Men's Basketball News

[Just1More]

Jones is either a great recruiter or he recruits great recruiters. He is, perhaps, one of the worst in-game coaches I have seen at a high level program. He may be a great practice coach, but his in game decisions are just baffling. Sort of like Marlin's momentum killing timeouts. Baffling.

Jones is the coach at LSU because Shaq told LSU he'd withdraw support if they didn't hire Jones. Collis Temple has been managing recruits long before Jones arrived. Jones has also agreed to cooperate with Temple... an issue that arose when Trent Johnson was the coach. So no, Jones isn't a great recruiter or recruiter selector. He just doesn't rock the Temple recruiting boat. Jones is a good guy. But LSU could have done better. The only fans of Jones are LSU folks that liked him as a friend. You don't hire friends as coaches. But when Shaq says he won't give you the $1 million/year he commits, you do what he asks.

[zephyr]

Is Jones considered a great recruiter? My info has it that most LSU talent is the product of Collis Temple's work. Regardless, I am of a similar mindset. Basketball epitomizes team sport. And if you cannot recruit a "team"... but are successful here and there with a great individual player... the results are generally unspectacular. Marlin is in the "build a team" term in his tenure. He's shown he's got some coaching ability. He needs to build a team. I'm all in favor of him accomplishing that. But to credit him for a couple of great players over the past many years... does not a team recruiting coach make.

IMO, yes, he's a solid recruiter. He got more talent to go to UNT than the SBC had seen outside of MTSU. He just didn't know what to do with that talent and underperformed based on what he had there. At the time, UNT would have been a hard sell to top talent, especially in Texas which is primarily Big 12 territory and easy pickens for many of those schools.