By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry really wants to keep LSU men’s basketball coach Matt McMahon, despite the team cratering since Southeastern Conference play began in early January.
But McMahon has got to win some games down this final stretch. The Tigers have lost six of their last seven, including five of those by double digits, and are 14-11 overall and 2-10 in the SEC with six left after losing 73-63 at Tennessee (18-7, 8-4 SEC) on Saturday night. McMahon is coming off a 14-18 and 3-15 season last year.
Down to 8 players, LSU plays surprisingly well at Tennessee before succumbing:https://t.co/lm61T37Lzj
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) February 15, 2026
After going 14-19 and 2-16 in his first season in 2022-23, he had to win five of his last seven regular season games just to finish 17-16 and 9-9 in 2023-24 for his best season.
LSU Point Guard DJ Thomas To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery, Matt McMahon Announces: https://t.co/2h7pH3dpHO @TigerRagMedia @LSUBasketball @SportBeatTweet @andrechampagnee @racertodd
— Tiger Rag (@TigerRagMedia) February 14, 2026
Now, the man who tried to get former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and Ausberry to hire Will Wade from McNeese State last year to replace McMahon is the new chairman of the LSU Board of Supervisors – Lake Charles business owner Lee Mallett. Governor Jeff Landry, who also wanted Wade as LSU’s coach, promoted Mallett from a board member to chairman this week.
Wade, who coached LSU with great success but amid a plethora of major NCAA violations from 2017-22, instead took the head coaching job last year at North Carolina State, where he is 18-8 and 9-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
LSU FIRES WILL WADE AMID LITANY OF MAJOR NCAA VIOLATIONS
Wade coaches a program that is at the top of the pecking order on campus in Name, Image & Likeness/donor dollars as opposed to closer to third or fourth, which is where the men’s basketball roster price is at LSU. It is also near the bottom of SEC basketball programs in roster money. It would be difficult to get Wade now, no matter the job Mallett has. Wade likely doesn’t want the job now, if he is thinking clearly.
The Board shift has not changed Ausberry’s stance on McMahon.
“We will discuss that with the whole Board,” Ausberry told Tiger Rag on Friday night. “I have a solid relationship with Mr. Mallett and the entire Board – an excellent relationship. We have a basketball coach.”
And Ausberry inherited significant budget deficits when he replaced the fired Woodward last December.
“Yes, there’ll be cuts. And prioritizing some things, prioritizing some sports. Yes, we will do that,” Ausberry said in an extensive interview with Tiger Rag on Feb. 4 for the March Tiger Rag Magazine.
Asked which sports will be prioritized greater than others after football obviously being in the No. 1 position, Ausberry said, “Don’t know yet. That’s going to be over a period of time about who’s winning and doing well and who’s not doing well. But all these big buyouts have to stop. Sometimes, you might say, ‘You know what, I’ve got to keep this coach an extra year.'”
He didn’t mention McMahon in the above reference, but that would not be a reach.
”We can’t be so active with firing coaches and changing coaches,” he said. “That’s the thing, we’ve got to evaluate that and assess that. But the bottom line, if you fire a coach, remember that’s a $10 million buyout.”
The buyout for McMahon and his staff would be approximately $10 million if he is fired this year. He makes approximately $2.9 million a year in the fourth year of a seven-year contract.
“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 said. “That’s about a $40 million swing. We just have to be careful about firing coaches. People talking about firing coaches, getting rid of this coach here, getting rid of that coach. I’m like, “Well, no, no, no. We’ve got to hold on that.”
Particularly because Woodward saddled LSU with paying fired football coach Brian Kelly a $54 million buyout after he was fired four years into a 10-year contract at approximately $100 million. And LSU hired Lane Kiffin to replace him at $91 million over seven years. Kiffin just signed a 41-man NCAA Transfer Portal class for an entire roster at a cost of approximately $40 million or more.
“The basketball team lost two of its best players,” Ausberry said of junior power forward Jalen Reed (Achilles) and junior starting point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. (foot). Reed was projected as a starter after coming back from a knee injury the previous season. He was playing well until being lost for the season in late November with an Achilles injury. Thomas, who had been averaging 15 points and 6.5 assists a game, missed most of the SEC season with a foot injury and was ruled out for the season on Saturday with surgery planned soon.
“I think really, he (McMahon) would be in a different position, if he had those two,” Ausberry said. “Before you make that decision, you’ve got to weigh all that into it. And we are. I made some comments earlier about it. I said, ‘LSU should be in the NCAA Tournament.’ But bottom line, we have to be fiscally responsible to everybody. And I think that fiscal responsibility is going to be important to our Board, our new president (Wade Rousse), to our Tiger Athletic Foundation board members and to us in this building.”
In a pre-NIL world where football and basketball players weren’t so expensive and there were not nationwide deficits in athletic departments like LSU’s, McMahon might already be fired.
“The decisions that we make from now on, we have to think about them fiscally,” Ausberry said. “It’s not the wild west like we used to be, just pulling the trigger and making changes. Today it’s no, no, no, before you make that change, is it fiscally responsible?”
In the meantime, McMahon needs to win some games.
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