Fresh off a 30-win campaign, Will Wade and the McNeese Cowboys have their sights set on an NCAA Tournament run.
McNeese State’s hire of head coach Will Wade last offseason was a signal to the college basketball world that the Cowboys were serious about being a significant mid-major player. This program was all that and more in Wade’s first season, winning 30 games and cruising to the program’s first Southland title since 2011 and first NCAA Tournament since 2002.
With a highly regarded transfer class that includes three players from power conferences, McNeese is the heavy favorite to repeat as conference champions. However, the Cowboys aren’t the only team in the Southland ready to make some noise.
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Incarnate Word also landed a quality transfer class that significantly boosts its ceiling, while Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Lamar each return a majority of the players that allowed those programs to win a combined 40 games last season.
1. McNeese State Cowboys
This is the second offseason in a row in which Wade has had to retool his roster via the transfer portal. And for the second offseason in a row, he brings an abundance of high-level talent to Lake Charles. Wade’s impact was felt immediately by everyone in the program, and it produced results that were beyond anyone’s imagination.
Quadir Copeland (9.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg at Syracuse) opted for a starring role at McNeese over returning to his sizeable role in the ACC. Likewise, Brandon Murray (4.3 ppg at Ole Miss; 13.7 ppg at Georgetown in ’22-23) and Bryant Selebangue (4.8 ppg at Arizona State; 12.0 ppg at Tulsa in ’22-23) left quality bench roles on potential NCAA Tournament teams for a shot with the Cowboys. Other proven contributors like Sincere Parker (15.9 ppg at Saint Louis), Joe Charles (11.3 ppg, 9.6 rpg at Louisiana) and Jerome Brewer Jr. (13.8 ppg at Texas A&M-Commerce) should play significant roles, too.
Throw in returning starters like three-time All-Southland pick Christian Shumate (12.1 ppg, 9.5 rpg), Javohn Garcia (11.2 ppg) and DJ Richards Jr. (11.4 ppg), and McNeese has a team that will be among the best mid-majors in the nation yet again. Even after replacing league MVP Shahada Wells, another 30-win season is certainly in the realm of possibility, and so is the first NCAA Tournament win in program history.
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