They say “Nice guys finish last.”
There is some truth to that.
LSU men’s head basketball coach Matt McMahon is a really, really nice guy.
His 13-8 team is currently tied for last in the 16-team SEC at 1-7.
His first team at LSU in 2022-23 finished last in the SEC.
His third team finished next to last.
They also say “Cheaters never win.”
Not necessarily.
McMahon’s Tigers’ predecessor was Will Wade, whose second squad won the 2019 SEC regular season championship.
Four of Wade’s five LSU teams played in the postseason – one NIT, three straight in the NCAA Tournament, discounting the COVID outbreak that cancelled the 2020 tourney. Wade’s 21-10 team that season would have advanced to the Big Dance.
And yes, according to NCAA rules during his tenure, Wade cheated.
He bought players (four currently in the NBA, countless others in the G-League and overseas), which has been legal since July 2021.
LSU terminated him for NCAA violations in March 2022. The university didn’t have to fire him. They used him as a sacrifice to the NCAA to avoid major sanctions for the football program, which had cheated under Les Miles.
They say there are “make-up” calls in basketball. That’s when a referee makes an incorrect foul call against a team and then moments later calls a foul on the other team to make up for the original miscall.
On Wednesday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, after LSU fell behind by 28 points late in the first half before losing 80-66 to Mississippi State — which entered the night on a five-game losing streak — it became obvious.
Matt McMahon, a nice guy who finishes last, needs to be fired at the end of this season.
Will Wade, who served his NCAA penalties penance, now in his first season at North Carolina State as head coach after leading McNeese State to two consecutive NCAA tourneys, must be hired by LSU’s revamped administration led by new school president Wade Rousse.
A makeup call? Maybe.
Rousse was hired in November by LSU. He was McNeese’s president for Wade’s last season at the school when the Cowboys went 27-8 and advanced to the NCAA tourney second round, where they beat No. 5 seed Clemson in the first round.
LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry needs to be as aggressive in hiring Wade (who’s 15-6 overall, 6-2 in the ACC) as he was in hiring new head football coach Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss.
McMahon has already lost more games overall (57-61) and in the SEC (15-47) in four seasons coaching LSU than Wade did his first four of five seasons.
While it is true that McMahon had to sign almost an entire new team immediately after Wade was fired, it was because all of Wade’s players transferred.
They didn’t want to play for McMahon, who came from Murray State. They preferred to play for Wade, the guy who recruited and developed them.
Until this year, McMahon supposedly was crippled by a lack of NIL to buy transfer portal players.
This season, LSU at least looks like a major college team with size, length and athleticism. McMahon was able to buy better talent, but he’s still behind the rest in the SEC.
The Tigers have trailed by double digits almost 70 percent of the time in four of their six SEC losses. In the other two defeats, LSU blew early second half leads (18 at home vs. Kentucky, 8 at Arkansas).
True, McMahon has had some rotten luck with injuries in the last two seasons.
Junior Jalen Reed, a key component of LSU’s front line, sustained season-ending knee injuries last year and this season before the Tigers entered SEC play. Also, starting transfer point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. got hurt in practice shortly before LSU’s league opening loss at Texas A&M and sat out the first five SEC games while mending a foot injury.
Ausberry said in mid-January he’ll evaluate McMahon at the end of the season. But with 10 remaining SEC games, only one or two appear winnable. There’s no miracle waiting in the wings.
Just as LSU’s women’s program had hit rock bottom under Nikki Fargas – losing seasons led to fan apathy and her resignation – before the Tigers’ home run hire of Louisiana native and then-three-time national champion head coach Kim Mulkey in April 2021, the Tigers are at that point in men’s basketball.
These days, when searching for a major college head coach, there are a couple of basic elements.
You hire someone who’s a proven winner. And you hire somebody who has the drive and personality to ignite a fan base enough to inspire an outpouring of booster donations and fatten the transfer portal war chest.
On both counts, that certainly isn’t McMahon. But Wade?
Dating back to his days coaching Virginia Commonwealth before coming to LSU and replacing Johnny Jones in March 2017, Wade has taken his teams to seven of the last eight NCAA Tournaments that have been played.
He was widely liked by the LSU fan base in his previous tenure. His players loved playing for him, and he treated his staff and support staff with kindness.
His only weakness was that he didn’t cheat clandestinely enough like other programs.
LSU has spent so much money paying off former fired football coaches that you wonder if there is anything left in the budget to hire Wade and fire McMahon and his staff.
LSU’s big-money donators, who will have to write an $8.4 million check for the remaining three years on McMahon’s seven-year contract (as well as paying off the coaching staff contracts), reportedly aren’t disgusted enough yet to foot the bill for McMahon’s exit.
They might reach for their checkbooks if LSU wins just a couple more SEC games the remainder of the season.
Wade’s N.C. State contract buyout is $3 million after April 1. That’s basically the cost of a top-notch transfer offensive lineman these days.
And April 1 is April Fool’s Day. It would be delicious irony for Wade to have the last laugh, returning to the school that used him as collateral for probation.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com