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When Murray State assistant coach Matt McMahon was hired by new Louisiana Tech coach Eric Konkol to be 1 of his own assistants on May 27, little did he know all of the dominos that would fall in the weeks ahead. The Chicago Bulls fired coach Tom Thibodeau on May 28, hired Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg to replace Thibodeau on June 2, then the Cyclones hired Murray State coach Steve Prohm to replace Hoiberg on June 8, and on June 9 Murray State hired McMahon to return to the state of Kentucky as its new head coach. McMahon had spent the past several years as an assistant to Prohm, and now he gets to run the entire show himself. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach McMahon about the wildest 2 weeks of his professional life and how he hopes to replace the loss of his top-3 scorers from last year.
You played basketball at Appalachian State: how good a player were you back in the day, and how did you get into coaching? I was an average player but was surrounded by some really good players. After I graduated my coach Buzz Peterson took a job at Tulsa, and his replacement Houston Fancher hired me as an assistant right out of college. I went right from graduation into the coaching profession.
You spent several years as an assistant to Steve Prohm at Murray State: what makes Steve such a good coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? He is all about relationships with people and believes that you win with great people so he invests a lot of time in both his players and assistants. He develops a great culture where people want to perform at a high level. He has a great defensive philosophy and is a good teacher of defense. He took some good PGs and built an excellent scoring system around that.
In the 2014 CIT title game you had an 8-PT win over Yale: what did it mean to you to win a title? That was a really important postseason to us because we were returning the core of our team so the 5 additional home games helped create a phenomenal atmosphere. Our fan support is off the chart and that game laid the foundation for our successful run the following year.
In the 2013 OVC tourney you had a 2-PT OT loss to Belmont, and in the 2015 OVC tourney you had a 1-PT loss to Belmont: how sick are you of seeing the Bruins every March?! Coach Rick Byrd is 1 of the top coaches in all of college basketball and has developed a great program there. They were 2 phenomenal games and unfortunately we came out on the short end. It has developed into a good rivalry.
In the 2015 NIT you had a 3-PT loss to Old Dominion: how close did you come to winning the game, and what did your team learn from that game that you think will help you this year? The NIT was a really good experience because we got to play against some really good programs. The ODU game was 1 of the best atmospheres that we have ever played in. Jeffery Moss hit a 3 and then Trey Freeman banked in a 40-foot runner to win it. It was a tough way to end the season but winning 25 straight games over 3 months is something that you do not see very often.
In late-May you were hired as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, but in early-June you came back to replace Steve after he was hired to be the head coach at Iowa State: how crazy was that 2-week stretch, and why did you end up taking your current job? It was a very hectic 2 weeks. I was a grad assistant at Tennessee in 2001 and Eric Konkol was my roommate and great friend. When Eric was hired at Louisiana Tech he offered me a job and I was very excited, but I was incredibly fortunate to return to Murray State as a head coach. It was a no-brainer for me to come back.
What do you see as the biggest difference between being an assistant coach and being a head coach? We took a trip to Canada in August that gave me a sneak peek at some of the differences. I am going to be learning some things on the fly, but there are more demands on your time as a head coach in terms of speaking engagements and involved in recruiting more players. It has been a smooth transition for me due to my familiarity with the campus and community. Then again, we have not played a real game yet so I assume there are some curveballs coming down the road.
Your team lost each of its top-3 scorers from last year (Cameron Payne/Jarvis Williams/TJ Sapp): how are you going to try to replace all of that offense? We are in a unique situation with a lot of players/coaches who have been elevated in their roles, and that will determine our success. Moss is moving from the 2nd/3rd scoring option to our primary scoring option and will become a 1000-PT scorer this fall. 8 of our 13 players have never worn a Murray State jersey before so the focus this summer was to build a team. We added some transfers and some JC players but we have yet to establish everyone’s roles.
This year you bring in Gee McGhee as a transfer from Chattanooga, and next year your team will have Jonathan Stark eligible after transferring from Tulane: what is the key to integrating guys who enter your program after beginning their college careers elsewhere? We have had a lot of success here with transfers, the majority of whom we had previously recruited when they were back in high school. Coach Prohm really set the standard for how you prepare during your sit-out year (from the weight room to player development) so they can immediately step into a role where they can have tremendous success.
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? The expectations here are always to win big, but our simple focus is to just stay committed to the process of building a team and investing the time on and off the court to develop great team chemistry. We want to get better throughout the season and build a championship product on a day-to-day basis.