When Johnny Jones arrived as a freshman on the LSU campus in 1980 as an all-state guard and one of the nations top recruits, he brought with him the nickname “The Bullet,” which helped make him an instant hit with Tiger basketball fans.

After all, LSU could already boast having “Pistol” Pete Maravich in its storied past. Now, it had “The Bullet.”

Jones went on to help lead LSU to one of the most successful chapters in the school’s basketball history, including an appearance in the NCAA Final Four in 1981. But that experience was just the beginning for Jones, whose lifelong career in basketball not only includes that trip to the Final Four, but another Final Four appearance as an assistant coach, as well as eight other coaching trips to the NCAA Tournament and two NIT berths as an assistant coach.

Now he has brought that level of success to North Texas, guiding the Mean Green to a school record 23 wins in 2006-07, including the program’s first ever Sun Belt Conference title and its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1988.

He followed that up in 2007-08 with a second straight 20-win season, which is only the sixth 20-win campaign in school history. The last time a Mean Green squad finished with back-to-back 20-win seasons was in 1976-78.

The Mean Green also racked up a school-record 15 home wins in 2007-08. As a matter of fact, North Texas’ 28 wins at the Super Pit over the last two seasons are the most in any two-year stretch in NT history.

Jones reached his 100^th win at North Texas in 60-57 win over Florida International on Feb. 2, 2008. He is just the third North Texas coach to reach 100 victories, and only one reached the mark faster.

Jones is the only Dallas/Ft. Worth coach to lead his current team to an NCAA bid, and his win percentage of over 61 percent over the last three years is better than TCU, SMU and UT-Arlington.

Under his direction, the Mean Green has consistently put up solid numbers that reflect the program’s rise. Jones’ squads have led the Sun Belt Conference in rebounding in each of the last five seasons and have finished in the top two in scoring in the last three, including a Sun Belt high 76.9 points per game in 2007-08.

Known for his intense defensive presence, Jones’ teams don’t take a break on the defensive end of the floor. In 2006-07, NT ranked 20^th in the country with a +6.1 rebounding margin and 51^st with 4.4 blocks per game. For the first time in school history, North Texas had a trio of players with at least 30 blocks last year. Not to mention, the Mean Green has broken the school record for blocked shots in each of the last two seasons.

“The Bullet,” who was named as North Texas’ new men’s basketball head coach on April 16, 2001, wasted no time turning the Mean Green around and making North Texas the newest success story on his resume.

In his debut at the helm, the 41-year-old Jones and his staff guided the Mean Green to a 15-14 overall record -- the program’s first winning season since 1995-96. The 10-3 home record compiled by the Mean Green was the school’s best effort at the Super Pit in 11 seasons.

The 11-win improvement enjoyed by the Mean Green (who went 4-24 in 2000-01) tied for the seventh-best one season turnaround in the NCAA. And the improvement from that 4-24 record (.143) to 15-14 (.517) marked the third-best improvement in winning percentage in the country.

Along the way, the Mean Green also averaged a conference-leading 78.6 point per game, improved their scoring defense by nearly 10 points per game and racked up a then school-record 99 blocked shots. The improvements didn’t stop there, however, as Jones led the Mean Green to its best ever finish in the Sun Belt Conference in 2003-04. That squad went 8-7 in Sun Belt Conference action, including wins over both division champions. Along the way to a third-place finish in the West Division, Jones picked up his 50th career victory and has helped North Texas set a winning standard at the Super Pit as his teams have posted 42 home wins over the last five years, the most over a five-year span since 1973-74 thru 1977-78.

Jones backed up the success of the 2003-04 season by leading North Texas to 14 regular-season wins, tying the program’s most since 1990-91, and to its most non-conference wins in over 20 years during both the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.

In each of the last seven seasons, North Texas had its best starts since 1994-95 and in Jones’ second year as head coach the Mean Green won its first regular-season tournament since 1981 that included a victory over NCAA Tournament qualifier Weber State. The 2002-03 start was even more impressive considering that it included a season-opening victory over Southwest Missouri State, breaking a streak of 25 consecutive season-opening victories for SMS at Hammons Student Center and making the Mean Green just the second team to ever defeat the Bears at HSC in a season-opening game.

Jones’ impact was immediate and instantly created a solid foundation on which he is using to build the Mean Green into a program that is a conference contender on a yearly basis.

All seven seasons at the helm of the Mean Green, Jones has placed a player on the All-Sun Belt Conference Team and also coached the 2005-06 Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year.

Attendance at the Super Pit has increased since Jones’ arrival as well. Attendance at the Super Pit for the men’s basketball team has grown from an average of 1,542 in 2000-01 to 3,178 per game in 2007-08 – the best attendance year since 1988-89. The Oklahoma State crowd of 6,793 ranks as the eighth largest in school history and the most in the Super Pit since 1980.

Jones not only brings a soft-spoken confidence to the Mean Green, he also owns a resume that boasts a winning background that includes stints on the coaching staffs of two SEC powerhouses and a three-year tenure at Memphis.

A former four-year letterman at LSU, Jones spent 17 seasons coaching in the collegiate ranks before being handed the reins of the Mean Green.

Before joining the Alabama staff prior to the 2000-01 season, Jones coached for three seasons at Memphis, including two seasons as associate head coach and one as the Tigers’ interim head coach during the 1999-2000 season.

He also coached for 13 seasons at his alma mater, LSU, serving in the capacities of assistant coach, administrative assistant and associate head coach from 1984 to 1997 alongside legendary head coach Dale Brown. He was the Tigers’ associate head coach from 1994-97.

It was during his tenure at LSU that Jones earned his stripes as one of the country’s top recruiters. That’s the kind of reputation you earn when you recruit and coach the likes of NBA superstar and College Player of the Year Shaquille O’Neal, two-time All-American Chris Jackson (now known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) and former national high school player of the year Randy Livingston.

Jones’ ability as a recruiter is reflected in the talent he not only helped lure to LSU, but the players he attracted to Memphis during his time there. He helped secure LSU’s 1993 recruiting class which was ranked No. 1 in the nation. And in 1997 at Memphis, Jones also helped accumulate a JUCO recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 nationally and was the cornerstone of an overall class that was ranked seventh.

Jones, of course, knows what it takes to be a winner on the court. As a player at LSU from 1980-84, Jones was a member of the Tigers’ team that played in the Final Four in 1981. As a coach, Jones has helped coach teams to the Final Four (1986) and the Elite Eight (1987), as well as to nine consecutive NCAA appearances. Two of the LSU squads he helped coach also captured SEC championships, in 1985 and 1991.

As an assistant at Memphis in 1998, Jones helped coach the Tigers to the Conference USA National Division championship. When Jones was interim head coach at Memphis in 1999-2000, the Tigers won six of their final seven games and finished with a 15-16 record while returning just one starter from the previous season.