LSU Will First Have To Get A Knife Out Of Its Heart, Then Try To Beat Missouri Saturday

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

At least when Kentucky lost to Duke, 104-103, and missed the Final Four on Christian Laettner’s iconic turn-around jumper near the foul line at the buzzer in 1992, the Wildcats had seven months to recover.

LSU (12-5, 0-4 Southeastern Conference) has to return to the scene of the crime just three days later and host Missouri (12-5, 3-1 SEC) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the SEC Network.ev

Much like Laettner, Kentucky’s Malachi Moreno caught a length-of-the-court pass near the foul line in the final second, turned and let it fly. And the Wildcats won, 75-74, after coming back from 65-58 deficit over the final 5:29 and erasing a 38-22 LSU lead at the half.

“There’s going to be an emotional toll here,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said.

A victory would have given LSU a chance to be at 2-3 in the SEC with a win over Missouri. Now, the Tigers are looking at an 0-5 start unless they can somehow get off the canvas.

“If he doesn’t make it (to the NCAA Tournament), we’ll have to reevaluate.”
-LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry on shaky future of basketball coach Matt McMahon:https://t.co/OPLFtwWEjn

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) January 14, 2026

“We have a quick turnaround, and we’ve got to build on all the good things and all the improvements that we did do,” McMahon said.

But for the fifth straight SEC game, LSU will not have point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. because of a lower leg injury. He was listed as doubtful in McMahon’s availability report to the SEC office on Friday. Thonas was averaging 16.2 points and 7.0 assists a game before the injury. His defense against three-point shooters has also been badly missed.

True freshman point guard Jalen Reece replaced Thomas and has gradually improved. He scored 11 points with four assists against Kentucky. Senior guard Rashad King also played some point, scoring 12 points.

“Jalen and Rashad were fantastic at the point position by combining for 23 points and five assists,” McMahon said. “I thought they did a lot of good things throughout. We harped on those things, but disappointed we didn’t get across the finish line at the end.”

And unless something changes Saturday and keeps changing, LSU’s season and likely McMahon will be finished.