Matt McMahon 'crushed' he 'couldn't help get our guys across the finish line,' explains Moreno's 'tough' buzzer-beater

Kentucky experienced all of the emotional highs and lows in Baton Rouge, ending with the highest of highs in the form of a buzzer-beating game-winner to close out the 18-point comeback. LSU experienced all of the emotional highs and lows, too, only the Tigers had it flipped — steamrolling early, only to choke it all away late.

It was a must-win for both teams, the Wildcats just inside the bubble and the Tigers just outside, albeit with wildly different preseason expectations going in for the pair of SEC programs. As ugly as it was, Mark Pope‘s group got it done, thanks to a Hail Mary from Collin Chandler and a miracle attempt at the horn from Malachi Moreno.

For Matt McMahon? Well, his athletic director announced publicly to start the week the fourth-year coach is officially on the hot seat, needing an NCAA Tournament appearance in a couple of months to keep his job.

“If he doesn’t make it,” LSU AD Verge Ausberry said, “we’ll have to reevaluate.”

Then the Kentucky game happened, pushing LSU to 0-4 in the SEC and 12-5 on the year, sitting at No. 51 in the NET and falling further off the at-large line. The Tigers are missing star guard Dedan Thomas, sure, but the Wildcats were without two starters, too.

McMahon knows they let that one slip away, given the circumstances — one that could ultimately cost him his job.

“Obviously, a heartbreaking finish to the game. … In the second half, tremendous credit to Kentucky — they really got going from behind the three-point line,” he said after the loss. “We could not get enough stops there. All that said, you’re in position to win the game, and unfortunately, I couldn’t help get our guys across the finish line. … Crushed we weren’t able to finish the deal.”

The Tigers shot 48 percent from the field and 50 percent from three in the first half, then closed out converting 48.9 percent overall and 47.4 percent from deep — pretty good across the board, certainly when considering the 27/17/50 splits for the Wildcats in the first 20 minutes.

And then the final 20 minutes happened, Pope’s group going 65/73/79 en route to 53 points after intermission.

What went wrong for them in the 18-point comeback (or collapse, from LSU’s perspective)?

“They went to a smaller lineup with more perimeter shooting on the floor. We were really helping off the non-shooters, and that’s how we were able to keep the floor tight and put us in really good rebounding position. When they went away from the ball screens and had some of those baseline runners for the staggers for shooters, that bothered us some,” McMahon said. “On the defensive end — still pleased with our percentages, 50 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three — but they started switching everything and it disrupted us in some stretches there, they made good adjustments. Then guys stepped up for them and hit shots — they went 8-11 from three in the second half. …

“When they added a fourth shooter to the floor, that really bothered us. Credit to them, they stepped up and hit some contested threes. Their spacing was much better in the second half.”

Even considering the meltdown for LSU, the Tigers still had a very real chance to win it at the very end, up by one with 1.6 seconds left and the Wildcats needing a full-court bucket to pull off the unthinkable.

Then the unthinkable happened, Moreno catching the heave from Chandler and converting it from 17 feet.

“We wanted to have a man on the ball, which we had one of our long athletes there on the ball. We wanted to keep everything in front of us,” he continued. “They threw the home-run pass and we mistimed our jump a little bit there, ball got over us. They hit a tough shot at the buzzer there to win it.”

Overall, McMahon was extremely complimentary of Moreno’s growth and recent explosion as Kentucky’s go-to five — even as a 19-year-old freshman. Everyone knows about the game-winner, but he finished with 10 points (4-7 shooting), eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in 20 minutes as the starting center.

He was near the top of the LSU scouting report and the Tigers felt good about getting him in foul trouble, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Georgetown native from killing them when it mattered most.

“When you look at Moreno, he’s getting better every time out, which happens with experience,” McMahon said. “But, he has tremendous size for the position. It gives them great rim presence, both on the glass and with his shot blocking. We were able to get him in foul trouble tonight, which was beneficial for us to get him off the floor. He’s a great ball-screener there in the middle of the floor, he created some advantages for them there.

“He’s just a very skilled five man with great size.”

He’s proud of his group’s response, saying LSU had its best week of practice of the season leading up to the matchup vs. UK, but a loss is still a loss at the end of the day.

Now, he’s just got to prove he’s still the man for the job with 14 regular season games to go.

“I thought we got better tonight as a team,” McMahon said. “I’m crushed for our players. I’m crushed for our fans, the environment was awesome. Our players laid it on the line. I’m just crushed we didn’t finish the deal, but the only way forward is to build on all those improvements that were made by our team over the last couple of days and get ready to go on Saturday. We got great people in our locker room and they’ll respond the right way and they’ll be ready to go.”

One man’s loss is another man’s gain when it comes to McMahon and Pope in Baton Rouge.