Johnny Jones (coach)

College coach infobox


Name = Johnny Jones
Sport = Basketball
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College = North Texas
Title = Head coach
Awards =
Championships = Sun Belt Tournament Championship (2007)
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Player = *
Years = 1980–1984
Team = LSU
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Coach = *
CoachYears = 1984–1997
1997–1999
1999–2000
2000–2001
2001–present
CoachTeams = LSU (asst.)
Memphis (asst.)
Memphis
Alabama (asst.)
North Texas
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Johnny Jones is the head men's basketball coach at the University of North Texas. He previously served as the interim head coach at the University of Memphis.

Jones was named the head basketball coach at North Texas on April 16, 2001, and led the Mean Green to its first Sun Belt Conference Championship and its second NCAA Tournament appearance in 2007. The Mean Green entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 15 seed after posting a school-record 23 wins in 2006–07, and faced No. 2 seed Memphis in the South Regional First Round. In his seventh year with the program, Jones recently recorded his 100th win at North Texas with a victory over Florida International. Jones is the third coach in Mean Green history to reach the 100-win plateau.

In 2007–08, the Mean Green won its school-record 15th home game and reached the 20-win plateau for a second consecutive season. The squad also set new school records for three-point percentage and largest second-half comeback (21 points at New Mexico State). NT recorded a 32-point win at Louisiana-Monroe, which is the largest margin of defeat in Fant-Ewing Coliseum history. For a second straight season, North Texas led the Sun Belt Conference in every rebounding category.

As a player at Louisiana State University, Jones went on to help lead LSU to one of the most successful chapters in the school’s basketball history, including an appearance in the NCAA Final Four in 1981. He later returned to the Final Four as an assistant coach, as well as eight other coaching trips to the NCAA Tournament and two NIT berths as an assistant coach.

Prior to North Texas, Jones served on the coaching staffs of two SEC powerhouses and had a three-year tenure at Memphis. Jones was at Alabama for the 2000–01 season before coaching at Memphis, including two seasons as associate head coach and one as the Tigers’ interim head coach during the 1999–2000 season. He also coached for 13 seasons at his alma mater, LSU, serving in the capacities of assistant coach, administrative assistant and associate head coach from 1984 to 1997 alongside legendary head coach Dale Brown. He was the Tigers’ associate head coach from 1994–97.

Jones assisted in the recruiting and coaching of Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Jackson and former national high school player of the year Randy Livingston. He helped secure LSU's 1993 recruiting class which was ranked No. 1 in the nation. And in 1997 at Memphis, Jones also helped accumulate a JUCO recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 nationally and was the cornerstone of an overall class that was ranked seventh.

As an assistant at Memphis in 1998, Jones helped coach the Tigers to the Conference USA National Division championship. When Jones was interim head coach at Memphis in 1999–2000, the Tigers won six of their final seven games and finished with a 15–16 record while returning just one starter from the previous season.