The thing I like about McMahon is the team seems poised at all times

Well said. I met CMM on the coaches road show in Dallas. He is very humble and grateful for the chance to be LSU’s coach. His message is believable and he had me wanting to run through a wall for him at the end of the night. I really like his composure and demeanor. The players certainly notice it.

Guy can coach. We actually run plays now at the end of the game, instead of launching 3 point prayers.

Dare I say it, but have we finally mastered the art of the inbound play? You mean to tell me this is no longer going to be an adventure out of some action movie anymore? How is this even possible?

Lot of BS going around about “more fundamental” ect, which hasn’t proven to be true. But this I agree with completely. They have played close all year, and have rarely broken down to give up the lead. That why I was saying before that they play to their level of competition and win ugly. Still think we struggle to make .500 in conference, but we will be competitive in most if not all our games. Still think our guard play is weak. Fountain has turned into a much bigger piece than I thought. Congrats to the team on a great win.

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And Arkie was in panic mode the last 5 minutes of that game last night.

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Freshman trying to figure it out at the end of the game. We have seasoned players, and it showed.

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The best thing about last night is how LSU got back on defense every time Arkansas tried to fast break.

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I noticed this last night as well. Outstanding transition defense. This team isn't going to blow the doors off of anyone, but with their discipline and effort they're going to cause problems for a lot of teams.

What has happened to Wilkinson? Looks lost

He gave us some solid minutes last night. I think he maybe has just gotten lost in the shuffle. He's a plus defender and plays with great effort but really doesn't bring much else to the table.

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The best thing about last night is how LSU got back on defense every time Arkansas tried to fast break

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More than that, the No.1 reason LSU won last night it because the limited the turnovers. Arkansas is not a great "shooting" team. They are, however, one of the best in the country in forcing turnovers and then turning those turnovers into point. That's how they win. Coming into the game Arkansas was turning opponents over on nearly 25% of their opponents' possessions. Last night they only turned LSU over on ~15% of LSU's possessions, and they only scored 4 points off LSU turnovers. That's how you win a game where your offense wasn't very good.

At the beginning of the season LSU was among the worst in the nation in turnovers. That was killing their offense. Gradually the team has cleaned that up. I think the reason is McMahon has kind of accepted what his team is. Coming into the season McMahon wanted to play an uptempo game with a lot of possessions. LSU was playing at a faster tempo...and they were also turning the ball over a ton. They have now morphed into a half court, (relatively) low possession team...which can be a good strategy when you don't have tremendous athletes. Credit to him for not forcing the team to play a style that doesn't fit them. A lot of coaches have a philosophy and will demand their teams to play that style come hell or highwater.

While LSU wants to score more, and it had to drive McMahon crazy to miss so many shots at the rim, I think this may be one of those team that will try to just grind out low possession half-court games. That style is not the most fun to watch. But if executed well can be very effective.

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Anyone else see him absolutely lose it when we threw away that baseline inbound pass? You could tell he wanted that W

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He'll show some emotion with his team, though he rarely, if ever, really loses it on the refs.

You could obviously tell how excited he was after the game though because it was the first time he experienced what a big time college basketball environment could be. The PMAC has essentially be a morgue this season until last night. For a new coach trying to build a new program I'm sure he has been (quietly) disappointed by that. It wasn't a morgue last night and you could tell how appreciative he was of the crowd. That, I'm sure, brought out more emotion.

You could also tell it was a big win for his family. After the buzzer sounded his wife, who normally sits courtside opposite the LSU bench, was jumping up and down hugging their daughter. When you are trying to build something in a new place those kind of night mean a lot to you.