re: Fundamental Basketball

We’ve turned the roster over 3 times under CoachMc and have been at the top of the SEC in turnovers every year. What’s the constant? Players have changed, yet we have the same results.

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Our players aren’t very good but they are being put in bad spots.

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I would argue this is the most athletic roster he has had at LSU. But the personnel decisions and general approach to style of play is, well, questionable, at best.

What I see is a guy who spent his entire playing/coaching career at the mid-major level PRIOR to the sea change in college sports brought about by the "legalization" of NIL and the players ability to freely transfer. The successful mid-major model, which Murray St was for decades before McMahon and with him as their HC, was to recruit the second-tier prospects and develop them in your system/structure over the course of 3, 4, 5 years so that by the time you hit that 3 years you had a team of experienced players wholly familiar with the system and each other.

That wasn't fully the major conf. model before NIL/transfer portal and it definitely isn't now. The model now is flipping the roster every year and either finding players specifically skilled to fit your preferred style OR recruiting the best players you can get and quickly adapting to that roster's collective strength. IMO, McMahon is in a crisis of uncertainty. He wants to sign players that fit his preferred style of play but he can't quite do it. That means he's left, in part, with signing the best players he can get (notice many have LSU/Louisiana connections). However, he's not willing to fully adapt his approach to those those players strengths. So what you are left with is an unsuccessful hodgepodge of solid players being forced to play in a certain approach that doesn't quite fit their strengths by a coach who isn't fully willing to adapt to his roster. It's kind of the worst of both worlds.

The dwindling supporters will say "Well that's why you have to give him more time!". However, that argument starts to ring hollow when you realize the majority of the guys he signs aren't staying more than two years. It's entirely likely that he would, at best, go into year 4 with only 2 players from his first two signing classes (a total of 6 players) Reed and Chest [assuming a guy like Mike Williams will look elsewhere given he's basically the last man off the bench now], You can't really stack recruiting classes when by year three of each class you are only left with 1 guy from that signing class.

He's not a bad guy. And he's probably not a bad coach in the right situation at the right level. But he's just not suited for this level in this new era of college basketball.

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Do you think any of the endless excuses and he’s an Xs and Os genius posters know that McMahon was the first coach at Murray State to lead them to a losing record in 30 years?

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No. But the lack of information cuts both ways. You have others saying he was only good because of Ja Morant...even though his best season (the year he was hired by LSU) was two years after Morant had left.

Relative to football and baseball you have a LOT of posts/opinions re: basketball from the perspective of a complete lack of knowledge.

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It is nice to have both, but if you only have one, it better be basketball players that understand the game.

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More often than not a 6'8 slow, moderately athletic forward is going to be eaten alive by a 6'9 jumping jack with great length. If that wasn't the case, D-1 schools would be trying to sign all of the average athletes who "understand" the game. They don't. They want the tremendous athletes.

The reason is simple. A good coach can teach a 6'8 guy with a 38 inch vertical and 7'2" wingspan how to play the game...he can't "teach" him to be 6'8 with a 38 inch vertical and 7'2" wingspan

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Run and gun and no defense rarely wins games.

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This team does actually play decent defense. But for a couple of garbage buckets in the final minute of the game LSU would have held Auburn, the nation's most efficient offense, to its second lowest FG% of the season (second only to the nation's #1 defense, Tennessee) Auburn was under 40% shooting until the final minute when the game was already decided. LSU also had the most blocked shots against Auburn of any team this year...by a pretty good margin. That speaks to level of this LSU team's athleticism. And frankly, this particular LSU team would benefit more from a "run and gun" style offense because the halfcourt approach is awful. It's what absolutely kills them every game and THE reason for the obscene amount of turnovers

This LSU team has some "dudes". They just aren't being put in the best position to fully take advantage of their strengths.

That I agree with. Ths team with a true SEC PG and Reed would be making some noise. He has to get that player or he will suffer the consequences. I like the idea of starting Givens and letting Williams be the #2 PG and move Sears to #2. That is what he does best. He makes terrible decisions and makes bad passes. Your starting PG can't be a TO machine. But I think he'll get another year. Reed would still have helped win 2-3 more games alone. 4 years is enough to prove you belong or not.

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We are now into game 20 and he doesn't know how to fix having nearly 20 TOs a game. Mcmahon is absolutely clueless

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why is it we get the lowest IQ's posting in these type of threads. The guy has won as many NCAA Trny games as Wade, on the bench, for sure. He may need to go, but he isn't "clueless"

This ain’t Hoosier brah -