Shortly after Will Wade admitted during his tournament press conference Wednesday that he’s had discussions with NC State, the news broke that Wade and NC State have an agreement in place to make him the next head men’s basketball coach.

I guess I can uncross my fingers now. (Sorry, that had been holding up this post.)

This won’t be official until McNeese State is out of the NCAA tournament and it’ll probably be a bit before we get details on his contract, but I’m still in a mild state of shock about how smoothly this whole thing worked out so it’s just as well. Gonna take me right up to the introductory press conference to process.

Moments warranting genuine, unqualified optimism for this basketball program have been few and far between over the last, er, let’s see here … well, a good while. But this is one of those moments for sure.