LSU head coach Johnny Jones will be fired after the SEC tournament, according to a report by Andrew Lopez of The Times-Picayune.
Jones went 10-20 this season (2-16 in the SEC) and won more than 20 games only once in his five seasons as coach of the Tigers.
The news was inevitable following LSU’s disappointing season a year ago when Jones had his most talented roster yet. However, the Tigers had an underwhelming 19-14 season and failed to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament.
LSU heads into this week’s SEC tournament in Nashville having lost 18 of its last 20 games.
Lovell’s Analysis:
Let me start with this: Jones is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
If you were a parent that had an opportunity to send your kid to play for a coach that would treat him with fairness and respect, you could do far worse than Jones. He is a great person that was fully committed to getting LSU to the top.
However, like Kim Anderson on Monday, this is a winning business. And Jones simply couldn’t win enough games at his alma mater.
This season was bad. Really bad. The Tigers weren’t all that competitive in most SEC games.
But ultimately, the inability to find any success last year with a roster that featured Ben Simmons was the beginning of the end.
I was sitting courtside for LSU’s 71-38 loss to Texas A&M in the 2016 SEC tournament semifinals, and it was one of the most inexcusable performances I’ve ever seen for a team filled with that kind of talent.
Finishing one season with that performance and then following it up with season that included a 15-game losing streak isn’t a formula for keeping your job.
Jones will wind up coaching again at the mid-major level, and honestly, he’ll likely do a good job. He did a good job building North Texas into a program that made the NCAA tournament twice during his tenure there, and he’ll use this experience to help him accomplish a similar feat elsewhere.
As for what’s next for LSU, I’ll say this: it’s time to go for the full-court heave.
We’ve entered an era in SEC basketball where there is little room for error. There are too many talented coaches and players in this league right now. The national perception continues to be that the conference is down, but this season was a step forward. Next season will be an even bigger step forward.
LSU AD Joe Alleva has to do his due diligence and make sure he gets a coach that understands the increasing competitiveness of the SEC, and what it’ll take to rise to the top.
And guess what? If LSU puts the money out there, big names will listen.
This job is an attractive one. So is Missouri. Both have the resources needed to win big in basketball, and it’s just a matter of finding the right fit.
Some names that you could hear at the start of the search: Kevin Keatts (UNC Wilmington, who will be on almost everyone’s list), Eric Musselman (Nevada), Kermit Davis (MTSU), and Steve Forbes (ETSU).
Keatts is a rising star and will be in a power conference job soon. Musselman and Davis are former LSU assistants. Forbes is a great recruiter with previous SEC coaching experience as an assistant at Tennessee.
But those are only the obvious names. There will be many more to come.
What we don’t know is what current power conference coaches could be enticed to make the move to Baton Rouge. Until the coaching carousel begins, it’s impossible accurately predict who will land where. There are too many moving pieces.
Alleva’s track record of handling coaching situations hasn’t exactly been great. However, he has to get this one right.
And because of the attractiveness of this job, he’ll have no shortage of big name candidates wanting to get LSU basketball back to where it needs to be.