re: MBB Offseason '25 Transfer Portal Tracker

wasn't banned possibly because some context was taken into account. I've not said one negative remark or wished harm on another poster, then these dark forces show up on EVERY thread about MBB. It just got to be too much. Then, before even the single reply to my offensive post, I thought better of it, eliminated it, and apologized. You, as one of these dark forces, keep bringing it up.

I believe Ole Miss pulled out of that recruitment. Looks like Wades gonna get his guy. I do wonder how much he’ll get though. All these asking prices are out of control.

Apparently Florida stopped recruiting Desmond Claude because of his $4M asking price

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But I consider the context, the extreme circumstance CMM was put under

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Here's where we differ. McMahon hasn't been under "extreme circumstances." It may have seemed like he was when he was first hired, but anyone who follows CBB as a whole, not just LSU alone, soon realized the circumstances weren't all that "extreme" relative to the CBB landscape. LSU wasn't the only program to lose the majority of its roster. And despite the "cloud of negativity" with respect to the ability to sign players some fans swore existed, the reality showed that really wasn't the case. McMahon did a good job signing a solid HS recruiting class. His transfer class that season was rated as a top 20 class...just like this year's transfer class which is the source of your optimism. The sanctions LSU ultimately go hit with were incredibly minor (1 scholarship loss for 2 years) and ultimately had no effect because LSU got around them with NIL funding. His recruiting, at least with respect to player rankings, hasn't been bad.

He has been largely outclassed on the court at this level of competition. Period. End of story. The results (nearly 100 games) speak for themselves. They aren't just subpar. They are the worst in the SEC over the course of 3 seasons.

Now, that doesn't guarantee LSU will be bad this upcoming season. The double-edge sword of college basketball today is that one offseason can literally tank a program or elevate it to great heights. But the 3 years of poor results removes any benefit of the doubt McMahon may have once been given. That's not unreasonable. It's actually completely logical.

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here must be significant improvement this year or CMM is gone

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"significant improvement" is a HIGHLY subjective term. He could be significantly improved from last year and still be a below average team. Being somewhat better than terrible doesn't necessarily equal "good", or even provide assurances of a constant ascent because, just like every other year, next year's roster (regardless of coach) will be significantly different than this year's roster.

The only question that matters is "does LSU think McMahon can ever get the program to a point where it is competing for championships?" Right now that answer looks to be no. If the answer is anything other than an unequivocal yes after this season, even if the results are better than last season (which isn't a difficult bar to reach), then the program should move on because any additional years will just be a waste of time towards reaching the ultimate goal.

Texas just fired a HC (Rodney Terry) that took them to the NCAA tournament in each of his 2.5 seasons as HC. One of those seasons ended in the Elite 8. Terry wasn't "bad". He just wasn't "good enough". Does LSU want to be really good? Or are they fine with being decent here and there with multi-year periods of awful in-between?

"Improvement" isn't what we are looking for. Good is what we are looking for. Don't tell me how great the offseason is for the (now) 4th year in a row. Produce results on the court.

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McMahon hasn't been under "extreme circumstances." It may have seemed like he was when he was first hired, but anyone who follows CBB as a whole, not just LSU alone, soon realized the circumstances weren't all that "extreme" relative to the CBB landscape

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well if he was underfunded that is pretty extreme.

I tend to believe it's a progression game. If LSU wins enough games to be on the bubble and become a program higher rated recruits WANT to join, is that enough? Or is it tourney or gone for you? If higher rated recruits see the improvement and want to be a part of it, is that not good enough for you? If you can admit that you se improvement but still want change, then that's just sad.

On the reverse side, regression can be a thing too. If there is no improvement in the program, I would gladly join in your clamor for change. But for right now, McMahon is the reality and I choose to be hopeful for the program to get better.

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I tend to believe it's a progression game.

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It's been three seasons and McMahon hasn't shown any great progress besides being able to get a team to a barely .500 record. In fact, he followed up his marginal improvement from year 1 to 2 by immediately regressing right back down to the year 1 lows.

It will have been 4 years. I don't want to see "improvement" from bad to not quite as bad. I want to see a guy who can build a roster then show he can truly compete with major conf. programs. LSU had an SEC low -10 point differential in conf. games last season (which doesn't included the 29 point arse kicking by Miss. St in the SEC tournament. A loss which brought McMahon to 0-5 vs. MSU in his tenure). South Carolina had a lower point differential (-8) which means they were at least, on average, more competitive than LSU.

There is ZERO reason LSU can't have success similar to programs like Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, etc. None of those were historically great programs until they found the right HC. But how long does one have to evaluate a HC until they find he's just not the right guy? Johnny Jones never had a losing record in the SEC in 4 seasons, yet he was gone after one bad season. McMahon has already had two such seasons in three years! Ed Orgeron won a national championship with the greatest team ever assembled by LSU. 1.5 poor seasons later he was gone. Smoke Laval went to the NCAAT four years in a row, twice to the CWS. Yet, one poor year and he was gone. Les Miles won a NC and played for another. He averaged 9 wins a season. Not good enough! Similar for Paul Maineri. Brady went to a Final Four...then was fired 1.5 years later after bad seasons. Yet only Matt McMahon is treated by some as if he is coaching 6th grade girls basketball where winning at a high level isn't important or expected. As long as everyone is having fun and doing ok that's enough.

Go out and have a great season. Show you can compete with any major conf. team on any given night. Show you can win more than 30% of games vs. anyone with a pulse and not just take advantage of a favorable schedule (even in his best season at LSU McMahon was only 3-10 vs. NCAAT teams...2 of the 3 wins coming by just 1 point). Give fans an objective basis to believe LSU be a real contender vs. celebrating not totally sucking.

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Or maybe the excuse of him being "extremely underfunded" a bit suspect?

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the players didn't seem that good, which would make sense if he were underfunded. perhaps other programs passed on these fellas, ignoring their rankings for their own assessments, meaning they were available for lower pay.

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To be fair, our end of the year Kenpom rating has gotten better each year. The team this past year was easily the best of his 3 years, just didn’t seem like it with the historically great SEC

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The reason is because the defense was the highest rated it's been in his 3 seasons. The biggest factor in that defensive rating was LSU was a good shot blocking team. They had two guys in the top 10 of the SEC in block %...those two guys (Collins and Chest) are no longer on the team. Without the uptick in shot-blocking the defense would have been on par with last year's team (which was 99th in DEff.) This past team was almost as bad as his first team offensively. LSU's average point margin in conf. games was -10...the worst in the SEC. Even South Carolina had a lower point margin.

Last year was his best team. Now, that team would not have been .500 vs. this past season's SEC. But it would have been a few games better than this year's group. Regardless, none of it is "good". You could see the conf. collapse this year coming well before January because even though LSU was winning in the non-conf schedule, they were still steadily in the bottom three of the league in the KenPom rankings.

In MM's opening press conference he said he wanted to be "balanced" on both sides of the ball. Coache's speak, for sure, but it should have been music to every LSU's fans ears because that was Wade's biggest flaw. His teams were incredibly imbalanced (generally elite offensively and awful defensively...until that flipped in his final season). To his credit, MM's teams (until this year) have been "balanced". It's just they've often been equally bad on both sides of the ball.

It will be interesting to see if the defensive uptick from this past year maintains without the rim protection Chest and Collins brought to the table. Reed has never been a great defender, and he is a below the basket player (even before his injury). Miller has the length, but he doesn't seem to have the timing/aggressiveness to be a great shot blocker. Nwoko is the only guy that has rim-protection traits. The question is can he defend without fouling?

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In fact, the data points to this team being significantly worse defensively

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This is likely what people will be melting about. We got a few good players, so I’m not selling doom and gloom. But we did not pick up very much quickness, and we lost rim protection at the same time. Which is tough in a very athletic conference. I hope we shoot lights out to equalize what would appear to be a poor perimeter defending team.