Will Wade turned the McNeese Cowboys into demons in his second season with the program. Coming off an NCAA tournament appearance a year ago, McNeese took a leap forward this season in every sense: the Cowboys went 19-1 in the Southland Conference, skated through the conference tournament to earn another auto-bid to March Madness, and looked like a potentially scary first-round matchup for No. 5 seed Clemson.
McNeese Cowboys are March Madness’ first Cinderella candidate after stunning Clemson
McNeese won its first NCAA tournament game ever a day after head coach Will Wade took another job.
Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Wade was the Coach of the Year in the Southland, guard Javohn Garcia was Southland Player of the Year, and Christian Shumate repeated as Southland Defensive Player of the Year. The Cowboys had the markings of a potential Cinderella, but a day before they tipped off against Clemson, Wade reportedly accepted the NC State job.
Wade is still coaching McNeese in this tournament, and now he has a couple more days of work at his old job. McNeese is going to the round of 32 in the 2025 men’s NCAA tournament after holding the Tigers to historically bad offensive performance in a decisive opening round win.
McNeese beat Clemson, 69-67, for the program’s first ever men’s NCAA tournament win. The Cowboys were elite defensively from the very start of the game, and overcame their lack of size with athletic tenacity to pul the first big upset of March Madness.
Brandon Murray — a former LSU player under Wade — finished with a game-high 21 points off the bench. Quadir Copeland (16 points) and Christian Shumate (13 points, 11 rebounds) also contributed in the win.
Clemson went to the Elite Eight last year, and returned many key pieces from that team this season. Four ESPN analysts picked Clemson to go to the Final Four this year. Still, they were no match for McNeese. The Cowboys’ switching, ball pressure defense flummoxed Clemson from the start. Tigers star Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin never got into an offensive flow as McNeese aggressively switched every screen and threw in some junk zone defense. The Cowboys broke the game open with an 11-0 run in the first half that highlighted their athletic advantages.
McNeese has one player in the rotation over 6’6. Clemson had a huge size advantage across the front line, but it was the Cowboys who were dominating the paint. McNeese was relentless on the offensive glass, routinely used their defense to get into their transition offense, and did well to pound the ball inside at every opportunity.
Clemson roared back late in the second half to make it a close game. McNeese was up 22 points with under eight minutes left in regulation before the comeback.
McNeese has lost one game since Dec. 22 when it lost to Nicholls on Feb. 1. The Cowboys might be short on size, but they have the athletes needed to run Wade’s defensive system, and they showed it could work even against a very good opponent like Clemson.
McNeese student-manager Amir Khan was already on his way to becoming a viral sensation before the win. Now everyone will want a piece of the Cowboys, the team with the boombox-carrying manager and the head coach who already quit.
Wade was famously caught up in the old FBI scandal at LSU back before the NIL rules into into effect. Wade was fired as NCAA allegations mounted, and now he has found redemption at McNeese. Next up: trying to turnaround NC State next. The Cowboys are going to see if they can keep Wade around through the weekend.
McNeese now faces No. 4 seed Purdue, who survived a tough test against High Point in their tournament opener. March Madness always gives us new heroes, and for now it looks like they might be the McNeese Cowboys.
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