re: I guess it’s MM”s fault?

Ultimately the buck stops with the head coach.

Edit: win or lose

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I think there is also something to be said of hiring a guy with no power conference assistant experience. Wade at least had that.

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Only if you consider the A-10 (VCU's conference) a "power conference" (I don't; though the A-10 is much better than the OVC). Otherwise, the resumes were very similar.

Hiring a mid-major coach is always a crapshoot. For every Nate Oats there are 4 Dennis Feltons, Darren Horns, John Pelphreys, etc. It takes more than a surface level evaluation to find the right guy. Unfortunately, that is all Woodward does. Find the biggest "name" and try to hire him/her. It's a GREAT strategy...when you have the program to attract such names. LSU basketball is not such a program. So just hiring a big "name" (which McMahon was) from the lower tier of programs without any other evaluation is not wise.

Alleva wasn't high on Wade in the last search. He only hired him because his assistant, Eddie Nunez, who played and coached (as a GA) under Billy Donovan at Florida, told his boss Wade reminded him a lot of the young Billy Donovan Nunez played/worked for at Florida. A Florida program that, much like LSU, was long known as a "football" school before Donovan took them to unprecedented heights.

I'm not saying Wade was ever going to be a good as Donovan. But there was an underlying rationale to hiring him other than he was a "name" attached to a good. program. You, me, and most of the posters here could hire Brian Kelly or Jay Johnson if we had the championship cache of LSU football and baseball to sell. We could convince Kim Mulkey to come back to her home state with a ton of money and promises of, at least, equal resources as Baylor. But it takes someone with a deeper understanding of the college basketball landscape to find the "diamond in the rough" for LSU basketball. That's something I don't think Woodward engages in.

Yeah right, I’m starting to believe he got lucky and got Ja and that’s the extent of his recruiting and talent evaluation. I hope I’m wrong about CMM but it wouldn’t be the first time with him, I thought he had established a pretty decent team from scratch considering the situation. I was wrong his recipe was missing ingredients, shooters, defenders, point guard, tenacity, hustle, energy and Ja Mo!

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I thought he had established a pretty decent team from scratch considering the situation. I was wrong his recipe was missing ingredients, shooters, defenders, point guard, tenacity, hustle, energy and Ja Mo!

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So did I, and so did most - and not just LSU fans but most regional and national prognosticators who rated the tranfers fairly well and the freshman class fairly well and picked LSU to finish in the 8-10 range in the SEC, most on the 8 side of that.

So, what gives then? Was everyone's evaluation of these players wrong including McMahon and his staffs? Was there some struggles in adjusting to this level for CMM. Was player development and team development not up to an acceptable standard?

I think maybe a little bit of all that.

We can only hope lessons were learned, the right adjustments are made and we strike late gold with a couple Tari Eason type portal gets before next year.

Of Course, Eason was not rated any higher than some of the transfer portal guys we got this year, in fact probably lower, but he developed and improved significantly from the player he was at Cincinatti.

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Air balls, bricks, missed layups, missed free throws, turnovers.

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2-16 SEC record

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But it was the roster HE put together.

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It’s the roster he was able to put together. We don’t know if was due to his inability to recruit better or whether others were offering more NIL opportunities. I would expect that most of the high caliber players in the portal knew where they were going and really weren’t available. I guess we’re going to find out in the next couple of months.

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The constant excuse of the ardent McMahon defenders is that he was just hamstrung with a terrible roster. Ok. Let's accept that as correct. But it was the roster HE put together.

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It isn't like he had the pick of the litter. And knowing this will take multiple years he seemed to edge on the young side picking up 4 freshmen.

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The record is what the record is. So either McMahon did a horrible job of coaching the roster, or he did a horrible job of putting the roster together.

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Or some players in key spots underwhelmed. Sometimes that is just on the player.

I look forward to seeing who improves going into next year. A starting lineup of Phillips, Fountain, Ward, Miller, and possibly improved or new pg would look better.

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It isn't like he had the pick of the litter.

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Talent evaluation is always very subjective and never 100% accurate. But for the sake of discussion, 247 ranked the top 92 transfers. Of that group, LSU signed three: KJ (28); Hill (64); Hayes (67). Overall, LSU was ranked as having the 11th best transfer class. Of the teams ranked in the top 25 on that list, only Georgetown had a worse season than LSU. Of course, they just fired their coach. On the high school side LSU's signing class was ranked 17th. Of the group ranked ahead of LSU only Florida St has a worse season.

You say LSU didn't have the "pick of the litter". Yet, the evaluations of both their transfer class and HS signing class weren't bad. In fact, they were relatively good. That's why LSU was picked finish 8th in the SEC and projected to be a postseason team (likely NIT with the NCAA being an outside possibility).

Now, it is possible the evaluations of the players LSU signed were just flat out wrong. But that would mean the evaluations of BOTH the transfers AND the high school signees were wrong, while the evaluations of most of the other teams were generally right. A possible conclusion. But one that doesn't seem very probable.

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Or some players in key spots underwhelmed. Sometimes that is just on the player.

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LSU finished last in the SEC. Only 9 major conference programs finished with a lower average scoring margin than LSU. One of those teams, South Carolina, beat LSU, on LSU's home court, in a a game LSU never held the lead at any point. That doesn't happen because some players in key spots underwhelmed. That's a result of virtually the entire team underwhelming.

Hey, but I'll give it to you. You've been steadfastly adamant at putting all of the blame on the roster (as roster McMahon built)

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I suspect Arkansas fans my take issue with the fact a projected top 5 draft pick has missed much of the season. Is Alabama the SEC champ if Brandon Miller only starts 5 SEC games this year? That's the company in which Nick Smith was compared to coming into this season

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He was projected that high? Wow. Just watched them last night and while he is good I saw nothing near that level. The pg Black will get picked above him.

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He was left with absolutely nothing because of the previous regime. He knows what he’s doing.

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I suppose you are agreeing, its Woody's fault.
For the past several years we had SEC quality players. Woody, took control, knew he was going to fire Wade, he made his move. Why didn't he have his Coach selected early and an NIL deal for selected players.
Wade would have been prepared. He had players lined up, Waters, Naz.
Sweet Memories!