Matt McMahon 'finalizing a deal' to become next LSU head coach: Report

It didn't take long for Scott Woodward to land his next hire.

The LSU athletic director found his replacement for Will Wade as the Tigers are finalizing a deal with Murray State's Matt McMahon to become the next head coach of the men's basketball team, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports.

Wade was fired less than two weeks ago, along with associate head coach Bill Armstrong, after receiving an official notice of allegations from the NCAA earlier this week.

McMahon, 43, has been at Murray State since 2015 with a 154–67 record. He just wrapped up his seventh season as the head coach of the Racers when they were eliminated in the second round by No. 15-seed Saint Peter’s. It was Murray State's third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances under McMahon.

McMahon and Murray State finished the year with an impressive 31-3 record, including an 18-0 record in the Ohio Valley Conference.

In nine seasons at MSU (four as assistant for Steve Prohm and six as head coach), McMahon has coached an impressive group of All-Ohio Valley Conference performers including Isaiah Canaan, Donte Poole, Ivan Aska, Ed Daniel, Jarvis Williams, Cameron Payne, Jeffery Moss, Jonathan Stark, Terrell Miller, Shaq Buchanan, Darnell Cowart, Ja Morant, Tevin Brown and KJ Williams.

Morant made history with a 2018-19 season when he was a consensus All-America and selected second in the NBA Draft by the Memphis Grizzlies and has since turned into an NBA superstar.

Prior to Murray State, McMahon had coaching stops at: UNC Wilmington, Appalachian State, and Tennessee.

He briefly headed to Louisiana once before as an associate head coach at Louisiana Tech with head coach Eric Konkol, but returned to Murray State only two weeks later (June 2015) when Steve Prohm was suddenly given the opportunity to coach at Iowa State.

A native of Oak Ridge, Tenn., McMahon graduated from Appalachian State in 2000 with a degree in marketing. His wife, Mary, is a former standout for the Furman women’s basketball team. The couple have two daughters, Maris (12) and Mabry (8), and a son, Mason (10).

LSU was defeated in the first round of the tournament by Iowa State, 59-54.