BATON ROUGE - The LSU men's basketball team held its first practice of the 2024-2025 season Wednesday.

Matt McMahon enters year three as the Tigers head coach, after reaching the NIT last season.

"I'm fired up about the direction (of the program)," said McMahon. "Obviously, the first year was incredibly painful and difficult, but you look at last season, the way we were able to finish great wins over really good programs, to get into a tie for the top half of the SEC with what I thought was a really good Texas A&M team, and then to transfer that into success on the recruiting trail and roster construction."

LSU returns impact players like Tyrell Ward, Jalen Reed and Mike Williams and also has the No. 14 2024 recruiting class in the nation, according to On3.

The Tigers welcome three Division I transfers: Jordan Sears, Cam Carter, and Dji Bailey.

Sears averaged 21.6 points a game at Tennessee-Martin last season, and Cam Carter, a Donaldsonville native, averaged 14.6 points a game.

LSU also welcomes three four-star freshman: Vyctorius Miller, Curtis Givens, Robert Miller.

"I think when I look at the construction of our roster, it really would not make a lot of sense to walk the ball up and down the court and be a half court, grind it out, try to win 52 to 50 team," McMahon said. "I think we need to really take advantage of our speed, athleticism and length to play up tempo on both sides of the basketball, and I think that's the most fun way to coach and players enjoy playing that way. I think it really makes a huge impact when you can recruit to an NBA style of play and I know the fans love it, so I think we have great opportunities there to build an explosive offense."

LSU's first game of the season is November 6 against UL-Monroe at the Maravich Center.