NC State AD explains Wade's exit: 'I was as shocked and surprised as anyone'
That's funny
All right
Good
Um I just want to thank everyone for coming out
today
Uh I think Philip Rivers said it right And thinking
about who we are and what we are the Wolf
Pack aim for soft people
We're gonna go find a coach that agrees and understands
who we are and what we are
For the past 7 years we've built a culture in
the athletic department based on trust and accountability
We got coaches that want to be at NC State
They want to be a part of who we are
what we are and represent this great university
We thought we had someone
That I've been that came in last year
To lead our men's basketball program
And over the course of the last year we had
developed a relationship
That I believe was based on trust
And accountability There were a number of different conversations that
had occurred over the past year
Involving our program involving everything else in the landscape of
college sports including Tuesday evening for 2 hours to talk
about the entire program
And scheduling and the players and staff and everything that
goes into that
There was no reason for me in my job not
to believe the words that I was hearing coming back
to me
From Coach Wade
And I believe everyone here saw it wrote about it
whatever it is that I want to be at NC
State
That's where I want to be
I look forward to growing it
I was as surprised and shocked as anyone else
As this occurred based on the previous conversations that we
had had
I believed he was telling me his true intentions
I'm disappointed
For our Athletic department
I'm disappointed for our fans
And I'm disappointed for our university
That we're here today
That being said As soon as we received notice of
his resignation
The search began And we are committed to finding the
next coach for our men's basketball program that wants to
be at NC State
That understands who we are
That understands that we're a tough school
That understands that we're a great academic institution
That understands that our fan base has very high expectations
and can embrace that
I believe everyone felt this year being in the Lenovo
Center what this can be
And with 5 sellouts this year
And to hear the roof
Raised at different times during different games because of our
fan base because of our students and their ability to
connect
That's what our mission is and that's what we're going
to accomplish
Questions
You guys would wait
We got a microphone camera to bring to you
How much was the the biopsy How much is the
buyout We good Yeah um so the the buyout we
we uh everything's in negotiation right as you're looking at
everything that's going on
And as we were talking through this I believe everyone
knows prior to April 2nd the buyout was going to
be $5 million
After April 2nd the buyout was going to move to
$3 million
Uh we settled at a $4 million buyout
The reason we did that is to pick up the
days in between
Today which I think is the 26th
Right Today is the 26th until the 2nd as opposed
to having to wait until the 2nd
So for us being able to move forward was just
as not just as important but we understood the dollar
amount versus the value of time and we chose to
settle at $4 million
Hey uh Carly Haynes with WREL
Do you have any reason to believe that LSU was
in touch with Wade before the end of the season
I think that's a question you need to ask LSU
and you need to ask Coach Wade
Um I've got my own thoughts on where we are
um
I know that the number of times we had conversations
about the job including one time where it was do
we need to talk about this And the answer was
no
I believe a number of people may have been at
the ACC tournament
Where the answer was a definitive I'm going to be
here after we lost in the ACC tournament to Virginia
there was another confirmation
After the NCAA tournament there was another confirmation
So I think that's a better question answered by LSU
and answered by Coach Wade
And when were you actually aware of the resignation Uh
yesterday morning
As I as I came into work again you you're
aware of rumor and innuendo but I don't know if
you all know this or not the internet has a
lot of rumor and innuendo on it right It's what's
going on
So again as we looked at that it became apparent
that this could be a potential outcome
And at that point in time we engaged in conversations
Michael Perchik ABC 11 was there ever a meeting that
you had scheduled with Coach Wade this week in which
he chose not to show up for it There was
What was your reaction Did you give any sort of
Communication that he was not going to show up to
that meeting or he simply just no show and you've
not heard from him
Yes he no showed
As well as we did have other meetings
I don't want to say that there were other phone
calls and there were other face to face meetings
But there's also one that was missed
The transfer portal starting how much does that speed things
up And how open are you to maybe Assistant coaches
or people that aren't just college type coaches and how
different is it compared to say last year's search I
don't know that it's a whole lot different than last
year's search
If anything um with the Chancellor Porter moving to the
end of the Final Four maybe there's a little bit
less um from that standpoint
We want to find the right person for NC State
Right And and what that looks like
We need to make sure that we have a person
that's committed to this university that wants to be at
this university that shares our values
Of trust and accountability
They will lead this program
Where it goes well you know these things are uh
kind of living organisms right You you you think it's
gonna go down this path and then it takes a
left turn or a right turn as we go down
it but we're gonna find the right person
Well I may have missed this earlier but at at
what point did you start Coming up with a a
a board or start coming up with an idea of
who might be the next head coach
I'm not a uh I I you know one I
don't have a top drawer in my desk to pull
out where all the names are but you always know
what's going on and and try to pay attention for
what's going on
Did I think it was going to be us at
this point No I did not
But do you have friends that are in Uh my
role at other schools that you want to be able
to talk with and understand and understand the landscape of
what's going on 100%
You do
But like I said as soon as we received um
notification of the resignation we started
I I also don't believe in in doing something before
you know the final outcome
I think there's a lot of people that um actually
I don't know if there's a lot of people that
do this but my perception at times is people move
before anything's done and I don't like that idea
I like the idea of knowing exactly where you end
And then you start
Much like today is going to be the end
Of Coach Wade
And then we're gonna go find a coach and then
we're gonna celebrate the new coach as we move forward
This might be a dumb question but what was your
just your initial reaction when you saw them Disappointment Right
Probably more than anything else you spend a year um
Get to know someone right And you get to know
their staff and you get to know the people around
them and um These jobs aren't easy right Uh I'm
not complaining
I love what I do for a living right But
at times you know you're pouring into other people
It's more about other people's journey than it is yours
I don't care about my journey
That'll be When Chris and I retire and whenever in
10 years we can sit back and look at that
But you spend a lot of time uh personally your
staff spends a lot of time making sure that people
have the resources that they need
Right Making sure that the answer to the best of
your ability is yes
Right We don't say no just to say no
We don't play games with our coaches
We don't posture and do those things
If we can help we're going to do everything we
can to help
So um I would say disappointment
Part of the reporting around it was NIL number to
have to build a roster where would you say that
kind of stances We're going to be competitive
We were competitive this year with our NIL
We've been competitive with uh with our program in general
You look at who we play where where we go
how we travel everything about our program is not is
not missing right Um I believe Coach Wade was very
Uh when he got here very much in line with
we have everything we need right I feel like we
have everything we need and we're going to do everything
we can to uh be as competitive as we can
and compete for a national championship
And you mentioned you're looking for a coach that fits
the NC State
What are some traits you're looking for in a coach
and does it have to be a head coach at
this point No I don't think it has to be
a sitting head coach at this point
I think you know we want to find someone one
that That knows how to coach right It is a
great coach
It has the ability to connect with people right Both
internal external um with the players be able to recruit
you have to be a good recruiter in this day
and age
You have to understand what's going on with NIL what's
going on with the transfer portal
Um how do you put your team together right Have
a plan to put your team together
I think we saw this year um Maybe if if
some of our players were 4 inches taller it could
have been a little bit better right You know not
no shade on our players this year but you know
the the the importance of a rim protector has really
become something um more definitive in college basketball and we
need to make sure that we have someone to come
in here that knows how to build a roster knows
how to put the pieces together in the right way
to have a very competitive team
Hey Patrick Thomas from Spectrum News One
While so much focus is on what we were waiting
to get confirmed that Coach Wade did and now you're
talking about um I want to quickly dive into the
SEC state of it and how while there's been successive
years of increases in revenue it's not necessarily keeping up
with the SEC and Big 10
How do you think that factors into your ability to
draw in headed for a place like NC State
NC State is a great university
I think the ACC is a great league
We live in you know Raleigh North Carolina
I think there's so many attractive aspects of who we
are and what we are
It's up to us
It's incumbent upon us in the athletic department to find
the dollars to be able to rev share to be
able to work with with Learfield be able to work
with corporations be able to find those dollars in the
market but we've got an unbelievably strong base
To work from
You you know we spent a lot of time you
know um Comparisons a thief of joy right And we
we believe that in our athletic department that we need
to do everything we can to make NC State the
best NC State we can be and then let other
people compete with us
So is it a factor It could be but again
that's a better question for Coach Wade
They boo Todd Gibson CBS 17
Pack fans always pony up
How do you reassure them that everything's How how great
was how great was the Lenovo Center this year right
I mean how much fun was it to be in
there with all the people and sharing the passion That
we have um for this great university
Uh yeah I think you can look at some of
the coaches that we've hired and the success that they've
had
Uh but I think you can look at this the
university itself right and what a strong university we have
and finding someone that just connects right That that fits
in with who we are um believes in what we
do at NC State
is a is a heck of a coach
I clean my language up
He's a heck of a coach right Can find people
can build a team can build a roster can sur
surround themselves with the right people right To be able
to take us to a level beyond this year
I mean it's great going to the NCAA tournament right
But it's better going to the NCAA tournament winning a
couple of games and that certainly is what our expectation
is
Can you share anything in terms of what the
Conversations were with Coach Wade when you did meet was
it him asking for certain
Further support for their investment
When you did learn of his resignation did he directly
tell you that he was resigning or you found out
through an agent or Yeah I mean we again go
back to Tuesday night
We talked about everything in the program and and what
we can do um who we're gonna play
Uh you can't really talk
Chance portal is not open so you can't talk about
this person or that person
We talked about last year's team and who was who
was going to be back um
Asked him what he needed right What do we need
To be competitive um
From there uh as far as the resignation letter it
was an email
Right that we received from his agent
Um in talking with his agent so he did not
reach out to you not not from that standpoint
What have you been able to say to the players
with remaining eligibility and is there anybody who I don't
know if the interim coach is the right word but
anybody that will be a conduit I guess until the
transfer portal begins
Yeah we're we're we we have some people that are
still in the building that have been in contact with
the student athletes
I have personally not spoken with the student athletes
I've been a little tied up on on other things
but we have uh senior staff members that have reached
out to our student athletes to let them know that
we are available
Uh want to help whatever they need um from a
workout standpoint from a training trainer standpoint in rehab and
and those types of things
But you know a lot of this in in this
day and age there's going to be a lot of
movement right There's gonna be a lot of movement with
the team and and we want to make sure the
ones that are here that are committed to NC State
know that that commitment is from us
As well and whatever decision they make at that point
it's going to be up to them and whoever we
hire
Going off of that is there a specific you know
team of people in place right now to kind of
help the transition from Wade to the next Yeah there
are there are um uh it's our training staff our
strength and conditioning staff um with all this happening today
I'm not sure you know from a strength and conditioning
standpoint if that person is going to go with Coach
Wade or not go with Coach Wade and the trainer
are they gonna go with Coach Wade or not go
with Coach Wade
Um we did have meetings today with the head of
strength and conditioning with the head of
Um our athletic training uh as well as nutrition to
make sure that we have people in place to make
sure that our students are taken care of
You said that you got the resignation
Email from his agent and that he had reached out
um
To to be clear he has not reached out since
then at all Or have you spoken to I've not
spoken to Will since yesterday at noon
Probably about one o'clock by the time the meeting ended
Other questions Rob
Obviously this is fresh and when you're going through the
process of looking for the next person and I don't
think you can guarantee this by any stretch but how
how much of a priority is gonna be I want
someone that looks at this as an end-game destination instead
of a jumping point
It's a it's a priority right And and um
I believe we're at that school
Right I believe we're we're a school that someone can
stay for 10 years and have an unbelievably great run
here
So that's 100% what we're looking for right We don't
want to be a a a stepping stone on the
way to another job
And again we thought we had that right In every
conversation in every release and everything that was out there
we believed that we had that
Right so we're gonna go out and find someone again
And my final question sir again from no fault of
your own I don't think there's a lot of people
particularly the ones in NIL that subsidize the success of
athletics that feel disappointed maybe even feel like they were
lied to
How do you speak to them in regards to what
you're going to do in the future and to to
sort of say hey stick stick around stick with us
we're gonna do this
Well I I think those people also saw what happened
this year right and the excitement in the building and
the pride that people have in being on Big Monday
and being on ESPN and who we're playing and the
games and and all of those things are a part
of it
That hasn't changed Rob right You you know I think
um Uh I would uh commiserate with them
In terms of uh feeling lied to
Right and let them know that it's not something that
I didn't know anything about and you know as surprised
as they are by what's going on but um reassure
them that we're going to find a coach that wants
to be at NC State
And wants to be at NCC for a long time
Will there be a again I might have missed this
earlier and I apologize if I did but will there
be a search firm for this or do you guys
how are you planning on conducting the search We have
not decided on whether or not we're going to use
the search firm at this point
Um right now we're not we're not going to use
the search firm
Um you know we went through this a year ago
We have a pretty good idea of what's going on
and what the market is and
Um where salaries are and all of those things so
I I don't I don't believe that we're going to
use a search firm this time
Do you feel like it was a misstep at all
in the contract negotiations last year to have a $5
million buyout as opposed to a larger buyout uh by
the end of April Well I mean you can look
at it in a couple of different ways
Uh like today do I wish it was a bigger
buyout Absolutely I wish it was a bigger buyout right
But I think if you look at the the 2.5%
that we were paying Coach Wade as opposed to what
some of the other people were paying uh which was
significantly more for coaches with less experience you know there's
there's going to be give and take in every negotiation
and you know a really good negotiation is when both
sides leave a little bit upset
Right Not everyone gets exactly what they want and I
think that's what it is
And um uh Jimmy Sexton was really good to work
with
I I do want to say that
He he's been a pro um to work with and
I do appreciate um the relationship that was developed with
Jimmy
Anything else Yeah
Who else In the back
OK
Start here in the You kind of touched on it
but how much did you learn during the last year's
coaching search that you can use with this one being
another major hire Yeah I I I think a lot
right It's um
It's a little bit of muscle memory right That does
not mean we want to do more of this right
But the more that you do something you know a
little bit more comfortable you are um in that uh
you know made a lot of really good contacts with
uh with people last year that are carrying over already
uh to this year
I can assure you that between um yesterday it 9
o'clock or 10 o'clock in the morning and you know
today my phone is uh been in receive mode more
than it's been in outgoing mode
Um so there's plenty of people I know that are
very interested in this job and and a lot of
work was done last year that will carry over this
year
um in this fast moving
world of college sports a lot of high profile players
who leave for another For whatever reason get a lot
of criticism how would you compare this to You know
legitimate question
Um uh
In my role I do not spend a lot of
time directly with the student-athletes talking about contracts and talking
about that side
My job um I believe is to be supportive of
our coaches and make sure that they have the resources
that they need
That being said in this in this day and age
this is the day and age that we're in right
of people that want to move and people that are
looking for something else
A bigger better deal if you will um at all
times
And and I think that's uh for years coaches were
allowed to do that and students weren't right And now
students are and coaches are
Um we love being at NC State and we plan
on being at NC State for a long time right
But that's our decision and and where we are
But um You know I I'm I'm just I'm disappointed
by how it went down
I I really am
And I think to your point Jayden that's that's the
word right It's just like really disappointed because you do
you pour into people and um and you do those
things and most of the student deals are one-year deals
right And that ability to to go from school to
school year over year uh contractually is a whole lot
easier than it is you know with a coach in
in this situation
Who most ADs would not have done what you're doing
right now
We appreciate it
Why was it so important for you to come in
here and talk with us today I appreciate you um
saying that
One I think it's important that um we we close
we close this error right What what happened um this
past year and the excitement around the program and that
Um is not something that the next coach needs to
deal with right They get to build on
What occurred
They get to build on 2000 new season tickets that
we sold last year and be a part of that
They're you know their their their their job is to
move us forward not backwards
My job is to deal with what we have today
right And then um in some relatively short order I
don't know what that means right Be able to announce
a new head coach at NC State and allow them
the opportunity to move forward as opposed to answering questions
about Coach Wade
That's what my job is
is to be here and answer the question uh questions
about what happened
Who uh Luke nodes signed with WRIO instead of an
email would you rather that he told you this face
to face I'm a handshake guy you know I'd rather
shake someone's hand and say are we good Are you
staying Are we good on the numbers Are we good
on everything The papers needs to be done all of
that stuff needs to be done
Um so yeah sure I would have
It would have meant more to me but
I'm kind of a dinosaur in some respects right for
what's going on today and um
They viewed that maybe as the most efficient way to
do it or or however he wanted to handle that
Um but again we were not going to come forward
with anything right We were not going to come forward
with a press conference until we knew exactly what the
situation was
And that to me was the most important thing
Do you regret hiring him in the first place No
No I I I think um Going back to this
past year he a lot of people are excited about
NCA basketball
Right and excited about what happened um
This past year and I think it's really hard a
fair amount of self-reflection
On on um on everything that's occurred in the last
you know 24 30 hours whatever whatever that has been
um But he did a good job right When he
was here um it's fun to go to games again
right And to see all the people in the arena
It's fun to Fun to beat beat teams from around
here right And and be a part of that
Uh I guess again I'm disappointed that it ended uh
the way that it did more than I am wishing
it never happened
Good Bye
All right thank you very much
Thanks
Thank you