LSU Finds Better Basketball Coach Under Impending NCAA Sanctions Than It Did The Last 2 Times While Clean – OutKick
LSU athletic director Scott Woodward continues to feed his fame because the Coach Hirer Whisperer. Woodward, who acquired Brian Kelly from Notre Dame to LSU in soccer and Kim Mulkey from Baylor to LSU in girls’s basketball, is about to announce the hiring of Murray State males’s basketball coach Matt McMahon because the Tigers’ new…
LSU athletic director Scott Woodward continues to feed his fame because the Coach Hirer Whisperer.
Woodward, who acquired Brian Kelly from Notre Dame to LSU in soccer and Kim Mulkey from Baylor to LSU in girls’s basketball, is about to announce the hiring of Murray State males’s basketball coach Matt McMahon because the Tigers’ new coach.
McMahon will not be as established as Kelly, nor does he have nationwide championships like Mulkey and Jimbo Fisher, whom Woodward employed at Texas A&M from Florida State when he was the Aggies athletic director.
However contemplating LSU very probably will quickly get essentially the most severe NCAA sanctions in its historical past for six Stage I violations by just-fired basketball coach Will Wade alleged by the NCAA, McMahon is a house run.
McMahon, 43, has taken Murray State to 3 NCAA Tournaments since 2018 and superior to the second spherical in 2019 and this previous week, ending 31-3. He has additionally shared or received 4 Ohio Valley Convention titles and received greater than 25 video games thrice. He was recognized as a candidate for the LSU opening final week by OutKick.
McMahon is definitely extra certified on the time of his probably hiring at LSU amid the darkest of NCAA clouds at LSU than LSU’s two earlier males’s basketball teaching hires have been beneath zero NCAA investigations by then-athletic director Joe Alleva.
Wade had solely gone to 2 NCAA Tournaments whereas Virginia Commonwealth’s coach and got here to LSU in 2017 after the NCAA had been poking round at VCU. The truth is, Alleva later regretted ignoring that pink flag when he left LSU.
Earlier than Wade, Alleva employed Johnny Jones, who got here to LSU from North Texas in 2012 after reaching solely two NCAA Match first rounds in his earlier six seasons with no seasons of 25 wins or extra.
McMahon has been one of many hottest names on the market for the reason that SEC opened up its personal job honest shortly after the common season ended with Georgia, Missouri, LSU, Florida, Mississippi State and South Carolina all on the lookout for new coaches. Solely, South Carolina stays on the hunt, ought to LSU full its hiring of McMahon, which is predicted.
An Oak Ridge, Tennessee, native, McMahon doesn’t have a lot SEC expertise, having served as a graduate assistant at Tennessee from 2000-02 beneath Jerry Inexperienced and Buzz Peterson. He was additionally an assistant at Appalachian State, the place he performed, and at North Carolina-Wilmington. He was an assistant at Murray State from 2011-15 beneath Steve Prohm earlier than getting promoted to the top coach teaching job when Prohm acquired the Iowa State job.
Murray State has lengthy been a mid-major launching pad of coaches to increased profile jobs with varied ranges of success. Mark Gottfried was good briefly at Alabama and at North Carolina State. Prohm was not at Iowa State and was fired. Billy Kennedy left Murray State for Texas A&M and had some success earlier than being fired by Woodward and changed by Buzz Williams. He’s now an assistant at Wichita State. Mick Cronin left Murray State for Cincinnati and is now the coach at UCLA, which he has taken to the Candy 16 of the present NCAA Match.
McMahon may face a post-season ban at LSU and/or important misplaced scholarships, however Woodward may make up for that with a big and lengthy contract.
McMahon solely makes $500,000 a yr now.