Matt McMahon credits LSU players for resiliency this season

Just a win at Vanderbilt this weekend separates LSU from a .500 SEC record. While climbing back to even in the league standings seemed impossible several weeks ago, it’s now a reality thanks to the buy-in from LSU’s players, according to their head coach.

That second-year coach, Matt McMahon, was extremely proud of his players after the Tigers narrowly held on to beat Georgia at home, 67-66, on Tuesday evening. That win marks their third in the last fourth to advance to 7-8 in conference play, when they were once 4-7 after losing six out of seven games. When asked what sparked the recent run of good play, McMahon deflected all praise to the guys wearing the uniforms.

“It has zero to do with coaching. It’s all about the players,” he claimed. “Their buy-in, how they’ve worked in practice, even after some of those tough losses — at the buzzer at Georgia, at the buzzer at Florida — have never wavered. They’ve come back to practice to learn and get better, have stuck together as a group as guys have fallen off for whatever reasons, injuries, illness.”

McMahon says this breakthrough is a product of working the right way behind the scenes during the tough times.

“Just a big believer, if you continue to put in the work, if you’re about the right things, you’ll make those improvements necessary. And then ultimately you got to win one of them, and then it starts to create some belief.”

That belief after the South Carolina win turned into wins against Kentucky and now Georgia. Particularly, McMahon was thrilled to see the Tigers close vs. the Bulldogs after a tough finish in their previous meeting.

“I’m looking forward to watching the last possession, because I thought — I know our guys were exhausted, we were gassed — but I thought we were flying around and had some great contests at the rim, deflected the passes, broke up the rhythm, and then Jaden Reed, you know, with a phenomenal contest to win it.”

In his final comment, the LSU coach reiterated one more time that this stretch and these wins are thanks to the character of the kids in the Tiger locker room.

So it’s, you know, it’s something for us to continue to build on. But I just think it speaks to the character and toughness of our players, their resiliency to stay the course and find ways to win.