LSU Tigers Men’s Basketball Finally Enter Bracketology Rankings

This is a very important year for LSU Tigers head coach Matt McMahon, as it could be his last year to make significant progress with the Men’s Basketball team, or else new athletic director Verge Ausberry could look to go in a different direction.

The Tigers have yet to be ranked in the Top-25 during his tenure and have not made the NCAA tournament.

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The good news is that this has been a promising start. They have a 9-1 record to begin the year. LSU was 11-3 out of conference last year before going 3-15 against other SEC teams, but this year feels different.

Not only are the Tigers the No.35-ranked team in terms of KenPom rankings, but they have finally cracked ESPN’s latest Bracketology update. It’s a good look by Joe Lunardi at who is trending in the right direction to play in March.

LSU enters Bracketology as a 10-seed in the Portland regional. Their first-round matchup would be the seven-seed USC Trojans and the top-seed on that side is the Michigan Wolverines.

One big reason that they are being taken more seriously right now is that they finally picked up their first Quad 1 win of the season against the SMU Mustangs, a game they won 89-77.

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It has actually been a fairly balance attack for the Tigers to start this season. The offense ranks No. 39 in KenPom while the defense is at No. 41. They play a slow brand of basketball and can kind of adjust to what the opponent does well.

Having a player like Dedan Thomas Jr. has been a massive help for the brand of basketball that McMahon likes to play. It harkens back to the Ja Morant-led teams that he made his name from. Thomas is a playmaking guard who can drive and provide a little bit of shooting when the team needs it.

The UNLV Rebels transfer is averaging 15.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and a career-best, SEC-leading 6.9 assists per game. He also has 1.3 steals per game. If he could raise his three-point efficiency, there would really be nothing to complain about. Right now, Thomas is shooting 46.8/24.1/84.0…

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Publish date : 2025-12-19 01:59:00

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