Domain: tiger-web1.srvr.media3.us Is Matt McMahon the worst LSU basketball hire since Frank Truitt? | Tiger Rant
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Is Matt McMahon the worst LSU basketball hire since Frank Truitt?

Posted on 1/14/26 at 10:57 pm
Posted by BZ504
Texas
Member since Oct 2005
13135 posts
Posted on 1/14/26 at 10:57 pm
Truitt only coached one year and quit because he couldn’t recruit AAs.

Had to look up basketball coaches. I would say Trent Johnson or Johnny Jones, but both coaches made the tournament. Press Maravich brought his son with him, so I’ll give him a pass as well.

McMahon can still make the tournament, but that looks highly unlikely.
Posted by Fat Bastard
alter hunter
Member since Mar 2009
89755 posts
Posted on 1/14/26 at 11:16 pm to
SEC win % by LSU coaches for the past 60 years:

2022-25 Matt McMahon- 24%

17-21: Will Wade- 63%

12-16: Johnny Jones 46%

08-11: Trent Johnson-39%

97-07- John Brady-44%

72-96: Dale Brown- 54%

66-71: Press Maravich-42%

65-65 Frank Truitt- 23%
Posted by mdomingue
Lafayette, LA
Member since Nov 2010
43531 posts
Posted on 1/15/26 at 7:05 am to
quote:

Press Maravich brought his son with him, so I’ll give him a pass as well.




He gets a pass because we all loved Pistol Pete, but he never made the tournament with the all-time leading scorer in the history of NCAA basketball, and only went to 1 NIT. Without Pete, he was 3-23(1-17), 14-12(10-8), and 10-16(6-12). 27-51(17-37), that is worse overall but better than McMahon in SEC play even without Pete.
Posted by mdomingue
Lafayette, LA
Member since Nov 2010
43531 posts
Posted on 1/15/26 at 7:18 am to
quote:

Truitt only coached one year and quit because he couldn’t recruit AAs.



From Wikipedia:

quote:

Ultimately, Truitt was unhappy at LSU for three primary reasons. As he later recalled, "When I went there they said that we could have a new arena in two years, that I could carry over my 17 years retirement from Ohio, and that I would be tenured on the faculty, like I was at Ohio State. None of that happened. The fourth reason was I just assumed I could recruit blacks and didn't think to ask before I took the job."[9] While African American players like Mel Nowell and Joe Roberts played important roles for the Buckeye teams of the 1950s and early 1960s,[13] LSU had yet to break the color barrier. When Truitt showed the LSU athletic director a list of his intended African American recruits, the director replied, "You can't recruit these guys. We aren't ready for this."


I think Truit was not as bad as his record at LSU. He took over a pretty bad LSU team. His predecessor, Joel McCreary, has the worst W-L percentage of any coach with more than 1 season of coaching at LSU.

Truit left LSU and took the Kent State job. Kent State was a worse program than LSU and had not had a winning season since 1951-52. He coached 7 seasons and only had two winning seasons, but those were the only two winning seasons at Kent State from 1951-52 to 1982-83.

Ultimately, he became their golf coach and did very well at that. It turned out that was his calling as a coach.

Posted by saintsfan22
baton rouge
Member since May 2006
79159 posts
Posted on 1/15/26 at 7:33 am to
quote:

2022-25 Matt McMahon- 24%

17-21: Will Wade- 63%

12-16: Johnny Jones 46%

08-11: Trent Johnson-39%

97-07- John Brady-44%

72-96: Dale Brown- 54%

66-71: Press Maravich-42%

65-65 Frank Truitt- 23%

Think about that. Truitt basically gave up once they flipped it up on him and McMahon still might go lower than his low bar.
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