BATON ROUGE – Normally, an 88-point basketball victory by an NCAA Power 5 conference program over an NAIA school with an enrollment of around 1,100 is nothing to beat your chest about.
Which is why LSU second-year men’s head coach Matt McMahon’s tempered reaction Monday night of his team’s 132-44 un-Christian-like home exhibition game beatdown of little ’ol Louisiana Christian perfectly fit the occasion.
“Not really worried about the score, but I liked the look of our team, the athleticism and size and unselfishness,” said McMahon, who almost won by 90 without three of his best players.
He could have ended his post-game presser with those 20 words, walked out the door and everybody in the room would have understood that’s all he needed to say.
Because if you watched McMahon sit stoically smoldering in last season’s post-Will Wade era dumpster fire (as McMahon finally truthfully described it recently) that produced a 12-3 start before losing 16 of its last 18 games to finish 14-19 overall and 2-16 in the SEC, you understood that having a team that looks athletic and tall and can make outside shots is a Eurostep or two forward progress.
When LSU gave McMahon a 7-year contract nine days after it fired Wade in March 2022 for being an exceptionally indiscreet cheater in recruiting (though he averaged 21 wins per year in five seasons with an SEC regular season title and three NCAA tourney appearances), it was a subtle reminder the school understood the obstacles McMahon faced.
The NCAA sanctions from an investigation into Wade’s purchasing players had yet to be announced. It made it impossible to sign quality players – especially transfers – as soon as Wade’s 10 top players jumped ship (7 transferred, 3 entered the NBA draft) before McMahon was even hired away from mid-major power Murray State.
Maybe because McMahon was trying to look ahead and not backward, he refused last season to publicly acknowledge the massive challenges he faced.
Ask him any question and he answered politely while measuring each word he said. There was no crack in his poker-face façade.
It wasn’t until a week or so ago – maybe because he felt he and his staff finally had time to thoughtfully piece together a roster rather than the frenetic fallout of immediately having to replace just about an entire team upon his hiring – that McMahon spoke honestly about the deep mess he stepped into.
“Coach Wade did a good job here at LSU and won a lot of games during his time here,” he said. “When I got here, all of that was gone. No players, no foundation, no culture, no nothing. So, it was essentially a little bit of a dumpster fire.
“The other reality is there was a NCAA investigation hanging over the program that was a black cloud. It made it very challenging to start a program over from scratch.”
McMahon’s recruiting consisted of finding enough warm bodies to form a team.
No matter how hard he coached last season, McMahon couldn’t overcome a disjointed roster that didn’t do anything particularly well in games consistently for more than 5-minute stretches.
Once the NCAA announced its sanctions this past June – no postseason ban and a loss of one scholarship for each of the next two seasons – McMahon was finally armed with positive news for recruits.
He signed eight new players – six transfers and two freshmen – to replace the 11 players he lost (three 5th-year or graduating seniors, eight chose to transfer or quit).
“This year, we were able to be very intentional and selective in how we approach the portal,” McMahon said. “So, we wanted to identify players with proven track records of success coming from the top nine leagues in the country. We also wanted guys that came from winning programs – five of the six transfers we signed came from teams that won 21 or more games on their teams last year. We also wanted to address getting the best players in Louisiana (who signed and played with out-of-state schools) to come back through the portal and play at home.
“And then from a style of play standpoint, identifying size and athleticism for the frontcourt for this league. Also, having some versatile pieces that can guard multiple positions and also attack multiple positions offensively was important for us.”
Just from LSU’s exhibition – even against overwhelmed Louisiana Christian – it appears McMahon addressed much of what the Tigers lacked last season.
They are tall with five players 6-9 or more. They are athletic with four players 6-5 to 6-8 who can defend multiple positions and rain 3-pointers from the wings and corners. They have guards who understand when to shoot and when to find the open shooters.
LSU’s six transfer signees have started a collective 263 college games and four are Louisiana natives. Three are grad students and three are juniors.
“Having guys that have played basketball everywhere, not just in the SEC who have seen everything that you could imagine from every league and having been successful is going to help this year,” said Jordan Wright, a 6-6 Baton Rouge native who came home as a grad student after starting in 73 of the 123 games he played for Vanderbilt.
Even with some recruiting light at the end of the tunnel, LSU was picked at the league’s media day to finish 13th in the 14-team SEC.
If the NCAA clears guard Jalen Cook, the Tigers should have a shot of at least getting an NIT berth. Cook is a former Walker High star who spent his freshman season playing sparingly for Wade at LSU in 2020-21 before transferring to Tulane two years ago. With the Green Wave he averaged 19 points in 50 games.
It’s a baby step forward, but it’s what Wade accomplished in his first season at LSU before his frequent trips to the ATM.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com