Will Wade hammers team for entitlement, cites specific example

It’s been an up and down season for Will Wade and LSU. The Tigers headman has had some interesting quotes this year, and he had another one this week when talking about entitlement.

LSU is 17-7 overall, but 5-6 in a loaded SEC this season and recently snapped a three-game losing streak. But talk of the NCAA tournament made its way into the Tigers locker room, and Wade wasn’t having it.

“It’s funny … one of our kids was like, ‘Well, when do they announce the brackets?'” Wade said. “I said, ‘Announce the brackets? What are you talking about?’ Here’s what’s happened a little bit — and this is what’s happened with the team. You’ve always heard me say appreciation’s the currency of success. So when your appreciation and your entitlement gets out of whack, we just think we’re entitled to make the tournament. We’re not entitled to anything. Alright? You have to earn it. The thing’s hard to get into.

“I’ve been a coach for a long time, I’ve been a part of a lot of teams that have made it. It’s hard to get into. … Hell, the year [VCU] went to the Final Four, most people didn’t think we could get in. I’ve been a part of teams that probably deserved to get in more than that team. It’s tough. It’s hard.”

Will Wade on making the NCAA tournament

Wade has been a part of multiple NCAA tournament teams, including as an assistant on the VCU team that made the Final Four in 2011. He knows what it takes to get there at the mid-major and high-major level, which is why he didn’t want to hear anyone on his team talking about making the big dance just yet.

“We’ve got some guys who have been here and been a part of the tournaments, but they hadn’t done a whole lot to get us there,” Wade said. “That’s not a knock on anybody. They don’t understand how difficult it is to make it. It’s hard. Very, very hard. We’re going to have to battle our tail off to make it. The appreciation for how difficult it is to be successful and how difficult the margins are to win, I think we’ve lost a little bit of that. … What happened with our team was, at the beginning of the year.”

On3’s latest Bracketology has LSU as a No. 6 seed in the tournament field and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi also predicts the Tigers to be a No. 6 seed in the Midwest Region.