LSU basketball coach Matt McMahon expresses excitement to be joining SEC, sets goals for Year 1

LSU basketball coach Matt McMahon knows winning in the SEC isn’t easy. The league boasts some of the best coaches in college basketball with John Calipari, Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes to name a few.

As McMahon prepares to begin his inaugural season in Baton Rouge in 2022-23, he does so with the goal of hoping to someday be considered for that list. The coach joined College Hoops Today with Jon Rothstein on Monday, where he talked about his excitement as he prepares to embark on a new journey.

“It’s awesome. I’m really excited about it,” McMahon said. “It’s one of the many things that brought me to LSU. You just listed off some of the coaches in the league. You’re talking about some of not only the best coaches in the country, but in college basketball history. I think that’s why you’ve seen the SEC take such a jump in recent years to the top of college basketball. We’ll continue to put our focus on building the LSU program, but I think the SEC with the elite coaches, all the NBA talent you see coming out of the league right now, the great venues you’re gonna play in, the passionate fanbases — all of those things are very exciting to me.”

LSU is coming off of a 20-12 season in which it suffered a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament. Prior to the start of the tournament, the Tigers parted ways with coach Will Wade after the NCAA provided a Notice of Allegations for recruiting violations against him. Now McMahon, who spent the past seven seasons as the head coach at Murray State, is tasked with cleaning things up in Baton Rouge.

Matt McMahon will essentially get a fresh start at LSU after 10 Tigers players entered the transfer portal this offseason. They still brought in the No. 17 recruiting class in the country, highlighted by top 100 players Tyrell Ward and Jalen Reed. LSU also added six transfers of its own as replacements.

With so much turnover, McMahon knows how important this summer will be for his team.

“The goal for our team and players, that will never change for me,” he said. “A boring answer, but how do you build the best team we’re capable of being to help each player max out their opportunities here at LSU? On the court, in the classroom, NIL, whatever those things might be. That’s where it all starts. But I think for us, I didn’t take this opportunity at LSU for the short term. I want this to be a long-term program. So it’s more about this summer, and especially in fall, establishing our program and the processes with which we’re gonna build our team. How we implement our player development program and all of those things. I think the results and outcomes will take care of themselves as we get going down the road.”

McMahon brings a strong track record with him to LSU, going 154-67 in seven seasons with the Racers while appearing in three NCAA Tournaments. Tigers fans will hope that carries over as he tries to clean up the damage and keep them among the top teams in the SEC.