Will Wade received the loudest cheers of the night when LSU’s public address announcer said his name for the first time this season, after the Tigers' starting lineup was introduced.

The coach who gave fans the team's last taste of prosperity was back after his first stint ended in 2022. His first foray: a 100-57 win over LSU New Orleans on Tuesday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Wade, affectionately known as ‘The General,’ was asked about his emotions entering this first official game as the Tigers coach, since his detours at McNeese State and NC State.

The Tigers coach, with a history of giving the occasional impassioned answer, chose the less emotional approach.

“I mean, look, we got a job to do, and like I said, we're not back for the nostalgia or any of that,” Wade said. “We're back to win. I mean, we're back to win. We're back to dominate. We're back to build a championship-caliber program. So, I mean, this was just step one in what we're trying to do. And so, I would say we were determined to, you know, to put a good product on the court, put something people can be proud of. And to start building our program that can compete at a championship level.”

In the lead-up to the question that referenced if he views this as his first win or his 106th career win at LSU, Wade’s quippyness came to light

“There’s a lot of asterisks in there, so I don't know how you count them up,” he said.

Wade is clearly driven to have a great team and is thinking beyond just the results of one game or the sentimental nature of his return. It didn’t take long for Wade to say in his opening comments that he wants players to reach the free-throw line more than they did, although it was satisfactory that LSU made 15 of 20 attempts.

“There’s a lot to build off of,” he said. “We've certainly got to be better as we move forward here. Second-half effort wasn't good enough. We got to play to a certain standard, but you know overall solid first outing. And we got a lot of things that we need to clean up these next couple days.”

While Wade was uninterested in discussing the emotional aspect of this first official contest, he did let go of his stoicism once during the game.

The fiery coach LSU fans remember barked at a referee over what he viewed as an inconsistency in foul calls between his team and the Privateers. The official had heard enough and assessed Wade a technical foul with LSU leading 88-43 and 4:48 remaining.

Wade was asked what it was like the previous week going into the game after an offseason with four international players waiting to be cleared by the NCAA and court hearings to produce the results that would let his pair of fifth-year transfers compete.

“I think the last week, we've been better in practice,” Wade said. “With some of the uncertainty, we had been practicing the guys that were going to play, and, look, we were trying to win some of those exhibition games. And so we haven't had a lot of continuity to what we're doing. The last week we've been just much cleaner with practice, much cleaner with what we got going on.”