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re: Easier program turnaround, LSU or NcNeese St.

Posted on 1/25/24 at 8:03 am to
Posted by PNG Futbol
Member since Aug 2022
482 posts
Posted on 1/25/24 at 8:03 am to
McMahon seems to be a good coach, but he is a vanilla personality, IMO. To recruit well and consistently at a school like LSU in men's basketball requires more than what McMahon presents, IMO.

LSU has shown that it doesn't care about men's basketball as much as it does about football or baseball. It is what it is. LSU needs more personality and engagement from its coach to get fan and donor support. This is especially true in the NIL era.

When McMahon gets us into an NIT and 4 consecutive NCAA tournaments while winning the regular season conference championship, he will receive the reverence that Wade has earned from many LSU fans. There is a reason why many LSU fans long for the Wade regime.

The question posed by the OP is moot. Wade did turn LSU around in an era when there was no free transfer rule. Wade did turn around a depleted squad at Chattanooga and at McNeese. Wade didn't have to turn around the VCU team because they were already an A10 power.

McMahon has never turned around a team. Murray St. was already a mid-major power when he took over. LSU is still a work in progress under McMahon. I worry that McMahon's career at LSU will look more like Trent or Johnny than Will. At this point, I will be happy if McMahon can come close to Brady's results.

Time will tell.
Posted by Alt26
Member since Mar 2010
28617 posts
Posted on 1/25/24 at 10:58 am to
quote:

McMahon seems to be a good coach,


Not trying to be argumentative, but based upon what exactly?

quote:

LSU is still a work in progress under McMahon. I worry that McMahon's career at LSU will look more like Trent or Johnny than Will. At this point, I will be happy if McMahon can come close to Brady's results.


Obviously there is still more than half of the SEC schedule to play. So it is unreasonable to draw any definitive conclusions right now. But if at the end of the year the mindset is still "I will be happy if McMahon can come close to Brady's results", then why continue to waste time pushing for such a relatively low bar?

The goal of EVERY major program should be to compete for an hopefully win national championships. Now, I'm not saying that should be the EXPECTATION every year. But it should be the benchmark upon which a coach is judged. In other words, "is the program showing signs of truly progressing towards that ultimate goal?" And if not, why continue to waste time knowing you are VERY unlikely to ever reach that goal?

Making a bad hire is not necessarily the worst sin an AD can make. It's really hard to definitively project how successful a coach will be. Especially when you are hiring a mid-major coach who has never coached at the major conf. level. The greater sin is unnecessarily keeping a guy too long once it becomes clear he's highly unlikely to ever have great success.

I'm NOT saying McMahon should be fired at the end of the season. There is still too much season left to be played to reach any conclusions. But Woodward would be neglectful if he's not constantly evaluating the state of each program and where it might be heading in terms of success.

He didn't hesitate to can Orgeron once it became clear he was tanking the program. And that was 1.5 seasons after one of the greatest seasons in CFB history! It took one year for him to recognize the WBB program was going nowhere, fast. So he made a change. Same for Paul Mainieri. Mainieri really never had a full season under Woodward before he decided to "retire" in 2021. There is debate if Mainieri actually wanted to retire or if he was somewhat "encouraged" to. (Particularly in light of the fact he purportedly interviewed for the open Miami job this past offseason). Even this year in football with the complete disaster on defense in just the staff's second year. There wasn't a mindset of "let's give it another year and see if things improve". It was a complete replacement.

MBB gets a little longer rope because the expectation level is lower than that of football and baseball. But at some point I would think an AD has to look at the program and evaluate "Is this program going anywhere noteworthy?" IF, that answer at the end of the season is "Not likely" then there should at lest be some evaluation of the marketplace for a potential replacement (even if the AD doesn't actually replace the HC)
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