By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Barring a miracle in the Southeastern Conference Tournament next week in Nashville, the LSU men’s basketball season will be over by this time next week.
The Tigers (15-15, 3-14 Southeastern Conference) will host Texas A&M on Saturday (5 p.m., SEC Network) and end the 2025-26 regular season with their second straight, high-double-digit-loss season in the Southeastern Conference and third in four years.
And fourth-year coach Matt McMahon is still standing and coaching. And recruiting. He just signed Australian guard Owen Foxwell just over a week ago to his class of 2026-27 that is ranked No. 22 and has four players.
LSU is tied for 16th and last in the league with South Carolina (12-18, 3-14), which plays at Ole Miss (12-18, 4-13) Saturday at noon. The Tigers finished 14-18 and 3-15 last year for 15th. They were 14-19 and 2-16 in McMahon’s first season for last.
And McMahon remains.
After Saturday’s game, LSU will play on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament. The next NCAA Transfer Portal window opens April 7 and runs through April 21. And McMahon plans on being busy recruiting that as he will be losing six seniors, who all came to LSU last season from the portal. Guards Max Mackinnon, Rashad King, PJ Carter, Jaden Bobbett and forwards Pablo Tamba and Marquel Sutton will be honored on Senior Day Saturday, beginning at 4:40 p.m.
“My total focus has been on our team and getting them ready to play the next game,” McMahon told Tiger Rag when asked if he had received any assurances from anyone at LSU or associated with LSU that he is returning next season.
Tiger Rag Exclusive: LSU AD Verge Ausberry weighing “fiscal responsibility” with mounting Matt McMahon losses:https://t.co/SnUMP4iIBO
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) February 14, 2026
LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry did not respond to a question Friday on McMahon’s status. But in recent interviews, he sounded ready to keep McMahon for at least another season, considering two large LSU financial agreements in recent months – a $54 million buyout to fired football coach Brian Kelly and a $91 million contract over seven years to new football coach Lane Kiffin.
“If you ask LSU, I was playing 350 rounds of golf all through the year and drinking in my office.” … Brian Kelly on @DustyDvoracek and @dannykanell radio show Friday:https://t.co/mmnpDcyoKs
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 6, 2026
After this season, McMahon has three years remaining on a seven-year contract at approximately $2.9 million a year. The buyout for McMahon and his staff would be more than $10 million if he is fired this year.
“Then, to bring another coach in, that’s about another $15 million, not including the NIL packages you’ve got to get ready for the new coach,” Ausberry told Tiger Rag in a recent interview. “We just have to be careful about firing coaches.”
Ausberry also pointed out two major injuries that hurt McMahon’s team this season. Junior point guard transfer Dedan Thomas Jr. was one of the best at his position in the SEC before he suffered a foot injury just before SEC play started, and he was eventually lost for the season. Before that, returning starting junior forward was lost for the season with an Achilles injury.
“The basketball team lost two of its best players,” Ausberry said. “I think really, he (McMahon) would be in a different position, if he had those two. Before you make that decision, you’ve got to weigh all that into it. And we are.”
Meanwhile, the hot talk of former LSU coach Will Wade leaving North Carolina State – a better basketball program than LSU in usually a better conference with significantly more NIL money – after only one season to return to LSU appears to have died down. Much like all that talk of Kelly not getting his $54 million buyout died down because he will be getting it.
And contrary to popular opinion, there is no clause in Wade’s contract, which is available by clicking here, enabling him to leave for LSU free of any buyout he must pay North Carolina State should he choose to leave before April 1. Such a move would cost him, or LSU, $5 million. It would be $3 million after April 1 through April 1 of 2027.
Unless LSU’s powers that be can find a fairy godmother or a major donor or two willing to go through the process and make something happen, McMahon will get one more chance.
And if LSU is smart, that will be with a much larger roster budget, which would be much cheaper than firing him and bringing in another reputable coach and staff. McMahon can coach, but so far he has only been able to afford mostly Sun Belt-type players.
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