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

I didn't cover every combination of overall record, SEC record, NCAA invite, NIT invite, etc. I'll stick with the general 12-6 SEC record. A losing or break even record getting an NCAA tourney invite is the exception not the rule. But yeah, 9-9 or 8-10 record in the SEC is obviously the definition of average or mediocre. LSU MBB should be better than mediocre. Maybe you disagree with that which is fine.

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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.

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I am not understanding the down votes on this post. Are y'all not an LSU fan?

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No, most of them traded in their LSU fandom for a Will Wade mancrush.

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Only way to win in NCAA basketball is to recruit some of the one-and-dones

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UConn had exactly zero one-and-dones last year.
Kansas had exactly zero in 2022
Baylor had exactly zero in 2021
Virginia had exactly zero in 2019
Villanova had exactly zero in 2018
UNC had one in 2017, Tony Bradley who was drafted 28th and has done nothing in the NBA.
Villanova had exactly zero in 2016

So, you have a much better chance of winning a championship if you have zero one-and-dones than having any at all.

If you really want to talk about sports, you really need to take up one you might know more about...have you tried curling for example. Basketball is above your pay grade.

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I would take Team B but it is a false choice. A coach has control over how many games a team wins but has little control over the whims of the NCAA selection committee. But as a fan, having essentially the same overall record but a much better SEC record where you are higher every time you look at the standings is much more satisfying.

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You're right. The coach can't fully control the selections of the committee. But the committee takes the ENTIRE record into consideration. Not just the conference record and, more notably, conference standings. In fact, conference standings mean absolutely nothing to the selection committee. So much so that it it literally not a part of the data on the "Team Sheets" provided to the selection committee. Thus, basing the retention of a coach on one specific metric is foolish. For a time, Frank Martin was kind of the poster child for a decent conference record meaning nothing. In 18-19 he went 11-7 in the SEC and finished 5th in the standings. I guess to some degree that accomplishment may have been satisfying for the fans. But I suspect they probably would have enjoyed watching their team play in the NCAA Tournament more...which is what Miss. St, Ole Miss, and Florida (all teams that finished behind SC in the SEC) did.

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I am watching very closely the fate of one coach THIS season. He is Arkansas coach Eric Musselman. The last couple of years Arkansas has been highly touted and the last couple of years, he has not lived up to the billing. 20-12 (7-11)... 25-7 (13-4)....28-9 (13-5)...22-14 (8-10) ...14-14 (5-10). I get "Hawgbeat" in my Yahoo feed sometimes and the fans are ready to send him packing.

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He's had a terrible season this year. But it is a bit difficult to say he hasn't "lived up to the billing" when Arkansas has been the last SEC team standing in two of the last three NCAA Tournaments. His worst NCAA Tournament finish at Arkansas was last year...where they lost to eventual Champion, UConn. That represented the second time in the last three years Arkansas ended their season by losing to the eventual national champion.

Then again, maybe Arkansas fans know something the rest of us don't know and it's more than reasonable to fire a guy who has reached (at least) the Sweet 16 three years in a row. Obviously that is not good enough for Arkansas who, before Musselman, had not reached the Sweet 16 in FOURTEEN YEARS!

I guess the NCAA Tournament success was nice and all, but what about that conference record? That's what really matters!!!