re: McMahon has the basketball program poised to make a quantum leap next season

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A losing or break even record getting an NCAA tourney invite is the exception not the rule.

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Not necessarily. Since the 17-18 season the SEC has had a team (sometimes two) finish 9-9 or 8-10 and reach the NCAA Tournament. Every year.

17-18: Alabama (8-10); Texas A&M (9-9)
18-19: Florida (9-9)
20-21: Missouri (9-9)
21-22: LSU (9-9); Alabama (9-9)
22-23: Mississippi St. (8-10), Arkansas (8-10) [both got in ahead of 9-9 Florida and 11-7 Vanderbilt]

Clearly it's not that uncommon. So evaluating whether or not to fire a coach strictly on ONE metric is foolish.
Who had the better season?

Team A: 19-12 (8-10), lost in the Sweet 16
Team B: 18-13 (11-7), failed to reach the NCAA Tournament

Perhaps I'm just weird, but I'm taking Team A even though they finished 3 games worse in SEC play than Team B. Would you fire the coach of Team A in that situation?

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LSU MBB should be better than mediocre.

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That is the ultimate goal. But it has to be viewed in context. It would be ridiculous to fire an LSU HC who went, say, 20-11 (10-8), lost in 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament SOLEY because he didn't win 2 more SEC games. If that were the case, Bruce Pearl should have been fired after last season for being "mediocre". Would we all like to see a day where LSU is a Final Four contender every year? Of course! But LSU needs to start being "good" first. And a NCAAT appearance (even with an SEC record below 12-6) would be a "good" step in that direction. If, after 6-7 years LSU is stuck in that same spot then things can be reevaluated. But 12-6 next year or bust? That's absurd.