The additions of two former SEC head coaches to Will Wade’s staff in Baton Rouge are now official.
LSU announced Friday the return of Johnny Jones, a former player and coach for the Tigers, after announcing former Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury, the winningest coach in the Bulldogs’ program history, as associate head coach earlier this week.
Jones spent the past eight years leading Texas Southern, compiling a 133-125 record, after a prior five-season tenure at the helm in Baton Rouge from 2012 to 2017.
The DeRidder native, who played for LSU from 1980 to 1984 and spent 13 seasons on Dale Brown’s staff (1984-97), led his alma mater to a 90-72 record during his time running the program, including back-to-back national postseason appearances in the 2014 NIT and 2015 NCAA tournaments.
Following Brown’s retirement, Jones spent two seasons at Memphis — including a 15-16 record as those Tigers’ interim in 1999-00 —and one at Alabama before earning his first full-time head-coaching opportunity at North Texas, which he led to a 190-146 mark, including a program-record 24 wins in 2010 and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances.
Jones holds a career 428-359 head-coaching record over 25 seasons, including a 15-1
“We are pleased that we are able to bring Johnny Jones back home to join our staff at his alma mater,” Wade said in a released statement. “He knows how special LSU is as a school and how important the LSU brand is. His knowledge of the game and recruiting ability will be an important tool for us as we move this program forward again.”
Stansbury coached Mississippi State to a 193-166 record in 14 seasons from 1998 to 2012 and later led Western Kentucky from 2016 to 2023 with a 139-89 record in seven seasons.
The Battletown, Ky., native, who most recently spent two seasons from 2023 to 2025 on staff at Memphis, was the 2004 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year and led his Bulldogs to a pair of SEC West titles and a pair of SEC Tournament titles during his time in the conference.
Mississippi State’s 2004 regular-season title under Stansbury remains its only such achievement since 1963, and he became the program’s first coach to record four consecutive 20-win seasons — twice from 2002 to 2005 and 2007 to 2010 — and the first to lead five consecutive national postseason appearances (2001 to 2005).
“I am looking forward to having Rick Stanbury join our coaching staff at LSU,” Wade said in a release. “His time at Mississippi State and Western Kentucky speaks for itself. His solid recruiting classes and his on-floor coaching abilities will help LSU move forward quickly with our basketball program.”