Everything LSU's Matt McMahon said at SEC Media Day

LSU head coach Matt McMahon took the podium on Wednesday evening in Birmingham, Alabama to talk about his new-look roster, what he learned about the SEC, and his thoughts on the transfer portal additions.

After a season where LSU finished 2-16 in SEC play, McMahon enters year two with a revamped roster and hopes of establishing a new standard for the Tigers as the SEC once again shapes up to be one of the best conferences in America.

Here’s everything McMahon said at the podium at the SEC Media Day.

Where the team is at entering the season

“Hopefully, we’re a little further along. We went to the Bahamas and had those ten days of practice which was really important for us. Not just from an offense or defense perspective, but just building relationships as a team. It was important for us to use the transfer portal to build stability on our roster. We are pleased with the six players that joined our team that have proven they can play at a high level, all came from winning programs, and then you have the Louisiana ties and the pride they’ll take in representing LSU. As a coach, you’re never where you want to be, but I’m really pleased with where we’re at and I know our guys are excited to play in scrimmages and exhibition games to play other teams.”

Thoughts on the SEC as a whole

“It’s everything I thought it would be. You have the hall of fame coaches. You have the most NBA draft picks of any league over the last four years. You have a lot of unique styles and as you look it’s hard to project where teams are going to finish. We have teams that were really good that returned their whole teams, teams that were really good and had players move on to the NBA and had great success with recruiting or in the portal. It’s an unbelievable league. For me, I’m excited we were able to replenish our roster in the spring and I look forward to competing this year.”

Were you surprised at anything you saw in the league?

“I wasn’t surprised, during my time at Murray State had played a majority of the league. Coach Pearl played at Murray State while I was there, so I knew about the talent. A couple of things that stood out was the rim protection, just unbelievable the ability to protect the basket with shot blockers. The length and athleticism defensively, some people would say the league did not shoot the ball very well, but I would argue it was because of the elite defensive personnel and schemes of the programs.”

Thoughts on Daimion collins

“I love Daimion Collins. A McDonald’s All-American and top 20 player in the country coming out of high school and at Kentucky he was very well coached but played behind a guy who was pretty good in Oscar [Tshiebwe]. For Daimion it’s about playing with great confidence, I think he learned a lot in his two years there, but you’re talking about someone just loaded with talent. Six-foot-nine, 7-foot-5 wingspan, 40-plus inch vertical, great young man, really wants to be coached. More skilled than I thought coming in, he has really nice touch around the basket, and again, needs the minutes. He hasn’t played a lot the last two years, but I’m excited about the opportunities ahead for him.”

Balancing high school recruiting and the transfer portal

“We as coaches have to continue to evolve and adapt in this new era. When I am recruiting a transfer portal player, for example, I can no longer evaluate him as a 17-year old high school senior, we have to evaluate him based on his body of work in college. With the situation we were in, we needed to get some stability on our roster and get some proven production, so the portal made a lot of sense for us. Seven of our 13 guys are in their fourth or fifth year of college basketball, so we wanted to get older faster, and that allowed our roster to get to a stable ground where we can now recruit the best high school players in the country, especially now that the NCAA penalties have been served and those are in the past. From the high school aspect, we still have a formula we like to follow and traits in players we like to recruit and now through the portal this spring we’re in a position to recruit at a very high level in the class of 24 and 25.”

On serving the NCAA penalties

“We served all of those penalties from the investigation in year one. It was a challenging year, but I’m not one to live in the rearview mirror. I want to move forward. It is great to have clarity on that NCAA situation that it’s all in the past and now we’re able to move the program forward.”

On being picked 13th in the SEC

“I admire the media that has to make those projections in today’s college basketball because you don’t know the rosters as well as you did 5, 10, or 20 years ago. I’ve never been one to put a lot into the preseason rankings. I’ve been fortunate to be picked at the top and I’d rather be there than picked at the bottom. Some players maybe use it as motivation, I’m not sure, it’s not something I pay any attention to. I’m sure if you asked every player in this league, they all have the same goal. They want to get to the NCAA tournament and they want to advance. It’s more important for us to focus on building the daily habits of taking all of these pieces we have and build them into a team and get the buy-in that winning will require this year.”