On Friday Matt McMahon addressed the media following the John Brady and Stromile Swift press conference.
McMahon would start the press conference by admiring how the 2000 LSU men’s basketball team is still hanging out with each other when he saw the team tailgating in the fall 25 years later.
McMahon would also go on to talk about the upcoming matchup they have against Texas. He said they have a really good team, with a special freshman class and have great scoring as there are players who certainly stand out to him.
“Their four leading scores can really put points on the board in a hurry… Tre Johnson is certainly there at the Forefront averaging 19 a game, Kaluma the transfer from K State has been terrific, Pope from Oregon State fantastic, and then Mark who we played against last year at Arkansas all four can put up huge numbers all four shoot over 37% from three… I think those four stand out with their ability to explode for points in a hurry,” Coach Matt McMahon said.
When reflecting on their last game against Auburn and how they can improve, McMahon gave Auburn credit defensively but said that there were too many turnovers on offense and that executing on screening and cutting will eliminate turnovers.
“We struggled to score in the first half because we had so many empty trips because of the turnovers, in the second half we did a better job securing the basketball, executing offensively from a screening and cutting standpoint we were able to put up 45 points in the second half,” McMahon said.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things, certainly decision making, ability to handle traps and pressure but executing at a higher level on screening with physicality and cutting standpoint will help us eliminate some of those,” McMahon said.
When asked how the game plan will be defensively against Texas, the head coach explained how one-on-one will not cut it.
“They have really good one on one isolation players not many teams have that… you have to be able to defend in space it can’t just be a one on one battle we have to play good solid team defense to be successful and slowing down their offensive attack,” McMahon said.
The LSU men’s basketball team will have their next game Saturday at 5:00pm against Texas in another SEC matchup in the PMAC where they look to bounce back from the loss against Auburn.
