What Traits Will Matt McMahon Look For in LSU Basketball Assistant Coaches?

Since accepting the job at the beginning of the week, Matt McMahon's phone has been barraged with text messages and phone calls.

Many have been congratulations but plenty have been from coaching colleagues interested in joining the program. It was an interesting confident statement to make with some of the impending violations the program could be facing from the NCAA.

But McMahon is here to win, something he's done at every level during his career. While the priority has been to pitch his vision to current players on the roster, part of that pitch will have to be who will be helping develop them and these decisions should come rather quickly.

"Everybody wants to come to LSU. As I said, it's one of the great places in all of college sports. I'm going to put together the best staff, not necessarily because of the name on where the front of their jersey was," McMahon said. "I'm going to get transformative people on my staff who are going to impact our young people."

McMahon will have to find coaches who share in his vision for how the program will be operated but also who can recruit in uneasy circumstances at the beginning. That could be a hard sell for some but like McMahon said in his intro presser, the appeal to come to LSU because of its brand and history is enticing to not just young athletes but young coaches looking to move up the college hierarchy.

One of the criteria could be bringing in an assistant coach or two with a background at recruiting at this level. McMahon has always been able to find gems during the recruiting process but LSU will be expected to compete for highly touted prospects and having someone who has cut his teeth in SEC or other Power 5 programs would be tremendous assets to the staff.

There's long term stability within this program now, something that was just impossible to really be confident in the last three years. There's also a young, hungry coach who is well respected across the country hoping to make a positive influence on a program at the Power 5 level.

"So I'm going to have great people in our organization who are going to invest in our players and help them maximize their opportunities here at LSU," McMahon said. "To get a world-class education, to play in the best league in America, and to compete at the very highest level."

This is going to be a process and not one that will happen overnight. Filling out a staff is just one component of the boxes McMahon will need to tick. The Tigers will also have another week to get on the floor for McMahon to make his pitches and see what the program will look like if that's the route he chooses.

"Every coach comes to these press conferences and says we're going to win National Championships, we're going to win. Everyone wants to win. It's about the processes of how you go about doing that on a daily basis," McMahon said.

"We've developed pros in the NBA, the G-League, the Euroleague for many years, and we're going to recruit the very best here at LSU."