Whether you’re a college basketball junkie or a casual fan taking part in an office pool, it’s likely that McNeese State busted your bracket on the first day of the 2025 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.
But everyone loves a “Cinderella story” when it comes to the Big Dance. And for those who are now out of the running for bracket bragging rights, now is the chance to jump on the bandwagon ahead of their second round matchup with No. 4 seed Purdue on Saturday at 11:10 a.m. CDT.
Here are five reasons that make the Cowboys the perfect Cinderella story to follow.
1. An impressive run
The Cowboys earned the No. 12 seed and their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament with a 28-6 record for the 2024-2025 season and going 19-1 in Southland Conference play.
This includes the Southland Conference Tournament championship — the team’s second in-a-row under head coach Will Wade.
Wade has built McNeese State’s reputation on their defensive play, allowing only 64.1 points per game this season. This was on full display Thursday when the Cowboys stifled No. 5 seed Clemson’s offense in their first round matchup, holding an 18 point lead at halftime and shutting down a late rally to hold on for the win — McNeese State's first NCAA Tournament win in school history.
2. Will Wade’s redemption arc
Will Wade took over as head coach of the Cowboys during the 2023-2024 season, but he wasn’t an unfamiliar face in Louisiana.
Wade previously coached at Louisiana State University from 2017 until 2022, when allegations of recruiting violations rocked LSU and led to his firing.
He did not coach in the 2022-2023 season, and had to sit out the first 10 games of his first year with the Cowboys. Despite this, Wade led the Cowboys to a 30-4 record and their first Southland Conference Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in more than 20 years.
The Cowboys didn’t make it past the first round last year, but the appearance gave Wade and McNeese State enough momentum to build on. Now, Wade has gone from undesirable to undeniable, courting an offer to be the next head coach at North Carolina State University — which he reportedly accepted earlier this week ahead of the tournament.
But according to Wade and McNeese State officials, this was all part of the plan.
McNeese State President Wade Rousse told the Associated Press that when he hired Wade in 2023, he laid out a two-year plan: in his first year, they’d make the NCAA Tournament. In his second year, they’d win a first round game.
If everything went according to plan, Rousse said he knew it’d be hard to keep Wade around for another contract.
“We’ve had a plan for two years, and we’ve been transparent with one another,” Rousse told The AP after Thursday’s win. “We needed Coach. We kind of figured this is where we’re going.”
Wade has also been transparent with his players. He talked about sitting his team down and explained the situation to them during a post-game press conference.
“There’s no need to hide it,” Wade said. “The guys are reading it on social media. It’s no secret. It’s no good if you don’t address it, and if you sit there and BS them, they can read right through the BS.”
The Cowboys players, however, aren’t letting the news distract them.
“Everybody is aware of everything that’s going on,” McNeese forward Christian Shumate told The AP. “Everybody is transparent on both ends and that’s something we worry about later. We’re just focused on winning these games.”
3. Brandon Murray: Reunited and it feels so good
Senior guard Brandon Murray has tried to find his footing with different basketball programs across the country.
He began his collegiate career at LSU under Wade, who recruited him to play for the Tigers from IMG Academy. In his freshman year, he started 32 of 33 games for Wade, averaging 10 points and three rebounds for the Tigers. But once Wade left LSU, Murray did, too.
After LSU, he made one-season stops at both Georgetown University, and after that, he went to Ole Miss.
Now, he’s found his way back to Louisiana and Wade. He primarily comes off the bench for McNeese State, but on Thursday, he was the spark the Cowboys needed to take down Clemson — scoring a team-high 21 points with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in 29 minutes..
"When I got fired, Brandon's career went down, so I told him that we had to reignite it and finish it off the right way," Wade said after Thursday’s win. "He also scored his 1,000th career point today, which was just incredible. I'm really, really pleased with him and really happy with him."
4. Amir Khan: The viral hype man everyone’s talking about
The team's manager Amir “Aura” Khan has been a social media sensation this season.
“Aura” is a native of Lake Charles and plays an important part in getting the guys ready to go on the hardwood. Khan and McNeese went viral after a video was posted on social media of him walking alongside the team in the pregame tunnel while a boombox was strapped across his body playing music.
Amir Khan leads the McNeese walk out vs. Clemson 🔥
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 20, 2025
🎥: @Cadenletsche1 pic.twitter.com/8l2B3GIZaW
Khan and members of the basketball team caught on that they have the same taste in music. He would play rap music from artists like the Chicago rapper Lud Foe and Louisiana’s own NBA Youngboy.
“It gets our guys excited, it gets our guys off to a fast start, if you don’t get off to a start it’s hard to play well,” Wade said of Khan’s contributions to the team.
Since going viral, Khan has taken the ball and ran with it. He’s received write-ups from just about every major sports news outlet. A clip of him comparing his skills as student manager to basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain has also gone viral.
The team has rallied around Khan, too, with cheerleaders and players alike seen wearing socks with his face on them during Thursday’s win.
Khan’s popularity has grown so much that he is the first student manager to have a NIL deal with companies like Buffalo Wild Wings and Insomnia Cookies. He says he’s going to save the money he’s earning from the new endorsements.
“I’m saving it and definitely don't want to spend it. [I’m] just doing what I usually do,” Khan said.
5. Tournament impact on small schools
In a story the Gulf States Newsroom published last year, Rousse, then the vice-president at McNeese State, said the school made a conscious effort to build their basketball program.
“It was an intentional effort to invest in basketball,” Rousse said. “We had a wonderful year. The student body got really involved [and] sold out every game toward the end of the season.”
McNeese State is a small, mid-major university in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with an enrollment of a little more than 6,000 students.
Rousse said he could see the pride the Lake Charles community had in the basketball team following last season, and he hoped the momentum would lead to more positive achievements like increased enrollment.
“I’m not naïve enough to think that one shot can get that done,” he said. “But if we can continue to capitalize on this two, three, four years in a row, I absolutely believe you’ll see a positive effect on enrollment.”
For many prospective students, sports can serve as the introduction point to a university — the “front porch,” as Samford Athletic Director Martin Newman called it after the Bulldogs' NCAA Tournament run last year. When small schools like McNeese State and Samford make it to a national stage, that front porch can get a lot bigger — win or lose.
“Most of the universities that you know something about, you probably have never been there,” said Darin White, Samford’s executive director of sports analytics. “You never visit the campus, but you know about them, primarily, through their sports programs.”
So far, the bet on coach Wade has paid off in this regard.
Rousse told The AP that applications are up 10% for the fall semester, accepted offers from students are up for the third year in a row and the school’s website crashed at the final buzzer of Thursday’s game.
“This is huge for our school,” Wade said during his postgame news conference Thursday. “We got freaking $25 million in advertisements in the last couple of weeks. It’s going through the roof. This changes our area, our five-parish area. It changes everything.”
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
