re: MBB : Early conference play opinion

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It’s just going to take some time to get out of the shadow of the ncaa investigation/ruling. Going into last year was still a big question mark and kept recruits away.

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McMahon signed two top 100 players (Reed and Ward), along with a guy just outside the top 100 (Phillips) with that "ominous shadow" hanging over them. He was also able to retain 3 players from the 2021-2022 roster...which is more than some other teams who went through coaching changes were able to retain. And those teams performed FAR better than LSU did last season.

McMahon did a terrible job last season. Plain and simple. The bar for "success" last year was as low as it had been at LSU for quite some time...and he failed to come anywhere close to it.

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team defense

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This further illustrates you don't really know what you are talking about. Defense is the strength of this LSU team.

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I don’t see how this isn’t a team with a solid chance to make tourney next season.

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Why is next season going to be some magical year? There are 7 guys on the roster who are seniors/grad students. Now, some of those guys may be able to return for an extra "covid" year, but there is no guarantee they will. There is more roster movement in college basketball than in any other sport. While we all hope McMahon will be able to retain everyone who had eligibility remaining, the likelihood is he won't simply because of the nature of the sport today. Thus, it is very likely 50% (probably more) of his roster will be brand new. Maybe that will be a great roster. But it is ridiculous to sit here today and say "next year" will be a tournament team when no one knows what next year's roster will look like.

The transfer era has completely changed the game. The days of the progressive, linear rebuild are over. Previously, when a new coach got the job the only options available to him to immediately improve the roster was HS signees, JUCO players, and a small pool of grad transfers. That's not the case any longer. A guy can come in, immediately flip the roster, and have success in his first year. Multiple teams have done just that. Is that a high burden to place on a new HC? Sure. But that's the reality we live in. The transfer portal can gut your roster in the blink of an eye. But it can also be used to become very good, very quickly.

As far as the early conf. play thus far, LSU has performed better than expected. They sit at a disappointing 3-2. I say "disappointing" because Saturday's game was winnable. Overall though, the early start has not be disappointing. Last season LSU was getting blown out almost immediately following the second game of SEC play. That hasn't been the case this year. They've won 3 and competed in all but one of those games (Auburn)...which is excusable. Is that enough to say McMahon deserves year 3? IMO, not quite yet, but he's pretty close. 5-6 SEC wins will get him next year.

But this program needs to start moving. The "cloud of investigation" is over. The sanctions were minimal. And the expectations here aren't terribly high. No one is expecting a SEC championship or deep tournament run this season...or even next. But the expectation do need to increase. Hopefully LSU does just that the rest of the season. The opportunities are certainly there. So while it's great to at least be interested in the team at this point, they have to start winning more games they "aren't supposed to win." That is the next step.