re: We have no difference makers on this hoops team..

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Once we get past our general lack of toughness the last 2 plus years which I think is the base issue that links to all others - the pure coaching issues for me with CMM is who he plays, and when and how much and also as you emphasize above, he does not try to change anything.

We absolutely suck at half court offense so why not do things on the other side of the court to generate offense off defense? Do some pressing, trapping the ball screen, half court traps, and push the ball more to get early offense since we really struggle to run half court sets.

I mean if really watched the first half and why we were tied at half Saturday, we hit 3 really difficult contested 3's that honestly should not have been taken and also Sears gets fouled twice shooting threes and makes 6 free throws. That's half our points in the first half on ill-advised shots. That's how much we struggle on half court offense.

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That, and just a general lack of fight and competitiveness. At the 2:30 mark LSU made a 3 to cut the lead to 65-55. Is 10 points easy to overcome in 2:30? Of course not. But it's not impossible. Yet, McMahon seemed content just to waive the white flag. There was full court press. No extending the defense to try to force a turnover or, at least a rushed shot. No real effort whatsoever to try to extend the game. A&M was 9-21 (43%) from the FT line. Worse case scenario you gamble for a turnover and foul. I'll take my chances with an already poor FT shooting team shooting REALLY poor from the line on the night.

Yet we saw NO competitiveness. I'd rather see LSU lose by 17 while fighting tooth and nail for a late comeback than willfully accept a loss with 3:00 to go. It really is like McMahon is playing for "close" losses. He rarely shows any emotion when a bad call goes against his guys. He gives up easily late in games if LSU is down by more than 7 points or so. How can you expect your players to consistently play with fight and toughness when you, as the HC, wilt at any sign of adversity?

Recruiting budget and NIL aren’t the same things. I saw someone post the number you’re referencing during the game Saturday using a fan tweet as proof but not sure it’s correct.

It’s a legitimate question but in my weirdness I’ve been paying attention to our bball recruiting budget since the late Trent Johnson, early Johnny Jones years so I just happen to know they’re not linked. The budget is for recruiting expenses, coaches traveling and all that goes with that etc.. It’s also strange that CBB NIL isn’t public the way football is. Outside of Arkansas nobody else really discusses or makes public their NIL expenses for BBall.

The “muh no talent” crowd have painted themselves into the corner of production always equals talent which is one of the worst ways to evaluate individual talent. It’s a very thin and ignorant assumption but they make it because they don’t watch basketball outside of Saturday, LSU conference games.

Put Cam Carter’s 17.6ppg on over 40% from 3 and 90% from the line, with his athleticism and defensive ability on the 2021-22 team and fans would be insisting he get SEC POTY consideration.

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Put Cam Carter’s 17.6ppg on over 40% from 3 and 90% from the line, with his athleticism and defensive ability on the 2021-22 team and fans would be insisting he get SEC POTY consideration.

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with how good Cam has been despite the shite coaching around him, imagine how he'd look with wade as his coach. I wonder if he could average over 20

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I saw someone post the number you’re referencing during the game Saturday using a fan tweet as proof but not sure it’s correct.

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It's more than likely not incorrect. I know the tweet you are referencing and it is that of an extreme fanboy who is NEVER going to be critical of LSU or McMahon. He's a nice guy, but everything is viewed through the prism of LSU basketball, nor McMahon can ever do anything wrong. While I have no doubt a school like Arkansas has a higher NIL budget than LSU for basketball, I don't believe it is obscenely higher. Nor do I believe donors simply don't want to contribute to LSU basketball.

If you believe all of the people who bristle anytime Wade's name is mentioned on here that the ONLY reason Wade was successful is because he was paying players then you have to believe that money was coming from somewhere. And if you are in recruiting battles with the likes of Kentucky, Kanas, North Carolina, Arizona, etc we are talking big money (under the table). That is unless you are so naive to think Wade was the only HC to pay players at that time. The point is Wade could raise the necessary funds to pay players. Hell, he's doing it right now in freaking Lake Charles (to a proportionally lesser extent). I personally know people in the area who donate to MSU who never donated to MSU basketball before Wade's arrival. If LSU basketball is significantly struggling in NIL donations its because (1) the donors don't believe enough in McMahon to donate and/or (2) he's not doing a good enough job fundraising.

Remember, McMahon came from a well-established mid-major program, and he had never been a coach or player at a major conf. school before taking the LSU job. While I'm sure the Murray St. program had donors, it wasn't on the scale of what was necessary to compete with major conference programs. Even in the pre-NIL era. And I'm sure those were well-entrenched, long time donors who had been there for much of the nearly 30 years of success the program enjoyed (contrary to what some posters apparently think, McMahon didn't "build" the Murray St. program) When McMahon became HC there he wasn't an outsider who had to build relationships with donors. He was a multi-year assistant coach who was promoted when Steve Prhom left for Iowa St. He was well entrenched to keep the ball rolling.

That was not the case at LSU. McMahon is not a guy with a big personality. He's not a guy that is going to barnstorm looking for money. He doesn't really want to do that. He just wants to coach. While I don't fault him for not wanting to do that, unfortunately, the world of college sports has changed. A HC has to be as much fundraiser as he is coach. And to get that money you have to be able to sell wealthy people on a vision and then show them results the vision is coming to life. That hasn't happened.

Well if you compare our classes to the rest of the league recruiting has been good since he arrived so the constant, annual “muh no talent” excuse just holds no water especially when you go back and look at the reactions when players are signed. The same people who are now claiming we don’t have good players were all celebrating these guys when they were recruited. This has gone on since year 1, off season we’re talented but after each loss we’re not as we predicted.

LINK

Posted by Madking 3/29/24 at 12:18 pm to The Egg
Everyone excited about this pickup will be claiming he has no talent once the season starts and McMahon continues to lose.

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when you go back and look at the reactions when players are signed

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looking back and seeing how optimistic i was back then just makes me sad man

I know man and in three seasons we’ve had such different types of roster makeup but they’ve all failed. It’s like a small prison cell of hopelessness