LSU Coach Will Wade Preaches Consistency Within Program After Second Straight 20 Win Season

Ever since Will Wade arrived to LSU in the spring of 2017, the one constant mantra he's preached is to find ways to be consistent. As a coach, the goal is to never have one great season here and there and be just average the rest of the time.

No, the goal for building a successful program is to have those great seasons and back them up with good seasons, seasons where goals can still be accomplished even if not at the level of those great years. In 2017, that meant making the NIT and getting a postseason win in the PMAC.

Last year, in 2018, it meant getting as deep in the NCAA tournament as possible and through all of the trials and tribulations that group went through, made it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2006. It was a magical run that Wade himself had to witness from his couch back in Baton Rouge.

So when the first staff meetings were assembled for the 2019-20 season, Wade had one goal in mind for this team.

"I just wanted to make the NCAA tournament with this team. If we could just make the NCAA tournament, I thought that would be a very, very good year," Wade said last week.

Well after Saturday's 64-50 win over the Texas A&M Aggies, the Tigers are one step closer to that goal. The win was a significant one as it marked just the third time in the last 20 years that the Tigers strung together back-to-back 20-win seasons.

It's an accomplishment that comes back to that word, consistency. Consistency in trusting that every year needs to be a building block to long term success. Right now, for this LSU program, it means making NCAA tournaments the new norm.

"We want to be a consistent program and you're not going to win the league every year," Wade said. "We're not gonna go to the Sweet Sixteen every year. But if you can be in the top four in the league and compete for the double bye every year, every two or three years or four years, you may win it. If you can get to the tournament on a consistent basis, you're going to bust through, get to the second weekend or third weekend once every five to 10 years. So you've got to be a consistent program."

With Auburn and Florida both losing Saturday, the Tigers are one step closer to locking in that double bye for the SEC tournament. The Tigers are tied with Auburn for the second best record in the conference with two games to play at Arkansas and then at home against Georgia for senior day on Saturday.

If the Tigers can finish those two games off, it'll mark just the second time in the last 15 years the team punches it's ticket to back-to-back NCAA tournaments. These are the kind of trends Wade wanted to build in his tenure here when he first stood in the student union three years ago at his introductory press conference.

"That's been our goal from the from the outset here and I give a lot to credit to our players and our staff," Wade said. "Hopefully, we can build on this and try to get back to the NCAA tournament, which will be huge and start to develop a little a little consistency within the program."

This season, while not perfect has been a great example of building a consistent winner. Only time will tell when this team's journey will eventually end but Wade and his staff are in it for the long haul and it's important to keep that in mind.