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BUGG
BATON ROUGE - The "Bullet" is in the chamber. North Texas coach Johnny Jones, nicknamed "The Bullet" while an LSU guard in the early 1980s, will be LSU's next men's basketball coach, associate athletic director David "Bo" Bahnsen confirmed Friday night.
"They will be meeting over the next few days on their contract, but for all intents and purposes he will be LSU's coach," said Bahnsen, who was a member of LSU's search committee along with athletic director Joe Alleva and associate athletic director Eddie Nunez.
Bahnsen was an administrative assistant for the basketball team from 1982 through 1989 under former coach Dale Brown. Jones, a 51-year-old native of DeRidder, played at LSU from 1980-84 and was an assistant under Brown from 1984-97, finishing at LSU when Brown retired after the 1996-97 season.
"I'm excited for Johnny," Bahnsen said. "It's almost surreal that this has happened for him. He worked all of his life to put himself in this position. I think he'll bring back the city to basketball. He'll bring back the passion."
Bahnsen, who has worked in NCAA compliance at LSU for two decades, does not expect Jones to bring back any NCAA penalities to the program. LSU was penalized for its recruitment of Lester Earl in the late 1990s when Brown and Jones were the faces of the program.
