re: McMahon quote after Texas Tech loss

I have been a Mcmahon supporter and still am but this is the season he has to prove it or go. I give a lot more credit to losing Reed last year as opposed to this year. I just think it would take a while for him to get to `100% so he was going to be mostly a support player this year but still opens up the lane by being able to hit 3's and can take it to the hole. Hard to judge a team that spent the least amount of money the last few years but he needs to turn it around this year or he's gone. TT shot 70% from 3 in first half while LSU shot 16%. They were hitting everything. We missed many wide open 3's from guys that should hit them ,That has nothing to do with coaching and he made halftime adjustments and they played with them the 2nd half losing 34-32. They did a good job on Toppin who only had 11 points.The hole was just too big and you can';t really make a comeback when you aren't hitting 3's. If they bounce back against SMU then they have a chance to be competitive in the SEC. If they get rolled again then the writing's on the wall and it's just a matter of time . My biggest frustration this year is the lack of PT for Zipper. What is the deal there? He looks the part when he gets in and there is no way a kid who played in the Isreal league at 22 and avg double digits can't get major PT in college. Was he hurt? he has a sweet looking shot and reminds me of Keith Hornsby. Anxious to see what he can do with more PT. Mckinnon should sit if he isn't on. he is a liability on defense and is a poor ball handler against better competition. And also disappointed with the development of Miller. This was supposed to be his breakout year but other than the Depaul game hasn't done much.

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WE
DONT HAVE GOOD ENOUGH PLAYERS.

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Explain being top 25 in multiple categories?

If you say something about the weak schedule, why haven't we done similar in the previous 3 years with a weak schedule?

Your logic is flawed, we are much better, but basketball can be that way sometimes. If this same exact thing happens with SMU, I may be a little worried.

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WE
DONT HAVE GOOD ENOUGH PLAYERS
Please remind me again whose job it is to recruit players?

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It's a simple response but an easy one and IMHO the right one.

His first year his recruiting and Portal rankings were actually relatively high, in the top 20 in the country when we put together, yet it was referred to as year zero and summarrily dismissed. So either the rankings were flawed, our evaluations were flawed, or roster construction was flawed, or coaching was flawed.....probably a combination of all.

CMM has actually recruited in a relative sense fairly well in each year, he's never been ranked rock bottom in the SEC in recruiting.

Still after 3 years it was decided the problem was he was not funded enough, never mind that as a coach one of you main jobs in this day and age HAS TO BE promoting your program and raising funding. It has to be or you have the wrong guy.

But that was the narrative and they funded them to a degree higher than any year before.

It's time.

Yes I have seen the head scratchers although I don't attribute his record to all of that. That being said I had heard that Zipper had been injured although I have never heard Mcmahon say anything about it. He needs to be the first option off the bench if Mckinnon isn't hitting. We'll see how the rotations look Saturday.

The SOS after that game is a joke too. It’s ridiculous. It’s like he/LSU schedules dog shite until sec to get excitement and then get our skulls kicked in.

It doesn’t matter who you recruit if you don’t play competitive basketball. Look at Vandy last season, not very talented, not big but they played a style of basketball that suited what their players could execute and they beat a bunch of teams with more talent. This happens all over the country every season. MM has recruited 4 different style rosters with good enough talent but he’s never adjusted to fit any of those teams. For example the 2023-24 team was the best 3pt shooting team at LSU since 09, they were top 3 to top5 in the SEC in 3pt% all season yet they were 13th or 14th in 3pt attempts because McMahon can’t or won’t lean into what his teams do well. He’s gonna run his basic, possession by possession game and the players are just on their own to get it done.

Not only that but he doesn’t tinker with different things during these large leads vs weak opponents. McMahon was a good mid major coach because he recruits well and was keeping those kids for 3-5 years so they learned that system inside and out. With major competition you have to adjust, you have to use depth to mix and match vs certain opponents. He doesn’t do that, it doesn’t mean he’s the worst coach in the history of basketball he’s just not a major conference winner.

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Fire everyone and burn more millions of dollars then, they will be at square one again. Rinse and repeat. Some of you actually like LSU'S basketball program is a blue blood.

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Over the last 3 seasons McMahon has been the worst coach (performance wise) in the SEC. He's 14-40 in SEC play during that period. That's the worst conference record (excluding Texas and OU) during that time period...by 5 games! He has a sub .500 overall winning % and a ~.250 winning % in SEC play. 5 other head coaches were hired by SEC teams in the same offseason as McMahon was hired. He's the ONLY one of those 6 to not yet reach the NCAA Tournament. In fact, even if you include Texas and OU, LSU is the ONLY program in the SEC to not reach the NCAA Tournament over the last 3 years.

Are you suggesting there isn't rational basis for fans calling for a change? If statistically being the worst performing coach over multiple years isn't a rational basis I'm not sure what is. Over the last (nearly) three decades LSU has fired coaches that performed FAR better than worst in the league. Yet, somehow criticism of McMahon is unwarranted? In all of my years of following LSU sports I've never seen such unwavering support (or at least a reluctance to assess any blame for the poor results) for a coach that has lost so much. It's bizarre.

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Some of you actually like LSU'S basketball program is a blue blood.

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No one is acting like LSU is a "blue blood". But neither is Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, etc, etc. Hell, even Florida wasn't a very good program, historically, until the found the right HC (a young coach from Marshall named Donovan) and another recently. History has shown over, and over, and over again, that even historically average programs can become great if they find the right coach.

Look, if you don't like basketball. That's fine. Not every sport is for everyone. But if you are going to involve yourself in a conversation about it as least have some degree of fact based knowledge rather than just spouting off platitudes and group-think misstatements

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I do not disagree with what you have said but it is also true that up until this year LSU has invested the least amount of money in their basketball program than any other school in the SEC. That is why I am judging harder this year.

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His signing classes and transfer portal classes have been within #6-#10 in talent composite. Even considering the lack of investment, signing middle of the SEC talent should not yield last place results.

The money and talent excuses are just that, excuses. The people who use them cannot articulate what’s going on between the lines on game day so this is where they make their arguments to deflect responsibility from MM. Those of us who follow basketball more broadly and closely know this isn’t the real issue. The actual problems we have are schematic, style and personnel usage. Thats the consistent through line over his 4 seasons. My hope was that he would change after 3 seasons of even before this point. That hasn’t happened and probably won’t happen.