McNeese State University Basketball Coach Will Wade said community support is what drives his players to be better men — both on and off the court.

Wade — who said he was in a good mood because his NCAA sanctions had been cleared just hours earlier — was the guest speaker Wednesday at an inter-club meeting of the eight Southwest Louisiana Kiwanis Clubs. At the initially standing-room event, Wade gave attendees a glimpse of what to expect with this year’s team.

“Each year, you start over now in college basketball,” Wade said. “We have seven returners and we have six new guys and as a coach the things you did last year won’t work this year because you have different personalities, it’s a different team. You’re always trying to recalibrate and make sure you’re doing what’s best for this year’s team.”

Wade said his players are fresh off a team retreat to Dry Creek Baptist Camp.

“I love it because there’s cabins and (players’) phones don’t work, so it’s perfect,” he said with a grin.

The first night was movie night and the team watched “Lone Survivor” — with the coach giving the players a bit of surprise during the viewing.

“About 20 minutes into the movie, I had four Navy SEALS storm in the cabin,” he said. “The guys didn’t know, my staff didn’t know. My staff was ready to get up and fight them and I had to pull one of the guys and say, ‘They’re with us.’ I felt like we needed a lot more attention to detail with this group, a lot better communication with this group, and I think the SEALs are the best in the world so I brought them in to help lead. We were out there in the woods, waking up early in the morning and doing stuff with them late at night. I felt like our team made a big jump after that retreat.”

He said after the bonding experience, the team’s communication with each other and their attention to detail is better.

The team has also agreed on the identity they want to portray this year.

“We want to be disrupters,” he said. “We want to be disruptive on the court with our defense and how we play. We also want to be disruptive across all of college basketball. Last year we were a good team, but we didn’t play all that fast. This year we’re going to be a little faster, a lot more physical, more resilient.”

They’ll need that, he said, because this season’s schedule is more difficult than last year’s.

“Our opening game is at South Dakota State and they won their league two years straight; they’re a very, very good team and they beat the best team in the Southland by quite a bit,” Wade said. “We’ll open there and then we have North Texas at home and they’re a very, very good team. We’re going to have to be resilient. We’re going to take some lumps in the non-conference, but if we get to the NCAA Tournament this year we’re going to be much more prepared and much more ready to compete.”

He said the community’s support will be key in them getting there.

Wade’s goal this season is to sell out the Platinum Club seats for home games. There’s about 300 seats in the Platinum Club and the school is 14 seats shy of meeting that goal.

The Legacy Center suites as well as the courtside seats are sold out and 1,023 general admission season tickets have been sold.

“It’s just tremendous and a real credit to the community and their support of the program and we’re appreciative of that,” he said.

Wade, who is 41, said when he was a younger coach his goal was to climb the career ladder as quickly as possible.

“Now, I’ve got a little bit better perspective,” he said. “I’ve been knocked down. Last year, I would stand in the tunnel and watch everybody fill in the center. That meant a lot to me, seeing how everyone rallied around the team. It meant a lot to me. Earlier in my career, I wouldn’t have cared about any of that. But it means so much more now.”

Wade said the fun part for him is how the community and the school are all in this together.

“When the clock ended against Nichols in the Southland Championship til the minute we lost to Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament, our website traffic went up 1,037 percent,” he said. “That’s not just clicking on the website. You had to go to ‘Learn More about McNeese,’ go to applications. We’ve been on an enrollment decline for eight years and this is the first year we’ve stabilized and enrollment is up 3 percent. Our basketball program had something to do with that.”

Wade said he’s striving to make a small impact and hopefully change the trajectory of the school.

“We’re excited to be part of this and hopefully build on it next year,” he said. “There’s so much more we can do.”

He said one of his favorite memories from last season is walking out of the Lamar University tunnel onto the court and seeing a sea of blue-and-gold-donned fans around the Cardinals’ court.

“From the basket all the way to the top, McNeese fans were everywhere,” he said. “We probably had more fans than they did. That was awesome. It was really, really cool. Community support helps the players play better.”