What happened in Thursday and Friday's first round

Will Wade and No. 12 McNeese were a popular upset pick against No. 5 Gonzaga, but the Bulldogs have opened up a 28-17 lead in the first half.

LAKE CHARLES, La. — At about 9 o’clock last Wednesday night, Will Wade, whose college coaching career theoretically ended two years ago, plopped down atop a stool at Mr. Bill’s Seafood Express, a joint that, like this town, theoretically ceased to exist three-and-half years ago. The place was packed. Tables covered in crawfish and shrimp. Foam cups filled with margaritas. A bunch of locals mixed among family members of the McNeese State Cowboys basketball team. The school’s president and athletic director in one corner, laughing, thumbing through their iPhones. The Southland Conference men’s basketball tournament championship trophy on the counter.

Wade sipped on unsweetened tea and looked around. Three days earlier, over lunch, he confided that he knew he’d get back, but didn’t think it’d be so soon. “There are only certain schools that’ll hire me,” he said then. “I’m not for everybody. I understand that.”

McNeese State was the one to do it. It took the risk; chased winning over everything, created the re-entry strategy. And this is the reward. The school is going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002. “Here we go!” Wade said, pointing at the TV as ESPN flashed highlights of the night’s win. Everyone erupted. “Yeahhhhhhh” bellowed Christian Shumate, one of Wade’s stars. The 6-foot-6 forward was dressed in full cowboy garb —Stetson, vest, leather chaps, jeans. He and teammate DJ Richards Jr. brought the Southland trophy to Mr. Bill’s so fans could take pictures. Also to grab some peel n’ eat boiled shrimp and hot wings.

Wade leaned in, eyebrows raised, pointed around and asked, “So what do you think of all this?”

A loaded question. Not long ago, Wade was maybe the most polarizing figure in college basketball’s supposed apocalypse — the 2017 FBI investigation that set out to unravel the sport, expose all corruption and forever change the game, only to instead whimper away into a series of low-level convictions, leaving the NCAA and its now-disbanded Independent Accountability Resolution Process to litigate its findings. LSU fired Wade on the eve of the 2022 NCAA Tournament after it received an NCAA notice of allegations detailing numerous Level I violations involving him.

Some onlookers thought he might end up with a personal “death penalty” from the NCAA. Allegations of luring recruits with impermissible payments seemed pretty rock solid when a federal wiretap — one first reported by Yahoo and later broadcast in an HBO documentary — caught Wade complaining that a “strong-ass offer” wasn’t able to land a recruit. He added: “I’ve made deals for as good of players as him that were f—ing a lot simpler than this.”

Wade was speaking to Christian Dawkins, the FBI’s mark in an attempt to build a case exposing individuals bribing players, their families and college coaches. In the HBO documentary, “The Scheme,” Dawkins praised Wade for not cooperating with any investigation. “He basically said f— you to the NCAA and to the university he worked for,” Dawkins said.

“This is the life,” Dawkins added. “Will Wade is definitely a f—ing gangster for what he did.”

Now, two years after his dismissal at LSU, Wade is coaching only 130 miles from Baton Rouge. He was hired by McNeese exactly one year ago, despite the NCAA’s investigation still pending, and preemptively given a five-game suspension and a year of recruiting restrictions by McNeese. In June 2023, the NCAA essentially doubled the penalty — a 10-game suspension, two years of recruiting restrictions and a two-year show-cause penalty — coming up well short of proving the entirety of those Level I claims. The investigation was officially over. There was no firing squad.

The Cowboys went 8-2 during Wade’s suspension, then 22-1 after he took over. They won the Southland Conference regular-season title, going 17-1, then claimed the league’s NCAA Tournament bid with two wins in the conference tournament.

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He's played six minutes and jacked SEVEN 3s. He just heaved in his impossible-looking fourth. Oakland leads Kentucky 19-13 with 9:52 left in the first half.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Some days, he pretended to be Rex Chapman in the 1990 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, recreating all those aerial assaults on an 8-foot goal. But most days, if grade-school Reed Sheppard was shooting on his backyard basketball hoop, he imagined that he was … himself in a Kentucky uniform. The seconds ticked down, the Wildcats needed a bucket, and the kid from London, Ky., was going to deliver.

“I’ve always been a little boy from Kentucky who wanted to play at Kentucky,” Sheppard says. “It feels like that was me just two days ago, out in the yard with my friends and my cousins, taking that last shot for Kentucky.”

Today, there are children across the state pretending to be Reed Sheppard. More specifically, Reed Sheppard earlier this season at Mississippi State, where the Wildcats trailed by 13 in the second half before the boy wonder turned his lifelong vision into reality. Sheppard scored 23 points in the final 13 minutes — 11 of those in the last 93 seconds — and buried a game-winning floater with a half-tick to go in Starkville. His heroics stoked dreams of a deep NCAA Tournament run. He’d already put together a terrific freshman season, but this was a superstar performance: 32 points, seven assists, five rebounds, two blocks, two steals. And that boy-in-the-backyard moment.

“To hit a game-winning shot for Kentucky,” Sheppard says, “was really special for me.”

During ESPN’s broadcast, Jimmy Dykes recited a biblical play on words that has been popping up on homemade signs in the Kentucky crowd this season: A Sheppard boy shall lead them. The faithful understand a simple truth, that each of the program’s eight national championship teams had a native Kentuckian among the top six scorers. That makes Sheppard, in many eyes, not only the most important player on this roster, but the most important person in the state.

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No. 5 seed, Midwest Region

Opponent, time, TV: McNeese State, 7:25 p.m., TBS

Team in 16 words: The Zags, once on the bubble, lept into the field largely due to superb offensive execution.

Record: 25-7 (14-2 WCC)

Coach: Mark Few (41-23 NCAA Tournament, 2 Final Fours)

Player to watch: Graham Ike (first-team All-WCC)

Numbers:

BetMGM title odds: +6000

Sweet 16 projected chance: 43 percent

Final Four projected chance: 9.4 percent

Strengths: Gonzaga’s offense gets fans out of their seats like rocking chords of “Born to Run” at a Bruce Springsteen concert. Mark Few’s crew won 14 of its last 16 contests. The Bulldogs improved defensively and are now top 40 in effective field-goal percentage nationally. Not to be discounted, the Zags rarely turn over the ball and generate second-chance opportunities. Forward Graham Ike scored at least 20 points in a seven-game stretch that started on Feb. 10. His dominance in the paint combined with Ryan Nembhard’s floor leadership gives the Bulldogs a deadly 1-2 punch.

Weaknesses: Sporadic conversions from 3-point range limit Gonzaga’s overall offensive impact. Nembhard, Nolan Hickman and Ben Gregg are capable sharpshooters, but only 24.5 percent of the Bulldogs’ scoring production has come on 3s, ranking outside the top 300 nationally. Most discouraging, a formidable interior defensive team featuring a proven frontline could force them into uncomfortable situations.

Outlook: Only weeks ago, Gonzaga’s 24 straight NCAA Tournament appearances streak was in jeopardy. Then, the script flipped. The Bulldogs’ stellar road wins against Kentucky and Saint Mary’s showed the Zags’ evolution. Humming at the most opportune time, they are a likely bracket disrupter.

— Brad Evans