re: One thing that the McMen cannot deny is that excitement around the program is non existent

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He is hated by others.

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Most of those people are trolls and don't watch the games or the follow the team. I don't blame them either, because they have the entire board eating out the palm of their hand every time

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I don’t pull for a coach. Never have and never will. The Will Wade crew obviously are big wrestling fans loving that male drama.

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I think the continued affinity to Wade is a product of being as much of a middle finger to the administration as anything else. Wade didn't leave for another job like Saban. He didn't retire like Bertman. The fanbase didn't want to see those guys go either. But they chose to leave on their own accord. Wade didn't. The administration made that decision. Did they have justification for that decision? Probably. Was it necessary? That will (likely) be forever debated.

But you are a fool if you can't understand the fanbase's anger. LSU went from the most consistent period of winning in 3 decades to one of the least successful periods in that time frame. All at the choosing of the administration. And all while the coach they chose to fire is having a great season, in the same state, at a program that has little to no history of success.

If you are an occasional basketball fan I can see how the constant debate may irk you (I never really care all that much if LSU fired Paul Maineieri or not because I'm not a huge college baseball fan). But if you actually care enough to want to be a fan of the MBB program the dismissal of a successful coach followed immediately by continued losing (McMahon is below .500 in his LSU career) is frustrating. Because unless and until McMahon starts winning consistently the prevailing sentiment of "it didn't have to be this way" will remain.

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To be completely objective, every one of those programs had a roster full of talent already assembled, there was no need to sign 5 guys out of high school.

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Well, to be completely accurate, McMahon didn't sign 5 gives out of HS either. But since your position seemingly seems to be the only reason those schools didn't sign more is because they "didn't need to", let's, again, look at reality. Even though they "didn't need to", Texas signed two additional players above their two top 100 guys. UConn signed two additional players beyond their 1 top 100 guy. Villanova signed another player in addition to their two top 100 guys. Same for Baylor and Houston.

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Apples to oranges

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The argument was that McMahon could not recruit good players to LSU because of the "looming sanctions". Yet, the evidence suggest otherwise because he was, in fact, signing as many or more top 100 players as some of the best programs in the game. Programs that didn't say "we'll just take our two top guys and call it a day"...because they actually signed more than just those 1 - 2 players.

McMahon's recruiting was the best thing he did in his first season. Good enough that, despite never coaching an SEC game, and with a completely new team, anyone and everyone who covered college basketball predicted LSU to be a middle of the pack SEC with a reasonable chance to be in contention for a NCAA Tournament bid. LSU showed up in multiple preseason "bracketologies". Good enough that there was a lot of very reasonable optimism going into last season (feel free to go look at the basketball posts from the summer/early fall of 2022). It was ONLY after he fell flat on his face and had an awful season that the narrative suddenly shifted to "give him a break. He couldn't get any talent; This roster is terrible; etc....which represented a very palpable shift from those folks' opinion on the roster BEFORE the season.

NO ONE criticizing him did so because he didn't reach the NCAAT. The reason is because even the most optimist fans didn't expect that. But there is a vast gap between maybe not being as good as people hoped and being one of the worst teams in all of major conf. basketball. He lost all benefit of the doubt with last season's performance. And unless and until he proves he can win (currently has a losing record, overall, at LSU) he's going to struggle to get it back.

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Well, to be completely accurate, McMahon didn't sign 5 gives out of HS either.

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Never said he did or should have. Figure of speech

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let's, again, look at reality

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In reality, those are two different levels of programs. Why didn't Boston College sign as many blue chip football recruits as Michigan. According to your line of reasoning, it's because their coach sucks? You're comparing a program that hasn't made a final 4 in nearly 20 years to Baylor, UConn, Nova, and Houston, all of which have made the final 4/won the tournament in the last 3 years. If you can't see how these scenarios are different, you're being purposefully dense

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The argument was that McMahon could not recruit good players to LSU because of the "looming sanctions"

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Never once said this, and I too think that is a ridiculous stance to take

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Good enough that there was a lot of very reasonable optimism going into last season (feel free to go look at the basketball posts from the summer/early fall of 2022).

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Anybody who thought that team last year was going to be good was kidding themselves or didn't have a clue what they were talking about. LSU's starting lineup last season was 3 guys from murray st., a guy who hadn't played competitive basketball in 2 years, and a guy who averaged under 2 ppg in the SEC the previous year. I can't fathom how someone could have thought that team would compete in the SEC

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Care to take a peek at his recruiting class for next year?

It’s a little bit better than what McMahon is doing.

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So you are projecting success based on a recruiting class
How did aTm perform in football this year? By your metric, they must have been in the playoff

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Yes, they are bad this year, but they also made the tourney in year one.

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and what did they win? The have the same number of titles, sweet sixteens and final fours as LSU in that span

Nobody that is a fan of LSU Basketball measures their success by sweet 16’s and elite 8’s. In my opinion, the true fans just want a team that makes the tournament consistently.

Recruiting, is something that will help get to that point. Yes, I put importance to getting a lot of highly touted players because I think in basketball that has a much larger impact than football. Just my two cents.

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This. The fact that and adult male took the time to come here and post this crap. As if he's sticking it to someone. This is the problem. I am as big and LSU fan as anyone. Went through the awesome 80's & 90's. Then we sucked then Brady for a whil. Then we sucked. Then the Wade years. I was a Wade fan but that doesn't stop me from supporting LSU basketball and it's coach. I don't care if it takes more than 2 years to build a winning program. If he's still losing after next year then the heat will be on but the idiots screaming for Mcmahon to be fired after year 1 are absolute morons

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I really enjoyed having Wade as a coach. I really like McMahon as a person. I don’t think he should be fired at this moment. But at what point do we go away from “the team is giving great effort” to “we should be winning these games?”

I think next year should be a big indicator. He has been able to recruit with minimal hurdles, so this high school class/portal class should be solid. I’m not a big believer that anything in place sanctions right now should impact any recruiting.

In my opinion a winning record in the league and NCAA tournament berth should not be out of the question next year in year 3 of his tenure. If it’s another disappointing year, he should be looked at if he’s the right fit here.

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Yeah, no shite. He took over a program that was in the dumpster. Any coach would by underwater at this point

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I don’t disagree. But as I said above, when does that go away?

Year 3, there should be no excuses.

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If you are an occasional basketball fan I can see how the constant debate may irk you

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That’s not belittling at all … us “occasional” fans (I’ve been a steady LSU basketball fan since the 70’s) just don’t understand.

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But if you actually care enough to want to be a fan of the MBB program the dismissal of a successful coach followed immediately by continued losing (McMahon is below .500 in his LSU career) is frustrating.

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Twice in one post. It appears I’m an occasional basketball fan who doesn’t care enough to want to be a fan of the program, because I’m supporting the team and coach that representative my alma mater instead of bitching and moaning.

I guess you learn something new every day.

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Recruiting, is something that will help get to that point. Yes, I put importance to getting a lot of highly touted players because I think in basketball that has a much larger impact than football. Just my two cents.

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Right. MM has 2 top 80 players signed. The OP doesn't want to acknowledge that. He just wants to D ride Mizzou for some reason. That would not be my bar setter. Basketball recuits are harder to project than football players. How many 4/5 stars has LSU signed that were just "ok" players. The list is long. Anthony Randolph was a 5 star. Magnum Rolle was either a high 4 or 5 star. These guys dont work sometimes. The portal (unfortunately) is a good way get players to add to your HS class. That wont take place until after the season. what I do know is currently, Mizzou is arse