re: LSU admin is proving they don’t care about men’s bball & I’m not even talking about Ws&Ls

BRING BACK THE GENERAL

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Woodward doesn't even go to the men's basketball games. I don't blame him. The team is bad and he is responsible.

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This I don't understand. Regardless of how the team is doing, Woodward should show his face from time to time. It's cowardly.

I struggle with how fast a basketball team should be able to level up at the college level, especially with less than enthusiastic support (both from the Administration and fans).

Wade managed to bring some great players on board, which is essential for us to compete. I don't care how he did it -- he made it happen. But with LSU's name and NIL opportunities, I'm pretty sure we could reel in some solid talent if the powers at play wanted.

As for the NCAA and their handling of Jalen Cook? It feels like they're still giving us a hard time, so it seems like we're still dealing with some unspoken sanctions.

We know LSU is not "all in" on basketball. We're leaning on LSU's reputation and McMahon's knack for scouting and coaching hidden gems. Remember, it took McMahon three years at Murray State to hit his stride. So, if this is what we're calling his "first real year," then he's probably got a couple more seasons to show us what he's got. Scotty's probably thinking that this is all he's willing to go with for now, and as long as football and baseball are on track then he's not sticking his neck out.

As the eternally frustrated LSU men's basketball fan, I'm going to support my alma mater even if I know it's a secondary sport. McMahon's the coach and I'm going to support him.

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Wade loyalists, can’t seem to let it go and irrationally think LSU will somehow rehire him.

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Wade has always admired Bruce Pearl. Pearl has been quite successful since he left TN. I suspect Wade would not be interested in rejoining the LSU circus, unless the new Gov cleans house.

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LSU basketball needs to stop being an afterthought of the athletic department.

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I agree. We have no reason to have such a shitty MBB team with the amount of money and brand recognition LSU has. The last game I went to in the PMAC, I noticed the ceiling was peeling/rotting off in multiple places. It looked like an old high school gym. In a power 5 school. Unacceptable.

Woodward clearly doesn't care about the MBB program. And neither does Tate for that matter, who doesn't get enough of the vitriol directed toward him (in my opinion). Sustained success in any sport starts with administrative support and it was shown that that was nonexistent with WW being fired the way he was.

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to poochie
don't just downvote. type out the exact script you expect woody to come out and say. perfect world, you control him like a robot."


Go on....

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i don't expect the ad to have to come out and make a statement every time something goes wrong.

You guys should really read the IARP findings instead of just repeating Rant fan fiction.

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I struggle with how fast a basketball team should be able to level up at the college level,

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Iowa St, Kansas St and Missouri all had 1st year HCs come in an immediately turn a losing program into an NCAAT team in ONE season though good use of the transfer market. Now, those are somewhat outliers. But they are also proof it can be done quickly.

No one. I repeat, NO ONE, expected McMahon to come in last season and compete for an SEC championship. Absolute best case scenario expectation was that he could do enough to have LSU in the conversation for an NCAAT bid. But again, that wasn't the expectation. However, what he did was field the worst team in the SEC and tie the record for the worst conf. record in LSU basketball history. At one point last season LSU lost 14 straight games. 11 by 10+ points. So not only was LSU losing, they weren't even competitive. This season looks to be no different. A team with 8 new players. They've played 3 power conf. opponents. They beat Wake Forest in OT and lost by 23 and 15 to the other two opponents. One of those games at home.

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As for the NCAA and their handling of Jalen Cook? It feels like they're still giving us a hard time, so it seems like we're still dealing with some unspoken sanctions.

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Brandon Murray (remember him from LSU) hasn't played a game yet at Ole Miss because he hasn't been ruled eligible following his second transfer from Georgetown. The NCAA doesn't purposely have it out to screw LSU. They told EVERYONE in college basketball, in JANUARY, the waivers for 2x transfers were going to be very limited. They reiterated it again in March, well before Cook transferred to LSU. McMahon (and many other coaches around the country) called the NCAA's bluff and have come up empty.

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Remember, it took McMahon three years at Murray State to hit his stride.

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That's not a glowing endorsement of McMahon...at all! In fact, just the opposite. The Murray St program had a LONG history of success spanning decades and different HCs prior to McMahon getting the HC job. He inherited a program whose fewest conference wins in any season was 10 over the span of 12 years! He immediately won 10 and 8 conference games in his first two seasons as HC. Both longtime LOWS for the program. In his second season he had the only losing season Murray St. had posted since the mid-80's. I think MANY uninformed people who enter these discussions think he "built" Murray St. NOTHING could be further from the truth. Murray St had been one of the best one-bid league programs for decades prior to McMahon.

To his credit, he got MSU back on track after that (except for a .500 season in the strange 20-21 season). But is that the mindset? It's ok if the LSU program crashes and burns in the first 2 seasons because year 3 is going to be great? That may have worked at MSU because the program itself had long been the standard bearer of the OVC. But LSU is not that of the SEC, so it's hard to imagine things suddenly turnaround. Particularly with LSU becoming a less, and less desirable destination for great players with every mounting loss.

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Scotty's probably thinking that this is all he's willing to go with for now, and as long as football and baseball are on track then he's not sticking his neck out.

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Why? There is no other sport on campus that loses more money than Women's Basketball. Yet, he "stuck out his neck" to pay a huge salary for a great HC. That paid huge dividends on the in just two years. But even though Mulkey has made LSU one of the top programs in all of WBB the program is still going to operate at a financial loss because that is just the marketplace of WBB. He's also paying a ton of money (relative to the college baseball market) to Jay Johnson. Now, Johnson has absolutely produced results. But even though LSU is now the best college baseball program in the US once again, it is still only going to generate a meager profit. That's not a knock on Johnson. Just the nature of CBB market.

MBB can, and should, be the second most profitable sport on campus because the MBB marketplace as a whole is one of two college sports with the market to generate significant profits (obviously football is #1). So why would an AD NOT want to make a significant investment into a potentially high revenue generating sport? A successful mens basketball team helps EVERY sport at LSU. Every ADs wet dream should be to have a highly successful and profitable football and men's basketball program. That's how the department as a whole makes its money.

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As pointed out here, lsu had to fire wade.

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LSU didn't HAVE to fire Wade. They chose to. Now, given the unknows at the time I can't say LSU didn't have valid reasons for thinking firing Wade was a reasonable course of action. But they didn't HAVE to fire him.

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But LSU's not firing someone 1.5 seasons in coming off how much the program was in shambles left in the wake of the wade firing. At least no sane people think that he will be fired after this season.

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No reasonable person his saying McMahon should be fired today. So it's not like LSU would be firing a HC after 1.5 years. And much of this discussion is predicated on the assumption there is no improvement the rest of the season and at the end of the year the results are no better than the results last year. That would be deciding to fire a HC after two full seasons...not 1.5.

Your position is that no one should consider firing McMahon after just two seasons because of the "shambles" to program was left in after Wade was fired. I hate to break it to you, but the program is in "shambles" now (likely) after two full season. Whether LSU performs poorly because of limitations brought about by NCAA sanctions or simply bad coaching, the result is the same...losing and disinterest. Or, to put it another way, LSU fired Wade to avoid the threat of a "death penalty", in the process essentially giving themselves a de facto "death penalty" based upon the results to date under McMahon. It doesn't really matter WHY you are losing. Just that you are losing.

If the season continues to crater and LSU finishes at the bottom of SEC once more, I again ask the question "why wait to make a coaching change if you don't foresee anything getting better"? In that case waiting to make a change would just be prolonging the inevitable.

McMahon has a contract. He's going to be paid for next season according to that contract whether he coaches LSU next year or not. So it's not as if LSU really "saves" anything financially by keeping him other than a psychological effect of not wanting to pay someone for a job they aren't doing. But that should never be a basis for holding off on making a move you know you are going to have to eventually make anyway.

This situation already played out with Johnny Jones. The 2014-15 season was the Ben Simmons season. LSU was ranked in the preseason top 25 and it felt like that season was what the program was building towards. Sadly, those expectations were never reached and season ended unceremoniously with Jones effectively losing the program. At that point it was abundantly clear LSU was never going to be a championship contender under Jones. So keeping him on for another season wasn't going to progress the program towards that ultimate goal. Nonetheless, Alleva kept him for the 16-17 season. One where Jones entered the season as a lame duck. He, the players, and everyone within college basketball knew that barring some miracle he was going to be fired at the end of the season. With that being the circumstances surrounding the program complete apathy took hold. The fans didn't care and the players didn't care because everyone knew change was coming at the end of the year. The result was the worst SEC performance in the history of LSU basketball (until McMahon matched it last season).

What did that extra season under Jones accomplish? Nothing, other than setting the program back further for the new HC. The same logic would apply here. If McMahon has bad season but is retained for year 3, EVERYONE will know it is likely a lame duck year. That means recruits, good transfers, current players, even good assistant coaches will be reluctant to hitch their wagon to a program that is going to be overhauled following the season. That being the case, McMahon would have very little shot of having a good season.

Maybe the team turns things around in SEC play and LSU has a good season to give you the glimmer of hope things are on the upswing. But if not, why waste another season? To confirm in year 3 what you already knew was the case after year 2? It's illogical.

Hmm