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LSU parting ways with Johnny Jones after SEC Tournament

LSU BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

LSU basketball head coach Johnny Jones speaks during media day, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015 in Baton Rouge, La. (Travis Spradling/The Advocate via AP)

AP

LSU is ready to part ways with head coach Johnny Jones after this season, a source confirmed to NBCSports.com. The news of Jones was first reported by Andrew Lopez of NOLA.com.

The 55-year-old Jones is coming off of a disappointing two-year stretch in which the Tigers failed to make the NCAA tournament despite having No. 1 pick Ben Simmons and then piling up a 10-20 record so far this season.

Jones will coach the Tigers in the SEC Tournament this week. A former LSU basketball player who spent 12 years as an assistant coach at the program under Dale Brown, Jones spent five seasons as the head coach of his alma mater.

Jones is 89-70 during his tenure at LSU, including a 41-47 mark in SEC play. After arriving from North Texas, the native of DeRidder, Louisiana guided the Tigers to the NIT and NCAA tournament in this second and third seasons, respectively, before generating a lot of buzz by getting Simmons and a great recruiting class around him.

Despite having Simmons and a top-10 recruiting class that included another McDonald’s All-American in guard Antonio Blakeney, the Tigers came woefully short of expectations as they finished 19-14 and opted for no postseason after missing the NCAA tournament. Things got worse this season without a superstar like Simmons as LSU finished 2-16 in the SEC.

Jones has amassed a 294-232 career record as a head coach as that includes stops at Memphis (in an interim capacity), North Texas and LSU.

LSU and Missouri are now both open jobs in the SEC after the two programs finished at the bottom of the league this season.