Matt McMahon didn’t know what NCAA sanctions the LSU men’s basketball program would incur from the previous coaching staff when he was named the Tigers’ new head coach on March 21.
He didn’t know on April 1 when the last of LSU’s 13 scholarship players from the 2021-22 team that advanced to the NCAA tournament announced he was entering the transfer portal.
He didn’t know 47 days later on May 17 when he received a commitment from a four-star high school center to fill all 13 vacant scholarships plus one with six transfers, five freshmen and three returnees.
And as LSU opens preseason practice today, McMahon still doesn’t know what penalties the program will receive for the seven NCAA Level 1 recruiting violations committed by previous head coach Will Wade and former assistant Bill Armstrong.
But just as he has from the moment he took the LSU job two days after his 31-3 Murray State team was eliminated in the second round in the NCAA tournament, McMahon doesn’t worry about what he can’t control.
Will there be a post-season tourney ban? Or scholarship reductions? Or fewer official recruiting visits allowed?
“Whatever's happened in the past. I have nothing to do with it, we have nothing to do with it,” McMahon said. “We have nothing to do with what happens NCAA-wise moving forward. So we don't ever talk about it.
“I came here to LSU to move the LSU basketball program forward and to build a championship program. We focus on that every single day. Players come here, they want to get better. They want to win, they want to be on the biggest stage in the country here in the SEC. And they want to prepare to go play in the NBA one day. I think it's important that we just keep our focus on that daily process, how you go about getting there.”
That’s McMahon’s attitude and his recruiting spiel and he’s sticking to it.
As the 44-year old Oak Ridge, Tenn. native begins his first LSU season after seven years at Murray State where he guided the Racers to a 154-97 record with three NCAA appearances and five outright or tied Ohio Valley Conference championships, it’s the first time he’s had to rebuild a team from the ground up.
LSU lost players who accounted for 93 percent of the Tigers’ scoring last season and 82.5 percent of the rebounding. Only two returning players –junior forward Mwani Wilkinson (30 starts) and sophomore guard Justice Williams (1 start) – have started games in an LSU uniform.
The almost-completely new roster led McMahon to focus less in the off-season on player development through individual drills. Instead, he emphasized team building outings such as bowling, a visit to an escape room and tailgating together at football games to accelerate the growth of player chemistry.
“You have to be intentional in how you go about building your group,” McMahon said. “You have to build that trust within the team and the only way to do that is to invest the time to have a high level of communication within the program. Our players have to be intentional how they build relationships with each other so we can start to develop that trust on the court.”
In the next six weeks, McMahon has 30 practices and two closed scrimmages with major college teams (NCAA rules prohibit coaches from revealing the opponents or where the scrimmages are played).
He's eager to see how his team evolves, which is why he’s excited to open preseason practice leading to LSU’s season-opener Nov. 9 vs. the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“I don't have a handle on it at all,” McMahon said. “It's going to be a process. We’ll find out who we can become.
"They'll (the players) determine their roles. The coaching staff will help define them, then it becomes up to them to accept them. The last piece of that is role evolution. I've got to be able to tell a player on Nov. 9 what things he can do to increase his role.
“You won't see us running any platoon systems. . .12 players aren't going to play. You know we'd like to get to that top eight or nine and keep our best players on the floor as much as possible.
“Our 2018 NCAA tournament team had two forwards who started on opening night for us and then they didn’t play in the NCAA tournament. And we had two guys who didn't play on opening night ended up being the starters in January, February and March.”
The heart of McMahon’s transfer class is two starters – fifth-year senior power forward KJ Williams and senior point guard Justice “Juice” Hill – and senior reserve guard Trae Hannibal off his Murray State team.
Williams averaged 18 points and 8 rebounds last season when he was the OVC Player of the Year and All-OVC first-team for the third straight year. Hill also earned All-OVC first-team honors averaging 13.4 points and 5.1 assists. Hannibal averaged 9.2 points and 5.1 rebounds.
McMahon also is high on Wilkinson and former Illinois standout Adam Miller who transferred to LSU last season and missed the entire season when he tore an ACL in one of his knees in preseason camp.
“I have high expectations for Mwani,” McMahon said. “I love him. He's been an absolute joy to coach. He is a warrior. He's a winner. He embodies everything you want as a member of your team. He's had great success on the defensive end of the floor as an elite defender. My goal for him is to see him take off in an expanded offensive role.
“Adam is a very good player who can really shoot the ball at a high level. He is a relentless competitor, incredibly smart. He has a great basketball IQ, and he wants to win. All that being said, I think we have to temper expectations for him. He hasn't played in a college basketball game in 18 months. He was just cleared by the doctors just four weeks ago. It's not going to happen overnight, but he's going to have a great year for us.”
