Matt McMahon Season 2025-26

Updated June 25, 2024

LSU Men’s Basketball Head Coach Matt McMahon has five simple core values that define him and his basketball program at LSU:

Hard work, unselfishness, toughness, accountability and joy.

Those were some of the first words he said when he stepped to the podium for the first time as the 25th LSU men’s basketball head coach on March 22, 2022.

Now after two seasons as head coach at LSU and the improvement shown by the team from year one to year two, the foundation has been laid for further improvement by the Tigers and through the second season in 2023-24, all five of those core values were seen time and time again.

Through long hours of work in the classroom, in the video room, and practice, the hard work and unselfishness was seen. The toughness and accountability were there in when times got tough; and, yes, when LSU defeated back-to-back nationally-ranked teams in the final seconds, there was that joy that all LSU fans could enjoy.

The team learned and played under those five principles and laid a foundation for the LSU Basketball program to move forward on in 2024-25.

As the LSU Basketball program under Coach McMahon enters its third season, the team will mix three top 65 high school recruits, along with a handful of transfers into the mix with another step in the progress of the McMahon program – player development.

Player development is stressed a lot in the Matt McMahon LSU basketball program and that was never more evident than the development of Tyrell Ward and Jalen Reed from their freshman to sophomore years. Both players averaged over 21 minutes a game for LSU and combined to give the Tigers 17.0 points a game, 6.4 rebounds and 64 three-pointers while shooting almost 40 percent from the arc.

Most importantly, after another summer and fall of player development, they will be back for their third season with the program.

That bodes well for players like sophomore Mike Williams and the return of Derek Fountain and Daimion Collins who both battled injuries during different points of the 2023-24 campaign.

This past season, as LSU continued to improve, including a seven-win rise in the Southeastern Conference, finishing with a 9-9 record and a post-season tournament appearance in the NIT, the culture of the LSU program and the success that it can have in the future were on full display.

The Tigers won 5-of-their-last-7 regular season conference games starting back-to-back wins over No. 11 South Carolina, 64-63, in Columbia and then a 75-74 win over No. 17 Kentucky in Baton Rouge.

Against the Gamecocks, it was two Jordan Wright free throws with less than five seconds to play that were the game winners after the Tigers rallied from 10 down with eight minutes to play.

At home against Kentucky, Wright’s first shot attempt was blocked. He got the rebound and tossed it to Ward who beat the buzzer for the winning score.

Ironically, LSU’s third win in the five was also a one-pointer as Will Baker’s two free throws with 15 seconds left held up in a 67-66 win over Georgia.

The culture and success were on display during the seven years at Murray State University where Coach McMahon led the Racers to a record of 154-67, a .697 winning percentage. He led Murray State to 93 OVC regular-season wins, winning 75 percent of league games.

He has also coached multiple all-Americans and all-league players such as Ja Morant who was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 2020.

The Racers won regular season league titles in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2018, 2019 and 2022.

Since the native of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, became the third-youngest rookie among D1 coaches in 2015, McMahon has continued a steady move forward with a reputation for developing talent both as an assistant and head coach. He has become known nationally as an excellent recruiter and he is among the best in the nation in the area of player development and game planning.

In his final season at Murray State in 2021-22, McMahon coached OVC Player of the Year KJ Williams and two other recipients of first-team honors (Tevin Brown, Justice Hill). In addition, McMahon was named the league’s Coach of the Year.

Williams and his successful play translated to the Southeastern Conference where he earned All-SEC honors in a super senior year when he became at the time in January 2023 the 123rd player in Division I college basketball to amass 2,000 career points and 1,000 rebounds. He also earned more than 100 career wins in his five years of play. Through it all he continued to improve under the tutelage of Coach McMahon through his days at Murray and LSU.

McMahon’s Racers, in 2021-22, were just the sixth team in league history to go undefeated and the first to do it in an 18-game conference schedule. Murray State then won the two league tournament games to advance to the NCAA Tournament where, as a No. 7 seed, the Racers defeated San Francisco to advance to the round of 32.

The 2021-22 team was one of seven teams to win 30 or more games that season and led the nation in win percentage at 91.2 percent (31-3). The Racers were ranked No. 20 in the final AP poll and No. 22 in the Coaches Poll.

McMahon was the first MSU coach to have three seasons of 25 or more wins and was one of just three Murray State coaches to have four 20-win seasons.

Coach McMahon led the Racers to three-straight OVC regular season championships (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20) and two consecutive OVC Tournament titles (2017-18, 2018-19).

Coach McMahon’s commitment to defense showed in those years as the Racers ranked as the league leader twice in defensive field goal percentage and each of the three seasons the team led the league in defending the 3-point shot.

The 2018-19 team won 28 games and made its mark in the NCAA Tournament when the 12th-seeded Racers won their fourth all-time tourney game by defeating No. 5 seed Marquette. That season is when Morant stepped to the forefront at Murray State.

He was named the OVC POY, leading Division I in assists and earning first-team all-America honors from the USBWA. In the NCAA Tournament win over Marquette, Morant posted a triple double of 17 points, 11 rebounds and 16 assists as he became the eighth player to record a triple double in the tournament.

He was drafted second overall in the 2019 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies.

In 2017-18, McMahon’s team won 26 games and the OVC regular season and tournament championship, sending the Racers to what was at that time the school’s 16th NCAA Tournament.

Prior to being named head coach, he was a key part of Coach Steve Prohm’s staff as assistant at Murray State as the Racers won a pair of Ohio Valley Conference championships, a CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship and an appearance in the NIT. He was part of a staff that won 104 games from 2011-15.

During his time as assistant coach, McMahon was named to the list of best assistant coaches by FoxSports.com and CollegeInsider.com.

McMahon coached Lute Olson Player of the Year and AP Honorable Mention All-American Cameron Payne who ranked 13th in the nation in scoring with an average of 20.2 points per game and 6.0 assists. Payne was the 14th pick of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In his first season as an assistant at Murray State, the team was 31-2 and earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Racers won a game in the NCAAs and were the final undefeated team in the nation that year with 23 consecutive wins to start the season.

PRIOR TO MURRAY STATE
Coach McMahon has had success in college basketball since his days as a player at Appalachian State.

Known as an excellent shooter and tough competitor, he played on three Southern Conference regular season title teams in 1998, 1999 and 2000. He earned All-Tournament honors in 1999. The Mountaineers won the SoCon Tournament in 2000 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

He played in 117 career games under coach Buzz Peterson and made 135 three-pointers, graduating in 2000 with a bachelor’s in marketing.

His coaching career began immediately at Appalachian State as assistant under Houston Fancher in 2000-01. He would rejoin Peterson’s staff as a graduate assistant coach at Tennessee before returning to ASU in 2002 as assistant and later associate head coach, where he stayed until the end of the 2009-10 season. A year at UNC Wilmington (2010-11) as assistant coach set the stage for his journey to Murray State, starting first as an assistant in the 2011-12 season and then as head coach prior to the 2015-16 season.

Like his time at Murray State, McMahon coached some outstanding talent in the early stages of his coaching career, including Southern Conference POY Donald Sims as well as all-league picks Jeremy Clayton and D.J. Thompson.

Coach McMahon and his wife Mary, a former standout for the Furman women’s basketball team, have three children – Maris, Mason and Mabry.

The McMahon File

Season at LSU: Third (in 2024-25)
Birthdate: April 26, 1978
Wife: Mary
Children: Maris, Mason, Mabry
Hometown: Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Education: Appalachian State, 2000

College Coaching Experience
2000-01 – Assistant Coach, Appalachian State
2001 – Graduate Assistant, Tennessee
2002-10 – Assistant/Associate Head Coach, Appalachian State
2010-11 – Assistant Coach, UNC Wilmington
2011-15 – Assistant Coach, Murray State
2015-22 – Head Coach, Murray State
March 22, 2022 – Head Coach, LSU

Matt McMahon’s Head Coaching Record