By Hunt Palmer
Welcome to the biggest week of the Matt McMahon era.
Since the fourth-year head coach took over at LSU, he’s faced adverse circumstances. The NCAA was lurking when he accepted the job. After a season, that was put to bed. The next two years he was hamstrung by a lack of NIL funding. The rest of the SEC outspent LSU, many by a significant amount.
This season LSU upped the ante, and the early season results validated the spend. LSU dominated in Destin and hammered an SMU team that has double-digit wins over Texas A&M and North Carolina to its name. However, the SEC performance was always going to be the ultimate test.
Like clockwork, more adversity.
Dedan Thomas Jr., the centerpiece of this team, suffered an injury leading up to the conference opener and has missed two weeks. Without Thomas, the Tigers are 0-3. Those three losses aren’t a death sentence, but some context for the coming week is important.
LSU hosts Kentucky and Missouri this week. After that? Road trips to defending national champion Florida and uber-talented Arkansas. LSU will be significant underdogs in those two road games. Without a win this week, the Tigers are looking 0-7 right between the eyes.
That’s a death sentence.
One win this week is imperative. Two would be preferable.
Kentucky’s $22 million roster has struggled this year. The Wildcats dropped their first two SEC games before spanking Mississippi State on Saturday. Missouri got thumped in Oxford over the weekend.
With Thomas, LSU can play with both teams. Without him, that feels unlikely. LSU gets the benefit of the Wednesday night tipoff this week to give their injured point guard an extra day of rest.
If the Tigers can emerge from the week 2-3 in SEC play, they’ll be on schedule. A 1-4 mark would make things dire. Again, 0-5 with two roads games coming would turn out the lights.
Baton Rouge has a reputation for tuning out squeaky shoes in late January and listening for the ping of the bat. These Tigers have one week to try to put that on hold.
Basketball to baseball might not be the only transition on the horizon if that’s the case.
This week is massive for the program.
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