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LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 15, 2016

Johnny Jones

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

JOHNNY JONES: Well, great seeing all of you here. Thanks for coming. A little disappointed we're here, and it was obviously not our plan. Hopefully we were in somebody's NCAA Tournament at someone's site, but we're excited to say the least, as I was in terms of having an opportunity to coach this team this past year after coming off of last year's season getting into the NCAA Tournament, having a chance to have a top recruiting class, and a few players returning from last year's team getting to the NCAA Tournament. We were certainly filled with a lot of excitement, a lot of hopes, aspirations, and a lot of expectations.

Unfortunately we fell short of the mark of returning, getting back to the NCAA Tournament, and I certainly assume all responsibility for our shortcomings there.

I do know that our guys this year put forth a gallant effort. I thought they prepared hard, trained, and unfortunately we had a series of injuries and didn't get one back or our full team together because of eligibility and injuries until after nine games into the season, and with that being said, we get our guys together. I thought they played well after those nine games. We had some success, and at the end of the day, we played the last six games without Hornsby because of another season-ending injury that required surgery for him.

But when we look back, I thought there were a lot of good things that happened during the season, had a lot of success. I thought we were able to defeat each team in our conference. We did outside -- the only team that we did not have success against was South Carolina. Only played them once. But the other 13 teams we obviously -- the other 12 teams we obviously had success against, and we're excited about that as we continue to build.

I thought obviously our attendance at home, we're excited about having over 12,000 for conference games, 11,000 or so for regular season, and substantially over 3,000 or so from year one that we were here, so we're excited about the growth of our fan base and their interest certainly in our program.

But ending the season, we thought our guys had battled hard, battled really well up until the last regular season game on this stage having the opportunity to play at Kentucky, and if we win that game, things fall right, Vanderbilt wins at Texas A&M, we would have been the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. So I thought we put ourselves in a really good fighting through a really tough conference after being picked fourth.

At the end of the day, we wind up tying for third, and we certainly feel that that's an improvement from the battles that we had gone through, and going into the SEC tournament, we felt getting the double bye, playing on Friday, luckily won that game and had an opportunity to play on Saturday, again, improvement from a year ago that we did not get an opportunity to advance, and so in advancing, we had an opportunity to play a good Texas A&M team, and it was an extremely tough game for us. I can tell you I was embarrassed of the outcome, not only for me but our players and our fan base, of how things took place in that game. I thought it was very difficult, and I thought we got off to a really good start, playing extremely hard in that basketball game, and getting out to 9-3, 9-4 score, whatever it was, and for the first nine or so minutes, I thought we went about nine straight possessions defensively getting stops against them on the defensive end of the floor that we didn't convert on the offensive end of the floor, and we did not do a good job there, and I thought they came back, started making plays after that point, and unfortunately for us, I thought things went south and we were never able to recover, and I can tell you it's the first time I've ever been, as long as I've been coaching, been a part of a game like that where the ball just don't seem to drop for you and we don't make plays. We've been averaging about 80 points a game. I think we were first or second in the league at the time in terms of field goal percentage, and unfortunately for us, we only shoot 20 percent in that game, unlike how the Tiger team had played all year.

Shortly afterwards, we get on the plane, we had a young man, Antonio Blakeney, wasn't feeling good both games, winded, did not -- under the weather in both games, get on the plane that Saturday night, he started taking a turn for the worse. We get back home and check on him on Sunday, and we don't know, according to the trainer, if we're going to have to put him in the hospital or not, and at that time on Saturday night, there were questions we were going to have an opportunity to advance to the NCAA or possibly NIT, and we made a decision to meet on Sunday morning. We met, had a chance to meet with a few of the captains, talked to them, a couple of the underclassmen about possibly if we had an invitation from the NIT, where would that set us, and with the season-ending injury to Keith Hornsby and not knowing if we would have Antonio Blakeney available for us in the tournament, we quickly determined that we probably need to focus.

I've been very familiar with the NIT tournament over the years and know how it's set up, and it's not a neutral site game, you're playing on someone else's floor or a home game and I know the difficulties of it. I wasn't sure we'd be a true representative of the LSU Tigers, putting ourselves in that position, and we chose to make sure that we put ourselves in position to now really concentrate on several things that we can fulfill, and that's getting better and preparing ourselves for next year, and our guys have had an opportunity to get back here and start focusing in academically and hopefully finishing strong this semester, putting in the time and attention.

Over the last three years, two of those years we finished with over 1,000 on our APR. That's something we're excited about that our guys have performed well in the classroom, and again, we've graduated every senior that we've had that have exhausted their eligibility here, and Josh Gray will walk across the stage in May, and we're excited for him.

But moving forward, we've got these guys that are returning. We obviously have had a joy and don't know exactly, and there hasn't been an announcement on Ben in terms of what his decision will be or when he will make his decision, but it's certainly been a joy coaching him, and at the same time I thought he brought a great deal of excitement to our team, our program, and certainly created an atmosphere nationally that when we went to play at Texas A&M they had a record crowd, largest crowd they've had in the history of the building. They played Kentucky there to try to clinch a championship -- well, the week before, to try to position themselves to clinch a championship, and that crowd did not exceed the crowd that we had.

The same thing happened at Tennessee. Had the largest crowd they've had there all year. Kentucky goes in there, doesn't exceed the crowd that we had when we played there at Tennessee.

So a lot of excitement about our basketball team, the brand that we had, and we are so fortunate that we had that opportunity.

Not a lot of coaches have the benefit or opportunity, and they go through a lifetime without having a chance to coach the No. 1 high school player in the country. For that we're indebted and blessed that we had that opportunity, and certainly if we had it all to do over again, we would certainly take advantage of that opportunity because we certainly hoped that things would turn out in the end, that we would be playing in the NCAA Tournament, and again, unfortunately we fell short of the mark.

We're looking forward to next season with the guys we have returning. We think we have some great recruits coming in with hopefully Antonio Blakeney and obviously Craig Victor, the impact that they made as starters this year, we have several guys that can really impact our team off the bench and then the recruits that we have coming in, five guys that we signed, feel that we'll certainly be able to make an impact. We averaged about 80 points a game again last year, and shot about 47 percent from the field. Efficient. Really efficient offensively, and that's why we put ourselves in the top two to three in the conference in terms of finish.

The area we've got to continue to work on getting better is focus and concentration at the end -- as this season has ended is on the defensive end of the floor. We're not pleased with our defensive effort, and the year before we obviously had a shot blocker back there in Mickey, but we've got to do a much better job even with the new rules by the officials and the hand checking and the bumping and the way you have to guard. Defensively we're going to have to certainly change up some of our schemes and look forward to having an opportunity to visit with several people during this off-season and improving on that end of the floor.

With that said, if you would have any questions, I would be more than happy to entertain those right now.

Q. You talked about the decision not to play in the NIT. What was the feeling of the players?
JOHNNY JONES: The upper class guys that had been here before, that had visited with those guys who had gone to the NCAA Tournament. We started the year obviously with their hopes and desires to be playing in the NCAA Tournament, and those guys that were returning had an idea and a feel of what it would take to get there.

On Sunday I had an opportunity to visit with several of those guys, and Antonio Blakeney, visited with him, and seeing the condition that he was in, I think they understood exactly, and I can explain to them, what the NIT is all about, and I have a great deal of respect for it. I know the level of play that's in it and the type of teams that are represented in there, and they're very good, and it's a very challenging tournament.

And when you go, I think you have to try to be at your best, and certainly didn't want to put our team again in a situation that I thought that would not be favorable for them and our fans.

Q. Every year as a coach you look back and self-evaluate. I know you'll probably do that a little bit later, but right now as an early self-evaluation, what could you have done differently to make this a different outcome for the season?
JOHNNY JONES: Well, I think there are several things that, again, we'll have to look back and take a great deal of time to be able to do that. But some of the things that we don't have any control over is injuries. Our guys being ineligible until Christmastime because they're transfers. Those things are difficult. I wish we would have been better on the defensive end of the floor and have improved because if we're better in that area, we win other games that were out there that were available to us. We lost some close games, I think two in Brooklyn, one in overtime, and the other one by one point. If we're better there, and that's with the services of both guys, obviously injuries and the transfer in terms of Craig Victor, we lost both of those games, and then we go to Charleston without those guys. Those things you don't have any control over.

But I think if we're a better team defensively we get those guys because we had a high-scoring team, guys that were capable of putting the ball in the basket, and that was before our team had gelled and thought somewhat had some chemistry to it because we had a lot of new guys. We had lost Jarell Martin, Jordan Mickey, so we were trying to integrate certain guys into our team, and in doing that, we thought we had done a pretty good job of putting them in position to be successful, but as the season played out, night in, night out, we weren't consistent enough defensively to get those things done, and we've got to do a better job there.

Q. With the way the season ended, how much of not having Keith Hornsby there on the floor and in the locker room really hurt this team down the stretch?
JOHNNY JONES: Well, I can tell you, Keith, as you well know, he's a fifth-year senior. That goes a long way. What he brought, what he meant to our basketball team, it's hard to really put into words. He was a true leader, the hardest worker that I've ever been around. And when you've got that type of leadership on your team, it means something. I was hoping at the end, because he wasn't available, because he had played 20 games with us prior to going back down with a season-ending injury, and we're out there six games without him, I was hoping because of his presence with our team, those 20 games, the way that he played would have rubbed off enough on our guys, and it did for some of them, some guys. I thought Antonio Blakeney was a guy that was able to rise up and be a different player because of his experience out there with him, and I thought that made a difference in his play at the latter part of the year.

But it affects us. There's no substitute for a guy like that. It's hard to play through when you're talking about a guy that averaged 13 points and nearly 50 percent from the field, your leading three-point shooter, and a guy that just plays with so much energy out there on the floor and is just relentless. It's hard to substitute for that, and then you compound that especially for us in the tournament with Blakeney playing in the conditions that he was, that certainly didn't help us at all.

Q. We've heard from a lot of fans that it was the right decision, that they wanted to see the season end. We've also heard from a lot of fans saying that athletics are about not quitting and fighting through adversity. What would you say to the fans that say this move was quitting?
JOHNNY JONES: Well, for me, I know how much I love playing, how much I love coaching, how much we love teaching with these guys, and you never really want your season to end. With these guys, I've got to always make sure that I'm doing what's in the best interest of our players at the end of the day for them as we always move forward. Sometimes that's not a popular decision, but you've got to always feel that you've got to do the right thing by them.

For me, I know how important it is to our fans, and our fans are extremely important to us, and we certainly want to satisfy them in masses because of how they've turned out and really supported our team and our program with the love that we have for them. They're second to none. But at the same time we've always got to make sure that we make some tough decisions sometimes, and that was one of them.

Q. Have you had any conversations with any upperclassmen about turning pro early, and you mentioned APR before, but if any of them do, how important is it that they finish out the semester?
JOHNNY JONES: Yeah, we obviously know that there's a chance that we're going to lose one guy for sure. I think that's pretty clear. Had an opportunity to meet with all of our players and had a chance to visit with Tim Quarterman, as well. He is certainly someone who will give it some consideration to possibly move, as well. Those two guys I think would certainly be two that you could maybe look for, and there's always interest in better -- well, the guys that have performed at a high level, and I'm sure there will be some interest obviously in Antonio Blakeney will probably have to make some decisions down the road, but that's not something he's concentrating or focusing on right now.

The APR, I think we're in great shape because we've had over obviously 1,000 two of the last three years, which is tremendous, but we certainly hope that guys would finish out things the right way, that we can continue having a high score there with the APR score.

Q. First of all, can you diagnose Blakeney's condition? You keep saying under the weather. Was it the flu?
JOHNNY JONES: I really don't know. I'm not sure exactly what it was. It was some type of -- I don't know if it was viral or what. Initially, our trainer was aggressively treating him there in Nashville, and he had to do the same here, and on Sunday I think again after consulting with his mom, they were debating whether he needed to be in the hospital at the time. That's how ill he was at the time. I think they wound up changing his meds and all those kind of things, and he's gotten better, but he's still fighting through whatever it was, but I'm not sure exactly what the illness is.

Q. And then of course Simmons, arguably the best player in the entire country, going to be the No. 1 draft pick, how disappointed is he that he's walking away from his LSU career with only 19 wins?
JOHNNY JONES: Well, I think as a whole, we're all disappointed at the end of the day. It's not so much the 19 wins but not having an opportunity to continue to play because the hopes was not only to get to the NCAA Tournament but to have an opportunity to advance once we got there, and unfortunately we put ourselves extremely close, in the situation you finish in the top three in a power conference, and you finish strong, you win a semifinal game, a quarterfinal -- I guess you advance to the semifinals on Friday and have an opportunity to play on Saturday. You'd think that you're extremely close, and any time you put yourself in a position to win a conference title the last game of the season I think you've done a tremendous job as a team. We were in that position, and unfortunately we still came up short and didn't have that opportunity.

So Ben, along with his teammates, coaching staff, and I think all of our fans, all disappointed that we came up short and didn't have an opportunity to participate.

Q. Is Ben still enrolled in school? Is he still going to close? Have you seen him the last two days?
JOHNNY JONES: I can't talk much about our kids' academics and things. No, I have not seen him the last two days. We were together on Sunday and visited for a while then. So I have not talked to him or laid eyes on him.

Q. You haven't talked to him the last two days?
JOHNNY JONES: No.

Q. What did you learn? How hard coaching the one-and-done guys and all of that, what have you learned? The criticism that you've received nationally is that you weren't ready for this tough situation. What did you learn about that issue?
JOHNNY JONES: Well, I was fortunate enough to be here with Coach Brown when he had elite players in guys that were shown a great deal of attention, including one Shaquille O'Neal, and obviously you didn't have all the internet sensation and all the things that are out there now with the social media.

But I thought Ben was an ideal guy that you would want to have an opportunity to coach if he was going to be a one-and-done, because one, of his background, he come from a tremendous family, a young man that's well-grounded, a team player, so much as to people were fussing at him for not shooting enough. He was a pass-first guy. He was a guy that winning was extremely important to him. So if you have an opportunity to coach someone and you want to bring him into a team environment and system that you don't think is going to disrupt your team, he would be that guy.

So we're excited about the time we had with him. Obviously there are a lot of things that were going on the entire time that he was here. Obviously a lot of distractions and dealing with those, and that's part of it. It certainly comes with the territory. But none of that had anything to do with, I think, whether we won or lost games. I think it actually benefitted us by him being here, and I think, again, the thing that we have to hang our hat on that we were certainly disappointed more so in, and that, again, comes back to me, and I've got to do a better job in preparing and getting these guys ready, is on the defensive end of the floor. And with all the things that we are going on around us, if we're better defensively, when we get between those lines, 94 by 50, we're a very good, talented basketball team.

It's a challenge any time, but I'm not sure who obviously has all the answers to coach the No. 1 player. Not a lot of guys have had an opportunity to do that, and I'm not sure if everybody can speak to that because not a lot of people have the opportunity to coach guys of that level.

Q. What was the biggest problem with the defense, and how do you fix it? Do you start all over? Do you break it down and --
JOHNNY JONES: I think it's just a lot to do with concepts. You have to have some guys with some will and some want-to that are out there, and you have to make sure that you're recruiting to that, and then you have to teach it. We spent a lot of time offensively on what we're doing, and I think that's why we had the success we had on the offensive end of the floor and the way that we play. We've had a lot of success that way.

But it's schemes, be it what you're doing, man, zone, whatever it is, positioning yourself, the guys understanding principles and being in the right place, and when the ball moves, you're moving and positioning yourself and helping the helper and all those kind of things, and when guys are connected and playing that way, that's when you become a better team, and across the board, we just weren't there consistently enough this year to have the positive effect that we would need to have.

Although we were maybe young, the more experienced you are as a team, obviously the better that you are, and we've got to make sure that we spend a lot of time moving forward working in that area because that was the difference in us winning and losing some games this year.

Q. Was it more interior or perimeter or --
JOHNNY JONES: I think both. I think it's all around. I think because it all works in unison, you don't need to have a shot blocker. A lot of people believe you've got a great shot blocker, you've got a lot of blocks and people aren't getting by you, and he's out of position one because he has to come over and block a shot and he's rotating in different positions, and somebody obviously got beaten off the dribble if it's not his man, and it's a matter of being able to stay down between your man and the ball, and if you screen, how does those post guys position themselves and put themselves in a position where they've got to make sure that guys are not driving by them. So it works in unison, so it's not perimeter guys, it's not just the post guys. It's those five guys out there have to really be connected together for us to get better.

Q. The Chicago combine was probably a month later than you're used to. How does that affect you as far as your recruiting?
JOHNNY JONES: Yeah, I think Tim, and I can't speak for him, I think he -- I think that he has an opportunity to go play professionally, and would possibly put himself in a position that he will go all in, and he's not going halfway and trying to test the waters. He's out in the middle of it, and that's something that I think he's been looking forward to trying to explore for himself.

But that will affect you with guys because they can wait so long, and then you're trying to sign guys hopefully in April to know if you're going to have your full roster of guys back with you. So it kind of puts you in somewhat of a dilemma if you're not careful.

Q. With so many young players and freshmen, underclassmen playing bigger roles, more minutes this year, do you feel like maybe that stretch in the last part of the season, not necessarily just the SEC tournament, do you feel like fatigue was a factor at all for some of the guys?
JOHNNY JONES: We don't have the number of bodies that you'd like to go with, and again, if you've got everybody available to you, certainly help us and the impact those guys have, and if you're talking about upperclassmen, using Keith Hornsby as an example, that certainly gives you a lot of depth, and he's a guy that can play 30, 35 minutes, but you don't need that if you've got other guys that can come in and give you some valuable minutes, but when you're forced to have to play that, it gives your team a little different dimension of how you look and how effective you can be, and when you get to those games, what you need is someone with that type of experience that can really help your team, and Keith is obviously one of those guys that had been there, done that, and been in that situation that he was able to provide.

And I think if you look at just his first game back, whether it was against Houston, he had 30-plus-some points back first night out on the floor, but that's what he was able to provide. But yeah, we'd be remiss if we said we didn't miss his presence out there with us on the floor.

Q. That kind of circles back to the NIT game. You mentioned you weren't going to be able to put your best product out there on the court. Was not playing in the NIT simply not feeling like you guys had a good chance to win a basketball game, or was it more than that?
JOHNNY JONES: Well, again, we want to be able to be at our best, putting ourselves in a situation like that. Again, it's not a neutral site. You were going to play on somebody else's floor possibly with the position we're in, and it makes it a heck of a lot more difficult to be able to do that, and if you're going to do it, you want to make sure that you're doing it all for the right reasons and continue to develop and having guys and continuing to do some things, and we weren't sure if we had that group, especially with Antonio where he was, if, in fact, we would be able to be effective in doing those things in a positive way really for our team.

Q. You said you wanted to move on towards next season. How does the rest of the spring play out? Do you have exit interviews with guys? Is there another team meeting? What will the next couple of weeks look like?
JOHNNY JONES: We've met with guys as early as yesterday. I had tremendous meetings with them. I think they'll get out of town here over the week, then they'll get back, and when we get back from their break, we'll have the ability to get out on the floor with them for a couple of hours a week, and we will start then, again, trying to prepare and getting them ready for next season which we think is very important for us to put ourselves back in that spot, and again, without some of the guys returning, it's going to be real important for us to be at a certain level, and we certainly feel like we've got the guys that are capable of doing that. We've always been able to field a very talented team, and this year won't be any different this year, as well.

Q. Have you heard the criticisms on the national stage, things like that? Are you upset? Are you angry? Are you disappointed? How have you handled those criticisms?
JOHNNY JONES: I can be honest with you; I don't do a good job of probably not entertaining them, unless I think that's the best deal for me, and I have a job to really focus on and some young men that I'm trying to prepare and get ready and I've got things that I have to do, so I don't really sit out there. I don't worry too much about people judging me. I know there are a lot of coaches that are out there that I have a great deal of respect for that I have to compete against, be it recruiting or in our conference or you name it, and so those are things that I really concern myself with. I'm not sure what all the criticism or critiquing and all those things, what it is and what it really entails. But what I do know is that every day we get up, we try to put our best foot forward and trying to improve and make this basketball team program the best that it can possibly be, and that's my goal, focus, and my concern, so I don't get too caught up.

I'm a fan, so I know any time you have setbacks or something, people are not happy, and I can assure you, when we have setbacks, there's nobody that hurts more than me, my staff, these guys around us, our players, and certainly our fans. One of the reasons you fight so hard is because you want to appease and please your fans because you know what that's all about, and they put so much energy into it, we want to put a lot of energy into trying to serve them and play the right way in doing the right things by them so they can be proud of the program. That's where our energy is.

Q. You've been complimented a lot for what people would call not throwing your players under the bus. A lot of attention has been drawn to your halftime interview where you said the team was playing with great energy in the Texas A&M game, considering the score. Did that reflect --
JOHNNY JONES: No, I probably need to go back. I haven't heard the sound deal of it. But our team came out -- the night before the game, we were jumping off the wall. We were excited. We had just knocked off Tennessee. We didn't win the game last year, so we were moved on, we were in the semifinal game. We knock off these guys, we're in the championship game on Sunday. Guys go to sleep if they can sleep. We've got an early morning, we've got a noon game, up early, excited at our pregame. Can't wait. Get on the bus. We get to the arena, locker room, chomping at the bit, and they get out there and we get off to a tremendous start, and they're playing their butts off. Defensively, scoring, they're making plays, and we get up to nine, and that's the energy that we were playing with and providing.

We were playing with a lot of energy at that time, and unfortunately we stopped making shots, we don't score, they start scoring after the 10-minute mark and making plays, and obviously things turned on us, but we came out with that type of energy, and we actually came in -- that was at halftime, and that's what I meant how we got off to a tremendous start.

Sometimes you can be playing with energy and the results don't equal the energy that you're playing with and things can go south on you, and it actually happened to us.

So that's exactly what I was referring to playing with energy in the beginning.

Q. And if I can ask one follow-up, just to clarify, Ben after the game seemed adamant, I want to play with my brothers, I want to go to the NIT, but there's a lot of national speculation that Ben shut this thing down, that they don't want to play in the NIT. That wasn't the case?
JOHNNY JONES: Ben doesn't have a camp that operates that way, and I'm so glad that, again, he comes from a solid, sound family. He's a young man that has done a tremendous job of trying to do everything that he could to help and benefit this program and a lot of people unfortunately -- I was talking about how he's made himself so accessible for everyone in the beginning and doing so much and opening himself up so people can do their jobs, and it's almost like at the end, those same people turned on him, unfortunately for whatever reason, and he's been the same person. That's been a tough deal.

But that's not the case. We made that as a team staff after consulting with the administration, and we were able to move on.

Q. There was a report I think after the game that you had brought in a sports psychologist twice during the year and they alluded to some team chemistry issues. Did you think that there was more team chemistry issues with this team than previous teams, and the second part, now that you've gone through the one-and-done process with a Ben Simmons, has your perspective changed on that kind of a player?
JOHNNY JONES: You know, if I can get another Ben Simmons or a type of player who's unselfish, who's a team guy that regardless of what his goals are and he's only going to be there a year, if it's that type of mentality, we'll jump out of bed and certainly go and recruit the top players in the country that we think that will fit our system, that our fan base would enjoy playing, that would be able to help us win games. We're always going to pursue that, absolutely.

Your first question was --

Q. The team chemistry?
JOHNNY JONES: The team chemistry, yeah, what happens is -- I've actually had speakers come in to visit with our team periodically because I think it's always good and resourceful for our guys because we always want to help our guys grow. They can hear us a lot, so any time we can bring someone else in maybe with a little bit different approach, we'll certainly utilize them, not only for them, I'll bring in coaches or someone that may be come in just to visit with our coaches for maybe a two- or three-day period where we'll lock ourselves up and have powwows or whatever because it's about growing and experience and getting better. That's something we always do, and that's not something that's unusual for us to do.

Q. So team chemistry issues, no more or less than in past years?
JOHNNY JONES: It's different because you've got a new team, and you think you've got -- it was a high-profile and level deal, and you're trying to reach everything that you possibly can to be as successful as possible and whatever that we can do to probably stimulate that, we want to be able to do it. I can tell you, no, we weren't always clicking on all cylinders together, and when you have newness to your team, that's something that certainly happens. Obviously teams with experience and guys that have been around each other for quite some time, sometimes those things are a lot better, but any time like we were, we had a lot of new pieces and moving parts. It was important for us this year, and we needed to try to make it fit.

Q. You talked a lot about how excited you are for next season and how fun it was this year to sell out all those crowds. Are you worried about keeping the interest up around your program with Ben leaving?
JOHNNY JONES: I can tell you, we've got to make sure that we're playing an exciting brand of basketball, and that's what we do. Ben I think brought a lot. Again, I thought you have to certainly credit our marketing and promotions people for what a great job they did prior to the season starting and throughout -- I guess maybe starting during the summer, and they helped create that atmosphere and that environment, and that's huge. We're hopeful that we'll get more of the same.

I think our fans have done a tremendous job over the years and the LSU that I'm familiar with, it's about those letters across the chest, and not so much the name on the back that they pull for because that's what they bleed, purple and gold, and I think if we're playing the right way and winning, you get that. And if you're not, you don't.

So I think that's up to us, and we're very fortunate this year at home, conference play we wound up going 8-1, and our fans were a big part of that, and they made a big difference.

Q. Have you had a meeting with Joe Alleva yet to kind of review the season? And if you have, what was the discussion?
JOHNNY JONES: No, he's on the committee, obviously, with the basketball deal and moving on, and not having a chance to so much sit down and review the whole season, we have had an opportunity to talk, and I can tell you obviously not thrilled and excited probably how things end, so he's along with us, and we're feeling the same way, and the feelings are the same that we all wanted more and to do a much better job, and again, we fell short.

I think he -- he didn't have to tell me that. I mean, I understood that on the front end, but I think he's been around me enough to know how I feel and what our desires are for this program.

Q. You were part of the staff under Coach Brown, 15 straight postseason appearances, the most consistent period of basketball ever at LSU. Do you feel that you can get back to that kind of consistency again, and how far away from that do you feel you are? Does this season put you closer or farther away from that goal?
JOHNNY JONES: Right. Selfishly, if I was just worried about numbers, I could have -- we would have just taken an invite and just played in postseason, but again, I wanted to make sure I did what was best for the program and the young men that are playing right now, and I think it's important to be in postseason play, and I think that's certainly the parameter which you're certainly judged at the end of the day, and not just postseason play, playing in the NCAA Tournament, and then after you're playing in it, it's are you advancing at that time, and I think we're extremely -- any time you play in a league of this magnitude with the coaches that are in this league and you're finishing toward the top, and I think we've shown that each year, and to finish there again this year, we've got to feel like we're extremely close, and it's just a matter of getting in and then having an opportunity to play an opponent and getting through that first game and having success, and before you know it, you win six games and you're national -- is that right? You wind up being the national champion, and that's what's important.

It takes a lot of skill, will and development to be able to do that, and we're in a conference where we feel if you finish in that top half of the conference -- not top half, top five or six or so, we feel like you put yourself in that tournament, and then anything can happen, because I was here when we were I think an 11 seed and just got in the tournament and wind up making it all the way to the Final Four, as well. So we know how important it is to get there and what can transpire and happen once you're in, and that was our goal this year, and obviously we were hurt and banged up, but obviously we pushed it and things just didn't go that way down the stretch for us.

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