PROVIDENCE—The president of McNeese State University lives in Burton Hall, a dormitory on campus. Hurricane Laura destroyed the president’s residence in 2020, so a remodeled two-room dorm was the best available option at a school of modest means. Wade Rousse and his wife live with the students and eat meals with them in the cafeteria.
On Thursday, Rousse celebrated with the students, too, when his university went national, went viral and went to the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The No. 12 seed McNeese State Cowboys dominated the No. 5 Clemson Tigers for 32 minutes and held on for the last eight, walking off with a 69–67 triumph that marked the first major upset of this tourney.
“Biggest day in our school’s history,” said Rousse, wearing cowboy boots and jeans with his blue blazer. “One of them, for sure.”
Rousse described this as the culmination of a two-year strategic plan for the school, which has an enrollment of about 6,200. “It’s just unbelievable how it’s worked out,” he said with a giggle of disbelief. The plan involved hiring a radioactive basketball coach, taking the PR hits that came along with it, and then letting him do his thing. Winning, as always, would be the deodorant.
Will Wade isn’t at McNeese for a long time, just a good time. Thursday was the best of times for the Cowboys and their onetime outlaw coach. Whenever they are eliminated—maybe Saturday by the Purdue Boilermakers, maybe not—he will leave for the North Carolina State Wolfpack.
That is, in vague terms, part of the two-year plan. Wade had been fired at LSU in 2022 for a panoply of NCAA rules violations, and this was the rebound job. He was in Lake Charles, La., to launder his image and win enough games that a power-conference program couldn’t resist him—and here we are, right on time.
What did McNeese get out of the deal? Rousse says the first year-plus under Wade, which ended in an NCAA bid and first-round defeat last season, helped spur a reversal of declining enrollment. It led to a spike in applications for admission. And he is sure that taking it a step further into March Madness this year will compound those positive trends.
“We understand that the athletic profile can elevate the academic profile,” Rousse said. “If we can attract that marginal student that’s in Jennings and Hackberry and all around our surrounding area that’s thinking about other institutions … we’re in the business of changing lives.”
McNeese State changed a bit for the better Thursday. The Cowboys are more than just a manager with a boom box, which had pretty much been their previous claim to national fame.
Wade erupted in strong-ass celebration when the game was over. He shook his fists in purple-faced euphoria, making his way into the stands. He was bear-hugged and lifted off his feet by athletic director Heath Schroyer, then embraced Rousse, who was crying happy tears on the court.
It’s all ending soon, but everyone is going to enjoy it while they can. His reboot in a backwater bayou town has been a win-win situation for the school and the coach.
“They thought we were a little wacky when we did it,” Wade said. “But, hey, who’s laughing now?”
At age 42, Wade has proved his coaching chops. He’s won 50 of 58 games at McNeese, and before that was 105–51 at LSU, 51–20 at VCU and 40–25 at Chattanooga.
That’s why NC State went after him. In a reversal of time-honored tradition in college sports, nobody is even denying the deal. Wade says he has been up front with his players about his plans, and that his players have done the same with him. Laying all their cards on the table for each other sure didn’t hurt McNeese’s focus for this NCAA tournament.
The Cowboys came out and rocked Clemson early with their athleticism and aggressiveness. Wade also confused the Tigers with a 2-3 zone defense that he said he’d been keeping in the back pocket all season, just to pull out for the NCAAs. (This is one advantage that comes with completely dominating their low-major conference, the Southland. McNeese could win that with one strategic arm tied behind its back.)
The result was a stunning first half—McNeese led 31–13 at intermission. The Cowboys were dunking on the Tigers, running past them and swatting away passes. After just a few minutes it looked like McNeese, not Clemson, was the team from a power conference.
“We went out there and took the first punch and they didn’t know how to react to that, honestly,” said guard Brandon Murray, who scored a season-high 21 points.
Clemson’s loss capped an embarrassing day for the ACC, which also saw the No. 8 seed Louisville Cardinals being routed by the No. 9 Creighton Bluejays. The league got only four bids, and then lost half of them in the first afternoon of the tourney.
At halftime, Clemson was shooting 21% from the floor and 7% from three-point range. Its two leading scorers were scoreless. It was a frankly pathetic showing from a team that went to the Elite Eight last year and came into the tourney talking about wanting to take it further and make the program’s first Final Four.
“They wanted the ball more,” Tigers forward Ian Schieffelin said. “They were more physical.”
McNeese presents the same athletic challenge to Purdue on Saturday. It’s not inconceivable to think the Cowboys could swagger into the Sweet 16.
That would further delay Wade’s move to NC State, of course. But it would add to the exposure boost for McNeese. History elsewhere suggests otherwise, but Rousse is confident the basketball program can continue to be a national success even after the coaching change.
“We don’t think this is up the mountain and then roll right back down,” he said.
Before embarking on the long trip from Lake Charles to Providence, Rousse somewhat jokingly told his staff that the goal was for the school’s website to crash from all the traffic after beating Clemson. While standing on the court after the game, wiping tears away, Rousse got a text.
Sure enough, the McNeese State website had crashed.