GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
After acquiring five new players from the NCAA Transfer Portal and a national No. 3 class ranking, LSU basketball coach Matt McMahon is also navigating the coaching portal, so to speak.
McMahon, who has been at the Final Four in San Antonio, has hired Indiana associate head coach Yasir Rosemond as an assistant coach and former LSU star forward and NBA veteran Ronald Dupree as the program’s first general manager, LSU has confirmed.
Rosemond, 47, coached at Indiana the last four seasons under head coach Mike Woodson, who was let go after the 2024-25 season. He had two previous coaching stops in the Southeastern Conference at Alabama (2017-19) and Georgia (2014-17) and also coached at Samford (2012-14) in Birmingham, Alabama. A former Oregon player, he was an assistant at Oregon from 2005-10 and at Seattle University in the 2010-11 season.
A native of Atlanta, Rosemond will join fellow McMahon assistant coaches David Patrick and Casey Long. Lower level assistants Tim Kaine and Ronrico White, who came to LSU from Murray State with McMahon before the 2022-23 season, were not retained by McMahon after this past season.
“I’m beyond excited and incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join the LSU program,” Rosemond said in an LSU release. “Having previously coached at Alabama and Georgia, I know how special the SEC is, and to now be part of LSU’s incredible tradition is truly an honor. I can’t wait to get started, support our student-athletes, and give everything I have to this team and community.”
Former LSU forward Ronald Dupree is the basketball team’s first general manager. (LSU photo)
Dupree, 44, returns to LSU a second time after directing the NBA Milwaukee Bucks global scouting department since 2021. He had been a Bucks scout since 2017 after serving as LSU’s director of student development with the basketball program in 2015-16. He was an LSU student assistant coach in 2014-15 under coach Johnny Jones.
A part of NCAA Tournament teams as an LSU player in 2000 and 2003 and the Tigers’ 2000 SEC regular season title, Dupree averaged 13.4 points and 7.0 rebounds a game during his four seasons from 1999-2000 through 2002-03. The Biloxi, Mississippi, native is ninth in LSU career scoring with 1,726 points and in career rebounds with 907.
“As the college basketball landscape changes, it was important to add a star to our staff from the NBA’s front office world,” McMahon said. “Ronald’s experience in roster construction, player evaluation, player development, and much more will add great value to our players, future recruits, staff, and our program.”
Dupree played for the Chicago Bulls in the 2003-04 season, the Detroit Pistons in 2004-05, the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2005-06, Detroit again in 2006-07, the Seattle Supersonics in 2007-08 and the Toronto Raptors in 2010-11. He was an assistant coach at the University of Nevada in 2016-17.
“I am super excited to help navigate this program into a new frontier of NIL and to build an infrastructure of process-driven decision making for competitive team building and performance that leads to sustained success,” Dupree said in an LSU release. “My family and I are truly blessed and honored to return to Baton Rouge and LSU – our home and alma mater.”
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