GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
If it’s the darkest before dawn as they say, then dawn must be coming soon for the LSU men’s basketball program.
Because it was dead dark Wednesday night again for the Tigers and coach Matt McMahon at the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament in Nashville.
LSU lost its sixth straight game, 91-62 to No. 10 seed Mississippi State at Bridgestone Arena to finish 14-18 on the season – its second losing season overall and in the SEC (3-15) in just three seasons of McMahon, who went 14-19 and 2-16 in his first season in 2022-23.
The Tigers lost two games by 31 points this season – 89-58 to unranked Texas at home on Feb. 1 and 95-64 at No. 19 Kentucky on March 4 – and flirted with another 30-plus loss on Wednesday. State (21-11, 8-10 SEC) led by as many as 32 points several times in the final minutes.
Mississippi State’s 31-point margin of victory was its largest in SEC Tournament history, and that happened even though State coach Chris Jans, also in his third season, emptied his bench, using 13 players in all.
Three years at this time, Mississippi State’s Ben Howland was the 4th SEC coach let go in 4 days after Georgia’s Tom Crean, Mizzou’s Cuonzo Martin and LSU’s Will Wade.https://t.co/PeAwS9GCW5
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 13, 2025
LSU trailed 44-24 at the half and never got back into the game. The Tigers typically shot awfully from 3-point range, making just 5 of 26 for 19 percent to State’s 44 percent on 15-of-34 shooting from 3-point range. Josh Hubbard led State with 6-of-12 shooting from 3-point range and led all scorers with 26.
The Tigers also struggled at the free throw line, missing 13 of 26 free throws. Senior Jordan Sears led the Tigers with 20 points in his last game. And senior Cam Carter scored 13 with six rebounds in his last game and had seven of LSU’s 15 turnovers. Freshman Robert Miller III added 14.
LSU was without injured starters Vyctorius Miller at guard and Corey Chest at forward. State’s bench outscored LSU’s 38-2 and outrebounded the Tigers, 42-34.
“Disappointing end to a challenging couple of months for us,” McMahon said. “Turnovers, missed free throws were really detrimental to us.”
McMahon is expected back next season as LSU athletic director Scott Woodward has told those close to him. He does fewer interviews himself than athletic directors who are no longer with us.
Woodward hired McMahon, so he will be slow to let him go partly for that reason. Also, LSU men’s basketball ranks near the bottom of the SEC in available NIL cash for players, which LSU powers that be plan to change dramatically with new NIL strategies.
And Woodward did sign McMahon to a seven-year contract at $2.8 million a year, which looks like a mistake now as McMahon would have likely come for a four- or five-year deal from Murray State, particularly in this short-sighted NIL-Portal era.
But Woodward is starting to get known for throwing other people’s money around plentifully to coaches who do not measure up – former Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher at $75 million over 10 years in 2017 – or underachieve – present LSU coach Brian Kelly at $95 million over 10 years in 2021.
Fisher, whom Woodward hired in 2017 when he was A&M’s athletic director, had a losing season in 2022 at 5-7 after a so-so 8-4 season in 2021 and and was fired after a 6-4 start in 2023. Kelly, whom Woodward hired in 2021 after coming to LSU in 2019, has done well at 10-4, 10-3 and 9-4, but he has failed to get LSU into the College Football Playoff.
Woodward may be exercising rare caution with McMahon’s status in case Kelly regresses dramatically this season for what would be a hugely expensive coaching change on the football side. On the other hand, Kelly may field his best LSU team yet in 2025 as he currently has the No. 1-ranked Transfer Portal class in the nation.
McMahon will likely need to make somewhat of a similar splash in the portal before next season to go with his No. 19-ranked recruiting class coming in next season that includes three players.
“There has to be a reset button,” McMahon said after losing the regular season finale, 66-52, on Saturday.
He got that one right.
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