re: McMahon: “This is not a rebuild. We are going to be in the top part of the SEC and…”

Y’all need to do your own research. That wasn’t the full quote & he was answering it as the question was posed to him. But people have their own agenda’s here & will hate on the guy bc his name isn’t Will

Full conversation at the 12min mark


“We’ve seen it with Missouri & Vanderbilt, 2 programs that didn’t do very well & they make a big jump and get into the tournament - so how realistic do you think you can turn this thing around where it was 3-15 this year to getting into the ncaa tournament next season?”

CMM: I think it's very realistic. I mean, its happened the last 2 years in our league. I'm excited about the investment were making into the program and the talent were going to be able to identify and bring in. You look back at what south Carolina did 2 years ago, you just mentioned Vanderbilt & Missouri who went from the bottom of the league into the NCAA tournament. I think it's college basketball in this new era & that's what we're planning to do.

1. I agree, especially if it just rehashes previous topics ad nausea
2. I don’t believe this one does that. It relates to a recent development coming out of new statements by our current and former coaches

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“It’s happened in our league.

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He’s right. It has happened in our league for everyone BUT us.

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“We’ve seen it with Missouri & Vanderbilt, 2 programs that didn’t do very well & they make a big jump and get into the tournament - so how realistic do you think you can turn this thing around where it was 3-15 this year to getting into the ncaa tournament next season?”

CMM: I think it's very realistic. I mean, its happened the last 2 years in our league. I'm excited about the investment were making into the program and the talent were going to be able to identify and bring in. You look back at what south Carolina did 2 years ago, you just mentioned Vanderbilt & Missouri who went from the bottom of the league into the NCAA tournament. I think it's college basketball in this new era & that's what we're planning to do.

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completely reasonable quote that acknowledges the reality everyone criticises him for. I get not being a fan of the guy but what a stupid thread

There was nothing in that interview that projected any level of confidence.

It was a 12 minute interview where he was given softball after softball, and it still never felt like he had any level confidence in himself.

ETA. It doesn’t even sound like he thinks he can get us to the tournament.

Brian Kelly did for 100

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Matt McMahon fleeced our university for 20 million dollars

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Why are you blaming McMahon? He signed the concrete; he didn't write.

If anyone is to blame, it's that fat frick AD Woodward.
All he knows how to do is write gigantic checks with other people's money.

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Will Wade won me over in 2 minutes

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I bet you didn't even last that long.

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No it's not. Why the frick did it take 3 seasons to realize the portal and NIL were important? That's not all his fault because Woodward set him up to fail but McMahon ain't exactly out there beating the bushes to get his program's money up either. It's embarrassing that every other team in the conference realized it was a new world and it took them 3 years to do that. Hell Jay Johnson knew, Mulkey knew it, Jay Clark knew it, what the hell were they doing?

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He was a guy who had been a part of a well established program at Murray St for over a decade (fist as AC then as HC). He shows up at LSU an immediately has to put together nearly an entire roster. That seemed like a complete anomaly at the time. But we quickly learned that was the norm when a coaching change is made now. McMahon wasn't the first, or only HC, to have to build a significantly new roster through the transfer portal at that time. However, most LSU basketball fans don't really follow basketball on the whole and failed to realize that fact.

He pieced the roster together largely with transfers and returning LSU players, but I think the long-term plan was to build like he'd "built" at MSU, and how teams built before 2020, HS recruiting and development over years. He signed a decent HS class and, contrary to the hindsight belief on this board, many LSU and non-LSU fans felt it was a decent roster. That's why with 10 new players and a new HC, LSU was still picked in the preseason to finish in the middle of the SEC and, if things went really well, potentially be in the discussion for a NCAA Tournament bid. This despite McMahon never having coached at the high-major level and a completely new LSU team.

The OOC performance (vs a really weak schedule was ok) and he actually opened SEC play well. Win over #9 Arkansas, close loss at Kentucky. Then league adjusted and started kicking his arse. It's not that LSU's players suddenly got far worse. It's that MM ran into a level of coaching and players he'd never coached against before and he had no counterattack once his style of play/approached was figured out.

Going into year 2 he attributed the asskicking to the rest of the league being "old", while LSU was "young", and he needed to get "older". That's why he went hard in the portal with guys like Baker, Wright, Cook, Stewart. Still, that was supposed to be a 1 year emphasis with the future plan still being to build with HS recruiting and development. That's why he signed 4 HS players, which is kind of a big class these days.

This year the plan was to get back on the HS sign an develop track. A few transfers were brought in to fill in gaps, but the plan was still to build the "old way". However, the league had gotten better, largely through transfers, and the coaches starting kicking his arse again because the approach of having a set system, recruiting HS guys and developing them in that system over the course of multiple years simply isn't going to work. That is because very few of the HS signees will stay for more than 2 years.

So when he says he now understands the importance of the transfer portal it is him acknowledging his plan of building the old way isn't going to work. Every season is now a one-off. Your long term outlook can't be 24, 36 months. It's 12 months. That means you build the best roster you can, figure out as quick as possible the strengths of that roster, adapt your approach for this season, then start all over again next year.

The question now is, (1) is there too much bad-will built up over the last three years that he won't be able to sell the program to good players? and (2) Even if he can get the players, can he adjust to fit THIS roster's strengths..not just try to force it to "fit" his preferred style?

He has to say that. He has to produce Ws or he is gone.