Matt McMahon sets expectations entering year two at LSU

LSU’s men’s basketball team is less than one week from it’s open exhibition game to mark the beginning of its season and there’s still some hesitancy from LSU fans to buy in on Matt McMahon and this program. After a first season where the Tigers went 2-16 in SEC play, McMahon has been adamant about putting that season behind them. 

Taking over an LSU program that was at ground zero, with ample uncertainty, in one of the best basketball conferences in the country, was a recipe for disastor. Now, the Tigers head into year two with a foundation, some returning talent, and an incoming crop of players that know what to expect and are hungry to build something in Baton Rouge.

When asked about the big-picture outlook for this program at a school that seemingly has success in every other sport, McMahon gave an in-depth answer that attempted to address every angle of the situation the program was in and where it is headed.

The work is only beginning for the Tigers’ head coach as he begins the second year, but success in the transfer portal and on the recruiting trails has the program taking steps forward entering the 2023-24 season.

“There’s a long answer that involves reality and perspective,” McMahon said. “I’m right where I’m supposed to be. It’s an incredible honor to be here coaching at LSU. I understood the challenge that was ahead when I got here. I love the group of people we’ve been able to put together to move our program forward. 

“The reality, No. 1 we didn’t win at the level I expect to win at nor the level our fans deserve. The second reality is coachWade did a good job here at LSU and won a lot of games during his time. Reality three, when I got here in April, all of that was gone. No players, no foundation, no culture, no nothing. It was essentially a dumpster fire and we have to go about a methodical process of rebuilding it. We were able to do that by signing a top ten portal class in the spring with six guys, then there’s an asterisk depending on what happens with Jalen Cook, We’lll end up signing a top 15 recruiting class in 2024. The other reality is there was an NCAA investigation hanging over the program that was a black cloud and made it very challenging to start a program over from scratch. That’s now complete and that’s now over.”

Setting expectations for 2023-24

With that in the rearview, McMahon can start looking ahead at this season. That starts with building support of the program which is tied into beginning to win games. A loaded non-conference schedule and another challenging slate of SEC games on deck bring several opportunities for the Tigers to make a push for the NCAA Tournament, but either way, the foundation is continuing to grow for McMahon.

“The perspective now is I love the direction we’re going,” McMcmahon said. “We’re going to recruit at a high level. We’re going to build an army of people that are going to support LSU basketball as we rebuild the program moving forward.”

On the court, LSU has an exciting group of transfer additions, including center Will Baker, guard Jordan Wright, and guard Carlos Stewart, with transfer point guard Jalen Cook’s eligibility still in question with the NCAA.

Regardless, it’s a roster that has the potential to fight with the middle of the pack in the SEC and certainly appears more potent than last year with its experience and versatility.

“From a basketball standpoint, just having an older group of experienced players, eight of our guys are in their fourth or fifth year of playing college basketball and we tried being very intentional in doing that,” McMahon said. “We hope that leads to some outstanding leadership from guys that have proven themselves at a high level. Now, we need to take this collection of talented people and build it into a team.”