Johnny Jones spent one year at Nevada as the Wolf Pack’s associate head coach during the 2017-18 season. In the offseason he was named the head coach at Texas Southern.
Jones helped the Wolf Pack win a second consecutive Mountain West outright regular season title going 15-3 in conference play and 29-8 overall. The 29 wins tied the school record.
The Pack made a second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and reached the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history.
Pack head coach Eric Musselman was a member of Coach Jones’ staff at LSU during the 2014-15 season when the Tigers went 22-11, placed third in the SEC and earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Jones won 90 games in his five years as the head coach at LSU, the most of any head coach at LSU in their first five years. He was the fourth-winningest coach in LSU history. The DeRidder, La. native led the LSU Tigers to two postseason appearances, an NIT and NCAA tournament bid, and coached the 2016 No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft Ben Simmons.
While at LSU, Coach Jones also recruited future NBA players Tim Quarterman, Johnny O’Bryant, Jordan Mickey and Jarrell Martin.
Among those he helped lure to LSU in his assistant days were NBA superstar and Naismith Hall of Famer, Shaquille O’Neal. He also was involved in the recruiting of two-time All-American Chris Jackson (now Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) and national high school player of the year (and an assistant coach under Jones), Randy Livingston.
Jones was also a head coach at North Texas for 11 seasons from 2001-12. He led the Mean Green to two NCAA tournaments berths and five top-three conference finishes. Overall, Jones has 33 years of Division I coaching experience, and will bring all that to the Wolf Pack as associate head coach.
Jones also reunites with Nevada director of player development Hays Myers on the coaching staff. Myers was a student manager at LSU.
During the 1999-2000 season Jones was the interim head coach at Memphis and led the Tigers to a 15-16 record.
Jones played his college ball at LSU. He was a part of the 1981 Final Four team and joined head coach Dale Brown’s staff after his playing time, helping lead the Tigers to another Final Four in 1986. Jones and his wife Kelli have two children, John and Jillian. John is a freshman guard at Nevada.
