BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The LSU Tigers made their annual appearance at SEC Tipoff on Wednesday at the Grand Bohemian Hotel at Mountain Brook with Coach Matt McMahon and Tiger players Jordan Wright and Derek Fountain.
The event was televised on the SEC Network throughout the day as it will on Thursday when the 14 women’s league schools, including preseason No. 1 LSU, will make an appearance.
The players and coaches took turns appearing in various content rooms that will be used during the course of the 2023-24 season by the NCAA, the SEC, Sirius XM radio and broadcast partners CBS and ESPN.
Coach McMahon appeared late in the afternoon in the media room and here were his comments:
THE MODERATOR: We are ready to begin with LSU. We’ll take questions.
Q. At this point in the pre-season, where are you right now? You still have a lot of work to do?
MATT McMAHON: Yeah, hopefully we’re a little further along. We had the opportunity to go to The Bahamas this summer. We got those 10 days of practice. I thought that was really important for us, not so much from an offensive or defensive standpoint, but just building the relationships within the team.
As you know, it was important for us to use the transfer portal in the spring to really bring some stability to our roster. Really pleased with what we were able to do there and the six guys we signed from the portal. I think we were able to bring in guys who have proven they can play at a high level. All came from winning programs where they were really well-coached.
We’ve talked about some of the Louisiana ties and the pride they’ll take in getting to represent their state university at LSU.
With all that said, I think as a coach you’re never where you want to be, but I’m really pleased with where we’re at. I know our guys are anxious to get to these scrimmages and exhibition games to get to play against some other competition.
Q. After one year in the SEC, what is your take on the league? Several teams that are ranked. SEC has more teams in the pre-season polls than any other league. Is it even better than you thought it was before you got in it?
MATT McMAHON: Everything I thought it would be, you’re talking about the Hall of Fame coaches in the league, you’re talking about a league that’s had more NBA Draft picks than any other conference in the country over the last four years. I think I learned a lot from a basketball standpoint.
A lot of unique styles in the league. As you look in this new era, it’s so hard to project where everyone is going to finish. We have some teams in our league who were really good last year and return a lot off those teams. We have some teams that were really good, had players move on to the NBA, then great success in high school recruiting or through the portal.
It’s an unbelievable league. It’s really for me something I’m excited that we were able to replenish our roster this spring. Looking forward to the new challenge this year.
Q. Were you surprised by anything last year that you saw in the league?
MATT McMAHON: No, wasn’t surprised. During my time at Murray State, played the majority of the league through the guarantee games and all that. Coach Pearl came and played at Murray State while I was there. So knew how good the league was, knew the elite talent. A couple things maybe stood out. The rim protection in the league, just unbelievable. The ability to protect the basket with shot-blockers. I think the length and athleticism defensively. Some people might say last year the league didn’t shoot the ball very well. I would argue it was because of the elite defensive personnel and schemes of the programs.
Q. Why did you target Daimion Collins in the portal, and what will he bring to your team?
MATT McMAHON: I love Daimion Collins. You’re talking about a guy, McDonald’s All-American, top 20 player in the country coming out. At Kentucky, very well-coached there by Coach Cal. Played behind a guy who was pretty good in Oscar. I think for Daimion, it’s about playing with great confidence. I think he learned a lot in his two years there. But you’re talking about someone just loaded with talent. 6’9.5″, 7’5″ wingspan, 40-plus vertical, great young man. Really wants to be coached and wants to be good.
A little bit more skilled than I anticipated coming in. He has really nice touch around the basket. Again, needs the minutes. Hasn’t played a whole lot these last two years. But I’m incredibly excited about the opportunities ahead for him.
Q. I think you might have a little bit of a unique perspective on this, having coached Ja Morant. When you look at two players, a transfer who is more of a proven commodity and a high school player who is more unheralded, does it creep into the back of your mind your past experience landing guys like that and having success?
MATT McMAHON: I think so. I think we as coaches have to continue to evolve and adapt in this new era. When I’m recruiting a transfer portal player, for example, I can no longer evaluate him as a 17-year-old high school senior. We have to evaluate him based open his body of work in college. We wanted to, with the situation we were in, needing to get stability on our roster, get some proven production. The portal made a lot of sense for us. We have seven of our 13 guys in their fourth or fifth year of college playing this game. We wanted to get older faster. I think that has enabled us to get our roster to stable ground where we can now recruit the best high school players in the country, especially now that the NCAA sanctions and penalties have been served and those are in the past.
I think from the high school aspect, we still have a formula that we like to follow. There’s certain traits that we’re looking for in the players we recruit. Now through the use of the portal this spring, I think we’re well-positioned to recruit at a really high level from the high school ranks, the class of ’24 and ’25.
Q. You mentioned the penalties. Other than losing a scholarship …, has everything been completed?
MATT McMAHON: Yeah, we served all those penalties in year one from that previous investigation. It was a challenging year. You and I have discussed it at great length. But I’m not one to really live in the rearview mirror. We’re moving forward. I think it is great to have clarity on that NCAA situation. That’s all in the past. We’re able to now move the program forward. Really excited to be able to do that.
Q. You were picked yesterday to finish 13th. How do you feel about that? Is it kind of crazy to try to pick those things?
MATT McMAHON: I admire the media that has to try and make those projections in today’s college basketball because you don’t know the rosters as well as you may have 5, 10, 20 years ago. I’ve never really been one to put a lot of stock in the pre-season rankings. Would rather be picked there than the bottom. Some players maybe use that as motivation. I don’t know. It’s not something I pay any attention to. I’m sure if you asked every player in this league, 14 really talented teams in this league, every 14 have the same goal: they want to go to the NCAA tournament and advance and do all these great things.
I think it’s more important for us to focus in on the daily processes of building the habits, of taking all these different pieces we have and build them together into a team and create the buy-in that winning will require this year.
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Here are some comments that Derek Fountain and Jordan Wright also made at the interview area:
Derek Fountain
What is your main goal and expectations for this season, and what did you work on to help that in the summer?
“My main goal is to be more consistent. Last year, I feel like I was good in spurts. I worked on more of a mental thing, just clearing my head before every practice or game before the season. I really treat every practice like a game and just clear my head to make sure my mental is at a calm state to go out and perform.”
Going forward with a bunch of new players, and you are right in the mix obviously, what do you see for this team and yourself?
“I’m not trying to look at last year, but this year I see a special group. We are addicted to doing the right thing and we aren’t any individual thinkers. We put our individual things aside and actually build a team.”
Jordan Wright
On the team’s expectations…
“This group is very tight knit, I’ll say that. Looking at our roster, this is the most talented roster I’ve been on in my college career. Just looking at the guys we have on paper, we have some really talented guys, but the key for us is going to be putting it together. We’re going to play solid, share the ball, play at the pace Coach McMahon wants to but also play clean basketball. Not turn the ball over, getting good shots.
The talent that we have is going to surprise some people. Looking at the preseason rankings, whatever they may be, people might be down on us, but being in practice and seeing how hard we’re working, we’re going to surprise some people.”
On the similarities between this LSU team and last year’s Vanderbilt team…
“Honestly, this is what I expected for us to be projected, but if you look at the way they played before they got to SEC play, they looked like a tournament team. They were 12-1, they had a lot of hype and played in a lot of really good games, and they were a couple of points away from being 13-0. The difference is, those guys that came back, they’re experienced now. Tyrell Ward and Jalen Reed, they have the SEC experience. Derek Fountain, this is going to be his fourth year in the league, and then a lot of the guys that we brought in have a lot of high-level basketball experience. Carlos [Stewart] played with two first round picks, Jalen Cook was first-team all-conference two years in a row at Tulane, Will Baker played in the tournament this year; Hunter Dean is another guy that has impressed me. (Dean) and Damian Collins have been the two standouts for me. I didn’t know they were as good as they were, but they’ve really came and surprised me. Like I said, I think they’re going to surprise people with their talent, the way that they play. They play winning basketball. I think that’ll be the biggest thing for us – just playing winning basketball. The surprise factor may be from what happened last year, but this is a whole new team. I’m really excited for it.”