John Henry Jones Jr. (born March 30, 1961) is an American college basketball coach who is the head coach of the Texas Southern Tigers basketball team. He was formerly the men's basketball head coach at North Texas and at his alma mater LSU.
Jones played in the 1981 Final Four as a freshman at LSU, and later served 12 seasons as an assistant coach at LSU under Dale Brown where the pair returned to the 1986 Final Four.
Jones was named interim head coach at the University of Memphis just prior to the 1999âÂÂ2000 season, replacing Tic Price. He coached the team to a 15âÂÂ16 record.
During Jones' stint at North Texas, he coached the Mean Green to five-straight 20-win seasons from 2007 to 2011, and two Sun Belt tournament championships and NCAA tournament bids. Under Jones, North Texas was just the third program to advance to three consecutive Sun Belt Tournament championship games.
At LSU, Jones compiled a 90âÂÂ72 (.556) overall record with a 42âÂÂ48 (.467) SEC record in 5 seasons. He led LSU to one NCAA tournament berth during the 2014âÂÂ15 season, losing to N.C. State in the opening round, and one NIT berth in 2013âÂÂ14. Jones' team was invited to participate in the NIT in the 2016 season but the University stepped in and declined the offer.
Jones was named head basketball coach at Texas Southern on June 27, 2018.
Jones' son, John, is a college basketball player; he played as a walk-on for the Nevada Wolf Pack under his father during the 2017âÂÂ18 season and transferred to the Texas Southern Tigers when his father was hired as head coach in 2018. Jones joined his father's coaching staff at Texas Southern as an assistant coach and director of player development in 2023.