2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 60
Meet Matt
A new era began for LSU men’s basketball in the Bill
Lawton Room of Tiger Stadium on Wednesday, as Matt
McMahon was officially announced as LSU’s 25th men’s
basketball head coach.
McMahon comes to LSU off the back of a successful
tenure at Murray State, where he became widely regarded
as one of the best young coaches in the country. Now after
a 31-3 season and NCAA Tournament berth, his stock is
higher than ever.
Murray State is a mid-major school that has seen a
large amount of conference success over their decades in
the Ohio Valley Conference, appearing in over half of the
NCAA tournaments since they expanded the number of
teams to 64 in 1985 as the conference’s representative.
Other than Coach McMahon, Murray State has
produced other well-known coaches such as Billy Kennedy
and Steve Prohm, who had up-and-down tenures at Texas
A&M and Iowa State respectively. Most notably, Mick
Cronin, who had Cincinnati appear in nine straight NCAA
Tournaments and currently has UCLA in its second
straight Sweet 16.
Of the four Racer coaches since 2003, just two have
made the tournament more than once: Mick Cronin with
two out of three and Matt McMahon with three out of
seven.
Though Murray State won its division in McMahon’s
first year at the helm, that season was particularly shaky
compared to the Racers’ previous season with Prohm,
where they had finished the regular season undefeated in
conference play and narrowly missed the tournament.
Overall, McMahon finished with about a 70% winning
percentage at a record of 154-67, with the most recent
season being his best (31-3). He proved his ability to both
rebuild and maintain a program, which will be critical at
LSU.
Stepping into the mess that is LSU men’s basketball
right now, it is fair to say McMahon will have his work
cut out for him in the beginning. LSU will most likely get
some sort of sanctions from the NCAA, which will put
some serious limitations on recruiting.
For one, scholarship restrictions are the first penalties
LSU is expected to get and if the program gets a
postseason ban, that will make it even harder to attract
recruits.
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The first step to this process is to wait and see who
from the current roster and recruiting class stays and goes.
LSU has now lost all four commits of its 2022 recruiting
class, but no one on the current roster has announced
any plans to leave the program so far. When asked about
re-recruiting the current players at his opening press
conference McMahon outlined his approach.
“That’s the most important thing here,” McMahon said.
“We’ve hit the ground running. We’re going to invest a lot
of time with our players. I want people who want to be
here.”
Under sanctions, recruiting is tough, but the argument
can be made that McMahon, an already established
recruiter, will have an even easier time at LSU. Looking
at his time at Murray State, McMahon recruited and
developed multiple NBA players, most notably Ja Morant.
Acquiring Morant was a pivotal point in McMahon’s
coaching progression, as the team’s transformation was
immediate. In his two seasons with the program, Murray
State made the tournament twice as a 12-seed and
advanced to the Round of 32 in one of those after an upset,
blowout victory over five-seed Marquette.
While Morant’s time with the Racers was important
in re-establishing Murray State’s success and getting
McMahon out of a potential hole, McMahon’s most recent
season is what prevented those seasons from being flukes.
Being able to produce players like that at a mid-major
school proves that McMahon is both great at evaluating
talent and developing players coming out of high school.
Pair that with an environment like LSU, where five-star
players have already been coming, this leads many to
believe that McMahon could be a great recruiter in Baton
Rouge.
In the first couple of years, it is no secret that McMahon
will have to rely heavily on the transfer portal. Anytime
a new coach comes in, transfers are common but they
will be especially frequent in this situation. The first place
McMahon will likely look is the Murray State roster he left
behind which featured tremendous young talent.
The first couple of years will be a transition period for
LSU men’s basketball, but McMahon has made it known
that he is ready for the challenge. This starts a new era in
Baton Rouge, and one that has fans hopeful for the future
of a program trying to get its momentum back.