Myron Medcalf Nov 3, 2026, 07:00 AM ET Close Covers college basketball Joined ESPN.com in 2011 Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato IT MUST HAVE been some strong-ass fog. The jokes and conspiracy theories started flying around social media soon after SEC associate commissioner for men's basketball Garth Glissman announced at SEC media days last month that Will Wade and the LSU Tigers would not be attending because of fog at the Baton Rouge airport. Most years, storied coaches such as John Calipari, Mark Pope and Todd Golden plugging their championship chances would have been the main event at the SEC's annual gathering ahead of the basketball season.
This year, Wade -- and his unconventional roster-- was the belle of the ball. But he couldn't get off a runway in Louisiana. That would seem a legitimate reason to miss the event attended by every other men's and women's coach in the league, if it involved anyone other than Wade.
But because controversy always seems to follow the 43-year-old Wade, internet conspiracy theorists immediately began questioning the validity of the weather concerns, even as local meteorologists confirmed them. Wade is back at LSU years after he was fired in 2022 in part because a federal wiretap caught him arranging a "strong-ass offer" for a recruit. In his second stint, he's still testing the boundaries of recruiting, bringing in international talents, fifth-year standouts who need a judge's approval to play and nontraditional players such as former St. John's star, RJ Luis, who signed two-way contracts with the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics after going unselected in the 2025 NBA draft.
The latter signing is attached to a federal lawsuit the SEC has filed against LSU. Commissioner Greg Sankey said during SEC media days that he was "concerned" about the conference's relationship with LSU after the league threatened to oust the founding member due to head football coach Lane Kiffin and Wade's pursuit of players with professional experience in that federal lawsuit. "I keep conversations to myself, most frequently," Sankey said last month, when asked if he'd talked to Wade about his roster. The NCAA and SEC have drawn a line in the sand, and Wade is doing what he has been known to do -- threatening to cross it.
Four years ago, Wade was out of a job, wondering if he would ever get another opportunity in coaching after LSU fired him. He moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was a consultant for NBA teams and a basketball fan like anyone else."I was in Chattanooga and it was one of the Saturdays that I didn't go to a game for the NBA stuff, and we walked from our house down to this Mexican restaurant that my wife and daughter loved," Wade told ESPN last summer. "It was like 1:30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, and we walked in and there were games on and people were talking." That was a surreal moment, a reminder of how far he'd gotten from the game. Now that he's back at LSU after stints at Mc Neese and NC State, all eyes are on him again.
In a way, the airport kerfuffle was a fitting metaphor for Wade's second chance on LSU's campus. On the first day of the Tigers' 2026-27 campaign, the storm around most of the roster seems to have calmed in time for takeoff, but for its most controversial piece, the fog is still thick.
Source: ESPN General · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing