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NC State finalizing home-and-home agreement with VCU

image_6483441 (3)by:Noah Fleischman•05/08/25•

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Will Wade
Nov 13, 2019; Richmond, VA, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Will Wade gestures from the bench against the Virginia Commonwealth Rams in the second half at Stuart C. Siegel Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

NC State coach Will Wade is no stranger to VCU. He was an assistant with the Rams for five seasons, including on the 2011 Final Four staff, while he led the program for two seasons from 2015 to 2017 en route to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.

Now, he’s set to face his former squad, which he led to a 51-20 mark, for the second and third time as an opposing head coach.

The Wolfpack is finalizing a home-and-home with VCU, first reported by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein and confirmed by TheWolfpacker.com. The series would begin at the Lenovo Center during the upcoming season before making a return trip to the Siegel Center in Richmond during the 2026-27 campaign.

“We’re going to challenge ourselves in the ACC, we’re going to challenge ourselves in the non-conference,” Wade said during his introductory press conference in March. “We want to compete against the best. You can’t be the best playing a bunch of bad teams. You get better by playing the best teams in the country.”

Wade has personally coached against VCU once before, when he was just three years removed from leaving for LSU. That meeting brought a raucous atmosphere from a sold-out crowd as the Rams downed Wade’s Tigers 84-82 in that November 13, 2019 meeting.

Although Wade’s LSU squad lost in Richmond, it was able to win 16 of its next 19 games to finish third in the SEC before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the postseason.

Wade’s scheduling relationship with VCU isn’t new, either. While the LSU meeting was contractually mandated from his departure, he scheduled the Rams during his first season at McNeese in 2023. Wade wasn’t able to coach in that game as he served a 10-game suspension due to his recruiting violations at LSU, but current NC State assistant Brandon Chambers — a VCU alum — led the Cowboys to a 76-65 win in Richmond on Nov. 6, 2023.

NC State’s 2025-26 schedule is still relatively unknown going into the summer as it is still working to add opponents. The Wolfpack is already scheduled to host Kansas on Dec. 13 to finish a home-and-home agreement, while it is slated to compete in the Maui Invitational — Arizona, Boise State, Chaminade, Seton Hall, Texas, USC and Washington State — and has an SEC-ACC Challenge game to be announced.

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