Will Wade Says Everyone Should be Frustrated with Recent Stretch From LSU

Will Wade has never been afraid to speak his mind with the media, one of the many reasons he's such a fan favorite. In light of LSU's recent losing streak, it would be understandable to think Wade would be a little more closed off with the issues plaguing the team.

Instead it's been exactly the opposite reaction out of Wade, who completely understands the "honest" frustration with a team that was once flirting with the top 10 in the AP poll and is now in desperate need of SEC wins to stay in the NCAA tournament picture. Wade's position is that he's glad there's frustration within the fanbase because it means that it cares, which hasn't been the case with this program.

"Our fans should be frustrated. We're frustrated. Everybody should be mad. I think that's good," Wade said. "That means people care, the day people stop caring is the day people stop being frustrated. I think it's great that our fans are upset, it means they're invested in the program, it means they wanna win.

"I promise you nobody wants to win more than I do and more than our team does. Four or five years ago people were ambivalent towards our program and now people are bought in. It hurts when you're bought in and it doesn't go the way you want it."

LSU is currently in a precarious position with its guard rotations with Adam Miller gone for the year and Xavier Pinson still trying to get back to 100% from his sprained knee. As a result, the Tigers are low on guards, particularly wings who can shoot from the outside, something Wade called an oversight when filling out this roster.

Though hindsight is 20/20, this is a group that right now doesn't have much in the way of perimeter shooting that can be consistently relied on, putting even more pressure on the offense's ability to attack the rim and convert. This is an issue that Wade will no doubt address in the offseason but despite the recent struggles of this current group, he's confident that whenever the Tigers do come out of this slump, the program will be in a better place for it.

"We're gonna come out of it on the other side. Whether it's this year or the future, we're gonna be better," Wade said. "Everybody wants to win and we haven't won. When you don't win everybody's upset and that's a totally honest reaction and it's deserved. We haven't got the job done. We're gonna come back roaring next year. We're gonna be ready to roll. I'll make sure the roster composition works. We've figured out the defensive stuff. Now I gotta balance out the defense and the offense. I know the formula and we've won quite a bit while we're figuring it out."

Wade went into great detail about what he believes went wrong with the team and it starts at the beginning of the season. With Adam Miller, LSU was picked to finish sixth in the SEC and the goal was to get into the NCAA tournament.

When the team lost Miller for the season with an ACL tear, everyone in the program, including Wade was thrown through a loop. Wade recalled meeting to a room that was completely "shook" when the news of Miller's injury trickled down to the team.

"We were worried about how good we were gonna be. Coaches, players, everybody," Wade said. "How's this gonna go? Nobody knew but we were unbelievably attentive to details, attentive to everything that needed to happen which is why we won. The strength of our team was the strength of our team. Our biggest strength was our team."

When the season started and the cracks in the team started to show, even when LSU was winning, Wade was coming in after every game and nitpicking at different areas that could catch up with the program. Rebounding, turnovers, attention to detail, offensive inconsistencies.

Everything that has seeped into the team over the course of the last month and led to this recent rough stretch is a product of the habits and early success this group had.

"What's happened is we've got some of the same parts when we were winning big but some of the other stuff has crept in and we're not as detailed as we need to be in the scouting," Wade said. "We're not as good as we need to be as a team. There's levels to things and when you lose the sense of the team things go off kilter. Hopefully now we can bring it back together."

Getting back into that NCAA tournament conversation will be no easy feat for the purple and gold but finding some of the early season confidence would go a long way.