The Clemson basketball team will welcome a familiar face back to town on Tuesday night.

Will Wade will bring his NC State team to Littlejohn for the first time since taking over as the head coach of the Wolfpack earlier this year. Wade, who is a Clemson graduate, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant on Oliver Purnell’s staff in 2005. Before that, he served as a student manager for the Tigers. Wade would later be promoted to Director of Basketball Operations.

Wade has since gone to have head coaching stints at Chattanooga, VCU, LSU and McNeese. He spent two seasons at McNeese, where he ironically eliminated his alma mater inupset fashion in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

However, despite all of his connections to Clemson, Wade isn’t worried about a homecoming. His focus is on his NC State team and the opportunity for a Quad 1 road win over the Tigers. The Wolfpack are 0-5 against Quad 1 competition thus far.

“I graduated from Clemson, but look, our team needs to win, and Clemson’s a great team,” Wade said during the weekly ACC Coaches Zoom call on Monday. “It doesn’t have anything to do with nostalgia or any of that stuff. We’ve got to find a way to play better and find a way to see if we can win a game in a tough environment against a really, really well-coached and really, really good team.”

The Tigers come in winners of nine straight, including opening ACC play at 6-0, and ranked No. 18 in both major polls. The Wolfpack comes in having lost to Georgia Tech 78-74 at home last time out and is now 3-2 in league play.

While it’s still fairly early in conference play, Wade knows this game is a big one for his squad.

“We’re going to find out what we’re made of,” Wade said. “We’re going into a tough environment. They play a style that can really frustrate you. They play a style that’s very unique and very disciplined, and they’re not going to give you anything easy. Everything’s going to have to be earned.”

The Tigers have moved up to No. 25 in the ever-important NCAA Net Rankings, while NC State currently sits at No. 34. As things stand right now, this would serve as a Quad 2 game for Clemson, and Brad Brownell’s team comes in 5-1 in those games.

“I still believe in our team,” Wade said. “We’re not where we want to be, but we’re within striking distance of where we want to be. And so it’s on us to find a way to make this, you know, to make this work, and it’s going to be a really, really tough environment to try to make this work at Clemson.”

Clemson and NC State is set to tip off at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.

Photo by Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images