LSU Suspends Basketball Coach Will Wade Amid A Recently Unearthed FBI Wiretap Report

LSU basketball is in the midst of a magical season. The 10th-ranked Tigers are 22-5 on the season and 15-2 in SEC play, putting them in a tie atop the conference with Tennessee. They’ll wrap up their regular season on Saturday, and as that game occurs, head coach Will Wade will watch from home, as he was suspended by the university on Friday afternoon.

Wade has been one of the names tied to the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball, and on Thursday, Yahoo Sports dropped a bombshell. Wade was reportedly caught on tape by the FBI speaking to Christian Dawkins, who worked with former NBA agent Andy Miller was found guilty on two felony charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud last October.

According to the report, Wade mentioned making a “strong-ass offer” on his call with Dawkins, and while it’s not 100 percent clear who he was talking about, it is believed Wade spoke about four-star freshman guard Javonte Smart.

“I was thinking last night on this Smart thing,” Wade said, per Yahoo Sports. “I’ll be honest with you, I’m [expletive] tired of dealing with the thing. Like I’m just [expletive] sick of dealing with the [expletive]. Like, this should not be that [expletive] complicated.”

Wade allegedly went on to tell Dawkins that the offer “was a [expletive] hell of a [expletive] offer. Hell of an offer.” In response to this, LSU president F. King Alexander and athletic director Joe Alleva decided it was in the university’s best interest to indefinitely suspend Wade.

There’s no word about how this would potentially impact the eligibility of any player on the Tigers, nor is there any indication that the team would impose some type of penalty on itself if these allegations are revealed to be true. As for Wade, this isn’t the first time he has been implicated in this probe in one way or another — ESPN’s Outside the Lines brought word last October of a series of calls between himself and Dawkins.