NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 10 best head coaching hires of 2022 offseason

7. Matt McMahon (LSU)

A change needed to happen at some point for LSU, with Will Wade embroiled in recruiting scandals seemingly from the get go. With Wade out of the way, the future of LSU basketball looks a little muddled, as those violations will likely have future ramifications for these Tigers. We don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, meaning the next head coach at LSU had quite the nonsense to deal with in trying to build this SEC program into a continued contender.

McMahon didn’t balk at the chance, having spent the last seven years as a great head coach at Murray State. Including his time as an assistant under Steve Prohm, McMahon spent the last eleven seasons with the Racers, helping recruit talented names like Cam Payne and KJ Williams; though the clear jewel is finding unheralded Ja Morant and turning him into a collegiate star. McMahon won 154 games in his seven years as head coach, leading the Racers to a pair of NCAA Tournament wins in the process.

While the future looks uncertain for LSU, they’ve brought in a fantastic head coach who can wade through the uncertainty and still put together some solid Tigers teams. This man found Morant; he’ll be able to recruit at a high level with the resources of an SEC school, even if probation or other limitations are put in place. McMahon has been fantastic at the mid-major level and the question became which job would steal him away from the Racers. Did he make the right choice, landing in Baton Rouge?