A new era began for LSU men’s basketball in the Bill Lawton Room of Tiger Stadium on Wednesday, as Matt McMahon was officially announced as LSU’s 25th men’s basketball head coach.
McMahon comes to LSU off the back of a successful tenure at Murray State, where he became widely regarded as one of the best young coaches in the country. Now after a 31-3 season and NCAA Tournament berth, his stock is higher than ever.
Murray State is a mid-major school that has seen a large amount of conference success over their decades in the Ohio Valley Conference, appearing in over half of the NCAA tournaments since they expanded the number of teams to 64 in 1985 as the conference’s representative.
Other than Coach McMahon, Murray State has produced other well-known coaches such as Billy Kennedy and Steve Prohm, who had up-and-down tenures at Texas A&M and Iowa State respectively. Most notably, Mick Cronin, who had Cincinnati appear in nine straight NCAA Tournaments and currently has UCLA in its second straight Sweet 16.
Of the four Racer coaches since 2003, just two have made the tournament more than once: Mick Cronin with two out of three and Matt McMahon with three out of seven.
Though Murray State won its division in McMahon’s first year at the helm, that season was particularly shaky compared to the Racers’ previous season with Prohm, where they had finished the regular season undefeated in conference play and narrowly missed the tournament.
Overall, McMahon finished with about a 70% winning percentage at a record of 154-67, with the most recent season being his best (31-3). He proved his ability to both rebuild and maintain a program, which will be critical at LSU.
Stepping into the mess that is LSU men’s basketball right now, it is fair to say McMahon will have his work cut out for him in the beginning. LSU will most likely get some sort of sanctions from the NCAA, which will put some serious limitations on recruiting.
For one, scholarship restrictions are the first penalties LSU is expected to get and if the program gets a postseason ban, that will make it even harder to attract recruits.
The first step to this process is to wait and see who from the current roster and recruiting class stays and goes. LSU has now lost all four commits of its 2022 recruiting class, but no one on the current roster has announced any plans to leave the program so far. When asked about re-recruiting the current players at his opening press conference McMahon outlined his approach.
“That’s the most important thing here,” McMahon said. “We’ve hit the ground running. We’re going to invest a lot of time with our players. I want people who want to be here.”
Under sanctions, recruiting is tough, but the argument can be made that McMahon, an already established recruiter, will have an even easier time at LSU. Looking at his time at Murray State, McMahon recruited and developed multiple NBA players, most notably Ja Morant.
Acquiring Morant was a pivotal point in McMahon’s coaching progression, as the team’s transformation was immediate. In his two seasons with the program, Murray State made the tournament twice as a 12-seed and advanced to the Round of 32 in one of those after an upset, blowout victory over five-seed Marquette.
While Morant’s time with the Racers was important in re-establishing Murray State’s success and getting McMahon out of a potential hole, McMahon’s most recent season is what prevented those seasons from being flukes.
Being able to produce players like that at a mid-major school proves that McMahon is both great at evaluating talent and developing players coming out of high school. Pair that with an environment like LSU, where five-star players have already been coming, this leads many to believe that McMahon could be a great recruiter in Baton Rouge.
In the first couple of years, it is no secret that McMahon will have to rely heavily on the transfer portal. Anytime a new coach comes in, transfers are common but they will be especially frequent in this situation. The first place McMahon will likely look is the Murray State roster he left behind which featured tremendous young talent.
The first couple of years will be a transition period for LSU men’s basketball, but McMahon has made it known that he is ready for the challenge. This starts a new era in Baton Rouge, and one that has fans hopeful for the future of a program trying to get its momentum back.
