments, to at least 11 men’s basketball prospective student-athletes, their family members, individuals associated with the prospects and/or nonscholastic coaches in exchange for the prospects’ enrollment at LSU.”"

How bad is Will Wade, just let this quote from former NBA runner Christian Dawkins tell you.

"“Just the audacity. You’ve got to take your hat off to him, man,” Dawkins said. “He not only didn’t get charged for anything, not only did the government have all of this information and evidence and nothing was happening on a criminal level, he also basically just said f— you to the NCAA and the university he worked for … and he still got to keep his job and make millions of dollars. It’s like the perfect storm.“Will Wade is definitely a f—ing gangster for what he did.”"

Dan Radakovich dodged a huge bullet and we should all be a little more appreciative of who Brad Brownell is and what he brings to the table. It’s not always about wins and losses on the court.