Will Wade complains about Vanderbilt getting favorable treatment from SEC refs

Oh, no. He’s serious about this.

A fan asked Wade, “I know you don’t like to talk about fouls, but as a fan, it is ruining the game for us. What can we do?”

“I hate to tell you, (guard Scotty) Pippen at Vanderbilt is fifth in the country in fouls drawn,” Wade said. “So if you don’t like what you’ve seen, wait ‘til Saturday. Vanderbilt gets fouled on 38% of their possessions on offense, so like four-out-of-10 of their possessions end in a foul. If you don’t like what you’ve seen just wait ‘til Saturday, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

That’s LSU head basketball coach Will Wade, caught on an FBI wiretap making a strong-ass offer to a recruit in 2019 and somehow still employed by LSU and not punished by the NCAA, complaining about Vanderbilt getting favorable treatment from the officials. The audacity.

Wade, whose team has been called for an SEC-leading 198 fouls in nine conference games this season (while also posting the nation’s best defensive efficiency in the process), somehow was not done unloading on the refs.

“Look, we’re not trying to foul,” Wade said. “We’re not trying to give up 30-plus free throws a game like we did against Ole Miss, but we’ve obviously got to continue to get better, continue to improve there.”

“There’s a couple of the rules that I wish they would change,” Wade said. “The damn charge rule they’ve got to change. You shouldn’t be able to take a charge unless you’re on the ball. All this secondary defender charge stuff, they need to get rid of it. They need to get rid of it, and so, we’re the only sport that rewards you for that. The secondary defender shouldn’t be rewarded for that. He should have to shield or do something. He shouldn’t be able to just stand there and you run him over. They need to change that, but ain’t nobody listening to me so they aren’t changing that anytime soon. It’s just some of the rules are built for drawing fouls, and some teams are better at taking advantage of them than others.”

In other words, Will Wade would like for it to be completely legal for an offensive player to plow over a defensive player, as long as said defensive player wasn’t actually guarding him. You know, because reasons.

The point is, this is probably the whiniest I’ve ever heard a coach get about officiating and LSU’s game at Vanderbilt doesn’t even start until 5 PM tomorrow. Usually coaches wait until the game starts to work the refs in this manner, but I guess with Vanderbilt leading the SEC in free throw rate and LSU committing more fouls than anyone in the league, he figured he needed a head start on it.