LSU men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones wants to bring the program’s status back to where it previously stood — consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, Final Fours and a packed PMAC.
In his first year as LSU’s head coach, Jones is focused on giving fans and the LSU community what he says they deserve, which is watching LSU play for championships.
After the decision to accept his dream job in April, Jones introduced himself to his new players one by one with a phone call. Jones wanted it to be known whether a player was recruited by him personally or was still here from the Trent Johnson era, everyone has the same goal of winning games.
“The big thing for me was to make sure that I came in, and they understand that they are LSU basketball players and that I’m the LSU basketball coach, so we’re in this thing together,” Jones said.
With a change in leadership comes a shift in structure, and Jones has a few rules that have stuck out since offseason preparation began.
“We’re not on time, we’re early,” Jones said.
When a player is late to class, training, practice or any other scheduled activity, he will have to make up for it with an early morning workout with strength coach Ricky Lefebvre.
“We’ll get up 5 or 5:30 in the morning and get some extra conditioning in with our guys to make sure we get their attention,” Jones said. “One of my biggest deals is that we just ask them to do the right thing and if not, there’s consequences for not doing the right thing.”
In early September, the dreadlocks of sophomore guard Anthony Hickey and sophomore forward Johnny O’Bryant III disappeared. Jones said this was a personal choice for each player that will help them in the long run.
“It had to do with some personal decisions that they had the opportunity to make,” Jones said. “It was more of them understanding what the big picture is out there for them and the direction that they’re trying to go professionally.”
Jones wants all his players to reside on campus this season to keep them closer together. Senior forward Eddie Ludwig and senior center Andrew Del Piero already live off campus, so they weren’t required to move back on campus. But those who wanted to move off campus, weren’t allowed.
“It’s a good thing because it keeps the team close together,” Ludwig said. “Everybody is on the same page.”
Academics come first for most coaches, but Jones reiterates the importance of it to his players often. Jones said his athletes should maximize the resources and opportunities they are given in the academic center because there are people with jobs dedicated to helping student-athletes successful.
The players should approach school the way they approach games and even practice everyday, Jones said.
“Being on the basketball floor is a privilege,” Jones said. “But you have to take care of your academic side of it to have an opportunity to have that privilege.”
Jones said he loves being back at LSU, and his players know his passion. Ludwig said that passion makes Jones a special coach.
“That’s one of the coolest things about him,” Ludwig said. “… He went here, he coached here as an assistant and now he’s the head coach.”
Jones said he’s glad to be one of the few coaches at LSU since legendary coach Dale Brown. Jones also said he misses the love for the program that existed during that era. In Jones’ mind, LSU should be competing for championships the way that LSU baseball, football and track teams do consistently.
“You may not win a championship every year, but as long as we’re competing in there, at some point you’re going to win those championships,” Jones said. “I think that’s where LSU should be. There’s no reason basketball shouldn’t be there because we’ve been there before.”
He wants the start of the “Johnny Jones Era” to be noted as a time when LSU basketball improved every day.
“[I want the LSU community to know] that we came to work every day,” Jones said. “… And we put everything we possibly could into making sure this was a great program. And that not one day didn’t go by that we weren’t trying to make LSU better.”
