Johnny Jones, former NCAA Final Four player and coach for the LSU men’s basketball program, has returned to Baton Rouge to join the staff of Coach Will Wade for the 2026-27 season.
Jones returns to Baton Rouge after an eight-year stint as the head coach at Texas Southern University in Houston.
Jones played four seasons at LSU (1980-84), spent 13 seasons as a member of Dale Brown’s coaching staff (1984-97) and five seasons as the head coach at LSU (2012-17).
The 65-year-old Jones has been a part of close to 500 games as a player, assistant and head coach at LSU during his time in Baton Rouge.
He won 90 games as the head coach of the Tigers, including two post-season appearances. Jones has played (1981) and coached (1986) in the NCAA Final Fours under Coach Brown.
His 90 wins ranks fifth on the all-time coaching wins list at LSU.
Jones was just the fifth LSU alum to hold the top position in the men’s basketball program and the third to have played and served as head coach.
Jones coached the NBA’s No. 1 draft selection in 2016 in national freshman of the year Ben Simmons and had three other draft picks in his tenure – Johnny O’Bryant III (2014, Milwaukee); Jarell Martin (1st rd., Memphis, 2015); and, Jordan Mickey (Boston, 2015). He coached 10 All-SEC selections.
The DeRidder, Louisiana product was known as “The Bullet” during his LSU playing days. He attracted the attention of college scouts around the country after a stellar prep career at DeRidder High in southwest Louisiana. He was named the state MVP in Class 4A and a prep All-America his senior season, averaging 28.3 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
As a player at LSU, besides playing on the 1981 SEC Championship and NCAA Final Four team, Jones started 54 games. He led the team in assists (124) as a junior and was ranked among the top five in the SEC that year. He is one of 35 playing in the history of the program with 200 assists or more (271).
His 136 career steals make him one of 36 players that have recorded 100 career steals.
After finishing his eligibility in 1984, he was asked by Coach Brown to join the staff as a student assistant before moving into a full-time role on the staff after earning his degree one year later.
In all, Jones played in two NCAA Tournaments and served as assistant or head coach in 10 additional NCAA Tournament seasons at LSU.
It was during his tenure at LSU that Jones earned his stripes as top recruiter. Among those he helped lure to LSU as an assistant were Naismith Hall of Famer member, Shaquille O’Neal. He also was involved in the recruitment of two-time All-American Chris Jackson (now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) and national high school player of the year Randy Livingston.
After Coach Brown’s retirement following the 1996-97 season, Jones moved to Memphis where he served as Associate Head Coach in 1998 and 1999. He was named interim head coach just prior to the 1999-2000 season.
He spent the 2000-01 season as an assistant at Alabama, before being named the head coach at North Texas prior to the 2001-02 season. Jones spent 11 years with the Mean Green, including averaging over 21 wins a season over his last six years at the helm. That included a school record 24 wins in 2010 and a pair of Sun Belt Conference titles and NCAA Tournament trips.
The school advanced to the NCAA Tournament in both 2007 and 2010 as Coach Jones won 190 games in his tenure there before accepting the LSU head coaching job for the 2012-13 campaign.
After leaving LSU, Jones served one season as Associate Head Coach at Nevada before being named the head coach at Texas Southern.
In his first season, his team defeated three “power conference” teams scoring wins over Baylor, No. 18 Oregon and Texas A&M as he quickly established the success he would have at TSU. His first team won 24 games and posted a 14-4 record in the SWAC. The team advanced to the finals of the conference tournament and was selected to participate in the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament.
The Tigers defeated UNO, UTRGV and ULM to get to the semifinals of the tournament.
In 2020-21, Jones and Texas Southern returned to the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in school history and defeated Mount St. Mary’s, 60-52, in the NCAA First Four. TSU entered the tournament one of the hottest teams in college basketball, winning 14-of-15 games.
During the 2021-22 season, TSU made history once again as they became the first team in SWAC history to defeat a ranked opponent from the SEC after a 69-54 win over No. 20 Florida. With 19 wins and a 13-5 SWAC record, the team won the conference tournament title and again returned to the NCAA Tournament, defeated Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the First Four.
The 2023 season saw Jones lead Texas Southern to another SWAC Tournament title, but this time as the first conference school to win it as an eight seed. That allowed TSU to advance to a third consecutive NCAA First Four.
The team advanced to post season play in 2024 going to the CIT’s first round.
In all, Jones won 133 games as head coach at Texas Southern with a 90-49 record in SWAC contests, a 64.7 win percentage.
In his head coaching career at Memphis, North Texas, LSU and Texas Southern, which spans 25 seasons, he has recorded 428 coaching victories.
Jones and his wife, Kelli, have two children, John, a Texas Southern graduate who served as an assistant coach with his dad; and, daughter Jillian.