Cinderella Run Comes To An End For McNeese

Providence, RI - All good things often come to an end, and the Cinderella slipper slipped from the foot of the McNeese Cowboys on Saturday Afternoon in Providence as Purdue dismantled the Cowboys 76-62.

For McNeese, being the Cinderella of the first weekend of March Madness was fun, but the clock ultimately hit Midnight earlier than the Cowboys would have liked it to have.

“I mean, Purdue was more aggressive from the start. We couldn’t get stops. They had us spread out. We were switching too low, and they made us pay for it. We just weren’t as crisp as we were on Thursday from the start of the game, and they had a lot to do with that,” said McNeese Head Coach Will Wade following the loss to Purdue.

McNeese State never recovered from the early haymaker from Purdue, the Boilermakers came out blazing from the field shooting 78% halfway through the 1st Half. McNeese would trail by 18 at the break. Purdue had tremendous success from behind the arc shooting 1126 from the 3-point line.

If it wasn’t already over, what looked to be the proverbial knockout punch for McNeese was at the 15:47 mark, Will Wade was very unhappy with the officials and he received a technical foul, in that same sequence Christian Shumate also received a T. With the foul and the free throws from the Technical Foul, that would stretch the lead for Purdue to 25.

Following the technical fouls on McNeese, Purdue would give McNeese every opportunity to climb back in the game going on a nearly 10-minute scoring drought. McNeese was only able to get within 14 in the 2nd Half.

“We talked about keeping at it, trying to knock them off their rhythm. They were in a good groove, but we just kept playing and kept fighting. That’s what we’ve done all season—played to the final buzzer,” said Javohn Garcia postgame.

For McNeese, it never found its stroke from behind the arc, the Cowboys shot 2-12 in the 1st Half and finished 7-21 with Garcia getting hot down the stretch..

The biggest bugaboo of the Will Wade era in Lake Charles was no doubt the inability to make free throws. In the most fitting way, that proved true as McNeese shot just 5/13 from the charity stripe on Saturday.

The Big Ten Player of the Year, Braden Smith was pretty good in the 1st Half of the game with 10 early points, but McNeese was able to hurry Smith up in the 2nd Half and force a few turnovers. The real trouble for McNeese was by Purdue Big man Trey Kaufman-Renn who dominated McNeese with 22 points and 15 rebounds.

“They’re a great team, really well-coached, great players. Smith is great. I thought we did a good job in the second half of speeding him up a little bit, but they shot it well from three. All the things you need to do to pull off an upset—we just couldn’t do them. We didn’t make free throws. We didn’t make enough threes. We survived that the other day, but we couldn’t overcome it today,” said Wade.

Now the focus is all on Will Wade moving forward. With Wade is all but official to be the next Head Coach at NC State as after the game it is being reported that Wade has signed the 6-year contract with the Wolfpack. Wade will head to Raleigh, North Carolina to take on the challenge of bringing NC State to the top of the ACC. With the Cinderella run in the rearview, now McNeese will look to focus on the future.

Wade spoke on the program and his time in Lake Charles after the game Saturday afternoon..

“It’s been incredible. Today is tough, but look—40-2 in the league over two years. I don’t care what league you’re in, that’s hard to do. We’re 58-11 in two years. That’s all these guys. We never lost a home game in league play. Our fans were incredible. Most of the time when a coach leaves, fans are ready to fire them. Here, people were celebrating what we did. That means a lot.”

Wade to NC State will likely become official in the next week, but Wade didn’t want to discuss that during the postgame presser…

"I’ll worry about that tomorrow. I’m an honest guy, but today, I want to focus on McNeese. Whatever happens next, our program here is in great shape. We have tremendous leadership, and we’re not done. We have a plan to keep this program rolling, no matter who’s at the helm. This program will keep winning. I really believe we’re just getting started.”

Wade has only been in Lake Charles for a short two years, but those will surely be two seasons that no McNeese fan will soon forget. A very emotional Will Wade took time in the press conference to reflect on his time in Lake Charles…

“Hopefully, I’ll always be part of it. The town has been incredible. I needed a place that would embrace me, and the town needed someone to embrace them. It just worked. I can’t explain why, but it did. Think about it—two years ago, we were one of the 30 worst teams in the country. Now, we’re in the Round of 32. That’s a pretty good job by a lot of people, especially our players,” said Wade postgame.

There will be many questions moving forward. What will it look like? Who will be the Head Coach if/when Wade does leave? Those are all decisions that will be on the horizon for Director of Athletics Heath Schroyer.

But for now, when you reflect on the last two seasons, it has been the best two years at McNeese.