MILWAUKEE — Just when it seemed as if the Louisiana State men’s basketball team couldn’t entertain any more theater-of-the-absurd moments, along came Friday night for the team whose head coach and top assistant were fired last week after a long-awaited formal complaint by the N.C.A.A. accused them of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to recruits and their families.

Shortly after Efton Reid made a pair of free throws early in the second half of a first-round game against Iowa State, the referees discovered a problem: L.S.U. had six players on the court, which is one more than allowed.

The Tigers were slapped with a technical foul, another indignity in an evening full of them, which culminated in a 59-54 loss and an exit from the N.C.A.A. tournament.

“I don’t know what happened to be honest with you,” said Kevin Nickelberry, who replaced Will Wade, the former head coach who was fired last Saturday along with the assistant coach, Bill Armstrong.

Say, this, though: The substitution snafu was resolved far more quickly than the saga centering on Wade, who was suspended for the postseason in 2019 for refusing to meet with school officials after Yahoo reported that a federal wiretap captured him seeming to describe arrangements — or more precisely, “a strong-ass offer,” in Wade’s words — to lure recruits with illicit payments. Wade was reinstated later that spring, after meeting with university leaders and agreeing to a contract addendum that would allow L.S.U. to fire him for cause — and owe him nothing — if he had broken any N.C.A.A. rules.

The 17-page notice sent to L.S.U. by the N.C.A.A. earlier this month revealed the breadth of the alleged wrongdoing: offering cash — as much as $300,000 — and jobs to family members of recruits, in some cases funneling money through an account in his wife’s name. He is also accused of buying the silence of a player’s fiancée, refusing to turn over thousands of electronic records, and providing investigators with false or misleading statements. In all, Wade was charged with five major violations, to which he and the school have 90 days to respond.

The N.C.A.A.’s report said that Wade denied providing recruiting inducements or acting unethically, and Wade said during the Southeastern Conference tournament this month that he was not allowed to comment until “it’s all over.”

Wade is the first head coach to be fired directly for his actions in a federal corruption scandal in which four assistant coaches and several shoe company or agent representatives have been convicted of bribery or fraud in a scheme that funneled money to players or their families in exchange for directing them toward a financial adviser when they headed to professional basketball.

The investigation into Wade’s conduct has spanned the pandemic. Coaches on the summer recruiting circuit in 2019 marveled at seeing Wade at games with his same job, and did so again this past summer when events resumed after a one-year hiatus.

“This whole F.B.I. thing has taken a long time to adjudicate and that has frustrated a lot of our coaches,” said Craig Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, a de facto union for college coaches. “So to finally see some action it’s bittersweet, right? Everybody’s glad to see us handle the bad behavior, but it’s taken so long.”

Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey, who in 2019 was the N.A.B.C. president, said the topic will likely be front and center when coaches congregate for the Final Four in New Orleans.

“Some of that stuff was ridiculous,” Brey said. “I try and not be distracted by it and just kind of put my head down and say you know what, ‘I don’t want to hear about it anymore because I’ve heard about it too long.’ I just want to coach my team.”

Last week, this mess landed mostly in the laps of the L.S.U. players, who were showing signs of regaining their footing after the momentum from a 16-1 start to the season evaporated. Two days after Sports Illustrated revealed that L.S.U. had received the report from the N.C.A.A. detailing the allegations, the Tigers lost to Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

The next day, L.S.U. President William F. Tate IV fired Wade, along with Armstrong, saying in a statement with Athletic Director Scott Woodward that the school and the basketball team “have operated under an exhausting shroud of negativity.”

“That’s how it’s been since I got there,” said Darius Days, a senior forward who went through his second N.C.A.A. tournament without a coach.

The drumbeat of bad news, Days said, has been so persistent — including reporting by USA Today on a sexual assault by a football player that was largely covered up by administrators and disturbing behavior by the former football coach Les Miles around women — that the players were given T-shirts earlier this season stamped with a mantra: “L.S.U. vs. The World.”

Wade, too, seemed to relish that outlook.

Young and brazen, Wade had awakened a sleeping fan base by his second season when he led a roster with young N.B.A. prospects to the Southeastern Conference regular-season title. “He’d always say ‘what’s up’ to the student section,” said Mason Lobner, a sophomore who held up a “Win For Wade” sign on Friday night.

Still, there did not seem to be much more enthusiasm for the Tigers, whose seating section was dotted with players’ friends and families, and few others.

When Wade was suspended in 2019, it outraged some fans, who booed then-Athletic Director Joe Alleva and then-President F. King Alexander, chanting “Free Will Wade” as the Tigers made their way to a regional semifinal without their coach.

“Free Will Wade from what?” Alexander said in a phone interview Friday night.

Alexander, the school president until the end of 2020, said that when Wade and his lawyers finally did agree to a meeting, he denied any wrongdoing and L.S.U. had no proof to corroborate the news report.

“You need evidence to ruin somebody’s career,” Alexander said. “If we had fired Will Wade because of what was leaked to Yahoo, then we’d pay him” the remaining $10 million or more on his contract. “And if nothing comes out, he can sue us for ruining his career,” Alexander continued. “Presidents have to follow due process rights. Was he paying players? In my gut, I’d say, yeah, but my gut doesn’t do very well in a jury trial.”

Alexander said that when he agreed to lift the suspension after five weeks, in mid-April in 2019, he had expected that within weeks, as the last corruption case was reaching its conclusion in federal court, the federal government would turn over whatever evidence it had on Wade to the N.C.A.A., which had been told to wait until the trial was over to begin its own investigation.

But after Christian Dawkins, an aspiring agent — who Wade had been speaking to on the wiretapped calls — and Merl Code Jr., a shoe company representative, were convicted on May 8, 2019, the government, which had successfully argued to keep Wade and other coaches from testifying, turned over only what had been in the public record.

“All that was leaked were what was on two phone calls and he had 21,” with Dawkins, Alexander said of Wade. “When I asked him about the other 19 calls, he said ‘I don’t remember what we talked about.’”

When Wade was reinstated, one of the first things he did was hire Nickelberry, who was an assistant at Clemson when Wade was a student manager. “I came here to help a friend, be a mentor, to help him through a tough situation — as we’ve all probably done in our lives,” said Nickelberry.

Nickelberry said all week he would just try to be himself with the players — “I’m the rah-rah guy” — though he would no longer be offering up chest bumps. On Friday night, in a tournament marked by dressed-down coaches, he was sharply put together in a snug gray plaid suit, purple sneakers, an open-collared white shirt and pocket square.

The Tigers, themselves, were not so put together.

Shots clanked off the rim and turnovers piled up, and by halftime they had mustered only 19 points. In the second half, L.S.U. began making shots — but so did Iowa State, which sent the Tigers’ long and athletic defenders scrambling in their rotations, often a step too late. The Tigers’ defense, which leads the nation in steal percentage, according to KenPom, managed just seven.

When Izaiah Brockington knocked in a 3-pointer, the Cyclones had their biggest lead — 50-39 with just over seven minutes left.

L.S.U. found some resolve — along with its defensive legs — and sophomore Tari Eason heated up. The Tigers drew within 51-50 with just over two minutes left and were a defensive stop from seizing the lead. That’s when freshman Tyrese Hunter dribbled the shot clock down and sank a 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of Days to build the lead back to 4.

L.S.U. closed within 56-54 when Hunter struck again, once again getting a switch onto Days — the least nimble defender — and dropping in a 3-pointer that beat the shot clock with 20 seconds remaining in the game.

“I said all week it’s just basketball,” Nickelberry said afterward. “But the distractions were a lot and these guys still fought through those distractions, went out and gave L.S.U. a chance to win tonight.”

The team returned to its hotel and will fly back to Baton Rouge on Saturday. Nickelberry will begin looking for another job. Days — the senior leader — will see if there is any more basketball ahead for him, and the young players will consider their options once a new coach is hired.

Eason, a sophomore, will decide whether to enter the N.B.A. draft.

The recent days have been head spinning, but he said he loves his teammates and the school. He may have been speaking for everyone else on the team when he said, “Yeah, I have no idea what the future holds.”

Scott Miller contributed reporting from San Diego.