re: There has to be more to the story on this basketball team

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This is a coaching issue period.

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Coach is always ultimately responsible. That's why they get the big bucks. But to say the players are great and McMahon sucks is stupid. How many missed layups, close in shots, open threes and turnovers have we seen? That's not coaching, that is on the players.

I have said it before, college basketball is 65% recruiting, 25% practice/player development, and 10% in game coaching. So far I give McMahon a B- for in game coaching, C-for development and a D for recruiting. If he doesn't bring in much better players the next two years then he is gone.

It would also be nice to see a little fire from him on the court once in a while. Who knows maybe that is what Woodward told him to do. Low key it, no incidents. You just can't win games like that. Hell, Texas A&M coach runs out on the court the whole game and never gets a whistle.

The McManiacs disagree

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Coach is always ultimately responsible. That's why they get the big bucks. But to say the players are great and McMahon sucks is stupid. How many missed layups, close in shots, open threes and turnovers have we seen? That's not coaching, that is on the players.

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I don't think anyone has said the roster was "great". But it is a fact that many, many people who cover the sport for a living felt this wasn't a bad roster going. The general consensus was LSU was a middle-of-the-pack team in a strong SEC. A few had LSU projected as a potential NCAA Tournament team. More had them in the group of teams that would just be on the outside looking in (first four out or next four out group). But NO ONE (outside of catastrophe syndrome LSU fans) pegged this as a team likely to be destroyed by nearly 20 ppg in SEC play. Even against the top 1/3rd of the league.

This SHOULD be a competitive roster. By no means a NCAA Tournament lock, but competitive. They aren't even that right now. And when you see the same results over and over again. the lack of any adjustments to the approach from game to game, and the HC really not saying all that much during the game when it falls apart time after time, it's hard to not look at the HC as maybe the biggest source of the problems. The only other team that is getting their doors blown off as consistently as LSU is South Carolina. And they were picked to finish last or 2nd to last in the league. Ole Miss and Miss. St have just as bad a record as LSU, but they have at least been more competitive. Even against tough competition. Miss. St has already played Tennessee and Alabama twice each. They also played @ Auburn and have played Florida. Their average margin of defeat is 9 ppg...including a 3 point loss @ Alabama last night where they led for a large portion of the game. LSU is getting beat by 18ppg. Miss. St's roster is not significantly better than LSU's...if at all. Yet, they can at least compete with #2 Alabama while LSU gets beat as bad as Alabama beat Jackson St!

I really want him to succeed. I know the schedule has been tough so far. But he has done a very poor job over the last few weeks, and it is tough to see glimmers of hope right now to suggest things will improve. The play on the court seems to be getting worse. The recruiting class is relatively nondescript. And apathy is starting to really set in among the fanbase.

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Who knows maybe that is what Woodward told him to do. Low key it, no incidents

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There is no AD in America who would tell their HC how to coach. And if there was, I would hope the HC would tell the AD to frick off, or walk out of the door to a new job. No coach should allow an AD to dictate his on court coaching demeanor. Ever.

We’re gonna learn a lot about McMahon over the next 10 games because on paper, even as bad as things are, there are some very winnable games. I guess in a bizarro world the sec schedule could be flipped and we’d be setting up to emulate the 2003-04 team who tumbled out of tournament contention after Lloreda went AWOL after a decent start and a huge win at Florida on Valentine’s Day

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They were the better team for a large part of the K-state game.


If we played them this weekend they would beat us by 20+, that is kinda crazy to think about.

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K State has steadily improved and has a really good coach.

Everyone from SW down to the waterboy shares blame.
This team is poorly coached, or at least they don't listen to the coach, which is the same.
The players are bad. They can't shoot, can't rebound, can't hold onto the ball, can't defend, don't play as a team, don't always hustle, etc etc. At least not in the last few games.

Now is the time to find out if they have any pride at all. They may not win another game, but at least go out and show some effort and desire. That includes the coaches who all look like they are sitting on the beach watching a sunset.

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We’re gonna learn a lot about McMahon over the next 10 games because on paper, even as bad as things are, there are some very winnable games

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Most notably, starting Saturday against Texas Tech. They are 10-10 overall and 0-8 in Big 12 play. Still, they have at least been competitive in most of their Big 12 games (6 point loss @ TCU; 3 point loss to Kansas; 2 point loss @ Texas; 10 point loss @ K-State; 7 point loss to Baylor). They haven't won a single road game all season, and have won only once away from home, against a horrible Louisville team.

This is a game LSU has to win at home. If McMahon loses and gets punked in the process (i.e. 10+ point loss) you can essentially close the door on this season and start to really worry if LSU hired John Pelphrey 2.0. I know things have been bad. But considering you are playing @ Ole Miss and @ Mississippi St, this may be the most "winnable" game left on the schedule...other than right now what looks like it could be a battle for last place vs. South Carolina. Fair or not, if you are McMahon you just CAN'T lose this game!

It turns out that A&M is a top 3-4 SEC team. They just whipped Auburn at Auburn this week. Florida is the game we should have won.

I will be curious how we play on Saturday vs Texas Tech plus our games with Vandy, @Fla, State, OMiss, UGA, Mizzou, and Carolina.

When you watch the LSU basketball team play....don't you notice the lack of height and length of the players, they can't shoot (no true pure shooters that can score with consistency), the lack of a true point guard, no quickness or great jumping ability in any of the players, no true center that can score and protect the rim, and no one that is great at creating for themselves a scoring opportunity. Against lesser competition, we won. The other SEC teams have done a better job in the recruiting of real basketball players that can do the above things that I mentioned we don't have!

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Our class had 4 and was ranked 17th. Your examples don’t support your agenda.

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They don’t like facts on here. It is poor coaching. Funny how “freshman grow into soph during the season”. I’ve seen no growth. That is what has disappoints me the most.
They keep throwing Miller out there as a reference but why was he starting over Wilkinson (early in the season) then who has a CAREER 40+% shooting % behind the arc? These idiots will use every excuse to blame the players by saying “they can’t shoot” but don’t understand shooters have to be in the position to shoot and his offense is so fundamental he is getting exposed by better defenses.