Postgame Quotes   

LSU vs FIU Men’s Basketball   
November 13, 2025   
LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon Quotes   

LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon  
Opening Statement  
“It was a great win for our guys. I was glad we faced some adversity in the first half. FIU has great speed and quickness on the perimeter that gave us some problems and good athleticism and length in the frontcourt. I thought that bothered us early around the rim. Overall, to come out the gates in the second half with a great response, stretching out the lead into the twenties and finishing the game off was a good step for us. I’m glad we were challenged with their speed and athleticism.”

On (LSU Forward Marquel) Sutton’s Impact …
“It’s hard to take him off the floor because we can play him at the three and play our bigs up front. Because he shoots so well, it still works fine from a spacing standpoint. Where he really deserves a lot of credit since he got here is his three-point shooting. Initially, it was a lot of catch-and-shoot threes. Now, he’s flying off staggered screens and baseline screens and shooting with a lot of confidence. We had to have him on the floor tonight. He impacts winning in every phase of the game.”

On the team’s dominance in the paint …   
“It’s the way we want to play. We want to play with physicality and take advantage of our size in the frontcourt. We knew with FIU, they were forcing over 20 turnovers a game. They were top 25 in the country last year in forcing turnovers and that would present some problems for us. But they’re also foul prone because of how hard they play and the scrambles they put you in. I thought our guys did a tremendous job staying composed. Fourteen turnovers is till too many, but to get to the free-throw line 34 times and make 30 of them will put you in a good position to win every time.”

LSU Guard Dedan Thomas Jr.
On improving in the second half…
“Obviously we are going to go through halves like that, but it’s good for the team to face adversity especially early in the season. But I love the way we responded in the second half after Coach (Matt McMahon) got on us about energy and hustle.

On great free-throw shooting…
“Coach McMahon loved it 100%. He expects us to get to the line that much. It’s posted on the board in pregame. Coach wants us to make more free throws than the opponent attempts and that starts with pushing the basketball, getting to the rim, and drawing fouls.

LSU Forward Mike Nwoko
On the second-half response to adversity…
“It’s good to know that we can pull through after situations didn’t go our way. We’re going to face adversity no matter the case, so being able to push through will help us in the long run.”

On overall team performance…
“I feel like we are better than that. We just have to assess the film because it was a bad performance.”
—
FIU Head Coach Jeremy Ballard

On his overall thoughts of the game…
“I thought we were really competitive. We didn’t come here to just be competitive; we came here to win. We knew that LSU was very talented and very well coached. They have a great style of play that we really respect. I really respect Coach McMahon a lot. I really respect the team that he has built. I know they have a lot of new guys and that they are trying to figure things out as well, but I thought we came out there and gave ourselves a chance. One of the big keys for us is always going to be take care of the ball. We talk about Possession Armageddon. We want to be great on the offensive glass. We want to take care of the ball. We want to try and keep the other team off the glass and force them into turnovers. We did a great job taking care of the ball and did a great job on the offensive glass. We did not do a great job keeping them off the offensive glass and that is a credit to them. They are big and athletic. They are hungry guys. But I thought we showed what we are capable of and I thought we showed that we can play so much better than that. We made a couple of runs in there. We didn’t do ourselves any favors with how we shot from the foul line, and I thought we had a lot of makable shots at the rim. But their size and athleticism make you second guess those things at the rim too.”