Busting Brackets
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Sun Belt Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose

PHOENIX - MARCH 27: Head coach Darrin Horn of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers yells at his team during the second half of the West Regional Sweet 16 game against the UCLA Bruins at the U.S. Airways Center on March 27, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
PHOENIX - MARCH 27: Head coach Darrin Horn of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers yells at his team during the second half of the West Regional Sweet 16 game against the UCLA Bruins at the U.S. Airways Center on March 27, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) /
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OKLAHOMA CITY – MARCH 18: Head coach Johnny Jones of the North Texas Mean Green (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY – MARCH 18: Head coach Johnny Jones of the North Texas Mean Green (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

7. Johnny Jones – North Texas (2001-2012)

Jones has led quite an intriguing coaching career, but his first full-time head coaching job were these eleven seasons with the Mean Green. He was a former long-time LSU assistant who briefly served as Memphis’s interim head coach. After a season assisting Mark Gottfried at Alabama, he took over a North Texas that had won just 20 games over the last four seasons.

The Mean Green immediately started winning more games, and soon became a more consistent program in the Sun Belt. Jones led the Mean Green to NCAA Tournament bids in 2007 and 2010 and won at least 20 games in five of his final six seasons. This program was increasingly improved in the decade Jones spent in Denton.

That success led Jones back to his alma mater, spending five seasons leading LSU though not having the most successful tenure in Baton Rouge. Today, he’s the coach at Texas Southern, trying to maintain the Tigers’ standing as a power in the SWAC. Overall, his work at North Texas has certainly been his most impressive coaching, especially seeing how the program faltered under successor Tony Benford.