LSU AD's message to Matt McMahon: Miss the NCAA Tournament? 'We'll have to reevaluate.'

Sitting at 0-3 in the SEC with Kentucky coming to town? Every AD knows the first move is to tell your head coach in a very public way he’s on the hot seat.

Oh, is that not normal? Sorry, Matt McMahon, but that’s your reality in Baton Rouge.

In an interview with the Baton Rouge Advocate just a day before the Tigers host the Wildcats, LSU AD Verge Ausberry said the former Murray State coach is fighting for his job the rest of the season — starting tonight vs. UK. It’s simple: NCAA Tournament, you’re safe. If not? Well, best of luck to you.

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

McMahon went 14-18 (3-15) in 2024-25, and before that, he finished 17-16 (9-9) in 2023-24 and 14-19 (2-16) in 2022-23. His only postseason appearance came in that middle season — albeit an NIT first-round loss. Before LSU, he led Murray State to a 153-67 overall record and 93-31 in the OVC with three NCAA Tournament appearances and two wins in the Big Dance.

This year, the Tigers are the only winless team in the SEC at 12-4 overall and currently ranked No. 46 in the NET, sitting on the wrong side of the bubble in ESPN’s latest Bracketology update among the first four out.

According to Ausberry, this is not a new development — he apparently made it clear to McMahon going into the year he’d need to make some magic happen to stick around.

“We’ve already had some discussions about what the expectations are,” he said Tuesday. “One thing we want to do is make sure we’re in the NCAA Tournament. We made that very clear to Matt at the beginning of the year – that’s where we need to be.”

To McMahon’s credit, he’s been without star guard Dedan Thomas Jr. in all three of those SEC losses to begin conference play and he remains doubtful entering the Wednesday-night matchup vs. Kentucky. He also lost another starter, Jalen Reed, to an Achilles injury in December. His AD is keeping those things in mind, and if there is real end-of-season momentum — even if it means falling just short of the field of 68 — maybe he’ll reconsider.

But that’s a big if and certainly not a crutch for McMahon to lean on the rest of the way. His job is still to make the Big Dance or odds are good it won’t be his job in 2026-27.

“If something changes, and it looks better, if the team gives us some hope somewhere, we can look at it,” Ausberry said. “But we’d like to be as close to the NCAA Tournament as possible this year.”

Quite the statement for any AD to make about a head coach in January, just three games into conference play. And certainly something to keep in mind as Kentucky looks to build its own momentum in the SEC coming off its first win of 2026 vs. Mississippi State on Saturday — also on the bubble as one of ESPN’s last four byes.

It’s a bubble vs. bubble battle in Baton Rouge.