Inevitable end of Johnny Jones’ tenure at LSU will be sad

[Harry]

It’ll be a sad day for LSU basketball when Jones’ tenure ends because he seemed the right man for his dream job when he was hired five years ago. A DeRidder native, he had been a key player for four seasons as Brown was building LSU into an SEC power and he was Brown’s assistant for 13 seasons.

Jones got his head coaching chops at North Texas, where he took the Mean Green twice to the NCAA tournament before returning to Baton Rouge.

His first LSU team showed significant progress on its was to 19 victories. His second team went to the NIT and won a game, his third went to the NCAA tournament.

Then came the arrival of the No. 1 high-school player in the country — Ben Simmons — and the Tigers seemed likely to return to the NCAA tournament and maybe make some noise in it.

But it never happened.

The entire 2015-16 season was a letdown and the Tigers finished 19-14 and 11-7 in the SEC. The NCAA tournament had no interest in them and they had none in any other postseason tournament.

And, as expected, Simmons left for the NBA after one season and Jones was left to compete with a much-less talented roster. That’s not always bad because often times in basketball less talented teams are able to produce a sum greater than their parts when more talented teams produce sums lesser than the sum of their parts.

Remember Brown’s chicken pox team going to the Final Four and a team with Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Jackson and Stanley Roberts failing to get anywhere near it?

But with much less talent than last year’s team, this year’s LSU team was an even bigger flop.

The season is going to end this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday.

And then it will be time to search for someone to replace Jones in a job that frankly isn’t all that attractive to coaches with skins on the wall.

The end of this season will be a relief to anyone who has followed this team.

But it will also be sad.

read more:  https://sportsnola.com/inevitable-end-johnny-jones-tenure-lsu-will-sad/

[outoftown]

So, in some other thread, someone wanted to consider the current Missouri head coach. JJ has a much better record at LSU. Whether that means he should be the man is another story, but -apart from this year- his record at LSU wasn't actually that bad.

[GTWT]

JJ would be an interesting hire.  I wonder how this message board would respond.  It might be amusing.

[drex]

Sadly, both Johnny Jones and Kim Anderson took the bait by going to their alma maters to coach.  History now says it was not a good fit for either of them.

[EagleMBA]

4 hours ago, GTWT said:

JJ would be an interesting hire.  I wonder how this message board would respond.  It might be amusing.

If JJ wants to be considered, and makes contact, he should be looked at along with the others. We could do a helluva lot worse! I know the conventional wisdom about the second time around, and all that. His situation at LSU IS sad, per the article, because I believe the man can coach. JMHO.

[shootermcgavin44]

13 minutes ago, EagleMBA said:

If JJ wants to be considered, and makes contact, he should be looked at along with the others. We could do a helluva lot worse! I know the conventional wisdom about the second time around, and all that. His situation at LSU IS sad, per the article, because I believe the man can coach. JMHO.

I can't image there will be too many resume's better than JJ's that apply 

Proven success at the mid major level and P5 experience as a head coach 

[UNT90]

Great recruiter. Average coach.

Wish him well.

[Aquila_Viridis]

No we do not need to go back to Coach Jones. I went to Virginia. I've seen a lot of great basketball teams; unfortunately over the years, mostly other ACC teams though Coach Bennett certainly has his thing going pretty well these days. During NT's best days they never worked together the way great teams do. I want to see someone in here who can develop challenging game plans and get the players to work to them so that NT can compete beyond our own conference. We're not going to get that from Coach Jones.

[Mean Green 93-98]

8 hours ago, GTWT said:

JJ would be an interesting hire.  I wonder how this message board would respond.  It might be amusing.

There are coaches out there who seem to be able to take solid programs, and there are coaches who are able to take terrible teams and make them into solid winners--it seems that not every good coach can do both.  JJ has shown that he can make something of a bad program at North Texas.  As bad as the state of the program is right now, in some ways it was pretty comparable when JJ took it over before.  He wouldn't be my first choice now, and I think we can do better, but if he could at least take the program to where he had it before, I could think of worse things.

[MeanMag]

I would take JJ back in a heartbeat if it meant we didn't have to sit on our hands this time of year.

Edit: and the rest of the season for that matter.

Edited March 7, 2017 by MeanMag

[VideoEagle]

While I think he should be considered if he applies, my instinct of no to the return of JJ. It's time for a new, fresh approach. 

[untjim1995]

The thing that amazes me around here is how many act like any criticism of Darrell Dcikey's SBC run thru a brand new league of barely FBS teams is treated like blasphemy. But to act like you appreciate what JJ did here was pretty special gets met with lots of people acting as if he was nothing special.

[Wag Tag]

JJ advantage.. has proved he can win here, reasonable contract with the LSU subsidy, no buyout, and he probably wouldn't jump ship for another job! GMG 

[UNTFan23]

15 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

JJ advantage.. has proved he can win here, reasonable contract with the LSU subsidy, no buyout, and he probably wouldn't jump ship for another job! GMG 

That could create complacency. 

[VideoEagle]

2 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

The thing that amazes me around here is how many act like any criticism of Darrell Dcikey's SBC run thru a brand new league of barely FBS teams is treated like blasphemy. But to act like you appreciate what JJ did here was pretty special gets met with lots of people acting as if he was nothing special.

I think what JJ did was amazing. But with a new athletic director who's background is primarily basketball combined with a new President wio came from a school with a strong basketball background, we don't need to look backwards for our next move. These guys have resources and backgrounds NT has never been able to access before. Lets give them a chance to show what they can do. 

Edited March 8, 2017 by VideoEagle

[Travis]

There are much worse hires than JJ, as I said before.  I wouldn't mind the hire. But, I have a feeling there might be something even better. 

[greenjoe]

I wonder if JJ would want to came back to NT ?

 

[GrandGreen]

I don't feel sorry in the least, for Jones.  He got his dream job and made the decision to leave NT.  He has lived his dream, at least the being HC at LSU part.  

As far as Jones recruiting, it didn't get good till toward the end of his NT career.  I just wonder how much of that had to do with assistant Shawn Forest, who I believe is now at SMU.   With all his baggage, Forest has still managed to get great assistant gigs; he must be a very good recruiter.