KJ Williams thanks LSU fans in challenging season

When Matt McMahon accepted the LSU job, everyone knew Year One was going to be rough. The program was going to have to transition in a major way from the Will Wade era. In fact, McMahon inherited a roster with zero players and started from scratch.

The offseason struggles have bled into the games themselves, with LSU not being on the winning end too often. Heading into the season finale against Florida, the Tigers sport a 13-17 record and have won just two of 15 SEC games.

Even so, fans showed up to the Pete Maravich Center on a nightly basis to support the Bayou Bengals. KJ Williams, who transferred to LSU this past season, spoke highly of the support they received this year. He admitted it was a tough year all around but was thankful for the Tiger faithful.

“With this being my first year, I was looking forward to coming here to LSU,” Williams said. “That’s why I came here because of the great fans they had, great fanbase. I would like to thank them for supporting us throughout the season knowing what the outcome was. They still came out, supported us, and gave us great energy.”

On a positive note, the two SEC wins LSU was able to pull off came at the PMAC. Arkansas was the conference opener and was a huge victory for McMahon’s squad at the time. Vanderbilt was the latest of the two, coming on Feb. 22.

All home nonconference wins came in Baton Rouge as well. While LSU struggled throughout SEC play, the beginning of the season was a positive one for the Tigers.

KJ Williams explains why LSU fell to Missouri

LSU blew a golden opportunity to steal a win away from Missouri but let it fall apart with a shoddy second half, according to star KJ Williams.

The Tigers couldn’t hold onto the basketball, turning it over a whopping 16 times in the game.

“Can’t have as many turnovers as we did in the second half, I think we had 10 in the second half,” Williams said. “We can’t have those mistakes.”

That was also a source of angst for coach Matt McMahon, who called LSU’s turnover issues ‘brutal’ after the game. It’s been a recurring theme, but the Tigers had a much better first half than second.

“I think for us we just had to execute there in the second half,” Williams said. “Having that many turnovers in a crucial game like this with us coming out in the first half, we just have to come out with the same firepower in the second half. “