In the first major upset of this year's NCAA tournament, No. 12 McNeese State stunned No. 5 Clemson in a 69–67 victory to clinch its first tournament win in program history Thursday afternoon.
Led by coach Will Wade, who will reportedly take over NC State's basketball program next season, the Cowboys held off a last-minute Tigers rally to march ahead to the Round of 32 where they'll face No. 4 Purdue on Saturday.
How exactly did Wade orchestrate McNeese's most important win in school history? The 42-year-old coach shared a smart defensive change he made before the game that may have proved pivotal to the Cowboys' underdog victory.
Wade spoke with John Fanta after Thursday's win and revealed that even though the Cowboys had been playing man defense for the entire year, he switched to zone against Clemson:
"You had to junk it up," Wade said. "You let [Clemson coach Brad Brownell] just run his plays, he's a phenomenal coach. We went man out of—we ended up switching man out of the zone look after a certain amount of passes. ... We had put it in for the conference tournament and we just didn't use it in the conference tournament.
"We'd kinda been saving it. We thought it would catch them off-guard, it certainly caught them off-guard in the first half which allowed us to build up the margin that we needed to withstand, then pin their ears back at the end."
My 1-on-1 with an emotional Will Wade after @McNeeseMBB upset Clemson in the NCAA Tournament! pic.twitter.com/W09suzeRKt
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) March 21, 2025
McNeese State closed out the first half with a commanding 31–13 lead, in part due to resilient defense and in part due to guard Brandon Murray, who scored 14 of his 21 points during that span.
Clemson, held to just 13 points, made unwanted March Madness history having put together the worst first-half performance by an ACC team in the men's NCAA tournament since 2001.
Wade, a well-known Clemson fan and alum, has won 57 games over his last two seasons at McNeese and boasts a generally impressive coaching résumé over the last decade, save for being fired from LSU after the 2021–22 season due to recruiting violations.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Will Wade Revealed Smart Schematic Change That Helped McNeese Catch Clemson Off-Guard.
