TCU Hires Trent Johnson Away From LSU As New Basketball Coach

Four days after Trent Johnson left LSU to be the head coach at TCU, the Tigers have apparently found a new coach, according to Jeff Goodman of CBS:

Johnny Jones, for those of you who don’t know (probably most of you) is the head coach for North Texas, and has been at LSU both as an assistant coach and as a player. He made the 1981 Final Four in his freshman season, and was on staff when the Tigers went to the Final Four again in 1986. He’s led the Mean Green to two of the school’s three NCAA Tournament appearances in his 11-year tenure, most recently in 2010. Jones also served as Memphis’ interim coach after the firing of Tic Price in 1999.

Texas Christian University officially introduced Trent Johnson as its new men’s basketball head coach on Monday. Johnson spent the previous four seasons coaching at LSU before resigning over the weekend to accept the Horned Frogs job.

“I can’t express how excited I am about the challenge ahead of us,” Johnson said. “This is where I want to lay my bed, and lay my stone. I’m completely so comfortable, I want to be here the rest of my life, and get this to the elite level. ... I have no doubts and reservations in my mind.”

The Horned Frogs will be moving to the Big 12 next year, which is why they feel more secure offering Johnson more than three times as much in salary as their previous coach, Jim Christian, who is replacing John Groce at Ohio. The Horned Frogs went 17-15 in their last season in the Mountain West. LSU had a disappointing season in the SEC despite bringing in a dominant freshman big man in Johnny O’Bryant III, finishing just 18-15.

WAFB, which clearly has some well-placed sources, also has some inkling on who the next LSU coach might be. From the same story:

Well, this is weird. In the wake of TCU head coach Jim Christian leaving for Ohio, LSU’s Trent Johnson - formerly of Stanford - is apparently poised to take the job as head of the Horned Frogs. Stefan Stevenston, the TCU beat writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, reports the deal is done but won’t be announced until Monday.

This doesn’t make much sense for people who pay attention to college basketball. TCU is moving from the Mountain West to the Big 12, which puts them more in the basketball limelight, but Johnson is apparently poised to go from Stanford to LSU to TCU, which is sort of a downward trend in terms of prior basketball success. Furthermore, Richard Durrett from ESPN Dallas points out that Johnson is currently making $1.2 million while Christian was making $600,000 at TCU before taking the job vacated by Ohio’s John Groce after leading the Bobcats to the Sweet Sixteen. We’ll find out if these reports are true on Monday. On the plus side, he won’t have to replace his purple wardrobe.